Safety conditions at the Nassau County Correctional Facility, according to the Sheriff Officers Association (ShOA), the union that represents the correction officers at the East Meadow-based maximum-security facility, are being comprised. According to ShOA officials, consolidation methods, at the hand of Sheriff Edward Reilly, are placing inmates and law enforcement officers, as well as visitors and civilian workers, at risk.

Last Tuesday, a maximum-security section at the prison was closed for consolidation purposes and some 60 inmates were relocated to already overcrowded areas, said ShOA president John Duer, adding that, as a result, these inmates were integrated with general population prisoners. "We were ordered by Sheriff Reilly to consolidate the inmates at the jail, while the population has remained virtually the same at just over 1,600 inmates," said Duer. "This comes after repeated reports to the sheriff's office showing an alarming increase in violence of approximately 103 percent as compared to this time in 2005. After many months of fighting with the sheriff to reconsider his aggressive consolidation methods, this is the result."

According to Duer, last week's consolidation movement comes on the heels of an order, issued by Reilly last winter, to co-mingle adult male inmates, many of whom were being held for sex crimes, with male minors being held in protective custody. In addition, Duer said several of the adults were registered as sex offenders under Megan's Law. He added that the initiative was retracted one month later, after an aggressive appeal by correction officer leadership concerned about the safety of the younger inmates as well as the correction officers.

"Rival gang members on the same tiers; males and females are on the same floors. You never want that in a correctional facility," said ShOA 1st Vice President Brian Sullivan. "There's been mixing of male adults in protective custody, many which were sex offenders, with minor male adults in protective custody."

ShOA officials state that since Jan. 1, 56 correction officers have reported treatable injuries as a result of dealing with assaultive and unruly inmates. Duer stated that, most recently, one correction officer suffered three fractured vertebrae and another a broken wrist while controlling an assaultive inmate while another incident involved an inmate who spit in the face and mouth of an officer, putting the officer's health at risk.

As of press time, several incidences had taken place as a result of closing the tier, all which, according to Sullivan, would not have occurred if the section hadn't been closed. He said that in just three days, two officers had urine thrown at them, another was spit at and the Sheriff's Emergency Response Team has to be called in and a percussion grenade had to be used to [restrain] an inmate throwing bodily fluid. "Stuff like this does not need to be happening when there is plenty of room in this facility to spread people out," Sullivan said.

The Nassau County Correctional Facility, according to Sullivan, is among the largest within the country. "We are not a drunk tank. This isn't Mayberry. Our inmates are murderers and rapists. We are holding federal inmates from all over the country that are in here for everything," he said. "If we're not the largest, we are in the top three in terms of maximum correctional facilities. The only one that might be larger is LA County."

Duer stated, "Corrections is considered to be one of the toughest and most stressful jobs in law enforcement, where officers jeopardize their health and safety and put their lives on the line every day. It is not uncommon for inmates to struggle with mental illness and test positive for HIV. Additionally, diseases such as hepatitis and tuberculosis are widespread among inmates. These conditions put the health and well-being of our correction officers and their families at risk on a regular basis."

He continued, "The last thing we need on top of all this is the lack of support from Sheriff Reilly. Frankly, some of the initiatives taken by the current administration are so appalling that we thought it was about time the taxpayers be told about what is going on behind these closed doors and the political posturing that is ultimately compromising public safety."

According to Duer, the sheriff's consolidation of the aeximum security tier method last week came to be June 20, less than 24 hours after the union accused County Executive Tom Suozzi of bargaining ShOA's contract in bad faith and neglecting his responsibilities in Nassau while he campaigns upstate. "Clearly, our officers are being put in danger in the name of politics," said Duer.

ShOA officials are charging that Reilly, under Suozzi's orders, retaliated against them for speaking out publicly when their request for the home rule measure, needed to obtain binding arbitration from the state, was voted down.

According to Joe Calderone, press secretary to Suozzi, the decision to consolidate is one made at the sheriff's discretion, not the county executive. "It is driven by population fluctuations and, if the numbers fluctuate to a certain point, the sheriff, based on recommendations from his staff based on population, makes that decision. Suozzi has nothing to do with consolidation or running of the jail on a day-to-day basis," Calderone said, adding that consolidation is done for several reasons.

"First, if we can temporarily shut down a housing area, we save money in overtime and that makes good fiscal sense. Its good for the taxpayers," he said. "Secondly, by doing so, we are then able to do necessary repairs to the area that is temporarily shutdown." Funding for renovation and payroll comes from two different pots: Renovation monies stem from the county's capital budget while overtime pay comes from the operating budget. " That's apples and oranges in the budget world," Calderone said.

"That's a falsehood," said Sullivan. "[This same floor was closed last year at this time for maintenance and there is not planned maintenance for it now. It doesn't need it."

Reilly, who did respond to Anton Newspapers' request for comment, has gone on record stating that areas of the jail are closed for maintenance only when population falls below the average 1,600 a day. According to published reports, on June 20, inmate population dropped below that number.

Sullivan disagrees, stating that "on any given day, [population] can fluctuate. "Inmates are being shuffled back and forth and population changes on a daily basis. There was no drop. We may get rid of 25 but what [Reilly] isn't saying is that we processed 40 more in." Sullivan added that at max, the facility has housed between 1,900 and 2,100 inmates at one time.

As of press time, Sullivan said the tier had not been reopened.

According to Calderone, ShOA's recent publicity move is all the result of the union's contract dispute with the county. "Essentially, what they are doing is trying to put up smoke," he said. "This whole thing is all the background of a contract dispute. [The union] wants binding arbitration and the county is opposed to it. Suozzi is opposed because it is not in the best interest of the taxpayer."

