Prison News and News Articles For Correction Officers in New York State: { Page 63}

The blame game has begun in the escape of two inmates from the Elmira Correctional Facility.

Authorities investigate on the roof of Elmira Correctional Facility on Tuesday near where prisoners Timothy A. Vail and Timothy G. Morgan escaped.

Both the New York State Department of Correctional Services administration and the union representing the correction officers who work in the state prison system say the other is to blame for the escape of two murderers late Sunday or early Monday from the maximum-security prison.

"Grant Marin is irrelevant," James Flateau, director of public information for the state Department of Correctional Services, snapped Tuesday afternoon during a press briefing when asked about the regional vice president of the state Correction Officers and Police Benevolent Association.

"That's half the problem," Marin countered by telephone Tuesday evening in response to Flateau's statement. "The department doesn't listen to front-line officers."

The verbal warfare between the state and the union started as soon as news stories broke Monday about the escape of Timothy A. Vail, 35, and Timothy G. Morgan, 26.

Marin said he wasn't surprised by the escape because the corrections department has ignored union complaints about safety issues for years. He said escapees Morgan and Vail had obtained a broken sledgehammer from a construction project in the prison and used it to knock a hole in the ceiling of their cell.

Once in the attic area above their fourth-tier cell, Morgan and Vail probably gained access to the prison's ventilation system and were able to use it to reach the roof, where they used a rope made of bedsheets to climb to freedom, Marin said.

Flateau responded angrily when news reporters questioned him about Marin's news of the escape.

"Grant Marin is jeopardizing the Elmira community by telling inmates how they can escape," he said.

With news media spreading their messages, Flateau and Marin bounced their accusations back and forth.

- Prison security depends on people -- the correction officers who are ever vigilant, or should be.

- Since there was an escape, obviously something needs fixing and it will be fixed whether it is structural or procedural.

- The corrections department administration runs the prisons, not the correction officers union.

- The ration of correction officers to inmates is 3 to 1 in New York, probably the best ratio in the nation.

- Elmira Correctional Facility has been short-staffed for more than 20 years because the administration has never forgiven the union for starting a statewide strike in 1979.

- Administration places cost containment above safety as demonstrated by a delay in putting a fence around the maximum-security facility and eliminating roving night patrol, perimeter guard dogs and night staffing of a guard station directly in front of the prison entrance.

Ed Latin, chief sector steward for the correction officers union, said the union has complained that inmates are allowed television and radios in the block where the escapees were housed.

The section is sometimes so noisy, the officers can't even hear fights going on, he said.

Elmira Mayor Stephen Hughes said he's less interested in who's to blame than how to make the facility as safe as possible.

"That can only happen with administration and correction officers working together," he said.

Hughes said he would like to see all the parties involved, including City Council, sit down to evaluate the event. "They should consider facts, not emotion, and truth, not conjecture," he said.

lmira City Council has the right to demand additional security to safeguard the community, he said, adding the state should move up the timetable for the installation of the $3 million to $4 million perimeter fence.

"If inmates can break through (5) inches of concrete, it suggests the age of the structure is placing the community in jeopardy," he said.

"There's no problem with the age of the prison," Goord said. "Our facilities are maintained at the highest level they can be. We will work with the community and continue to be a good neighbor like we have been. We plan on being here a long time."

New York state will issue a report in the next six to eight weeks on Monday's escape by two murderers at the Elmira Correctional Facility.

"The commissioner (state corrections Commissioner Glenn S. Goord) wants a complete accounting of what happened, including what we can do better, how to improve systems and how to prevent it from happening again," said James Flateau, director of public information for the New York State Department of Correctional Services.

"It is our responsibility and the report will reflect that," Flateau said, referring to concerns from the correction officers union that the administration might look for a scapegoat among union members. "Our responsibility is to be totally up front. We will tell what happened and what we will do to correct it."

Timothy G. Morgan, 26, and Timothy A. Vail, 35, escaped early Monday through an 8-inch-by-10-inch hole they chipped out of the ceiling of their top-tier cell in the prison F-block. Once in the attic of the facility, they were able pry open a grate in the ventilation system and get out on the roof.

From there, using a 61-foot homemade rope of tied bedsheets, they shimmied down to the ground outside the front of the prison.

Their escape activated a two-day manhunt with scores of patrol cars, helicopters, dogs, all-terrain vehicles and special incident units and equipment.

They were captured Tuesday night at Horseheads Village Plaza on Gardner Road after stealing a 1990 Dodge van from the P&C Foods parking lot on Lake Road in the town of Horseheads.

Morgan is now at the Auburn Correctional Facility and Vail is at the Five Points Correction Facility in Romulus.

Morgan, of Fulton County, N.Y., is serving 25 years to life for second-degree murder and first-degree robbery stemming from the 1998 murder of a cab driver in Gloversville, N.Y.

Vail, 35, of Broome County, is serving 49 years to life for second-degree murder, first-degree rape, burglary and robbery stemming from the 1988 slaying of a Binghamton law office secretary, Mary K. Kopyar, who was 23 and eight months pregnant when Vail raped and strangled her.

Because Morgan and Vail are already inmates in the state system, state police can take their time drawing up the new charges against them -- charges that could include escape, burglary, theft and trespass.

"Then all the evidence will be presented to the (Chemung County) district attorney," said State Police Investigator Jeffrey Gotschall.

All the charges stemming from the escape will be on top of the convictions that put the two in prison, Flateau said. They will probably be transferred again, possibly to Southport Correctional Facility, when their cases come up in Chemung County Court.

The Elmira Correctional Facility, also in 23-hour lockdown since Monday morning to free more staff to search for the escapees, will remain locked down until tonight or Saturday, Flateau said.

"We're continuing the lockdown to frisk the cells, classroom, gymnasium, everywhere," Flateau said. "They'll be looking for all contraband."

Determining the cost of the escape will probably take six months, said State Police Capt. Michael Manning, the Bureau of Criminal Investigations director for Troop E at Canandaigua.

Each law enforcement agency involved will draw up its accounting of extra hours required and any other costs, Flateau said. It will take two weeks to just assemble all the time sheets, he said.

Meanwhile, the owner of the Dodge van allegedly stolen Tuesday night by Morgan and Vail said police have not returned his vehicle yet.

"I just registered it that morning," said Gary Kingsley of Grand Central Avenue in Elmira Heights.

