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Notice of Violation and Order to Comply
Lawsuit: Female Inmates Routinely Subjected to Sexual Abuse
JUSTIFYING INMATE OUTFLOW
Infamous "Preppie Killer" Due Out of Jail
State Budget On Line
Summary of the Executive Budget
N.Y. Bans Islamic Chaplain From Prisons
JAILHOUSE CROCK
JIHAD: AT A PRISON NEAR YOU
National Latino Officers Association Message
Meningitis Scare at N.Y. Prison
Orange terror alert felt in Twin Tiers
Invasive Pneumococcal Disease Cluster - Ossining Correctioal Facility
Prison illness sparks concern
Shot locks down prison
Prison locked down after bullet found
Freeing prisoners
Union rips cuts in prison budget
N.Y. fines prison company $300,000
Feds Charge Prison Cleric
State COs Part Of Homeland Security
Muslims say Nozzolio out of line in call for inquiry
N.Y. Prison Locked Down After Inmate Fights
Orleans Correctional Officers may have prevented break-out
State prison chief's directive seeks savings in small stuff
A lie that changed a life
Inspection Number 304344344
Inspection Dates 9/16/02-9/19
To: Commissioner NYS Department of Correctional Services Issuance
Date 1/17/03
CSHO ID T4758
Inspection Site
NYSDOCS Orleans correctional Facility
35-31 Gaines Basin Rd
Albion NY 14411
Citation 1 Item 1 Type of Violation : SERIOUS
29.CFR 1910.36(b)(4): Exits were locked or fastened, preventiog free escape from inside of the building and effective provisions were not made to remove occupants in case of fire or other emergency:
a) During the 11PM to 7AM shift, Corrections Officers were locked in their housing units. Roundsmans were assigned to unlock housing unit doors in case of fire or other emergency. Roundsmen had other responsibilites which prevented a timely response.
DATE BY WHICH VIOLATION MUST BE ABATED 6/02/2003
Associated Press
Some male officers at New York prisons rape or sexually harass female prisoners in a system that does little to prevent the attacks or encourage them to be reported, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday on behalf of 15 women.
Three of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan by the Legal Aid Society became impregnated as a result of the attacks, the lawsuit alleges.
James Flateau, a state Department of Correctional Services spokesman, said broad allegations that the state lets sexual misconduct continue virtually unabated were nonsense.
''This administration has taken more steps than any prior administration to safeguard inmates against the fewer than one percent of officers who engage in what is now felonious conduct,'' Flateau said.
He said Gov. George Pataki proposed legislation and signed it in 1996, making sexual contact between staff and inmates a felony punishable by up to four years in prison.
''The state has always had a very tough line on relations between inmates and staff and will continue to do so,'' Flateau said.
The lawsuit said the state receives more than 200 complaints of sexual misconduct annually and refers about 10 incidents of sexual misconduct for criminal prosecution. The state has about 3,000 female prisoners at a time in its prisons.
But many more incidents go unreported at the Albion, Bayview, Bedford Hills, Camp Beacon, Lakeview and Taconic correctional facilities and the Willard Drug Treatment Center, the lawsuit said.
It sought unspecified damages on behalf of the individual plaintiffs and sought to change a system that it said fails to protect the inmates or to punish the men who commit the offenses.
Punishing the officers should not be so difficult, in part because female prisoners cannot consent to sexual activity with correctional staff due to the coercive nature of the prison setting, the lawsuit said.
Yet, it said, the women are subjected to rape, sexual intercourse, anal intercourse, oral sexual acts, sexual touching, voyeurism, invasion of personal privacy, demeaning sexual comments and intimidation.
The lawsuit alleged that female prisoners are impregnated by male staff in state prisons ''with regularity.''
It said the state is aware that assigning men to guard female prisoners ''creates obvious risks of sexual activity'' but continues to assign men to posts in which they have the opportunity for unmonitored contact with inmates.
Flateau said the majority of the 1,834 female officers in the state's prison system choose to work in male prisons, leaving just 416 female correction officers for the 1,420 officer positions in female prisons.
He also challenged the lawsuit's claim that the state fails to screen its staff to prevent sexual misconduct.
''We have psychological screening prior to the hiring of every single correctional officer in the state of New York,'' he said. ''And we do background checks on every candidate.''
(New York)
By KENNETH LOVETT
February 1, 2003 -- ALBANY - The Pataki administration yesterday staunchly defended its plan to release up to 1,300 prisoners early, denying it represents a shift in the governor's normally tough-on-crime approach.
"Whether this saves $100 million or 50 cents, this is good public policy that will effectively reduce crime," said Chauncey Parker, Pataki's criminal-justice coordinator.
The Post reported yesterday that Pataki, who has won tougher sentences for violent criminals during his two terms in office, is proposing early release for inmates who have no criminal history of violence and clean records behind bars.
Parker said Pataki's plan is a continuation of "right-sizing" the prison population by keeping violent predators locked up longer while helping nonviolent offenders clean up their lives.
About 800 of the 1,300 inmates who would be released are drug offenders. The rest are forgers, thieves and other "nonviolent" criminals.
The most serious felony drug offenders - those serving 15 years to life under the tough Rockefeller-era drug laws - would under the plan become eligible for "merit time" for the first time and be eligible for parole after serving two-thirds of their term.
James Vargason, president of the state District Attorneys Association, said the proposal is serious enough to warrant review, but his organization has yet to take a position.
Associated Press
For 17 years, the family of Jennifer Levin has learned to live without the beloved teen who was strangled in Central Park: missed birthdays, anniversaries, holidays.
This Valentine's Day, the Levin family must endure a new form of agony: the release of Jennifer's killer.
Confessed "Preppie Killer" Robert Chambers will exit an upstate prison on Feb. 14 after serving the maximum time on his manslaughter conviction for killing Levin on Aug. 26, 1986.
"Obviously, this is a very difficult time for the family," said Linda Fairstein, who has remained close to the Levins since prosecuting the case against Chambers. "Their child will never come home."
For the Levins, the prospect of Chambers returning to the city where he killed their 18-year-old daughter is overwhelming. "I find that very unpleasant," said the slain girl's mother, Ellen Levin, as Chambers' release became imminent.
Levin's sister, Danielle Roberts, said she was "haunted by a feeling of dread" over Chambers' departure from the Auburn Correctional Facility.
The Levin slaying, splashed across the city's tabloids in the summer of '86, was a made-for-TV movie waiting to happen - a glimpse into the lives of callow youths on the Upper East Side bar scene.
