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| Officers leaving as BOP probe of warden continues |
| By The Lompoc Record |
| Published: 11/17/2003 |
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As controversy continues to swirl at the U.S. Penitentiary, Lompoc, Calif. and allegations mount against Warden Al Herrera, nearly a dozen correctional officers have quit their jobs, according to a union spokesman. The exodus of 10 officers over the past five weeks has left the prison dangerously short of security personnel, said Frank Campo, president of American Federation of Government Employees, Local 3048. "The reason I'm hearing (that officers have quit) is that they are not being supported by the administration," Campo said. "They feel inmates assault them and nothing happens to the inmates. I've talked to staff and more people are planning on quitting, but they are looking for jobs." Campo, a 13-year veteran correctional officer at the prison, said he has never seen so much turnover at the prison. Federal prison officials refuted Campo's claims that the staffing level has jeopardized correctional officers' safety. The correctional staff is at 91 percent capacity, which means that 225 of the 248 positions are filled, said Traci Billingsley, spokeswoman for the Bureau of Prisons. The resignations come at a time when prison personnel have leveled additional allegations against the warden. Several people at the prison charge that Herrera spent about $11,000 in government funds on two plasma TVs for his personal use. Whether the latest allegations against Herrera are part of a new investigation is unclear. A senior special agent with the BOP's Internal Affairs interviewed between 30 and 35 prison personnel in secrecy, outside the penitentiary's grounds in recent weeks, Campo said. Union officials and their attorneys called past BOP investigations a farce. This time, however, the investigator appears to be fair and unbiased, said William Friedrich, an attorney with the Ontario-based Administrative Law Group, Inc. Friedrich credits the new investigation to an Administrative Law Groups letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein. The union and Friedrich allege that the prison is unsafe because of Herrera's failure to investigate assaults on corrections officers; the warden misused government funds to spruce up his and his colleague's government residences; he discriminates against non-Hispanics; he orders frivolous investigations against officers; and he took items from a local hotel. The Administrative Law Group also alleges that Herrera retaliates against prison staff who file complaints about his conduct and he has let inmate assaults on officers with feces and urine go unpunished. Friedrich has called for Herrera to be put on administrative leave pending the outcome of the investigation. Generally, any internal BOP investigation into a violation of the law, or accusations that laws were broken, is turned over to the FBI or Office of the Inspector General, said Billingsley. FBI officials have confirmed that an investigation into allegations against Herrera is under way. The allegations include the charge that he had a crime scene cleaned up after a June 1 riot, before FBI agents arrived to examine the site. |
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