He wanted a pickup truck to haul family belongings, but was able to get the van for $500. "What a deal," he said.

Kingsley said he did not leave the van running when he went into the P&C Foods store on Lake Road Tuesday night.

"I might as well of ... I left the keys in the ignition," he said. "I know better. I had a brain cramp."

Kingsley was just coming out of the store when he saw his vehicle moving toward the back of the parking lot. He used an outside pay phone to call 911 and within moments two state police cars were in the parking lot.

He didn't realize the escapees had taken it until he heard it broadcast on a police car radio.

Kingsley said a woman told him that one man drove the van to the trees behind P&C and picked up another man.

Kingsley was told he'll get his van back when District Attorney John Trice decides to release it.

y Vail (above) and Timothy Morgan duped guards with dummy heads made of paper, tape and their own hair.

July 13, 2003 -- WHEN a guard on Cell Block F at the Elmira maximum- security prison tapped his keys against the bars of Cell 7-2 to roust two killers for a routine 6:30 a.m. standing count last Monday, the inmates didn't stir.

That wasn't unusual for some recalcitrant prisoners, and the 15-year veteran at the upstate facility just made a little more noise by dragging his metal flashlight against the bars. Still, no one in the 6-by-10-foot cell moved.

The guard opened the cell door, tossed an empty tin bucket at the far wall and shouted. But the inmates didn't flinch. Exasperated, the guard yanked the blankets from the top bunk.

Instead of finding two sleepy criminals slow to make the morning call, the guard discovered the piles under the blankets were green prison pants stuffed with paper and rags.

And on the pillows on the two bunks were homemade papier-maché and masking-tape heads, painted in skin tones with locks of the inmates' own hair stuck on top in a tussled, bed-head way, with other hair glued on as sideburns and a goatee.

Hardened killers Timothy Morgan, 26, and Timothy Vail, 35, had busted out of the big house. And Department of Correctional Services officials at Elmira had awakened to their worst nightmare.

The pair had beaten the system by successfully using one of the oldest tricks in the book.

After planting the decoys to hide their absence, they escaped through a hole they had scraped through their cell ceiling, then went over the prison wall using a rope of bedsheets.

Vail and Morgan were arrested without incident after hiding in an abandoned trailer home on a heavily wooded property not far from the prison. But the repercussion of the escape rumbled much further afield, and top Corrections brass have pledged a top-to-bottom review of how the pair were able to get out of a maximum-security pen using items they collected and manufactured behind bars.

"I think they've [Corrections officials] been running on a wish and a prayer for a long time," said Richard Harcrow, president of the correction officers union. "These inmates are not dumb, and if they see an opportunity, they're going to take it."

And opportunities for Vail and Morgan abounded at Elmira, a Post probe found, many of them presented courtesy of lax policies at the prison.

THE hardened criminals - Vail serving 49 years to life for raping and murdering an eight-months pregnant woman in 1988, Morgan in for 25 years to life for fatally shooting an upstate cabdriver in 1998 - hatched the plot three months ago, just weeks after they became cellmates, investigators said.

With their cell at the top tier of the block, the pair somehow learned that directly above their 5-inch-thick cement ceiling was a 10-foot-high vent space that went through to the roof. They figured that if they could crack through the ceiling, they could escape.

Their first lucky break came when a civilian who supervised inmates at the prison workshop had to leave early for a family emergency. Vail stuffed a sledgehammer with a broken handle into his pants, and because he was being sent back to his cell early, he avoided the routine pass through a metal detector.

One of the rules at Elmira is that prisoners are allowed to paint their cells, if they do it themselves. Vail and Morgan eagerly chose to paint their ceiling black. Unbeknownst to the guards, they also painted a stiff square piece of cardboard that was stashed in a secret place.

Each night until lights out at 10 o'clock, the volume on the cellblock's only TV was turned to its highest level because some prisoners complained they couldn't hear programs from more distant vantage points. Guards cited the noisy TV in October 2001 and requested the inmates be provided with wireless headphones. The request was denied, records show.

As the TV blared, Vail and Morgan were tapping away at a small hole they had begun to dig in the ceiling in the far left corner of the cell, nearest to the bars, a spot that was hard to see from outside, investigators said.

The concrete dust and chips were either flushed down the cell toilet or put out in a trash can that one of the inmates hastily emptied. Afterward, they covered their work with the blackened cardboard, fixing it in place with chewing gum.

Their clandestine chipping away also was able to proceed because Corrections had only one guard on the block at night to watch over 123 inmates, records show.

The officers union and the Correctional Department have fought over staffing levels at Elmira for years, with the latter citing a statewide ratio of three inmates per guard. On the night of the escape, the ratio at Elmira was 58 to 1.

Meanwhile, Vail began to collect paper, masking tape and plastic bags and purchased flesh-colored acrylic hobby paint from the commissary. He then deftly fashioned and painted two life-size dummy heads.

BY this time, they had broken through the ceiling and were able to hide the dummy heads in the roof. They also began to store sheets up there - prison-issue white ones and several sets of red ones they had either bought from catalogs or had supplied by relatives - another Corrections-approved indulgence.

Eventually, the sheets would be tied together, strengthened with masking-tape bands every 6 inches, and made into a 61-foot-long rope. That, too, was stored through the growing hole in the ceiling. In the weeks before the escape, Vail and Morgan slimmed down through a restricted diet and exercise. The hole had been made about 11 inches wide by 8 inches deep, but it was still a tight fight for the two bulky men.

But by spreading baby oil over their bodies and lining the hole with plastic bags, they were able to slip up into the roof space 10 times after lights out to explore their options before they triggered the escape.

LAST Sunday night, between 11 p.m. and 2 a.m., the pair squeezed through the hole one final time. They then silently shuffled to a louver vent attached to an outside wall. After prying the vent off with a steel bar, they jumped down 5 feet to the roof of a lower wing.

Poor rooftop lighting, the absence of razor wire and a Corrections decision not to man a guard tower called Three Post that overlooked the prison roof all worked in the escapees' favor.

Vail was the first to climb down. But he lost his grip and plunged more than 40 feet to the ground. The fall broke the ball joint of his left arm and his collarbone. He also tore ligaments in his leg and ankle as he landed unconscious on the grass.

Morgan waited nervously above. Vail finally came out of it and waved his accomplice down. Morgan clambered to the ground without incident.

But as Morgan helped the injured Vail to his feet, the headlights of a pickup truck driven by a prison administrator shone directly at them.