The suspect, a college dropout with a taste for cocaine, was Hollywood handsome. The victim was pretty, a private school student from a well-to-do family. And the defense - consensual "rough sex" gone amok - was startling.
"Our lives became the media event of the year," Steven Levin, Jennifer's father, said at Chambers' sentencing.
Nothing that Chambers has done since going to jail in April 1988 has changed the negative perceptions of the 6-foot-4, dark-featured killer.
Chambers, now 36, racked up an assortment of violations behind bars - heroin possession, assaulting an officer, weapon possession. His bids for parole were rejected five times, and he spent about a third of his time in solitary confinement.
Shortly after his sentencing, a videotape surfaced showing Chambers snapping the head off a small doll. "Oops, I think I killed it," Chambers cracked, the doll's head in his hand.
Chambers admitted strangling Levin after they met in Dorrian's Red Hand, an Upper East Side yuppie bar. Her battered, partially nude body was found under a tree behind the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where the pair went after leaving the bar.
At a 1995 parole hearing, Chambers expressed no remorse about the crime.
"I guess I could also give you the party line and say I have learned my lesson, I will never do this again," Chambers said. "But that's not how I feel at this moment."
http://www.budget.state.ny.us/
2003 Yellow Book Available
The New York State Assembly Ways and Means Committee's "Statistical And Narrative Summary of the Executive Budget," also known as the "Yellow Book," is the first step in a process that will reveal the harsh reality behind the governor's rhetoric. To view the Assembly press release, click on the link below:
http://assembly.state.ny.us/Press/20030203d/
To view the 2003 Yellow Book, click on the link below:
http://assembly.state.ny.us/Reports/WAM/2003Yellow/
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) -- An Islamic chaplain has been barred from ministering to state prison inmates for reportedly making comments sympathetic to the Sept. 11 terrorists.
Warith Deen Umar, 58, who retired in 2000, won't be allowed in facilities he has tried to visit at least three or four times, state prisons spokesman James Flateau said Thursday.
``The comments that he has made since leaving our employ are nothing short of reprehensible, disgusting and rejected by virtually all Americans regardless of race, creed or color,'' Flateau said.
A Wall Street Journal article published Wednesday quoted Umar as saying ``even Muslims who say they are against terrorism secretly admire and applaud'' the hijackers. Umar said his remarks were taken out of context.
``Sept. 11 was a terrible thing to happen,'' he told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. ``I felt saddened for those people who had to suffer.''
Still, the imam -- or prayer leader -- indicated that he believes the United States brought the tragedy upon itself.
``It was also an indication and a sign that America's foreign policies have gone astray and have created havoc in the world,'' said Umar, who added he now fears for the safety of himself and his family.
The Journal defended its report. ``Mr. Umar hasn't provided us with any specific inaccuracies in our story,'' spokeswoman Karen Miller Pensiero said.
Besides his ban from state prisons, Umar said his $37-an-hour contract as a chaplain in a federal prison in New York was terminated last week after officials were questioned by the newspaper.
Gov. George Pataki called the comments attributed to Umar ``outrageous and deplorable.''
Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., called on the state to suspend all prison imams hired by Umar ``and see if they have done the same things, and anyone who has done anything similar should be fired.''
``My worry is that within our own prison system, we are potentially creating recruits for al-Qaida,'' Schumer said. He also wants the federal prison system examined.
When Umar retired after 25 years on the state payroll, state corrections officials changed the process of hiring Islamic prayer leaders. Previously, Umar hired them through an Islamic organization he ran from his home. Now Islamic leaders from several centers statewide have a hand in hiring, Flateau said.
There are now 40 Muslim chaplains on the state payroll in the prison system serving 9,862 Muslim inmates, or about 15 percent of the prison population.
By KENNETH LOVETT, FREDRIC U. DICKER and ERIC LENKOWITZ
WARITH DEEN UMAR - Gabe Palacio
February 6, 2003 -- Officials yesterday banned the state's former top Muslim cleric from setting foot in a state prison ever again - after he said the 9/11 terrorists should be honored as martyrs.
The action, against Warith Deen Umar, 58, of upstate Glenmont, came just hours after he was quoted as not only praising the 9/11 killers, but also predicting there may be further attacks on America - led by black Muslim converts.
Umar, who was quoted in a front-page story in The Wall St. Journal, said the United States was risking further attacks because of its alleged oppression of Muslims around the world.
"Without justice, there will be warfare, and it can come to this country, too," he declared.
Umar also wrote in an unpublished memoir, quoted by the paper, that "even Muslims who say they are against terrorism secretly admired and applaud" the World Trade Center's destruction.
He said the Koran - the Islamic holy book - does not condemn terrorism against oppressors of Muslims, even if innocent people die. "This is the sort of teaching they don't want in prison. But this is what I'm doing," said Umar, who recruited scores of Muslim clerics to state prisons and helped convert thousands of inmates to Islam.
His comments prompted swift action by state and federal authorities.
State Correctional Services Department spokesman James Flateau said Umar - who says he still regularly visited state prisons as a volunteer chaplain since retiring in 2000 after 25 years on the state payroll - would no longer be welcome.
"He won't be allowed in the prisons any longer because Americans of virtually every race, creed and color reject the statements praising terrorism that he's been making," said Flateau.
Flateau insisted the state prison system has been vigilant against efforts by Muslim radicals - and any other group - to stir up hatred, saying that one imam, or Muslim religious leader, was dismissed and another suspended for making inflammatory comments after 9/11. Umar, a Muslim chaplain and the top Muslim cleric in the huge state prison system from 1975 until retiring from the $67,919-a-year post on Aug. 31, 2000, had also worked as a part-time chaplain for the Federal Bureau of Prisons' facility in Otisville until Tuesday.
But he was fired from that post after officials learned of his comments.
Gov. Pataki, who said he learned of Umar's comments from The Post, promised to investigate. "We'll look into it," Pataki said at an event in The Bronx.
Umar, once known as Wallace Gene Marks and Wallace 10X, used to live in Harlem. He now resides in Glenmont, an Albany suburb just 15 minutes away from the headquarters of the state prison system, which has about 13,000 Muslim inmates.
His two-story ranch home serves as headquarters of the National Association of Muslim Chaplains, an advocacy group he founded in the late 1970s.
At his home, Umar told The Post last night that he hadn't heard about his ban from the prisons.
He said he would not comment until "I can review it and absorb it."
"You'll have my reaction, don't worry," he added, insisting that the Journal article was "not accurate; completely false."
