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HomeNewsArchivesFeds Say 'Very Little Has Improved' at Golden Grove

Feds Say 'Very Little Has Improved' at Golden Grove

Conditions inside Golden Grove Adult Correctional Facility are nearly unchanged from a year ago and little has been done to improve security, safety and quality of living, according to a court-appointed monitor overseeing compliance with a new court settlement on problems at the prison. Despite finding severe problems, the monitor said V.I. officials "voiced a serious commitment to comply with the Agreement."

Reached for comment Tuesday, Warden Basil Richards said he largely agreed and was working on improvements. But the prison will ultimately need more resources and higher pay for corrections officers in order to come into compliance, he said.

"We need additional resources. We need our staff to be outfitted with all the necessary equipment. And we need to have their pay increased. They have not had step increases in 11 years. It is the lowest (corrections) pay in the nation," Richards said. Between the pay, lack of resources and a severe shortage of corrections officers, morale is at an all time low, he said.

"But overall we are moving forward, and we can and will overcome these challenges," he said.

For decades, Golden Grove has operated under a 1986 federal consent decree requiring the territory’s government to bring the prison up to constitutional standards. A 1990 plan of compliance and a 2003 stipulated agreement followed the consent decree. Problems have persisted and, since 2003, U.S. District Court for the Virgin Islands has issued several compliance orders directing the V.I. Bureau of Corrections to take specific security measures, hire new health care professionals, provide specific mental, medical and dental services, and eliminate specific fire and safety hazards, among other detailed directives.

Since August of 2012, the U.S. government proposed a new settlement agreement, the U.S. Virgin Islands agreed, and both sides agreed to select Kenneth Ray of Justice Services LLC as an independent monitor to issue regular compliance reports.

Ray inspected the prison in September and issued his report Dec. 3. He found "very little has improved" at Golden Grove, since a fact-finding report was filed with the court in February.

Golden Grove "remains a dangerous and violent environment and is inadequately staffed, equipped, funded, maintained and operated to provide and consistently sustain environmental and operational conditions of inmate care and confinement that meet constitutional requirements," Ray’s report says.

According to the report, of 119 separate issues cited by the court for correction, Golden Grove has brought seven into partial compliance, leaving 108, or 91 percent, not in compliance.

"Policies and procedures, in general, remain underdeveloped, incomplete and/or nonexistent," which "contributes, in part, to inconsistent and dangerous security practices and habits," the report says.

Evidence of this included cell doors and the housing entrance being padlocked and chained; poorly maintained fencing; insufficient and broken radios; broken security door panels; and a nonworking camera system. Short staffing, low pay and low morale are also problems.

"Exacerbating these conditions is a serious lack of adequately trained and supervised correctional staff and an overarching common frustration among staff regarding leadership support and commitment to improve security and poor environment conditions," the report says.

There are weapons and drugs throughout the prison and "there has not been a facilitywide shakedown … in more than two years," which "is very troubling if only based on the facility’s known history of contraband and violence," according to the report. The author was sadly prophetic, in that on Dec. 14, police arrested a Bureau of Corrections officer for allegedly trying to "bring a paper bag containing 131 grams of marijuana and 16 grams of cocaine into the Golden Grove Adult Correctional Facility." The report ties these problems to a lack of consistent procedures.

Asked about the arrest, Richards said the arrest itself is a sign of progress.

"We stopped this person from bringing in contraband, so I don’t look at it as a negative, but as a positive," Richards said.

After highlighting the problems with contraband, the monitor’s report makes a similar conclusion, saying "however … the volume of contraband confiscated has increased significantly," since the settlement agreement.

The report also finds there is no meaningful complaint process and many complaint and sick request boxes are broken and filled with garbage, so that it "seems obvious that no systematic
process exists for this requirement."

Temperatures are too high, cells smell like mold and mildew, and many flood during heavy rains.
Inmates have limited access to drinkable water; there are broken cell sinks, toilets and showers that must be repaired.

Fire sprinklers are nonfunctional and there are several dangerous fire hazards, including accumulated paper and cardboard inside cells. But the report says Golden Grove has an "experience and competent fire safety coordinator," who can help bring it into compliance.

Mental health care remains a serious problem, with the report concluding that it cannot come into compliance with existing staff levels.

"There are no formal treatment plans, no basic counseling services, few treatment encounters with qualified providers or even enough qualified providers to deliver minimum levels of care if treatment programs were possible," it says.

"Despite a lack of progress and noncompliance with virtually all of the provisions in this agreement, territory officials voiced a serious commitment to comply with the agreement," it concludes.

Richards said he and the prison staff are working to address all the issues, but that staff are stressed, and resources limited. He also said these problems are not unique to the territory. "I’ve worked at many facilities, and even the very best will still have issues with contraband and violence," he said. The poor economy is placing many other jurisdictions in a difficult position.

"Economically it is depressed in many places and we are no different. But we can and will overcome these challenges," Richards said. The prison will work on policies and procedures and other areas that do not require large amounts of money. But short staffing makes it very difficult both to create detailed procedures and policies and to carry them out rigorously.

"My staff right now, they are overwhelmed," Richards said. "They are working long hours, they are short staffed and they are tired. And when tired, people make poor decisions," he said.

"We need additional resources," he said, when asked what he needed to bring the prison into compliance. "Nobody wants to spend money, but if we are pushed into receivership or not, unless we get additional monies it is going to be tough," he said. "We’ve been battered and beaten, but nobody has extended a hand to pull us out of the mud and that hurts," he said.

"But overall, we are moving forward and trying our best. We just need to get the necessary equipment to do the job," he said.

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