"They froze like deer looking at headlights," a source said. "They thought they were busted."

There was another guardhouse nearby, Nine Post, but the Correctional Department had also stopped manning that one at night. With no perimeter fencing - a security upgrade that has languished since at least 1983 - and no surveillance cameras, Morgan and the hobbling Vail were able to scurry into the nearby woods.

Ater the escape was detected, State Police cast a wide net, setting up 14 roadblocks and dispatching bloodhounds, helicopters and 150 troopers.

But the escapees were relatively close, as Morgan had refused to leave the injured and pained Vail during the night. As daylight broke, the two men stumbled onto a 15-foot aluminum Musketeer trailer camper in an obscured, roadless and overgrown spot about 200 yards in from Latta Brook Road, off Route 17.

They stole food and drinks from a home across the road that day and holed up in the camper for their first night of freedom.

Trash found in the trailer afterward showed the men had dined on Hershey bars and drank blackberry juice and O'Doul's non-alcoholic beer. They found some insect repellent, used a blue sleeping bag and hung their dirty socks out on a makeshift clothesline.

The owner of the property arrived early the next morning, but never saw the men and left without going into the abandoned trailer. Fearing the man might have been a cop, Vail and Morgan decided to move.

They planned to steal a car and hit the road. But a driver reported seeing two men darting across Route 17, and cops began to close the noose.

AT about 7 p.m. Tuesday, Morgan watched the owner of a white 1990 Dodge van leave the truck running as he dashed into a store at a strip mall in nearby Horseheads. Morgan jumped in the driver's seat and sped off down the road where the injured Vail was hiding.

Seeing a roadblock ahead, they made a U-turn. By now, the owner of the Dodge had called 911 to report the theft.

Cops spotted the truck and a slow-speed chase ensued, punctuated by police sirens and helicopters. The pair soon pulled over and surrendered.

As he was being driven back to the prison, cops told the escapees they would probably face time in solitary and extra prison time for burglary and escape.

convicted murderers escaped from a maximum security prison in Elmira early Monday after digging a hole in a concrete ceiling of their cell.

State Police captured them Tuesday evening in Horseheads about five miles from the prison. The incident has exposed the strained relations between the Department of Correctional Services and the union representing corrections officers for the past year.

Grant Marin, western regional vice president of New York State Correctional Officers and Public Benevolent Association (NYSCOPBA) in an interview outlined a series of security breaches that the union had brought to managment attention prior to the escape.

For example, the Elmira prison no longer has an armed patrol driving around the prison during early morning hours. He said the patrol might have seen the inmates as they shimmied four stories from the roof to the ground using a rope made of bed sheets. Marin notes the building roof does not have razor wire.

The inmates were not discovered missing until abour 6:30 a.m. during a routine cell-by-cell check.

In May, the union requested extra security while outside construction crews renovated the prison. That request was ignored, Marin said.

The inmates reported used a broken-handled sledge hammer to smash an 8 x 12 inch hole in the concrete ceiling. Marin says the tool may have been stolen by the inmates.

Department of Correctional Services officials are angered by comments the union has made to reporters. Spokeman James Flateau called them "irresponsible" and said the union was "playing a game of Chicken LIttle" to strengthen its hand in contract negotiations."

NYSCOPBA President Richard Harcrow spoke by telephone to Corrections Commissioner Glenn Goord Monday night. According to Harcrow, Goord told him the State Police considered arresting NYSCOPBA officials on obstruction of justice charges. "I took that as a threat to every corrections officer in the state."

Convicted murderers Timothy Morgan and Timothy Vail left their cell at Elmira's maximum-security prison early Monday morning and headed for the most prominent feature they could see from prison windows -- the Old Baldy hilltop east of state Route 17 in the town of Horseheads.

These heads made from plastic shopping bags stuffed with fabric were found in the beds of inmates Timothy A. Vail and Timothy G. Morgan on Monday when the pair was discovered missing from the Elmira Correctional Facility. The 61-foot bedsheet rope used to shimmy down an exterior prison wall is in the background.

Their carefully planned escape from the Elmira Correctional Facility started to fall apart before they even hit the ground; for Vail, a 20-foot unplanned drop from a rope made of bedsheets left him hurt.

An injured ankle and left shoulder probably greatly slowed the pair's flight from Elmira, said State Police Capt. Michael Manning of the Bureau of Criminal Investigations in Canandaigua.

Heading east from the prison, the pair crossed Newtown Creek and then Route 17 and headed into the woods, said State Police Investigator Jeffrey Gotschall.

Gotschall was standing beside Latta Brook in Horseheads on Wednesday afternoon, where a small group of troopers were examining the area for any evidence left behind by the escapees. The inmates, both murderers, hid out in an unoccupied camper they came across sometime Monday while fleeing. They stayed there overnight until late Tuesday morning.

Gotschall said investigators believe the escaped inmates had come through the woods from the south and happened upon the aged aluminum camper.

The camper's furnishings were stark. Its cupboards were bare and a small closet contained only mouse droppings. The toilet was used to store salt bricks for wildlife.

Sometime during their stay, at least one of the murderers, most likely Morgan, found his way further down the rough undeveloped road past the camper, to the creek and nearby Latta Brook Road. He crossed the road and went to a cluster of homes off Burns Road where he broke into at least one to steal food, Manning said.

Meanwhile, the ranks of law enforcement officers searching for them had swelled to 150 and included searchers that were using all-terrain vehicles, bloodhounds and helicopters. State police investigators not only began to question cellblock associates and correction officers inside the prison, but also tracked down every known contact outside the prison, Gotschall said.

Area police scoured dockets for reports of stolen vehicles. Armed officers manned roadblocks on routes out of Elmira.

The inevitable questions -- how could this happen? -- not only occupied investigators but also residents and public officials.

State Department of Correctional Services officials, through spokesman James Flateau, said their focus was on finding the escapees. He acknowledged that something about prison security needed improvement. Once the escapees were back in custody, flaws in the system would be identified and corrected, he said.

That's a good plan, said Richard Harcrow, president of New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association Inc., who came to Elmira on Wednesday to assess the situation in person.

"The most important issue is public safety," Harcrow said Wednesday night at a quick dinner at Manos Diner in Elmira Heights before heading to a meeting with Elmira Mayor Stephen M. Hughes.