Union officials sought binding arbitration in an effort to speed up more than 18 months of unsuccessful contract negotiations. Nassau County correction officers have been working without a contract since Dec. 31, 2004 and a proposed contract brought forth in September 2005 was rejected by the 19-member legislature due to concern that certain factors could trigger a reopener clause in the PBA contract and result in "me-toos" among the police union.

"This is messy and it's upsetting. [ShOA] is a very good union," said Presiding Officer Judith Jacobs (D-16th L.D.). "I believe they have been negotiating in good faith and from what I can see, the administration has been negotiating in good faith as well but could not [approve the contract] if there was a chance that a reopener clause would be triggered."

Republican Legislator Richard Nicolello (9th L.D.) agreed, saying, "That was a major concern. They deserve a fair contract and if it wasn't for that clause, we would have voted in favor of it."

As a result, ShOA and the county returned to the bargaining table, unsuccessfully, and, this May, both parties mutually agreed to mediation. On May 17, mediator Martin Scheinman presented recommendations for a settlement but the county would not sign any formal documentation on Scheinman's recommendations, stating they needed two weeks to review it and for Suozzi to approve before any formal contract could be produced. To date, ShOA officials report that requests for a response to the mediator's recommendations have gone unanswered, with union reps having no contact whatsoever with Suozzi or his administration.

"For the past month we have had no real intelligent contract," said Sullivan. "At least nothing that addressed the mediator's recommendations."

Suozzi, however, in a June 2 letter to Jacobs and Minority Leader Peter Schmitt stated "This administration and ShOA have been involved in negotiations to address the legislators concerns over the past three months. We believe that from our perspective, we are close to reaching an agreement."

In his letter, the county executive expresses his opposition to binding arbitration, stating it would "definitely result in increased costs to our taxpayers" by "diminishing this administration and legislature and future administrations' and legislatures' ability to protect the rights of taxpayers in the context of fair labor agreements."

Nassau County, said Suozzi, has "had a bad experience with binding arbitration with the police unions. It is a bad idea to extend that flawed system to other unions. Nassau County's corrections officers are already some of the highest paid in the country, and the county would be faced with even higher costs, as we [are] with the police unions, if binding arbitration was implemented."_

Such is not actually the case, said Sullivan. "Their claim that our average pay is $100,000 is false. Starting pay for correction officers is around $25,000 a year and we don't hit top pay until around year 11. Then the average pay is $67,000," he said, adding that at the present time, more than 60 percent of all officers at the East Meadow jail have less than 10 years on the job.

While Suozzi was opposed to ShOA's request for binding arbitration due to the reopener clause, the 10 Democrat legislators and Republican Denise Ford were in favor. However, due to Suozzi's opposition, a supermajority of 13 votes, rather than a 10-vote majority, was needed to grant the union home rule.

Jacobs said she was in favor of granting the union the home rule message to obtain binding arbitration from the state because it appeared to be the only way for ShOA to get their contract. "Binding arbitration is never the ideal [because] you are relinquishing the power of the executive and the legislature in terms of voting on the contract, but, that being said, we were finding ourselves in a situation that this particular union will never see a contract come to fruition. It's a Catch 22," she said.

According to Nicolello, opposition arose for two main reasons. "First, by agreeing to binding arbitration we essentially agree that a contract could be entered into without our approval. The legislature wouldn't have a say in approving or disapproving it," Nicolello said, adding that the second reason is the result of negative financial effects the police union's contract, entered into through binding arbitration, has had on the county.

The legislator did, however, stress the importance of safe conditions at the facility. "We obviously do not want the more dangerous inmates in with the others. If consolidation has been out of retaliation, that's just not right," he said.

While Jacobs believes that Suozzi would have been opposed to binding arbitration regardless of whether or not he was running for governor, she does think his campaign has made him a lot less involved than he could be in terms of ShOA's contract negotiations. "Most county executives would certainly be opposed to losing control of their end of the negotiating table. I believe he would be opposed whether he was running for governor or not but I think his run for governor may have put him in the position where he wasn't as involved as he could have been," she said. "That's something that's on everyone's mind. [Suozzi] is a very dynamic leader and he hasn't been involved in this. Take it for what it is, but the truth in the matter is that his involvement could have helped."

During the June 5 legislative meeting, Duer testified that union members have "done nothing but bargain in good faith but 18 months later are still without a contract ... We have been attempting to negotiate with members of the Suozzi administration while he neglects his responsibilities in Nassau County and runs around the state campaigning for governor, while his staff hides behind his authority as an excuse to put us off. Clearly Tom Suozzi is anti-labor and no friend to law enforcement," Duer said.

In addition, ShOA has publicly announced that they will not endorse Suozzi in his gubernatorial campaign. "We have begun notifying our law enforcement colleagues throughout New York State, particularly 30,000 correction officers, to let them know how we have been treated by the Suozzi administration," Duer told the legislature.

The county's decision not to approve ShOA's request for binding arbitration by the June 22 deadline led union reps to, on June 9, file for an impasse with the Public Employee Relations Board (PERB). The process could take up to two months to be processed and over a year before it is settled. As it currently stands, ShOA is in the process of filing charges against the county with PERB for bargaining in bad faith. They are also going after the reopener clause on the grounds that it's illegal, said Sullivan. In the meantime, correction officers must continue to work under an austerity contract and cannot strike because they are union members.

Even through the impasse process, the union and county will once again have to negotiate a contract. "We will come around full circle and be told to negotiate again. We've been fighting tooth and nail since last fall and there is no end in sight," said Sullivan. "That's the reason we went for binding arbitration to begin with."