His wife, Islah Umar, said, "The word ‘martyr' is religious terminology, not political.
"If a Muslim dies fighting toward freedom, it's not political," she added.
She also said, "Our phones are tapped . . . Most Muslim phones are tapped."
The Journal story called Umar "the most influential Muslim prison chaplain in New York."
It described him as a native of Illinois who spent his 15th and 16th birthdays in jails there on purse-snatching and drug crimes. Umar later converted to Islam and began practicing the harsh and intolerant form of the religion known as Wahhabism, fueled by at least four trips to Saudi Arabia at Saudi expense, the paper said.
February 6, 2003 -- State prison officials yesterday banned Warith Deen Umar from serving as a chaplain at any New York facility - just 24 hours after the U.S. Bureau of Prisons declared him persona non grata at all federal penitentiaries.
Not until a front-page story appeared in the Wall Street Journal, apparently, was either agency aware that Umar had spent decades spreading Islamic extremism among the nation's convicts, while recruiting a cadre of Muslim chaplains who preach support of terrorism.
That's particularly ominous news for New York - where for 20 years, until his retirement in 2000, Imam Umar was the most influential Muslim chaplain in the state. He ran the prison system's Islamic program, earning $70,000 a year. (Until yesterday, he continued to serve as a volunteer chaplain.)
Only now are officials learning what it is he's been preaching all these years.
The 9/11 hijackers were martyrs, he told the Journal, adding that America faces "warfare" unless it stops oppressing Muslims. Warfare, he maintains, that will be carried out by prison inmates who've converted to radical Islam.
Umar isn't bashful about any of this: Prison "is the perfect recruitment and training ground for radicalism and the Islamic religion," he told the paper.
A former black radical who served time for weapons possession, the Louis Farrakhan/Nation of Islam acolyte adds: "Prisons are a powder keg - the question is the ignition."
Muslim chaplains hired and trained by Umar began preaching to inmates, post-9/11, that Osama bin Laden "is a soldier of Allah, a hero of Allah." Officials, fearing riots, refused to intervene.
Umar and his colleagues are radical Sunni Muslims, reportedly preaching hatred not just of America but also of rival Shiite Muslims - and received training and funding from the Saudi Arabian government, which regularly brings prison chaplains to Saudi Arabia for weeks of "study" and training. Umar himself made at least four such "pilgrimages."
Amazingly, state Prison Commissioner Glenn Goord told the Journal that not only was he unaware of Umar's political diatribes, he didn't even know that he was still serving as a chaplain. "It sounds like he shouldn't," added Goord - a classic understatement if we ever heard one.
The feds, to their credit, moved swiftly after learning of Umar's preaching, saying that the Bureau of Prisons "does not tolerate chaplains, or other staff, condoning or endorsing violence in their communities with inmates."
Now, Umar is out - though he vows to fight the state-federal decisions. Even if his ouster is upheld, he's left a cadre of like-minded extremists behind who'll continue to preach their brand of hatred.
If that's the case, what will Goord & Co. do about it?
Executive Chairman's Message February 7, 2003
We are writing this letter to all our members in the LOA New York State Correction Chapter regarding recent events at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility. It has become apparent that rumors are greatly exaggerating events at the facility. We have serious concerns over the health of our members and wanted to take this opportunity to clarify the facts as we know it at this time.
We are cautioning our members not to panic at this time but take necessary precautions for both you and your family members. If you experience any unusual medical condition or fever go to your medical doctor inform them of the above mentioned facts and immediately notify the facility.
NYSCOPBA President Rick Harcrow and his Vice Presidents were very concerned and receptive to the information that they were receiving in regards to what was transpire ring at Sing Sing Correctional Facility. They requested an Emergency membership meeting, but were told by the Acting Chief Sector Steward Thomas Knight that an Emergency meeting was not necessary. His decision was made after having a conversation with the Superintendent. It was made without taking into consideration the safety and well being of all staff at the Sing Sing Correctional Facility. The decision by Officer Thomas Knight was made without any knowledge or updated reports from any of the agencies involved.
For further information please feel free to contact our LOA New York State Correction Chapter at the following numbers (917) 740- 0128 / (347) 524 - 6901/ (917) 468 -4362.
Anthony Miranda
Executive Chairman
Both corrections officers and inmates at the Sing Sing State Prison are alarmed about two confirmed cases of Meningitis.
One inmate died from the infection on Tuesday. Another is being treated at Saint Agnes Medical Hospital. Corrections officials said there are over a half dozen other inmates and officers with symptoms of the deadly illness. Doctors from the state health department were sent to the prison to assess the situation and prevent an outbreak in the prison population.
Bacterial Meningitis is an infection that attacks the lining of the brain. There is a vaccine available that will be administered to any infected individuals.
By G. JEFFREY AARON and SALLE E. RICHARDS
Star-Gazette
All entrances to the Elmira Correctional Facility were blocked by trucks Friday in response to the nation's new terror alert level.
REBECCA TOWNS/Star-Gazette
Correction officers also interviewed everyone seeking entry into the facility.James Flateau, spokesman for New York State Correctional Services, said similar actions were taking place at all 71 state correctional facilities because of the elevation of the alert status.Chemung County Executive Tom Santulli said Friday the county had not yet received any formal notification about the security alert upgrade.If the notification is received, he said, the sheriff's department would be notified and the federal Transportation Security Administration would tell the county what steps to follow."I imagine we would get a formal notification, but we don't automatically do anything. Our primary concern would be the airport, and the TSA would tell us what to do," Santulli said.Elmira City Manager Samuel Iraci Jr. said he has discussed the heightened security alert with city Police Chief James Waters. Much of the information and possible actions to be taken, he said, is privileged to law enforcement agencies and the city is communicating with other agencies.The state Operations Command Center is open and the Office of Public Security will issue an advisory that will communicate any steps the city will have to take, Iraci said."As of now, nothing specific has been suggested to us," he said.
This is to summarize the information to date concerning invasive pneumococcal disease at Ossining.
On Friday Feb , 2002, Pete Hickey RN in the Infection Control Unit at the NYSDOC Central Office in Albany called the Bureau of Communicable Disease Control (BCDC)- NYSDOH to report two cases of invasive pneumococcal disease among inmates at Ossining. Both had positive blood cultures for Streptococcus pneumoniae. Case 1 had bacteremia and case 2 was initially thought to have bacteremia and meningitis. Subsequently, Mr Hickey informed us that case 2, who died had bacteremia but not meningitis. Later in the day a conference call was held involving DOCS, BCDC-NYSDOH, MARO -NYSDOH and Ossining Correctional and the following facts were shared:
-2 cases are lab confirmed with positive blood cultures for Streptococcus pneumoniae; one of whom died.
