Correctional Officer
May 21, 2012
Corrections officer killed, 19 injured in prison riot
The Adams County sheriff said gang activity caused a riot that killed a guard and injured 19 people at a privately-run prison that holds illegal immigrants.
Authorities say a guard was killed and, at one point, hostages were taken during a riot at a Mississippi prison that holds illegal immigrants.
More Sheriff Chuck Mayfield said Monday the slain guard was beaten to death by inmates on the roof of one of the buildings Sunday...
LINK - WAPT.com
April 10, 2012
Arrest warrant issued for suspect in 1998 prison guard slaying
An ongoing cold-case investigation into the 1998 shooting death of a female prison guard near the 91 Freeway in Anaheim led to an arrest warrant for a fourth suspect, authorities said Tuesday.
Charges were filed in February against three other men, including the woman's husband. He was accused of orchestrating the murder of Elizabeth Wheat Begaren so that he could collect on a $1 million life insurance policy.
The Orange County District Attorney's Office in February filed special-circumstances murder charges against Nuzzio Begaren, 51, and reputed gang members Jose Louis Sandoval, 36, and Rafael Garcia Miranda, 45...
LINK - OCRegister.com
July 11, 2011
Missing CMC correctional officer sought by Tulare County Search & Rescue
Several state agencies and volunteers are searching for a missing California Men's Colony correctional officer.
Derrick Rush went missing on Friday. His friends tell KSBY News Rush was on a fishing trip near Kern River. The Tulare County Sheriff's Department says its search teams are flying over the area, but as of now they only see white water...
LINK - MSN.com
November 17, 2009
Judge hears challenge to California furloughs
Lawyers representing unions and a few government agencies pounded away at Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's furlough policy for nearly five hours in Alameda Superior Court on Monday.
They argued the policy is illegally harming the government, that it's an executive overreach, a violation of minimum wage laws and irrational because it applies to nearly all state workers – even those whose pay reduction doesn't directly help California's deficit-ridden general fund.
"The Terminator can sweep the machine guns and count the bodies, friend or foe, later," said Harvey Liederman, who was representing the California Public Employees' Retirement System and the California State Teachers' Retirement System…
LINK - FresnoBee.com
June 24, 2009
Prison warden faulted for failing to discipline correctional officer
The warden of a Northern California prison acted inappropriately when he failed to discipline a correctional officer and allowed him to keep working at the institution after he was convicted of two felonies in connection with a hit-and-run accident last year, according to a report released today by a state prison watchdog.
The officer was driving under the influence of alcohol at 85 to 95 mph during the June 20, 2008, accident, in which three passengers in another vehicle – including a 3-year-old – were injured, according to the report by Inspector General David Shaw. Shaw's report did not identify the participants or the prison, but state officials said the warden was Ben Curry, who runs the Correctional Training Facility in Soledad.
According to Shaw, days after the officer was convicted, the warden granted his request for a voluntary demotion to lead groundskeeper, a position in which he would supervise inmates and for which he was not qualified…
LINK - LATimes.com
March 12, 2009
U.S. Attorney General Agrees To Seek Death Penalty Against Valley Inmates
U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder has given prosecutors the go-ahead to seek the death penalty against two inmates, accused of killing a North Valley correctional officer.
Jose Sablan and James Guerrero are accused of killing 22-year-old officer Jose Rivera in June at a federal penitentiary in Atwater. The men allegedley stabbed Rivera to death in a housing part of the prison.
Rivera had been a federal correctional officer for less than a year at the time of his death…
LINK - KMPH.com Fox 25 Central San Joaquin Valley
January 30, 2009
Prison worker charged in inmate escape
A prison worker is charged with helping an inmate escape.
Marvin Melton used to work at the prison in New Castle. The prison is owned by the state of Indiana by operated by The GEO group. Melton was assigned to guard a minimum security dorm that is away from the main prison but still inside the fence. The dorm is home to what the prison system calls the most trusted inmates.
Friday morning, Melton was arrested and charged with helping one of the inmates walk away from prison. The Department of Corrections says their guard silenced an alarm on a door that Jeffery Kinartail walked out of. Just after midnight, an emergency head count was conducted and it came up one short…
LINK - WTHR.com Indianapolis
December 16, 2008
Authorities: Female jailer caught exposed
Shannon Nicole Copeland, of 1613 Fairy Ave., was met at the jail by Sheriff Frank McKeithen and jail administrator Rick Anglin as she began her shift Sunday. A search of her person revealed a CD of nude photographs of herself and several printed nude images, according to a Bay County Sheriff's Office release.
