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| Fired officer sues to reclaim job at troubled prison |
| By Associated Press |
| Published: 12/29/2003 |
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A Pennsylvania county prison that has been in the throes of scandal since its warden acknowledged this summer that he let prisoners out of jail to do work at his home has another legal problem. An officer who claims he was fired from the Lackawanna County prison because he blew the whistle on malfeasance has filed a federal lawsuit seeking reinstatement to his old job, plus back pay. James Tolan was dismissed from the prison's staff in July, days before Warden Thomas P. Gilhooley was himself fired by the county for improper use of inmates as laborers. Tolan said in the suit that he had been complaining about corruption at the prison for two years. He claimed he was fired after testifying before a grand jury investigating alleged problems at the jail. Prison officials, the suit said, "engaged in a pattern of threats, discrimination, retaliation and termination of Mr. Tolan because of Mr. Tolan's good faith reporting of the instances of fraud and/or waste." The lawsuit, which names the county, the county's prison board, Gilhooley, and two county commissioners as defendants, is the latest in a tangle of claims and countercharges that have been filed since investigators began probing a series of problems at the jail this summer. Tolan himself has been the target of allegations. Since his firing, at least four different groups of inmates have filed civil rights suits claiming he and other officers regularly beat prisoners in their cells for sport. A fellow officer sued the county, claiming Tolan and another officer beat him for reporting a sexual assault against a female employee. Prison officials claimed Tolan was fired for threatening an inmate and filing a false report. Department of Corrections officials dispatched investigators to the prison in September and issued a report last month that found a range of deficiencies in the jail's policies. Among the findings: prison employees had no disciplinary code; the jail ignored grievances from inmates and staff; hiring of officers was performed by county politicians, rather than corrections professionals; security was lax; and employees engaged in widespread abuse of sick time. The state inspectors also said the jail lacked a policy forbidding employees from using inmates as laborers. Department of Corrections spokeswoman Susan McNaughton said the state has no day-to-day supervisory role over county prisons, although it can cite them for failing to meet basic standards. |
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