-2 more admitted to St Agnes Hosp for evaluation and testing -several additional inmates being evaluated at the Ossining Correctional infirmary
-no confirmed cases known in civilian or CO staff
We recommended the following:
1. send the lab cultures on the two confirmed cases to the Wadsworth Lab-NYSDOH
2. verify antibiotic susceptibility (results available 2/10 reveal that the organism is sensitive to usual antibiotics).
3. review inmate records to determine if there are any high risk individuals who have not yet received pneumococccal vaccine and offer vaccine
4. obtain blood for culture on any additional inmates presenting with temperature over 101 degrees F.
5. inform COs that neither pneumococcal bacteremia nor pneumococcal meningitis warrants antibiotics for close contacts. Risk to healthy COs is extremely small. COs should also be informed that they should consult their own doctor if they have any serious underlying medical condition that warrants pneumococcal vaccine. Pneumococcal disease has 3 serious presentations: pneumonia, bacteremia and meningitis but these are rare in otherwise healthy people and usually occur in the elderly or immunocompromised individuals.
6. Use droplet precautions for those in the infirmary. Transmission usually requires direct in the face exposure. Antibiotics for close contacts is not recommended. Throat cultures are not recommended as up to 30 % of any group of adults may harbor a few Streptococcus pneumoniae organisms in their nose and throat.
Overall assessment:
While pneumococcal disease is common throughout NYS, it is unusual to have small outbreaks or clusters.
Risk to otherwise healthy civilians and COs is very small. Risk to unvaccinated inmates who are immunocompromised is significant. Increased use of pneumococcal vaccine is appropriate. MARO-NYSDOH reps will followup.
By RICHARD LIEBSON AND SHAWN COHEN
THE JOURNAL NEWS
(Original publication: February 11, 2003)
OSSINING An inmate at Sing Sing prison died after coming down with a noncontagious form of bacterial meningitis, prompting a short-term scare after nearly a dozen other inmates fell ill.
While one other inmate did test positive for a less serious strain of the pneumococcal infection, the others only had the flu, said the Sing Sing doctor who treated them.
"It's an unusual chain of events," said Dr. Harish Moorjani, the infectious-disease specialist at Sing Sing who also is chief of infectious diseases at Phelps Memorial Hospital Center in Sleepy Hollow. "In retrospect, these two guys probably had the flu and got pneumococcal sepsis. One of them developed meningitis and died. The other one got treated with antibiotics and did well."
State health officials are monitoring the cases and reported that a third inmate developed the bacterial infection. Moorjani, who handled all the cases, said he suspects the third person only had the flu. He said it was impossible to know for sure, though, because the man was placed on antibiotics before he was tested.
"This is not unusual this time of year," said Kristine Smith, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Health. She said state health officials were working with Sing Sing health staff to monitor cases of pneumococcal bacteria infections at the prison. So far, Smith said, two cases of the infection had been confirmed among inmates. No cases among correction officers or other staff members have been reported, she said.
Her statements came after an inmate identified by the Westchester County Medical Examiner's Office as Joseph Iante, 41, died Feb. 4 of the infection. Smith would not confirm the inmate's identity, but she said he had underlying health problems that contributed to his death.
Officials from the state Department of Correctional Services would not comment, referring questions to the Health Department.
Smith said people with weak immune systems caused by HIV, chemotherapy, kidney disease, emphysema and diabetes, among other health problems are more susceptible to the pneumococcal bacteria. While there is a vaccine for the infection, Smith said, it is less effective for people with underlying health conditions.
The national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said that the bacteria that cause meningitis are spread through the exchange of respiratory and throat secretions. They are not as contagious as the common cold or the flu, and are not spread by casual contact or breathing the air in places where a person with meningitis has been.
While prison staff members are being advised of the infection, Smith said they were not being told to take any unusual precautions unless they have other health problems.
"This is not a risk to otherwise healthy people,'' she said. "We're telling the prison staff with underlying health conditions to check with their health-care providers and consider the vaccine.''
Paul Mikolajczyck, regional vice president of the New York State Correctional Officers & PBA, which represents the approximately 725 correction officers at Sing Sing, said the union is "always concerned for the health and physical safety of our officers" and "we take no incidents lightly."
In this case, he said, "we are pleased that this incident has turned out to be of small concern." Send e-mail to Richard Liebson rliebson@thejournalnews or 914-694-3534.
February 12, 2003
By Jessica Gardner
Times Herald-Record
Fallsburg – The Sullivan Correctional Facility was put on lockdown yesterday morning after a lab confirmed that a book in the prison library had been struck by a bullet.
A round hole was found through 900 pages of the 3,000-page New York Reports Annotated, 61-63, a collection of cases decided by the Court of Appeals. The hole was discovered Monday night while security staff searched the 5,000-volume law library.
A second law book was found with about 90 of its more than 1,000 pages hollowed out. Just the edges had been left intact.
"It was as if someone wanted to hide something there," Jim Flateau, spokesman for the state Department of Correctional Services, said last night. The search was kicked off after authorities on Friday found two tin can lids hidden within the bindings of hardcover books. The lids are often sharpened by inmates and used as weapons, Flateau added.
After the discovery of the bullet hole, the book was taken to the state police lab in Albany. Flateau said tests confirmed a bullet of "a small caliber" was fired into the book.
A complete search of the prison has been ordered by state Corrections Commissioner Glenn Goord. The prison was put on lockdown at 10 a.m. yesterday. All 573 inmates were immediately returned to their cells. The only inmates allowed out of their cells will be those who have family or legal visits or require medical attention. The lockdown will stay in place until the search is completed.
The last lockdown at Sullivan Correctional happened Oct. 10. That day, three rounds of .22-caliber ammunition were found hidden in the hollow handle of an aluminum mop used by inmates in the A-North cellblock. No more ammunition or a firing mechanisms were found during the subsequent three-day lock-down and search of the facility, or in the four months since then.
A maximum-security prison was locked down Tuesday after a state police lab confirmed a bullet was fired into a library book at the facility, state Commissioner Glenn S. Goord said.
The Sullivan Correctional Facility will remain locked down until 10 a.m. today so that officials wearing bulletproof vests can search all areas of the prison, Goord said.