But he also wanted to send a message to the state corrections department that the union won't tolerate administration "using some poor corrections officer just doing his job as a scapegoat."

Harcrow talked to prison workers Wednesday and visited the double cell on the fourth tier of F-block to examine the 8-inch-by-10-inch hole in the ceiling that was used as an exit by the inmates.

The hole was against the front of the cell in the corner and would be partially covered by the cell door when it was slid open, he said. "I don't know how they squeezed out of there," Harcrow said. "There's no way to see it from outside the cell."

To squeeze through the opening, Morgan and Vail lined it with plastic trash bags and slathered something slippery like petroleum jelly or baby oil all over their bodies, Harcrow said.

"Inmates are allowed to have baby oil," said Ed Lattin, Elmira Correctional Facility sector steward for the correction officers union. They are also allowed to buy extra bed linen, Harcrow said noting that three or four of the sheets in the homemade escape rope were personal sheets. The pair had pieced together a 61-foot-long rope made of bedsheets, more than adequate to scale the four-story wall.

With good use of a barter system and personal power, Morgan and Vail could have assembled enough sheets to make the rope, civilian clothing to blend in with citizens and enough baby oil to slide through their ceiling hole, Harcrow said.

While they didn't have to access the construction area at the prison's mess hall, they could have asked other prisoners to steal the tools they needed, Harrow added.

The men are believed to have used a broken sledgehammer and rebar to chip through 5 inches of concrete, pry into a roof ventilation system and escape.

To buy more time, the pair had fashioned two dummies -- complete with real hair -- that easily passed the hourly nighttime counts.

The dummy heads in the escapees' cell were made from plastic shopping bags stuffed with fabric, wrapped with masking tape and painted with acrylic. The hair on the heads belonged to Morgan who cut his hair short on Sunday, the day of the escape, said state police Investigator Lee A. Stonebraker with the Troop E Forensic Investigation Unit in Canandaigua.

Harcrow said he believes the inmates didn't leave until after 12:30 a.m. Monday, the last time officers are required to make sure there is a living, breathing body in every cell.

Harcrow said he examined the watch towers and the line-of-sight to where the escape rope was dropped. "There's no way the officers could have seen them," he said.

There was little chance anyone could have see Morgan and Vail while they were holed up in the old camper off of Latta Brook Road. It wasn't visible from the road; no houses were nearby.

The property owner drove up to camper Tuesday morning between 10:30 and 11 a.m., Gotschall said. The owner, who didn't want to be identified, didn't get out of his vehicle because the site appeared untouched. He did stop officers he saw on Latta Brook Road to tell them of the camper in case they wanted to check it out.

Gotschall said the escapees were in the camper when the owner drove up and they thought he was a police officer because he was driving a sport-utility vehicle. The escapees could hear helicopters flying overhead and dogs braying.

He speculates they again traveled through the woods, this time going west. Since it was daylight, they probably went under Route 17 and stayed in woods until they reached P&C Foods in the former Ames Plaza in the town of Horseheads.

They might have thought it a stroke of luck when they saw an older white van left running in the parking lot while the owner went inside. It was a stroke of luck for police, said Gotschall, who was one of the officers in pursuit soon after the report of the stolen van.

With so many police in the area, the two had hardly cleared the back exit of the plaza and headed onto Latta Brook Road before they were spotted. Going west on Latta Brook Road to South Main Street in Horseheads they had eluded a police roadblock on Lake Road, Gotschall said. Heading through the village of Horseheads, the escapees' short road journey was ended by the Jubilee Foods store in Horseheads Village Plaza. "It was a fairly simple plan," Stonebraker said. "Had it not been for one of them falling (and) being injured, there could have been a substantial head start."

As it was, they never got farther than five miles away from their small world on the hill.

AUBURN - With a manhunt under way for two murderers who escaped the maximum-security Elmira Correctional Facility on Monday, the possibility of inmates breaching the walls of the Auburn Correctional Facility has been cast into question.

"What happened in Elmira clearly can happen in Auburn," said Grant Marin, Western Region vice president of the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association.

The inmates who escaped Elmira lived in the same cell on the top floor. They apparently used a sledgehammer to break through the ceiling, then crawled through a ventilation duct, escaped to the roof and lowered themselves down the side of the building on bed sheets, prison union officials said.

The union officials said the sledgehammer was probably stolen from one of several construction projects inside the building.

Guards at the Elmira Correctional Facility discovered the inmates were missing during a routine count at 6:30 a.m., said Jim Flateau, a spokesman for the state Department of Correctional Services.

Guards later found tied-together sheets that led down an outside wall of the four-story cellblock, 75 miles southwest of Syracuse.

Marin said the security at Elmira has always been poor. On March 27, an inmate tried to escape using civilian clothes. In 2001, barking dogs thwarted two inmates in their escape attempt.

While Auburn doesn't have the same brazen escape attempts as Elmira, Marin said there is a major problem they have brought to the attention of the state since 2001.

He said just past the industry shops, where license plates, desks and chairs are made, are the family reunion trailers, which are open 24 hours a day. When the shops are closed at 3:30 p.m. or 6:30 p.m., tower nine and post six are also closed. If inmates get to this unsupervised area, Marin said, all they have to do is get over the wall. He said the union has suggested manning the towers all the time or putting in some camera equipment, which the prison has promised in the past.

"We've been giving them time to correct it. This is probably as good a time as any to point this deficiency out, rather than let the community get bombed with a couple of murderers walking their street," he said.

Marin said this information is not giving the inmates any new ideas. "Inmates know just about every weakness the perimeter would have. They know when we come in, who's working what post, what's closed," he said.

He said Auburn would be one of the more secure prisons if it could take care of this one perimeter issue.

Timothy Vail, 35, was serving 49 years to life for the 1988 rape and murder of a pregnant secretary in Binghamton. Mary Kopyar was 23 and eight months pregnant when Vail raped and strangled her as she prepared to close up the law office where she worked. Vail was the son of one of Kopyar's co-workers.

Timothy Morgan, 26, was serving 25 years to life for the 1998 murder of a cab driver in Gloversville.

On Feb. 23, 1998, Morgan summoned a taxi and told the driver he was carrying the shotgun for a hunting trip. On a remote road west of Albany, he got into an argument with Joseph Boop over the fare and shot him twice in the back of the head. Police said he took $90 from the dead man's pocket and spent some of it on beer when he got home.

Vail won't be eligible for parole until 2037, and Morgan won't be eligible until 2023.