A search of an inmate's cell uncovered additional nude photos of Copeland, 23, who told investigators she engaged in sexual misconduct with the inmate and had brought him marijuana, the release said.
Copeland, a control room operator who had been entrusted with the movements of inmates, was a former employee of Corrections Corporation of America, or CCA, and had been retained by the jail as an uncertified detention specialist after the transition…
LINK - NewsHerald.com
July 10, 2008
Thousands turn out to salute murdered corrections officer
As a tribute to his mother, Donna Fitzgerald's only son wore a pink tuxedo jacket to her funeral Wednesday, the coat a vibrant spot in the sea of blue, dark green, black and brown uniforms worn by hundreds at the slain corrections officer's funeral.
The 50-year-old Fitzgerald was murdered by an inmate on June 25 at Tomoka Correctional Institution, corrections officials said. Enoch Hall, 39, who is serving two life sentences for rape and kidnapping, is charged with first-degree murder in Fitzgerald's death.
According to reports, Hall stabbed Fitzgerald several times with a piece of sheet metal he fashioned into a knife. The night she died, Fitzgerald was supervising Hall and several other inmates who were on an overtime work detail in the prison's PRIDE program…
LINK - News-JournalOnline.com
July 1, 2008
Federal Prison Guard’s Murder Points Out Need for Funding, Staff
For years, AFGE's Council of Prison Locals (CPL), the union representing correctional officers in the nation's federal prisons, has been pushing for more funding and staffing to safely maintain our nation's prisons and surrounding communities. The union warns that staffing levels are decreasing while inmate population levels are increasing, leaving the correctional officers and the communities in grave danger.
Tragically, on June 20, those warnings were realized when Jose Rivera, a correctional officer at the U.S. Penitentiary in Atwater, Calif., was killed by two inmates with homemade weapons. Rivera, who would have turned 23 this month, had worked for the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) for 10 months when he was killed. A Navy veteran, he served two tours in Iraq…
LINK - Aflcio.org Blog
June 27, 2008
Suspect in attack on officer gets hearing set
An August preliminary hearing date has been set for a convicted Vallejo holdup man arrested last year on attempted murder charges following an attack on a county jail correctional officer.
Solano County Superior Court Judge William C. Harrison on Thursday scheduled 10:30 a.m. Aug. 18 for a preliminary court hearing into the charges against 30-year-old Fred Feleki Martinez of Vallejo.
Martinez faces charges of attempted murder, assault with a deadly weapon, assault with force likely to produce great bodily injury, battery upon a custodial officer and possession of a deadly weapon by a county jail inmate…
LINK - TheReporter.com Vacaville
June 21, 2008
Correctional Officer Killed on the Job
Officer Jose Rivera had been a federal correctional officer for less than a year, starting just last August. He was killed by two inmates Friday afternoon while working at Atwater Federal Penitentiary, according to prison officials.
Extra security was posted outside the prison gates and all was quiet on Saturday afternoon, the only reminder to visitors that a correctional officer was killed there on Friday.
"It's kind of close to home, you get a little worried and are aware to lock your doors a little more than usual," said Tim Baker…
LINK - KMPH.com News
April 1, 2008
Retired C.O. O’Connor Runs for Position in Iowa
Michael O'Connor of Keokuk, a Republican, has announced he is running for the Lee County Board of Supervisors from the Fifth District […]
While in college he began working as a correctional officer for the State of California. Upon graduation he transferred to San Quentin State Prison and attended Golden Gate University Law School in San Francisco. He then moved to a community correctional center, then to the Parole Division in San Francisco as a parole agent where he worked until retiring as a field supervisor in 2001 […]
O'Connor chairs the Police Subcommittee on the city council and just completed contract negotiations with the police union. He is a lifelong union member and is a member of the California Correctional Peace Officers Association where he served a job steward before retiring…
LINK - DailyGate.com
March 20, 2008
Calipatria Correctional Officer dies from MRSA
A correctional officer who oversaw a dormitory at Calipatria State Prison died from the staph infection known as MRSA, an Imperial County official said Wednesday. Prison administrative Lt. Jorge Santana said Alma Zavala died March 15 from pneumonia, but county Public Health Information Officer Maria Peinado specified that she was clinically diagnosed with methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus.