"If one inmate has the means to fire a bullet within a prison, that represents a most serious risk to all of our employees," he said.
On Monday night, security staff began searching the 5,000 books in the law library because two tin can lids were found last week in the bindings of hardcover books, Goord said. Inmates often sharpen the lids to use them as weapons.
All inmates are ordered to remain in their cells during the lockdown.
The governor's plan to reduce costs is also a reason for drug law reform
First published: Friday, February 7, 2003
It was one thing, apparently, for Governor Pataki to try to stop parole of prison inmates late in his first term and early in his second. That was before large surpluses in the state budget vanished and were replaced by even bigger deficits. Mr. Pataki's budget proposal for the next fiscal year makes it clear that he's giving those policies a second thought.
The governor wants to spend $33 million less on the state's prisons. That would mean 350 fewer prison guards, and almost 500 fewer Department of Correctional Services jobs overall, as well as 1,700 fewer inmates. About 1,300 of them would be leaving prison by virtue of reductions in their sentences. Parole, as it's called in government talk.
Mr. Pataki says the inmates to be released would be those who take part in rehabilitation programs while in prison and have no history of violence. In short, they would be people whom the penal authorities have determined are ready to live lawfully in the world outside of New York's 70 prisons.
It's an enlightened policy, certainly, as humane as it is economical. The only critical thing that can be said of it, in fact, is that it doesn't go far enough.
Many of the inmates who would benefit were sentenced to prison under New York's Rockefeller-era drug laws. Instead of serving mandatory prison terms of 15 years to life, they would be released after 10 years. Once on parole, they would be subject to those restrictions for two years, rather than three.
But what about the thousands of other prisoners of the old drug laws? The solutions sought by a much more austerity-minded governor amount to an argument to overhaul the Rockefeller approach to drug crimes entirely. That is, more rehabilitation and less incarceration.
Mr. Pataki has a record of advocating drug law reform without ever delivering upon it. It's not unlike a tendency, before the current budget crisis, to talk like a fiscal conservative but spend like a liberal -- all with the Legislature's support, of course. Both the governor and the Legislature should embrace this opportunity to enact sensible criminal justice policies and reap the monetary savings that will come with them.
- President says safety suffers with fewer correction officers.
By JAY GALLAGHER
Star-Gazette Albany Bureau
[email protected]
ALBANY -- State prisons are short of correction officers because the state has been cutting jobs faster than the inmate population has been shrinking, the head of the officers' union told lawmakers Monday.
"There are not enough correction officers available to safely guard our prisons," union President Richard Harcrow said at a hearing on Gov. George Pataki's budget proposal before the Legislature's fiscal committees.
Harcrow said that 1,200 jobs have been cut in the last two years, and that another 344 officer positions are targeted for elimination this year.
However, a spokesman for the state Department of Corrections disputed Harcrow's numbers.
In the last three years, the number of officers has dropped by 5 percent while the inmate population has dropped by 7 percent, said spokesman James Flateau.
There was no immediate explanation from the union, New York State Correction Officers and Police Benevolent Association, for the discrepancy.
The lawmakers are in the midst of a series of hearings on Pataki's $90.8 billion budget plan, which calls for steep cuts in aid to local schools, $1.3 billion in health-care cuts and $1.4 billion in new taxes and fees.
He has proposed a cut of about $33 million in the corrections budget, to just under $2 billion. It includes eliminating 492 of the department's 31,030 jobs.
Harcrow said the shortage of staff is a factor in an unusually high number of lockdowns in the last six months -- four.
"Inmates are less likely to commit crimes when there are more law-enforcement personnel around," he said.
But Flateau said the lockdowns, where inmates are kept in their cells, are routine, and often done when contraband is discovered.
He said a better measurement of order in prisons is the number of assaults. He said attacks on officers have been declining, and that the number of assaults by one inmate on another last year was the lowest in 20 years.
Mike Ames, chief sector steward for the union at the Southport Correctional Facility, said cuts to prison staff would be received better if they were made from the top.
"Why do we need an assistant deputy superintendent of programs at a prison that doesn't have programs?" he said.
He said the governor should take more serious look at budget cuts with the idea of trimming back from the rank of captain and above.
The number of inmates in state prisons peaked at more than 71,400 in 1999 and now stands at 66,733, and it is predicted to shrink to 65,100 in the next year.
A newly hired corrections officer is paid $28,000 as year. That rises to about $50,000 after 20 years, Harcrow said, with the average being about $37,000.
The union's contract expires at the end of next month, and Harcrow said the union plans to ask for a significant raise.
Star-Gazette reporter Salle E. Richards contributed to this report.
- Private firm gets record penalty for free rides, gifts.
By YANCEY ROY
Star-Gazette Albany Bureau
[email protected] ALBANY -- The state fined a private prison company $300,000 Wednesday for failing to disclose that it had provided state legislators with free rides and other gifts, the largest penalty ever levied for violating New York's lobbying laws.
Correctional Services Corp., a Florida-based company, furnished the gifts at a time it was regularly winning government contracts to provide halfway house services to the New York prison system. The company no longer has any contracts with the state.
The state Lobbying Commission on Wednesday accepted a settlement with the company calling for the $300,000 fine. In settling, the company admitted no wrongdoing, but said the deal was in the best interests of its shareholders.
The penalty topped all previous fines taken in by the Lobbying Commission. In 2000, Donald Trump and associates paid $250,000 for failing to disclose their efforts to lobby lawmakers to block casino gambling in New York. In 1999, cigarette manufacturer Philip Morris Inc. paid a $75,000 penalty after it failed to report gifts, expensive dinners, sports tickets and other goodies it showered on lawmakers.
The Lobbying Commission focused on the prison company after Assemblywoman Gloria Davis, D-Bronx, resigned and pleaded guilty in a bribery probe involving another company last month.
During the investigation, Davis said she'd received free rides back and forth to Albany in return for helping Correctional Services Corp. cut government red tape. Since then, Assemblyman Roger Green, D-Brooklyn, has said he got rides from the company but that they were not free. Green said he gave the company nothing in return.
However, Correctional Service Corp. officials said they used company vans to help the campaigns of Green and Assemblyman Darryl Towns, D-Brooklyn, in 2000, according to transcripts of depositions provided by the Lobbying Commission. In the transcripts, Lobbying Commission Executive Director David Grandeau said he believed the company regularly provided Green with a van.
The company failed to accurately report its lobbying expenses in 2000 and 2001, Grandeau said. It could have faced a $50,000 penalty for each offense. The settlement amount "shows the seriousness of the transgressions," Grandeau said.