Eighty to 100 law enforcement officers, using police dogs and helicopters patrolled the highways and set up roadblocks in a search for the escaped convicts.

The FBI was contacted in case the men crossed the Pennsylvania state line, less than 10 miles from the prison.

The last escape from a maximum-security prison in the state was in 1994 at the Shawangunk Correctional Facility in Wallkill. Three convicted killers were found bloody and bruised hours after climbing over a razor-wire fence.

Last week at the Elmira Correctional Facility, two convicted murderers escaped and were on the lam for 36 hours until apprehended. After reading The Leader's editorial (Prison Break Enough Blame To Go Around, July 10), I would like to shed light on the real facts and show how tied officers hands truly are against never ending bureaucracy.

While the New York State Department of Corrections (DOCS) is fond of quoting an inmate to officer ratio of 3 to 1, this maximum security prison had only 32 officers on duty to watch over 1,856 inmate beds at night - a 58 to 1 ratio. The cellblock where the escape occurred has only one officer to watch over 123 inmates, spread out over four different floors. Compared to other maximum-security prisons in the state, it is widely understood that for decades now, Elmira has been vastly understaffed.

After officers thwarted an attempted escape at Elmira March 27, the union tried to alert DOCS officials to compromised security as a result of several long-term construction projects and equipment inside the jail. After no corrective action took place, the union petitioned DOCS Albany leadership in writing May 5. They promised action May 28, but took none. This is the long running bureaucratic story we face.

In recent years, DOCS has cut several critical security costs at Elmira, eliminating the late-night mobile patrol outside the facility, a nighttime tower position, and an officer on another critical security post. As far back as April 26, 1983, officers petitioned to have a security fence put up around the perimeter of this facility like others. Why did it take this escape for it to be finally announced more than 20 years later?

Oct. 31, 2001, Elmira officers also petitioned DOCS management to stop the practice of allowing prisoners on this and another cellblock to keep their communal television at maximum volume because it impeded officers' ability to hear what is going on inside the area. Again the department took no corrective action and allowed the practice to continue despite our complaints.

Well, June 30, 2001, there was another escape attempt from Elmira that was narrowly averted. At the time, DOCS tried to point the finger at correction officers on duty. I urge readers to look at some of the facts I have presented above and you will see they speak for themselves.

And again, with regard to that 2001 escape attempt, a New York State arbitrator exonerated the officers who DOCS charged, and instead fingered prison management for being at fault and for not taking corrective action to seal up security holes. If anything, that experience reminded this union and its officers to document all communications with DOCS so when prison management tries to shift blame in instances like this, their own paper trail will be there to tell the real truth.

I am proud of all of our officers and the job they do - walking America's toughest beat - but if management continues not to listen to its own eyes and ears within the prisons, then we all lose.

The Elmira Correctional Facility is a neighborhood prison. It sits atop a hill overlooking the city of Elmira and village of Elmira Heights.

Agnes Wojcik stands on the front lawn of her home on Kingsbury Avenue, just below the Elmira Correctional Facility. Wojcik has lived in her house for 11 years and does not want to see a fence built around the prison.

Children have sledded down its hill. Adults walk their dogs past it every day. Visitors to the area might not even recognize it as a prison unless they read the sign out front. However, after the recent escape of two murderers, the look of the prison grounds will likely change as a double chain-link fence is scheduled to be built around the front of the prison next year. Residents who live close to the prison have mixed feelings about it.

The proposed fence, which will cost the state about $3.3 million, will join the walls around the back of the prison to enclose the facility, said James Flateau, spokesman for the state Department of Correctional Services. Flateau said last week that construction should begin next spring. Flateau said the proposed fence will be similar to the barrier at Southport, with two fences, razor wire and motion alarms.

Convicted murderers Timothy G. Morgan, 26, and Timothy A. Vail, 35, escaped from the Elmira Correctional Facility early July 7 by chipping through a concrete ceiling, prying open a ventilation system on the roof and climbing down a 61-foot rope made of bedsheets. They were caught July 8 in Horseheads, about five miles away.

Grant Marin, western region vice president of the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, hopes the fence will be built. A similar fence was proposed for the Hill in 1983 but then denied, he said.

Marin doesn't think the escape would have taken place had there already been a fence in place. "Based on the route, it (the escape) wouldn't have happened. The fencing that they use on these facilities has motion detectors and razor ribbon. It's almost impossible for an inmate to get through the fencing system," Marin said. "They need to put that fence up today."

Some of the residents near the Elmira Correctional Facility agree with Marin about the need for a fence.

Smith and her family moved into a house across the street from the prison in 1981. Her husband and son are correction officers at the facility. Smith said she's never felt nervous living so close to the prison until the recent escape.

"They (Vail and Morgan) walked away and weren't immediately captured. They could have been cutting through our yards. A fence is necessary."

Smith thinks a fence will change the look of the prison, but that's not her primary concern. "The look is not an issue," Smith said. "As a member of the community, I think it's important that the money comes forth for that fence."

"That's too much money to spend, and it's not worth it," Wojcik said. "What they need to do is make sure the place is secured, with more staffing. Besides, it would look ugly with a fence. The place looks pretty now," she said.

Bill Whiteman, 65, of Kendall Place, also thinks a fence would drastically change the way the prison looks, but also said that's not the issue.

"I think a fence could help," Whiteman said. "It might be an eyesore for a while, but once it's in there, people would get used to it. But I don't know about the cost."

Whiteman has lived down the street from the prison for seven years in the house where his parents have resided for about 40 years. He said the neighborhood is usually quiet.

"After all those years, my parents have never been nervous living here. Mom is 95, and she never worries about anyone escaping," Whiteman said.

Design, budgeting for double barrier at front of facility finally gets priority.

Just days after two murderers escaped from the Elmira Correctional Facility, state prison officials are promising that a new, $3.3 million barrier will be constructed next spring around the front of the maximum-security prison.

In 2004, the Elmira Correctional Facility will get a fence similar to the one shown here at the Southport Correctional Facility.

The design for the barrier -- with two fences, razor ribbon and an alarm to detect motion between the fences -- has been kicked around the state Department of Correctional Services for three years. Design and planning took several years.

It ranked below other agency construction projects until this year, when it was funded as part of the 2003-04 state budget, state officials said last week.

"It's obvious with the escape ... that there's a problem that needs to be fixed," said Richard Harcrow, president of the New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association Inc., the prison correction officers' union.

