Alaska on the Hunt for a New Prisons Chief

Gov. Bill Walker announced Monday he had accepted the resignation of the commissioner of Alaska's Department of Corrections after release of a scathing report that detailed widespread failures and dysfunction that may have led to deaths in Alaska jails.

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By Michelle Theriault Boots

Gov. Bill Walker announced Monday he had accepted the resignation of the commissioner of Alaska's Department of Corrections after release of a scathing report that detailed widespread failures and dysfunction that may have led to deaths in Alaska jails.

Walker said he received the resignation of Ron Taylor on Sunday. At a Monday morning news conference following release of the report, Walker said Walt Monegan, the former Anchorage police chief and Alaska commissioner of public safety, would temporarily take over the state's prison system while a nationwide search for a new corrections commissioner takes place.

The outside review was ordered by Walker in August after a string of highly publicized inmate deaths that stirred public outcry and drew the attention of lawmakers.

"The system is broken in many ways and needs new leadership," Walker said at the news conference.

Walker aide Dean Williams, former superintendent of the McLaughlin Youth Center, was assigned to investigate along with Joe Hanlon, a retired FBI agent. Over three months, the pair visited 13 prisons around the state, conducted more than 200 interviews with management, staff and inmates, and reviewed 22 case files on inmate deaths.

They were given access to files, surveillance video and documents unavailable to the public or even to legislators. The resulting 20-page report describes problems raised by employees such as chronic under-staffing and lack of training, and jails burdened by a steady influx of people being held because they are dangerously drunk, not alleged criminals.

The report also detailed publicly for the first time six instances in which inmates died in custody. In one case, the report said, a man who died while being restrained by guards yelled, "I can't breathe!" In another, a man being detained because he was drunk suffered a heart attack and died while asking for help.

Walker said he found the revelations in the report "troubling."

"It was a very disturbing analysis," he said.

Among the report's major findings:

-- Outdated policies, including guidelines on suicide prevention, haven't been updated in 20 years.

-- A flawed internal investigation process for deaths, including "untrained and inexperienced" investigators.  The report found that Alaska State Troopers, who are supposed to provide a neutral outside review,  made serious errors in two recent cases, including not interviewing critical witnesses and missing important video evidence.

-- Lax consequences for serious instances of employee misconduct. In one case, a correctional officer was caught on video assaulting an inmate "with an object" but human resources was never told, even though law enforcement had investigated the incident and referred it for possible prosecution of the guard.

-- Medically fragile people in noncriminal, protective custody, usually because they're drunk, being brought to jail by law enforcement and then not receiving adequate medical care -- a problem illustrative of the thankless role correctional facilities play in essentially serving as a temporary holding place for some of the most difficult and vulnerable people in the state, who often have nowhere else to go.

-- Questionable use of solitary confinement, a practice correctional systems nationwide are under increasing pressure to dial back. In one instance uncovered by investigators, four 17-year-olds being held in adult prison after an escape attempt from a juvenile facility had been in solitary confinement for 11 months. "They reported they are not receiving education services and their out-of-cell time constitutes time in the hallway with a rare visit outside the building in a cage-type area," the report said.

-- Department of Law attorneys primarily responsible for defending the state against lawsuits exercised a weighty influence over DOC business. Staff interviewed told the reviewers that the "Law (Department) expressed concerns that documenting all the facts around an inmate death might make it easier for the state to be found financially liable for the death."

Williams concluded that the department had in some cases tried to address problems but that efforts were at best haphazard.

Recommendations detailed in the report include:

-- The creation of an independent investigation team to look into deaths that does not report to the Department of Corrections.

-- Prison superintendents should be in charge of all employees who work in their facilities, including nurses and mental health workers.

-- Eliminate the practice of sending drunk people to jail on protective custody holds.

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Caroline Cournoyer is GOVERNING's senior web editor.
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