By Mary Bulkot & Craig Fox / Staff Writers
SYRACUSE - Osameh Al-Wahaidy, a Muslim cleric employed as an imam at Auburn Correctional Facility, was indicted Wednesday, along with three other men, on federal charges they illegally channeled at least $4 million to Iraq through a Syracuse-area charity called Help the Needy.
Al-Wahaidy, 41, of Fayetteville, a Jordanian citizen who was the Muslim prayer leader at the Auburn prison, is charged with conspiring to transfer money to Iraq in violation of the provisions of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. He was arrested without incident at the Auburn prison. He faces up to five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.
Exactly how Al-Wahaidy was involved wasn't detailed, although the indictment accused the men of funneling the money through Help The Needy, a charitable organization that solicited money in the United States.
During a press conference in Syracuse Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Glenn Suddaby did not say what the money was being used for or where it went. The 16-page indictment also didn't accuse the men of terrorism.
Al-Wahaidy, hired by the state as a Muslim chaplain in 1997, has served at the Auburn Correctional Facility since February 2001. Earlier this month, the imam was among several Muslim clerics accused of preaching a militant form of Islam.
The men are accused of depositing money in accounts at Oneida Savings Bank and Key Bank, and then laundering the money to Iraq through accounts in the Jordan Islamic Bank in Amman.
The banks in central New York reported suspicious activities, according to Suddaby, which kicked off the investigation. Suddaby commended their efforts, and reassured nervous clients there was no danger in maintaining accounts at the banks. He also reassured any donors to the charity that they would not be under scrutiny
Contacted at home Wednesday night, the Imam Abdur-Rahim Mohammad of Auburn, who serves at three other area state correction facilities, said he was instructed by prison officials not comment about Al-Wahaidy's arrest.
Mohammad, a co-chairman of the Mayor's Social Justice Task Force in Auburn, would not even say if he knew Al-Wahaidy.
"You could understand that if you were in my shoes. I really can't touch this," he said.
Al-Wahaidy was in the process of applying for American citizenship. In addition to his work at Auburn Correctional Facility, he is a math instructor at the State University of New York at Oswego. Before coming to Auburn, he worked at the Cape Vincent and Ogdensburg prisons. He is paid $57,140 annually.
The indictments culminated a three-year investigation, Suddaby said. The other men arrested were Rafil Dhafir, 55, of Fayettville, a U.S. citizen born in Iraq, who is an oncologist with a practice in Rome; and Ayman Jarwan 33, of Syracuse, a Jordanian citizen born in Saudi Arabia, who was the executive director of the Help the Needy. Maher Zagha, 34, a Jordanian citizen who attended college in Utica and Syracuse in the late 1980s and early 1990s, was also charged in absentia.
Efforts are being made to extradite Zagha from Jordan, Suddaby said. "We're not aware of any connection" between the four men and the six Yemini-Americans arrested in Lackawanna last September.
Although it is not known what the money was spent on, transferring money to Iraq for charitable purposes is illegal without government approval. The charity's Website said it raises money to help poor children in Iraq. But the charity, which used a postal address in DeWitt, did not obtain the necessary license to humanitarian aid to Iraq, prosecutors said.
"As money makes its way into Iraq, it becomes exceedingly difficult to say where it ends up," Suddaby said. "Once the money is overseas it's virtually impossible to track."
The fines imposed on the suspects may eventually be used to rescind money to the donors, but they are often difficult to track down, said Suddaby.
Dhafir and Jarwan are being held without bail for another hearing on Friday. Dhafir, as well as Zagha, face up to 265 years in prison and fines of more that $14 million.
Jarwan faces the same sentence as Al-Wahaidy. Help the Needy and Help the Needy Endowment, Inc. could be fined $14 million each.
As part of the on-going investigation, search warrants were executed at the offices of Help the Needy at 886 E. Brighton Ave.; the homes of the four men; a storage unit at Store America at 314 Ainsley Drive, Fayetteville safety deposit boxes in Dhafir's name at the Alliance Bank in Oneida; the offices of an Oneida certified public accountant; a Troy computers firm and the offices of Dhafir's oncology practice in Rome and the home of a Portsmouth, N.H., resident.
FBI agents were seen taking a number of cardboard boxes containing evidence out of several of the Syracuse locations.
The warrants authorized investigators to seize bank accounts, business documents that included financial records, computer programs and contribution records, literature supporting "jihad" or "holy wars" and videotapes and photographs from visits to foreign countries, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office.
The FBI, the IRS, the Social Security Administration's Office of Inspector General, the New York State Police, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and other agencies aided in the investigation.
Suddaby said the timing of the arrests was not related to the potential of imminent war with Iraq. "It's a point in the investigation when it's time to move," he said.
In early February, news reports revealed the Department of Corrections' former top cleric, Warith Dean Umar, expressed opinions and hired chaplains with belief consistent to Islamic extremism. The state banned Umar from visiting a state prison again.
But "what's going on in state prison system is not a part of the investigation," said Superintendent Jim McMahon of the New York State Police, who spoke at the press conference.
Grant R. Marin, Western Region Vice President, New York State Correction Officers & Police Benevolent Association, said many corrections officers in the state prison system perceive a growing problem with Muslim chaplains preaching radical forms of the Islam.
"We are in favor of religion behind the prison walls. Religion helps the inmates," he said. "But when they cross the line from religion to promoting terrorism, that is not what they are hired for and that is when they need to go. That is when they make our job more difficult and create unrest within the prison."
In a prepared statement, New York State Department of Corrections Services Commissioner Glenn S. Goord said he was grateful the investigation culminated with the indictments.
"We will continue to provide our full support to all investigations by law enforcement agencies on all levels," Goord said. "State law enforcement officials were aware of the Muslim chaplain's involvement and we fully cooperated with this investigation."
The investigation is still ongoing.
"Stay tuned," Suddaby said, when asked if the investigation would turn up other suspects.
Anti-Terror Detail
Chief-Leader Friday, February 28, 2003
By Reuven Blau
Specially certified New York State correction officers have joined the homeland security team, helping guard Albany's State Capitol and other potential terrorist targets.
"We are proud that the Governor has recognized correction officers for the highly trained officers that they are," said New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association President Richard Harcrow. "It is nice for the public to see the men [recognized] for the difficult job they do."