State officials say it was just coincidence that the project was approved weeks before Timothy A. Vail, 35, and Timothy G. Morgan, 26, shimmied down a front wall of the prison using a 61-foot rope of bedsheets, officials said. Morgan and Vail were captured July 8 in Horseheads, about five miles from the prison.

A fence surrounds the back of the prison but not the front. On the front, the outer fence will be 16 feet tall and the inner fence 8 feet. There will also be razor wire and motion alarms between the fences.

The Elmira project wasn't a Department of Correctional Services priority the last few years as the state replaced fences at Mid-Orange Correctional Facility in Warwick and expanded a wall at Great Meadow in Comstock, officials said.

As state officials researched the Elmira fence addition, they discovered that they would need to acquire some adjacent property from the city to accommodate the construction, said state Department of Correctional Services spokesman James Flateau. That's part of why the project wasn't ready to go until this year, he said.

"It's not as though we had plans sitting on a shelf collecting dust since 2000," Flateau said. Asked if, in hindsight, the agency thought the Elmira fence should have been a higher priority, Flateau said: "In hindsight, in the 100-year history of the prison, no one had gone over that wall."

Correction officers hadn't heard about the fence construction until last week, union officials said. They speculated whether the project was triggered by the escape rather than being in the works all along -- a notion Flateau shot down.

"Do you think every time we design a project, we consult the union?" he said. Officers say the fence is overdue -- they've called for one since 1983. Harcrow said a new fence "would be an effective deterrent."

Harcrow said the state also needs to beef up its number of correction officers to improve security, an idea backed by the Correctional Association, which advocates for inmates' rights.

There aren't enough officers overseeing inmates, and educational programs are too few following state cutbacks, said Jennifer Wynn, a spokeswoman for the group. That's hurt morale on both sides of the bars, she said.

The two murderers who escaped July 7 from the Elmira Correctional Facility now face disciplinary sanctions, a prison spokesman said Thursday.

Timothy A. Vail, 35, and Timothy G. Morgan, 26, were captured July 8 near the Village Plaza in Horseheads after a two-day manhunt. They escaped by using a homemade rope to scale down the front of the prison.

At a disciplinary hearing earlier this week, prison officials determined that Vail, now at the Five Points Correctional Facility in Romulus, will spend 10 years in disciplinary housing, special housing units that are separate from the prison population in which inmates are confined the entire day except for an hour of mandated recreation time.

Morgan, held at the Auburn Correctional Facility, faces 7½ years in disciplinary housing. Both also cannot receive packages or make telephone calls during their time in disciplinary confinement, but they can receive some mail.

A spokesman for the state Department of Correctional Services, James Flateau, said officials were progressing with plans to build a $3.3 million fence around the Elmira facility. Construction isn't expected to start until the spring.

There will be two fences, razor ribbon and an alarm to detect motion between the fences. When completed, Eastern, Sing Sing and Auburn would be the only maximum-security prisons that are not enclosed by a wall or fence, he said.

The two men were discovered missing July 7 during a routine check. They allegedly used a stolen sledgehammer to chip an 8-inch-by-12-inch hole into the ceiling of their top-tier cell, climbed into the ventilation system and escaped to the roof. They used a 61-foot homemade rope of tied bedsheets to descend the outer wall of the prison.

Vail was serving 49 years to life for the 1988 rape and murder of a pregnant law office secretary in Binghamton. Morgan was serving 25 years to life for the 1998 murder of a cab driver in Gloversville, N.Y.

Vail and Morgan will face new charges for the escape in Chemung County Court and, if convicted, will be sentenced to additional years in prison. State officials said they could be transferred to the Southport Correctional Facility when they have to appear in court.

A report by state corrections officials is expected by early September on the escape.

Officers guarding a group of about 300 inmates in the prison yard saw an inmate strike another prisoner in the chest shortly before 10:30 a.m. The victim fell to the ground and the assailant slipped back into the crowd, department spokesman Jim Flateau said.

Officers discovered the fallen inmate had been stabbed in the chest. He was taken by ambulance to St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie, where he died shortly after 11:30 a.m., Flateau said.

Guards searched the prison yard and the inmates there, but did not find the weapon or identify the attacker. All the prison's 2,081 inmates were returned to their cells and will remain there until a search is completed.

"The facility remains locked down for a frisk of all the areas inmates have access to … cells, the cell blocks, prison yards, shops, classrooms,," Flateau said. "That will take about five days."

It was the state's first inmate homicide since one last September at Sing Sing, Flateau said. The last homicide at Green Haven was in July 1996.

There are 66,002 inmates in New York prisons. There were two homicides in the state prison system last year and one in 2001

STORMVILLE -- An inmate at Green Haven Correctional Facility was stabbed to death by another prisoner Thursday, leading to a lockdown of the maximum-security prison, the state Department of Correctional Services said. Officers guarding a group of about 300 inmates in the prison yard saw an inmate strike another prisoner in the chest shortly before 10:30 a.m. The victim, Richard Rodriquez, fell to the ground and the assailant slipped back into the crowd, department spokesman James Flateau said.

Officers discovered Rodriquez, 31, had been stabbed in the chest. He was taken by ambulance to St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie, where he died shortly after 11:30 a.m., Flateau said.

Michael Mazzella, a New York State Correction Officers and Police Benevolent Association union steward at Green Haven, said there has been a growing concern about weapons at the facility.

Because it was an ''inmate on inmate'' incident, Mazzella said he hoped it would not lead to problems between staff and inmates.

''The facility remains locked down for a frisk of all the areas inmates have access to -- cells, the cell blocks, prison yards, shops, classrooms,'' Flateau said. ''That will take about five days.''

Rodriquez was serving a sentence of 37 1/2 years to life for murder. He had been in prison since 1993.

State police are investigating. It was the state's first inmate homicide since September at Sing Sing, Flateau said. The last homicide at Green Haven was in July 1996.

There are 66,002 inmates in New York prisons. There were two homicides in the state prison system last year and one in 2001.

Albany-- Judge says state prisoner can seek doctor's determination for Gender Identity Disorder

A convicted murderer who believes he "is a girl inside" and wants state prison officials to pay for a sex change operation scored a victory in federal court on Tuesday when a judge ruled his $500,000 lawsuit can go forward. U.S. District Judge Lawrence Kahn said Clinton Correctional Facility officials should let Mark Brooks talk to doctors about his Gender Identity Disorder.

