Three months after promising to beef up security in the wake of a daring escape, officials at the D.C. Jail have quietly reduced the number of officers guarding inmates, the officers’ union told The Examiner.
Fraternal Order of Police President Lou Cannon said that jail officials temporarily raised the number of line officers per ward from three to four after homicide defendants Joseph Leaks and Ricardo Jones broke out of the jail in early June.
Now, the number has slipped back to three, Cannon said.
Jail officials have also promoted 10 roving sergeants to the positions of acting lieutenants, reducing the number of officers in the wards even further, Cannon said. Lieutenants do not work in the wards, Cannon said.
Jail spokeswoman Beverly Young defended her agency.
“It’s not uncommon that we have sergeants serving in an active capacity,” Beverly Young said. “It does not take away from the complement at all. If there has been any amendment to the numbers in there, it’s to manage overtime.”
Authorities have alleged that two officers helped Jones and Leaks escaped, and nine others were derelict in their duties. All 11 officers have been fired. The union has filed a grievance over the firings.
But Cannon said that, setting the firings to one side, corrections officers are dangerously overworked and understaffed. Attrition has reduced the number of officers in the jail from a peak of 232 more than a year ago to less than 180 line officers today, Cannon said.
Young acknowledged that the jail has implemented an overtime “draft” that forces officers to work extra duty to keep the 2,000-plus inmates in line.
“Public safety is our highest priority,” she said. “And sometimes that will require that we draft the appropriate staff to make sure the posts are maintained.”
Cannon said the draft is undermining jail security. “You’re burning out all your law enforcement officers,” he said.
In the three months since Jones and Leaks escaped, there have been 33 assaults on correctional officers, the union grievance states. Cannon said that an officer was attacked with feces on Tuesday morning and it took more than an hour for a supervisor to arrive on the scene.
The union also claims that they lack working radios for their job.
The grievance also claims that Department of Corrections Director Devon Brown has been obtuse in his dealings with the union.
“Before the Aug. 1, 2006 meeting was concluded,” the grievance states, “Devon Brown simply got up and walked out of the meeting.”
Residents of the gentrifying Hill East neighborhood were outraged by Brown’s handling of the escape. They have said jail officials should have told them sooner that two dangerous men were on the loose.
Tommy Wells, the presumptive District Council member for Hill East’s Ward 6, was furious to hear about the reductions of corrections officers.
“That’s just ridiculous,” he said. “There needs to be some explanation to the community how — after having a jail break — we’re safer as a community with fewer guards.”
Wells said that Brown has a lot to answer for. “I also believe the new mayor will have to evaluate whether the director is doing a good job,” Wells said. “His job and job performance will need to be assessed.”