90 Hours of Training
According to the union's sate liaison, John Telisky, roughly 100 officers have been involved in the security detail, in conjunction with state police, since shortly after the Trade Center attacks. He said that all the officers working in security have Correction Emergency Response Team (CERT) certification. CERT officers must complete 90 hours of training, which includes instruction on guarding armed posts, searching vehicles, and other security procedures.
A lot of us feel that because we are behind the walls the public does not see how difficult our job is,” Mr. Harcrow said.
NYSCOPBA suffered an unrelated setback when the Office of Mental Health rejected the union’s renewed request to grant peace officer status to Security Hospital Treatment Assistants working at state mental health facilities. That designation would allow the officers to carry a firearm.
Sparked by Kirby Assault
The union’s petition came after several of its members suffered broken bones and cuts while restraining a violent patient at the Kirby Center for the Criminally Insane in December. The facility, located on Wards Island, houses criminal offenders deemed mentally unfit to stand trial.
Commissioner James L. Stone said in a letter to the union that the Office of Mental Health is concerned whenever a patient or an employee is injured. “We are constantly reviewing the circumstances of employee injuries, to help prevent future injuries,” he wrote.
Commissioner Stone pointed out that three Safety Officers with peace officer status were also injured in the Kirby incident. “Having this status did nothing to afford them more protection over the Security Hospital Treatment Assisstants who were also injured,” he said.
The union also requested that the patient involved in the assault be disciplined and placed in temporary isolation for observance before being released back into the General population. Mr. Stone concluded that criminal charges were not warranted because the injuries occurred “during the process of restraining the pation, not as the result of an assault by the patient.”
Mr. Harcrow branded the Commissioner’s position “irresponsible. He should be concerned with the officers as much as he is with the patients.”
NYSCOPBA law-enforcement business agent John Nicolosi said the Commissioner’s decision came as no surprise. “We see it every day, [the agency’s] total disregard for officer’s safety. They continue to allow us to get hurt without allowing us to protect ourselves,” he said.
By Joseph Spector
Democrat and Chronicle
(February 28, 2003) - Local Muslim leaders denounced a call by state Sen.
Michael Nozzolio on Thursday to investigate Muslim clerics working in state
prisons, saying no group should be unfairly targeted.
"Innocent until proven guilty, but we seem to be forgetting that," said Aly
Nahas, a Muslim community leader from Brighton.
Nozzolio's call came after an imam at the Auburn Correctional Facility was
arrested Wednesday. Osameh Al Wahaidy, 41, of Fayetteville, Onondaga County,
was among four men charged with illegally sending at least $4 million to
Iraq through a charity.
Al Wahaidy's arrest should not be a reason to zero in on Muslims, said
Muslim leaders, who questioned whether the charity did anything illegal.
"The whole (prison) institution should be investigated ... not to pick (on)
an individual because of their color, religion or language," said Muhammad
Shafiq, executive director of the Islamic Center of Rochester.
Nozzolio, R-Fayette, Seneca County, wrote a letter Thursday urging Chauncey
Parker, the director of the state Division of Criminal Justice Services, to
immediately investigate the legal status of the prisons' Muslim clerics.
Nozzolio, who later said the entire visa process needs to be probed, also
asked about recruitment and background checks.
In a letter to Nozzolio on Thursday, Corrections Commissioner Glenn S. Goord
defended his department and said he had cooperated in the probe of Al
Wahaidy. He said State Police on Thursday confirmed "what we already
knew" -- that all 42 Muslim chaplains are legally in this country. He did
not mention the five Nation of Islam clerics.
He said all department hires undergo background checks and that he consults
with religious authorities on new chaplains.
Goord said the Muslim clerics "were pivotal in defusing tensions" in the
prisons after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Prison officials locked down Coxsackie Correctional Facility on Thursday to search for contraband, following three inmate fights and the seizure of homemade weapons.
The lockdown will continue for three to four more days, as prison officers search all inmate cells and common areas, such as cafeterias and recreation yards, said Glenn Goord, commissioner of the state Department of Correctional Services.
''I will not tolerate inmate assaults on staff or other inmates,'' he said. ''We will not allow inmates to possess weapons of any sort in our prisons.''
Three inmate-on-inmate fights have occurred since Sunday.
Two inmates assaulted in separate incidents Sunday and Tuesday were treated at the prison infirmary for cuts on their face. An inmate assaulted Monday night in an outdoor recreation yard was treated for facial lacerations at Albany Medical Center and released, according to Correctional Services.
Prison officers recovered a razor in the yard after Monday's fight. Also, two fistfights, described by the department as ''minor,'' broke out Wednesday night.
No one has been charged in connection with any of the fights. No prison officers were injured, the department said.
During routine cell searches Sunday, prison officers found a sharpened piece of metal underneath an inmate's mattress and half of a tin can lid hidden in a cigarette pack atop another inmate's locker. While frisking that inmate, a razor blade fell out of his underwear, according to Correctional Services.
It is the first lockdown of the prison, 20 miles south of Albany, since June 2000. During the lockdown, all 1,012 prisoners will be confined to their cells, except for those escorted to approved legal and personal visits.
From the Batavia Daily News 02/28/03
By Scott DeSmit
Daily News Staff Writer
ALBION - Officers at Orleans Correctional Facility say they may have thwarted an attempted break-out when they discovered garbage bags tied into ropes, a flashlight and tarp hidden behind a building Monday.
The medium-security prison was placed in a lock-down and a master count of inmates was completed after the discovery. All inmates were accounted for, said Fred Kintzel, business agent for New York State Corrections Officers and Police Benevolent Association.
Kintzel said officers believe inmates were planning a break-out.
An officer on rounds made the discovery behind a program building used by civilian employees to run educational and vocational training programs.
Kintzel said 10 garbage bags had been tied into ropes. It was the first such discovery at the prison.
Kintzel said the union position is that low staffing is to blame.
"A lot of posts are being closed down because of low staffing and the inmates aren't dumb," he said. "When they see a guy who is normally at a post and he isn't there for three days a week because he's filling in somewhere else, that gives them an opening. I imagine we'll be seeing more of this."
State Department of Corrections officials are investigating the discovery and are interviewing inmates.
3/16/2003
ALBANY (AP) - In a move roughly equivalent to scouring the couch cushions for loose change, the state prison system is telling facility managers no item is too small when it comes to saving money.
A directive from Correctional Services Commissioner Glenn Goord told prison managers to put a tight rein on non-essential spending - down to weeding out any unnecessary use of styrofoam cups, plastic tableware and paper plates.
