Attacked by an inmate

On a routine day in May, Monroe County corrections officer Vincent Cardenas opened a cell door to return an inmate when another inmate charged out and pummeled him.

Cardenas, a corrections officer at Monroe for 17 years, was hospitalized with a fractured orbital, broken nose and a shoulder injury.

“There have been numerous assaults on staff members over the past five years,” he said.

“The first 12 years I was employed there, you almost never heard of a staff assault. Now it’s almost commonplace.”

The 54-year-old Lower Towamensing man isn’t alone.

In neighboring Carbon County, 24 corrections officers have been hurt by inmates over the past five years, said Warden Timothy Fritz.

In Schuylkill County, 31 have been hurt, Warden Eugene Berdanier said.

In Pennsylvania’s 26 state prisons, 535 staff per 1,000 inmates were injured in 2013, 381 in 2014, 434 in 2015, 387 in 2016, and 339 in 2017, said state Department of Corrections Press Secretary Amy Worden.

Overcrowding and mental illness

The 5-foot-7-inch 200-pound Cardenas was attacked while working in the prison’s restricted housing unit, by a 19-year-old, 6-foot-3-inch 250 pound inmate with a history of violence.

The restricted housing unit is for problem inmates.

Cardenas said he had a confrontation with the inmate the day before, regarding a special Ramadan meal the inmate requested in addition to a regular meal.

The inmate, Jose Miguel Maldonado, was charged and moved to a different prison.

Cardenas attributes the increase in assaults on corrections officers in part to overcrowding.

“The prison was built to house inmates one to a cell. Over time, the population increased,” Cardenas said.

In restricted housing, Cardenas said, “It’s a dangerous thing to house inmates two to a cell and have the risk of what happened to me happen to someone else.”

“You have violent offenders, those with mental disabilities. You don’t have the space to house these people safely without putting officers at risk,” he said.

Overcrowding, mostly resulting from the opioid crisis, is a problem in many county prisons.

In Schuylkill County, the state has mandated a cap of 277 inmates in the county jail. The county has only been able to meet that cap by housing inmates in other county jails at a cost that so far this year has reached $608,324.

On Feb. 2, three inmates in the jail’s restricted housing unit attacked two corrections officers, injuring them badly enough to be treated at a medical facility.

The inmates face aggravated assault and related charges.

In addition to overcrowding, prison staff are also coping with increasing numbers of inmates who have mental illnesses.

As state hospitals have closed over the years, those whose behavior is affected by mental illness often find themselves behind bars in county jails, which lack the resources to adequately care for them.

Last year, Mental Health America estimated that 1.2 million people living with mental illness sit in prison each year.

The lack of proper treatment sometimes results in escalating symptoms, including lashing out at staff.

Schuylkill warden Berdanier attributes most assaults on staff to overcrowding, the opioid epidemic, which makes some inmates combative upon commitment or while in withdrawal, and mental illness.

Carbon County’s warden Fritz said most inmate-caused staff injuries happened as officers were “breaking up altercations between inmates.”

Fritz said, “There were probably under five incidents where inmates attacked guards, and that could have been incidents like throwing urine or feces at them or spitting on them, which requires them to get tested for diseases such as HIV or hepatitis and rarely requires any time off of work.”

In Monroe County, Commissioners’ Chairman John R. Moyer, who is also chairman of the prison board, said, “Many inmates have mental illnesses or are addicted. The jail is not a place where someone who has an addiction problem or mental illness can get effective treatment.”

He’s hoping state legislators will set aside money for treatment to help people from returning to jail time after time.

“There has to be something to break the cycle somewhere,” Moyer said.

Preventive measures

Cardenas has spoken to the Monroe County Prison Board about his attack and the dangers of overcrowding, but wonders whether they understand the gravity of the problem.

“(John) Moyer mentioned plans to expand the kitchen area and other areas of the facility. But as far as addressing the housing issue, they didn’t really feel that was a concern,” Cardenas said.

Moyer, in a telephone interview, declined to discuss Cardenas’ incident specifically.

He did say there is an established protocol the prison follows after an assault by an inmate.

“Each time, we ask whether the guard was following policy? How was the response after the event began to unfold, and of the rest of the cadre after that?” he said.

“If the guards were following policy, and the policy permitted the attack to happen, obviously it needs to be revised. But always, we do an evaluation of the response. Rapid response is required,” Moyer said.

As for overcrowding, “We haven’t taken any steps yet,” he said.

The population is now between 350-360 inmates.

“We’ve have been as high as 415. If the population continues to swell, we’ll have to look at expansion,” Moyer said.

In Schuylkill, warden Berdanier said staff carefully screen inmates at admission.

“Prisons are not hospitals. All new intakes must be screened by prison personnel and determined to be medically and mentally cleared for incarceration. If the prison’s medical department is not capable of handling the treatment needs of the (inmate), that person is refused until medically treated and cleared by the hospital for incarceration,” he said.

Also, “monitoring of all use-of-force incidents is necessary to determine if policy is being followed and staff actions were appropriate,” Berdanier said.

“Restraint chairs are used as necessary to restrain an out-of-control inmate who is attempting to hurt himself or anyone else,” he said.

Berdanier said, “Some practices and policies have been revised when checking in a new intake. Staffing has been increased to include an officer posted in the Restricted Housing Unit.”

He’s researching the use of body scanners, as well as a portable contraband detector.

Officer safety

Berdanier, like Moyer, is looking to state lawmakers for help.

“I am keeping my eye on legislative changes as it relates to officer safety, which hopefully authorizes all correctional officers to carry OC (oleoresin capsicum, or pepper spray) while on duty.”

Berdanier said his lieutenants “on all shifts have authorization to use OC when necessary to control a situation.”

Carbon County warden Fritz said, “all staff is trained in defensive tactics which gives them the tools to defend themselves and help to quell fights. We also utilize tools such as pepper spray and stun guns or shields to subdue inmates who are acting in an aggressive manner.”

Training is held every year to refresh the staff.”

“Policies and procedures are reviewed by me annually. For the most part they have remained constant the last five years, but some language in those policies may have been changed per state guidelines,” he said.

State Department of Corrections’ Worden said the numbers of assaults on staff varies from prison to prison, as each differs in population and types of inmates.

“DOC is working to reduce violence in prisons, including providing expanded mental health treatment, to include certified peer specialists who provide intervention when an inmate is experiencing a crisis, increasing security to identify threat groups (gangs) to reduce the threat of violence and providing enhanced defensive tools for officers such as OC spray,” she said.

“Staff training is another big component. All staff are required to complete Mental Health First Aid as a way to de-escalate a situation that might lead to violence by an inmate against others or themselves,” Worden said.

As Cardenas continues to recover from his injuries, he just wants officials to treat corrections officers with more respect.

“I would like to see them return to the days when the officers were treated with more respect and value than they are now. The commissioners see the officers more as a liability than an asset when they see the cost of running the prison. I’m sure they would outsource if that was cost effective,” he said.

“When they take into consideration the working conditions and danger we face on a daily basis … I don’t think they really know what’s going on. Just because you can house 420-450 inmates doesn’t mean it’s safe.”