Prison Inspectors

The family of an Aston woman who died after five weeks at the Delaware County jail has reached a settlement with operators of the jail after nearly two weeks of trial in federal court. Cassandra "Sandy" Morgan, 38, died in 2006 of complications from a thyroid condition for which she did not receive medication while incarcerated. Morgan, who had schizophrenia, had been declared incompetent to stand trial on a shoplifting charge. She died before the court could rule on the psychiatrist's competency evaluation.

The project manager for Delaware County's planned $85 million prison said yesterday that the new complex would be completed by December 1997. Stephen A. Donohoe, the project manager from CRSS Constructors Inc. of Denver, made the comments after a meeting of the county's Board of Prison Inspectors. At the meeting, he told the board that contracts for initial work on the grounds, such as clearing land, laying roads and setting up the infrastructure, will go out for bid in April. CRSS, which is the project supervisor, hopes to have the foundation for the facility in place by next summer, he said.

Wackenhut Corrections Corp. and negotiators for the Delaware County Board of Prison Inspectors have reached an agreement that will allow the prison-management company to continue to operate the Delaware County prison, officials said yesterday. On July 11, Wackenhut announced that it was losing money managing the 1,584-bed George W. Hill Correctional Facility and would stop operating it on Nov. 11. The following week, the prison board voted not to seek another outside manager for the prison, which Wackenhut, based in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., has operated since 1996.

A U.S. Department of Labor inquiry has determined that the Delaware County Prison owes $150,000 in overtime pay to about 200 current and former corrections officers. The Department of Labor received full cooperation from the county in the matter, said George G. Ference, assistant district director for the Labor Department's Philadelphia-area office. The first checks - which will average $750 - were sent out yesterday, said Daniel Costa, president of the Delaware County Prison Independent Union.

A former Delaware County prisoner who says his activities as an informant resulted in a retaliatory beating from an irate block mate is suing seven past and present prison employees for not ensuring his safety. William Rossiter of Clifton Heights alleges in a civil rights action filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia that prison officials knew he was in "acute physical danger" after helping guards identify two inmates who had stolen handcuff keys. Rossiter contends the officials - including former Warden George W. Hill, who is now the prison superintendent - ignored his repeated requests, from June to September 1995, to be moved from the maximum-security D Block to the J Block.

The Delaware County Board of Prison Inspectors voted yesterday to take from the county's personnel department the power to decide which law firms represent the prison on labor-related matters. "I think that we should just take over the whole shootin' match," declared board member Charles P. Sexton Jr. "The law gives us the right to run this jail, and run this jail without any interference from any arm of the county government. " The move by the board comes in the wake of two high-profile employee grievance cases that county-hired lawyers lost in arbitration.

Members of the Board of Prison Inspectors at Delaware County Prison said Wednesday that they were expecting a decision soon - maybe within the next month - from the County Council on the scope of a renovation and expansion project that might cost up to $35 million. Board member Charles P. Sexton Jr. said the county had $10 million set aside from past bond issues that was available to revamp the aging and crowded prison. "The next step is to get the county to issue a $25 million bond issue," Sexton said.

The cost of expanding and upgrading the Delaware County Prison could wind up being much higher than the estimated $35 million, two prison officials said yesterday. Charles P. Sexton Jr., president of the Board of Prison Inspectors, said the work could cost up to $50 million. Board member Ward T. Williams said that of the figures being discussed, $55 million was a "midlevel" number. Williams emphasized that no dollar amount was close to being recommended, but that he and Sexton said the odds of the project costing only $35 million were low. "The chances of it costing $35 million is looking pretty slim because the old jail is in such terrible condition," Sexton said.

The Delaware County executive vowed Friday to have a "serious discussion" of ways to improve security at the county prison, from which three inmates were mistakenly released this summer. Marianne Grace said the county was calling for a complete investigation and review of all policies and procedures surrounding prison releases. "Public safety is our number-one priority," Grace said. She said that on Monday, she would set up a meeting between prison and county officials to address the issue, but added that no written report was likely to be made public.

Longtime Republican power broker Charles P. Sexton Jr. is stepping down from the board that oversees Delaware County's troubled prison. "Look, I've given this county 13 years," Sexton said in a brief telephone interview yesterday. "That's a lot of time. " Sexton's resignation from the county's Board of Prison Inspectors follows a spate of suspicious prison deaths and the pending expiration of a contract with the private company that runs the jail. The George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Thornton is the state's only privately run prison.