Other cost-saving suggestions from Goord: "Clean instead of paint" in facilities; "remind staff that it is not necessary to print every e-mail"; watch for abuses in the use of copiers and color printers; make "maximum" use of reusable inmate items such as clothing and mattresses; reduce prison pharmacy inventories from an eight-week to a six-week supply; increase recycling efforts and conserve energy; don't use overnight mail except in "extremely urgent conditions."
Goord also ordered prison superintendents to report by Tuesday on how individual facilities will implement the cost-saving measures he suggested and to propose any others that might be useful at other prisons.
"Some of the stuff in it is pretty small, but Glenn's point is that you have to look at the small issues and small savings because they add up," said James Flateau, a spokesman for the Department of Correctional Services. "His point is to ensure that facilities are looking at all areas where savings can be made."
The prison system has 32,000 employees, about 21,000 of them corrections officers.
Sunday 3/23/03
- Regrets, threats, financial ruin follow firing of correction officer.
By JENNIFER KINGSLEY
Star-Gazette
TYRONE -- Moving on hasn't been easy for Michael Monteiro.
MILES B. NORMAN/Star-Gazette
Michael Monteiro and his wife, Twyla Ellis-Monteiro, parents of two young children, play a family game Thursday in their Tyrone, Schuyler County, home.
Fourteen months after he lost his job as a New York correction officer, he's seeing a therapist and taking prescribed antidepressants and sleeping pills. He has sold a rental property and is selling his home as well as a restaurant he once hoped would launch a new career.
"Hell is a light word compared to what happened in my life," said Monteiro, 31, of Tyrone in Schuyler County. "I went from $40,000 a year to zero. We don't want to move, but we don't have a choice."
One lie drastically altered his life.
He admitted he lied after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks to hastily schedule two weeks of vacation on Sept. 15 of that year to help in the rescue and recovery effort at ground zero in New York City.
To get vacation on quick notice, he told his supervisors at Five Points Correctional Facility in Romulus, where he had worked for about a year, that he believed he had relatives in the debris following the attacks.
Monteiro said the aftermath, for him, meant harassment at work and for his family and getting fired.
"To realize how simple and quick life can change, it's unreal. You get one chance, that's it," Monteiro said.
"Not a day goes by that I don't think about it. I regret how I got the time off, but I don't regret going to ground zero."
Monteiro was caught in the lie and suspended for three weeks and fined $3,500.
When he returned to work in November 2001, he said, co-workers began threatening his life and the lives of his family. He said his locker was placed upside down in the shower area with garbage piled in front of it and a sign that read "ground zero."
In January 2002, after seven weeks of harassment, Monteiro said, he was granted a medical leave. On Jan. 31, he received a letter stating he was terminated.
As a result, Monteiro filed a $3 million lawsuit for harassment against the state of New York, the state Department of Correctional Services and Commissioner Glenn S. Goord.
The case against the state was dismissed in July but is being appealed, said Paul Larabee, a spokesman for the state attorney general's office in Albany.
A separate matter, naming individual correction officers as well as the state Department of Correctional Services, has not been presented to a judge yet, Larabee said. He would not comment further.
Depositions, or sworn statements, from about a half-dozen correction officers, prison officials and union representatives are being filed in the latter case, said S. Francis Williams, an Ithaca attorney handling Monteiro's case along with Luciano Lama.
Monteiro said he expects a judge to hear the case within the next year and wants to face his former co-workers in court.
"These people need to pay for what they did, and it has to stop here," Monteiro said. "There needs to be zero tolerance for harassment of any kind, not just sexual, in the workplace. Period."
Officials at Five Points said they would not comment because the case is in litigation. Correction officers, contacted by the Star-Gazette, declined to comment.
Monteiro said he has been a prisoner in his own home since filing the lawsuit.
His wife, Twyla Ellis-Monteiro, has taken a job caring for an elderly person two nights a week for $80 a week.
"We don't go anywhere unless we have to. We feel so alone here," Monteiro said.
"What people don't realize is that we don't get to do the things normal families do," Ellis-Monteiro said.
"We can't go to festivals in Watkins Glen or even the grocery store without being harassed by someone."
He said they are reluctantly selling their Cross Roads home and want to move to another state, such as Kentucky, where they can begin a new life with their two small children.
"I feel like I'm drowning," Monteiro said. "We're selling the house to stay above water."
They are also selling the restaurant they purchased at 308 N. Franklin St. in Watkins Glen because they said they can't afford to keep it. Ellis-Monteiro's mother also moved in with them to help make ends meet.
A $3 million amount was put on the lawsuit based on Monteiro's loss of income, medical costs for the family, punitive damages and consideration of an uncertain future.
About a half-dozen people have agreed to give depositions on Monteiro's behalf, including Grant Marin, vice president of the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association Inc. in Albany.
"It's not unusual for them (prison officials) to discipline someone for lying, or for officers to harass someone, but I've never seen anything like this," Marin said.
"The administration did nothing to stop it (the harassment). In fact, they seemed to condone it."
Marin and Fred Kintzel, business agent for the union, were asked to prove that Monteiro spent time in New York City following Sept. 11.
"It was clear in our minds that (Monteiro) went to ground zero," Marin said. "We ran into a sanitation officer who embraced Mike (Monteiro). It looked like they were long-lost friends. It was clear they knew each other."
Five Points officials were upset because they were lied to, Marin said.
Dana Aidala, deputy superintendent for security at Five Points, would not discuss Monteiro's situation because it's in litigation.
"Once we proved that Monteiro really went to ground zero, we called labor relations and pretty much thought that would be the end of it," Marin said. "It just got worse and worse.
"That doesn't excuse his lie, but this kid, in my eyes, is heroic," Marin said. "Mike (Monteiro) has my full support."
Ellis-Monteiro occasionally cooks for Eliot Wagner, an Ithaca author, and talk of a book recently emerged.
"This whole thing is idiotic, when you think about it," Wagner said. "It's sad that Mike (Monteiro) felt he had to lie to get the time off. He was swept off his feet by television propaganda. All he wanted to do was help people.
"It wasn't that I intended a book," Wagner said. "It's just interesting."
Last September, Monteiro went back to ground zero to pay his respects. He said he brought 30 roses to represent a small percentage of the nearly 3,000 lives lost, a poem about guardian angels and a crucifix blessed by the Rev. Paul Bonacci, pastor of St. Mary of the Lake in Watkins Glen.
"I needed closure for the things I've seen," Monteiro said. "You have to understand, we (volunteers) were picking body parts out of the rubble like people pick rocks out of their garden. There are so many things I still can't talk about."
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