Brooks, 34, sued the state in September 2000, claiming prison officials repeatedly ignored his requests for psychological and physical treatment such as hormone therapy, electrolysis, breast implants and "genital reassignment."

Brooks was convicted in 1990 of murder in Putnam County and is serving a 50 years to life sentence at the Clinton Correctional Facility. While he said he has known all his life that "I was a girl inside," he did not seek medical attention until after he was in prison and began reading about transsexualism.

Brooks, who now calls himself Jessica Lewis, also wants to be transferred to a women's prison.

Prison officials allegedly rejected his 1999 request for treatment, pointing to Department of Correctional Services policies that limit hormone therapy to those already receiving it at the time of their incarceration. Another policy usually prohibits "cosmetic surgery," court records show.

Kahn rejected the state's motion to dismiss the lawsuit because treatment for inmates with Gender Identity Disorder must be determined by a medical professional, not a prison administrator. They are entitled to some form of treatment, though not necessarily that involving hormones or surgery, the judge said.

The Eighth Amendment that prohibits cruel and unusual punishment can include "deliberate indifference to serious medical needs," Kahn said. He also questioned the DOCS policy for hormone therapy.

"They do not explain the puzzling distinction that the policy makes between those inmates who were diagnosed before incarceration and those how were diagnosed after being incarcerated. Surely inmates with diabetes, schizophrenia or any other serious medical need are not denied treatment simply because their conditions were not diagnosed before incarceration," Kahn wrote in his 19-page decision.

Kahn dismissed the lawsuit against several lower-ranking prison officials, but allowed it to go forward against Daniel Senkowski and Stan Berg, the superintendent and assistant deputy superintendent of Clinton Correctional Facility. Brooks is representing himself in the suit.

Aspokesman for the state attorney general's office said lawyers were reviewing the decision and considering an appeal. A DOCS spokesman declined comment.

Years Effective 1988-1991	Percentages (Total Percentage this Contract 15.5%) *Article 12.3(e) Where both spouses are employees of the state, at the option of the couple, one family policy may be elected with the state paying the entire monthly cost of the family coverage.
04/28/88	4%
12/07/88	1%
04/01/89	5%
04/01/90	5.5%

A new community advisory committee will provide a closer link between the public and the Elmira Correctional Facility.

Elmira Mayor Stephen Hughes is assembling a committee in the wake of the escape of two convicted murderers from the prison July 7.

Inmates Timothy A. Vail and Timothy G. Morgan were recaptured July 8 after a two-day manhunt, but many questions remain about the circumstances that led to their escape and security at the 127-year-old prison.

Noting that lack of communication with the state Department of Correctional Services has always been a problem, Hughes said he hopes the new committee will help bridge that gap and boost public confidence in the safety of the prison.

"The impetus was the escape, but it's important that the community response to an event like this is measured and reasonable. This is not an exercise where anyone points fingers at anyone else," Hughes said. "We hope to be able to have constructive dialogue that will lead to improvement in the level of information and security at the facility. The process of assigning blame and finger-pointing just divides the key relationships necessary to protect the community."

The Elmira Correctional Facility was built in 1876, when it was known as the Elmira Reformatory. It is one of only a handful of older prisons in the state system without a perimeter wall or fence, although plans are in the works to construct a double fence that will enclose the edifice.

Committee members will include Elmira Correctional Facility Superintendent Calvin West, a representative of the New York State Correction Officers and Police Benevolent Association (the union representing correction officers), the state police zone commander, Elmira Police Chief James Waters, Elmira Heights Police Chief Robert Hauptman, Hughes, City Manager Samuel Iraci Jr., City Councilman John Corsi and three city residents.

City Councilman Terry McLaughlin will serve as an alternate any time Hughes or Corsi is unavailable.

While this will be the first time such a committee will be in place in Elmira, similar bodies are common in other communities around the state where prisons are located.

"We have community advisory boards at about 30 out of 70 state prisons," said James Flateau, spokesman for the state Department of Correctional Services. "These are established by the department and include elected officials, business leaders, community leaders and most importantly, average citizens that serve as a conduit between the prison and the community.

"Some of the older facilities were open long before these boards were established," Flateau said. "However, I'm sure that the commissioner would be more than willing to discuss whatever plans the mayor would like to propose, because we've done this in other parts of the state. It's not new."

Hughes hopes to convene the committee in early September and plans to make its activities as open to the public as possible. The state's report on its investigation into the escape should also be complete by that time, he said.

Among the most interested observers will be Elmira Heights schools Superintendent Mary Beth Fiore, who said the escape and recapture of Vail and Morgan underscored some flaws in the system.

The three schools in the Elmira Heights School District are only a short distance from the prison.

"It's not so much the proximity, but my concern is we did not receive any notification. We found out by hearing it on the radio," Fiore said. "We hope to create more sensitivity to our proximity to the facility. We hope those lines of communication will be established.

"When these things happen, it refocuses folks and raises levels of awareness," she said. "It's a good time to look at that to ensure that if we do have another situation, we have something in place."

There may be no one who enjoys the serenity of fishing the Florida flats more than Dan Mangino. Mangino's job as a fishing guide is nothing like his other job.

A corrections officer in New York, Mangino, 30, works 16-hour days for up to a month at Arthur Kill Prison, a medium-security facility in Staten Island with about 1,000 inmates. His reward for that rigorous schedule is time off that often accumulates to three months.

That's when Mangino heads south to a home his grandparents bought in Holiday. He is a partner with Florida native and New Port Richey resident Jimmy Smart. Their company is called Just Add Water Charters (347)432-4405.

``I did some time at Sing Sing,'' said Mangino, who quickly explained that ``doing time'' means he worked at the infamous maximum-security prison. ``That was rough. Where I am now is a little more relaxed.''

Nothing is more relaxing than working as a guide, enjoying the pristine waters of West Central Florida, and teaching people how to fish.

Mangino does face a bit of pressure as a fisherman, although nothing similar to what he faces when he puts on his corrections officer uniform.

Mangino and Smart are participating in the Inshore Fishing Association Redfish Open Tour. With two tournaments remaining, they are in second place. The top 100 qualify for the tour championship in Jacksonville.

There are 12 regular-season events, from Florida to Louisiana and Georgia. Mangino and Smart have participated in three tournaments, finishing 18th at Everglades City, sixth at Titusville and, most recently, first at Port St. Joe.