The Delaware County executive vowed Friday to have a "serious discussion" of ways to improve security at the county prison, from which three inmates were mistakenly released this summer. Marianne Grace said the county was calling for a complete investigation and review of all policies and procedures surrounding prison releases. "Public safety is our number-one priority," Grace said. She said that on Monday, she would set up a meeting between prison and county officials to address the issue, but added that no written report was likely to be made public.

The Delaware County executive vowed Friday to have a "serious discussion" of ways to improve security at the county prison, from which three inmates were mistakenly released this summer. Marianne Grace said the county was calling for a complete investigation and review of all policies and procedures surrounding prison releases. "Public safety is our number-one priority," Grace said. She said that on Monday, she would set up a meeting between prison and county officials to address the issue, but added that no written report was likely to be made public.

The family of an Aston woman who died after five weeks at the Delaware County jail has reached a settlement with operators of the jail after nearly two weeks of trial in federal court. Cassandra "Sandy" Morgan, 38, died in 2006 of complications from a thyroid condition for which she did not receive medication while incarcerated. Morgan, who had schizophrenia, had been declared incompetent to stand trial on a shoplifting charge. She died before the court could rule on the psychiatrist's competency evaluation.

Lawyers for the family of an Aston woman who died after five weeks at the Delaware County jail opened a wrongful-death lawsuit in federal court yesterday, accusing jail officials of ignoring her medical and mental-health needs until it was too late. Cassandra "Sandy" Morgan, 38, died March 25, 2006, after a seizure. The cause of death was profound hypothyroidism, according to the Delaware County medical examiner, a condition for which Morgan did not receive treatment while jailed.

Longtime Republican power broker Charles P. Sexton Jr. is stepping down from the board that oversees Delaware County's troubled prison. "Look, I've given this county 13 years," Sexton said in a brief telephone interview yesterday. "That's a lot of time. " Sexton's resignation from the county's Board of Prison Inspectors follows a spate of suspicious prison deaths and the pending expiration of a contract with the private company that runs the jail. The George W. Hill Correctional Facility in Thornton is the state's only privately run prison.

The new warden at Delaware County's prison was put on notice yesterday that if he does not stop the flow of contraband cigarettes into the facility in the next month, he could end up in a cell of his own. Charles P. Sexton, the chairman of the Delaware County Board of Prison Inspectors, which oversees operations at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility, told Warden John D. Caulfield at a board meeting that some "guards are corrupt and profit...

Wackenhut Corrections Corp. and negotiators for the Delaware County Board of Prison Inspectors have reached an agreement that will allow the prison-management company to continue to operate the Delaware County prison, officials said yesterday. On July 11, Wackenhut announced that it was losing money managing the 1,584-bed George W. Hill Correctional Facility and would stop operating it on Nov. 11. The following week, the prison board voted not to seek another outside manager for the prison, which Wackenhut, based in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., has operated since 1996.

A former Delaware County prisoner who says his activities as an informant resulted in a retaliatory beating from an irate block mate is suing seven past and present prison employees for not ensuring his safety. William Rossiter of Clifton Heights alleges in a civil rights action filed Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia that prison officials knew he was in "acute physical danger" after helping guards identify two inmates who had stolen handcuff keys. Rossiter contends the officials - including former Warden George W. Hill, who is now the prison superintendent - ignored his repeated requests, from June to September 1995, to be moved from the maximum-security D Block to the J Block.

A U.S. Department of Labor inquiry has determined that the Delaware County Prison owes $150,000 in overtime pay to about 200 current and former corrections officers. The Department of Labor received full cooperation from the county in the matter, said George G. Ference, assistant district director for the Labor Department's Philadelphia-area office. The first checks - which will average $750 - were sent out yesterday, said Daniel Costa, president of the Delaware County Prison Independent Union.

The project manager for Delaware County's planned $85 million prison said yesterday that the new complex would be completed by December 1997. Stephen A. Donohoe, the project manager from CRSS Constructors Inc. of Denver, made the comments after a meeting of the county's Board of Prison Inspectors. At the meeting, he told the board that contracts for initial work on the grounds, such as clearing land, laying roads and setting up the infrastructure, will go out for bid in April. CRSS, which is the project supervisor, hopes to have the foundation for the facility in place by next summer, he said.