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| Prisoner advocate banned for inmate relationship |
| By AP |
| Published: 09/05/2003 |
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The New York State prison system is reviewing the 'access and status' of a prisoner advocate group after a personal relationship skirted security measures, prison officials said Jennifer Wynn, who is a top advocate with the state Correctional Association of New York, a watchdog group for prisoner treatment created by the Legislature, has been banned from all but public visiting rooms at prisons, said James Flateau, a spokesman for the state Department of Correctional Services. Flateau said Wynn had an improper relationship over two years with Percy West, a felon serving 133 years at the Southport Correctional Facility for a pet shop shootout with police in Brooklyn that put at least one hostage in the line of fire. The Correctional Association accused the state prison department of retaliating for critical reports to the state on care of inmates. Wynn has 'been a valuable employee for five years, and we have the utmost regard for her,' said Robert Gangi, executive director of the association. 'This is, in part, retaliation for our critical report,' Gangi told The New York Post, which first reported the relationship in Tuesday's editions. Wynn denied any personal relationship and said she was providing legal representation, the Post reported. The relationship was covered up by having her personal phone number listed under another name on West's approved list of contacts and was facilitated by the access granted through the association, Flateau said. The association, for example, is allowed to send privileged letters to prisoners that cannot be read by prison officials, but that practice is now under review. Now the state prison system will consider making background checks on as many as 60 association advocates who visit the state's 71 prisons. The advocates may also be denied access to nonpublic visiting areas including disciplinary housing and medical and mental health units, Flateau said. The Wynn case includes a 2002 Christmas card, signed with a smiley face and with a $50 money order enclosed and a teddy bear she called 'Percy bear' sent by the prisoner to Wynn as a present, all of which violate prison rules, Flateau said. The Correctional Services Department 'has long had concerns about the general prison access granted to the Correctional Association of New York,' Flateau said. 'This incident ... points to the need to hold the Correctional Association to the same standards as others granted access to prisons.' As for the prisoner, Flateau said West's 60 months of good behavior could be lost and he could see his 132-year sentence extended. He has spent 93 percent of his time in disciplinary housing since he took a hostage in a the pet shop robbery and police shootout in which no one was harmed, Flateau said. |
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