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| Judge rules city can't shift officers to new prison |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 06/28/2004 |
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A Pa. Common Pleas judge granted a preliminary injunction over the city's planned deployment of prison staff to the new Riverside Correction Facility for women after the union representing corrections officers said that would mean understaffing in other prisons. Judge Matthew D. Carrafiello last Friday ordered the city to freeze its deployment of correctional staff, preventing more transfers to Riverside, a $51 million, 768-bed jail to open in July. Carrafiello warned that inmates and correction officers face "a clear and unreasonable risk of harm" because of the staffing problem. The union said that, by the city's own admission, its prisons are understaffed by 11 percent. Carrafiello also said that transferring staff between jails "shall only be on an as-needed basis and with two weeks' notice except upon extreme emergencies for temporary assignments." Donnie Moore, president of Local 159 of AFSCME District Council 33, welcomed the ruling. "We have a big victory for the working people in the city prisons," he said. "We are facing a ticking bomb with the city shifting officers into the new jail from other prisons that are already seriously understaffed." Prison Commissioner Leon King said the city was considering an appeal. |
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