[…]
Zavala, 45, who had worked at the state prison for 12 years, was assigned as a dorm officer at the minimum security or Level 1 unit of the prison, Santana said. It was not known how Zavala, who worked nowhere near the prison's infirmary, could have contracted the disease. The disease occurs most frequently among people in hospitals and health-care facilities.
LINK - IVPressOnline.com (Imperial Valley Press - registration required)
March 18, 2008
Washington Staff Assault Task Force sues inmate for alleged attack
An inmate at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla is being sued for a "vicious assault" on a corrections officer at the prison in December. A civil lawsuit was filed in Walla Walla County Superior Court against Christopher R. McBain by the Washington Staff Assault Task Force.
The suit was filed on behalf of Mark Abbott, 42, a 14-year veteran at the state prison. The suit against an inmate is believed to be the first of its kind in the state. The goal of the nonprofit task force is to hold inmates accountable for their actions while providing support to officers who get assaulted.
"Just because inmates are in prison doesn't mean that their criminal activity stops," said the task force's director, Keith Rapp, who spent 17 years at the penitentiary and was a captain of the corrections officers and a crisis hostage negotiator…
LINK - Tri-CityHerald.com
See also: Correctional Officer files complaint against judge - March 15, 2008 (CDCR, california, correctional officers, lawsuit, assault)
March 17, 2008
CPO DeLaRosa runs for Mayor
Richard DeLaRosa, 2nd District councilman, announced Friday he will join two other people in running against Kelly Chastain for mayor in the June 3 recall election. DeLaRosa, a lifelong city resident and a peace officer for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation for 21 years, pulled nomination papers on Thursday.
Retiree Jack Woods pulled nomination papers on Tuesday. He couldn't be reached for comment on Friday. School board member Mel Albiso - a lifelong Colton resident who is assistant superintendent of human resources for the San Bernardino City Unified School District - on March 6 was the first to pull nomination papers and announce his mayoral run.
LINK - SBSun.com (San Bernadino Sun)
March 17, 2008
Texas: Brawl blamed on staffing shortage
One inmate was hospitalized. Eight other detainees and three staff members sustained minor injuries.
Correctional officer Clifton Buchanan, president of Local 1030 branch of the American Federation of Government Employees union, said the detention center needs more guards. Last month, he visited Washington, D.C., to share his concerns with Jackson Lee and other members of Congress.
"They're not funding us appropriately," he said Sunday outside the detention center. "There's a fear of retaliation or reprisal, and that's why we're reluctant to say anything."
The incident last week illustrates why employees have filed multiple grievances, allegations of unfair labor practices and Equal Employment Opportunity Commission complaints, he added. Buchanan said administrators followed only certain protocols last Tuesday, which resulted in the "misuse of staff, mismanagement of resources and lack of leadership."
LINK - Chron.com (The Houston Chronicle)
March 15, 2008
Correctional officer files complaint against judge
Michael Mohr walks the concrete corridors of California State Prison, Sacramento, in Folsom. As a correctional officer, he has to keep his senses alert, his reflexes acute. He didn't expect to be "assaulted," he said, by a judge. But Mohr said he found himself in that position last week, when he came before Commissioner Christopher Longaker in Sacramento's small claims court.
Mohr's claim: mental anguish caused by a convicted murderer serving life who hurled bodily fluids – known in prison as "gassing" – at the officer last fall. […] The commissioner called Mohr's claim "laughable" and said it was in Mohr's job description to expect to be assaulted and "slapped around," the prison officer recalled.
LINK - SacBee.com (The Sacramento Bee)
March 8, 2008
Pennsylvania: Prison guard loses unemployment benefits
A state appeals court on Thursday revoked unemployment benefits for a prison guard who did not try to stop four prisoners from attacking another inmate or report a fellow correctional officer who encouraged the beating. D. Lee Martin Jr., of Greencastle, was fired from his $14.90-an-hour job at the Camp Hill state prison after the July 2005 beating, which badly injured inmate Eric Charles Brown. Martin, fearing retaliation, hadn't reported the attack.
Martin sought and obtained benefits from the state's unemployment agency, but a Commonwealth Court panel said Martin's fear of retribution did not justify failing to notify supervisors.
LINK - Forbes.com