The point system is based on the total weight of two fish. At Port St. Joe, they totaled 16 3/4 pounds. There is a $2,500 award for total weight and $2,500 for the biggest fish.

Three days of practice that preceded the one-day tournament produced nothing for Mangino and Smart. The waters generally were much deeper - 60 feet in some areas compared with the 6 they are used to. That presented a challenge.

``We did not catch a redfish in practice,'' Mangino said. ``Finally, we found a spot that was so similar to home that it was shocking.''

Unlike most two-person teams in the open division, Mangino and Smart use artificial lures instead of live bait, and for that they receive bonus points. They expect to finish in the top 40, which would qualify them to move up next year to the tour's premier division, which allows only lures.

Given his New York vocation, getting accustomed to anything associated with his Florida job is easy.

On 8-5-03 about 8:18 PM a convict at Wende in MHU on the second floor was on the gallery for rec. The med nurse started down the gallery dispensing meds with his cart. The con on the gallery asked for his meds and as the nurse turned arround to get the meds from the cart, the con stabbed him in the neck with a bic pen. An ambulance and mercy flight were called, since the ambulance could arrive sooner he was taken by ambulance to the outside hospital. I heard on 8-7-03 he was at home recovering.

The con suposedidly is at Marcy physc center. No the jail is not shut down, we can't interupt programs. I wonder if one of the excutive team got stabbed would the jail be shut down?

A woman inmate at Albion Correctional Facility had sexual relations with a man hours before she committed suicide in her jail cell, according to authorities investigating the incident.

Several correctional officers working on the day the woman hanged herself in May have been ordered to provide investigators with DNA samples, an official involved in the case said Friday.

State police concluded that the woman's suicide was not related to the sexual encounter, which is viewed as rape under a 1996 law aimed at halting relations between inmates and prison workers.

The death, State Police Capt. George B. Brown said, was the result of personal problems and difficulties in dealing with incarceration.

Authorities learned of the sexual incident when an autopsy found semen in the body of the 27-year-old New York City woman, who was serving a two-year prison term on an attempted robbery conviction.

She was taken into state custody in November and would have been eligible for parole this November.

"As a result of the evidence found in this case, the commissioner of corrections has directed his inspector general, our in-house cop, to continue the investigation," said James Flateau, a prison spokesman. "We'll do what we feel is necessary to pursue this case."

State Police ended their investigation after they were unable to discover the identity of the man involved in the rape at the women's prison.

"We have not been able to determine the identity of the perpetrator. We did interview several correctional employees," said Brown, adding his investigators would reopen the case if new evidence surfaces.

Since the law banning sex between prison employees and inmates was enacted, the correctional department has sought prosecutions in 34 cases throughout the state prison system.

"Twenty-four of those cases have led to convictions as of the end of last year," said Flateau, explaining that the premise behind the law is that "an inmate can't give consent, and therefore any relationship between an employee and an inmate is forced."

Brown said State Police, as a result of the law, have made several arrests in recent years at the Albion facility.

Last summer, a former Albion inmate who was impregnated by a correctional officer sued the guard and the state for nearly $50 million.

In the U.S. District Court lawsuit filed in Rochester, the woman said corrections officials failed to keep her safe in prison and protect her from the officer, Dean Schmidt, who was convicted of third-degree rape and sentenced last year to prison.

A court conference to discuss the status of the lawsuit is scheduled for Sept. 24

Years Effective 1979-1982	Percentages (Total Percentage this Contract 17.5%) *Beginning April 1, 1979, longevity payments will be provided to employees upon completion of 10 and 15 years of continuous service.
04/01/79	7% raise added to the hiring rate and job rate
10/01/80	3.5% raise
04/01/81	7/9 of one percent for each one percent increase in the Consumer Price Index from Jan. 1980 to Jan. 1981. This amount was capped at 3.5%.
10/01/81	3.5% raise 7/9 of one percent for each one percent increase in the Consumer Price Index from Jan. 1981 to Jan. 1982. This amount was capped at 3.5%.

Years Effective 1982-1985	Percentages (Total Percentage this Contract 29%) 3 years to job rate Article 12.2 Employer will pay 100% of the cost of individual coverage under the state plan.
04/01/82	9%
04/01/83	6%
10/01/83	4%
04/01/84	6%
10/01/84	4%

Years Effective 1985-1988	Percentages (Total Percentage this Contract 16.5%) 4 years to job rate Article 12.3 The state agrees to pay 90% of the cost of individual coverage under the Empire Plan.
05/23/85	4%
10/01/86	1%
04/01/86	5.5%
04/01/87	6%

Years Effective 1991-1995	Percentages (Total Percentage this Contract 9.25%) 6 years to job rate Article 12.3(e) Effective Oct. 1, 1992, the state will discontinue the dual eligibility family benefit program.
04/01/91	0%
04/01/92	0%
04/01/93	4%
04/01/94	4%
10/01/94	1.25%

Years Effective 1995-1999	Percentages (Total Percentage this Contract 7.0%) *Job rate: 6 or 7 years (officers received a one-time lump sum payment in lieu of an advancement increment)
04/01/95	0%
03/28/96	2%
03/27/97	2%
10/01/98	3%

Prison News and News Articles
About / For Correction Officers:
{ Page 63}

ARTICLE LIST:

Department, union bicker over blame

State to give report on breakout

PRISON BLUNDERS PAVED WAY FOR CONS' BIG BREAK

Inmates, Prisons Feud Over Phone Bills

Police trace inmates from escape to capture

Prison escape raises questions

The bureaucracy behind the escape

Prison's neighbors split on need for fence

Elmira prison fence has been in works for years

Escaped killers get disciplinary sentences

Inmate stabbed to death at Green Haven

Green Haven prisoner stabs another to death

Inmate's sex change suit backed

History of NY Corrections Officers Pay Raises

Panel to seek better ties to prison

Fish Work Fun For N.Y. Prison Officer

Wende staff stabbed

Sex preceded inmate suicide, officials say

LINKS WITHIN MY SITE:

Years Effective 1999-2003	Percentages (Total Percentage this Contract 13.0%) 5 years to job rate Added new Prescription Plan Premium
10/01/99	3%
04/01/00	3%
04/01/01	3.5%
04/01/02	3.5%

Prison News and News Articles About / For Correction Officers: { Page 63}