1 1 HEARINGS ON RAPE AND STAFF SEXUAL MISCONDUCT 2 IN U.S. PRISONS 3 4 Tecumseh State Correctional Institution 5 Nebraska Department of Correctional Services 6 7 Friday, March 14, 2008; 9:00 a.m. 8 9 U.S. Department of Justice 10 Office of Justice Programs Building 11 810 7th Street 12 Main Conference Room, Third Floor 13 Washington, D.C. 14 15 16 PANEL DIRECTORS: 17 Steve McFarland, Chair 18 Carroll Ann Ellis 19 20 Reported by: 21 Warren Brey 2 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS 2 WITNESS PAGE 3 Robert P. Houston, Director, NDCS 4 4 Rich Brittenham, Major, TSCI 89 5 Anton Simon, Lieutenant, TSCI 89 6 Brad Hansen, Emergency Preparedness 7 Coordinator, TSCI 89 8 Dave Thomas, Health Service 9 Administrator, TSCI 89 10 Michele Hillman, Unit Administrator, 11 TSCI 228 12 Bernard Noordhoek, Investigator, NDCI 228 13 Fred Britten, Warden, TSCI 117 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 3 1 TRANSCRIPT OF PROCEEDINGS 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: Good morning. This 3 is a continuation of a hearing of the Department 4 of Justice's Review Panel on Prison Rape. My 5 name is Steve McFarland, and together with my 6 co-panelist, Carroll Ann Ellis, we welcome you. 7 Carroll Ann Ellis is the director of the Victim 8 Services Division of one of the nation's largest 9 police departments, Fairfax County, Virginia, and 10 brings a wealth of experience of commitment to 11 victims, particularly. My day job is with the 12 Office of the Deputy Attorney General, United 13 States Department of Justice. 14 A couple of housekeeping matters. The 15 men's room is straight down that hall, behind the 16 elevators. We will take breaks. If any witness 17 needs to clarify or correct or amplify on 18 testimony, feel free to do so; you don't need to 19 be asked. If you've already testified and you 20 think of something that you wish you had said, to 21 correct, we're here to learn and listen, so 4 1 please feel free. 2 If you could be as direct and specific 3 to the Tecumseh institution, other than the 4 director, of course, who can speak and say 5 whatever he wants about the whole system, but 6 we're primarily focusing on the problem at 7 Tecumseh. 8 And, Ms. Ellis, do you have anything 9 you wanted to add? 10 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Good morning. 11 Welcome. I look forward to your testimony. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: We're privileged to 13 have the director of the Nebraska Department of 14 Correctional Services, Robert Houston. Mr. 15 Houston, welcome. 16 ROBERT HOUSTON: Good morning. Thank 17 you. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: The floor is yours, 19 sir. 20 ROBERT HOUSTON: Well, good. Well, what 21 I thought I'd do is just take a couple minutes 5 1 and tell you a little bit about myself. You 2 received what my testimony is, and so in talking 3 to Rob, I can summarize that very quickly, so it 4 allows you more time for questioning. And then I 5 thought I'd take a minute and tell you from my 6 perspective a little bit about the context of the 7 Nebraska Department of Corrections and Tecumseh 8 from my perspective, just kind of lay the ground 9 rule for subsequent testimony. 10 First of all, I serve as corrections 11 director. I was appointed to Governor Heineman's 12 cabinet in March of 2005, exactly three years ago, 13 today. And immediately previous to that, I was 14 director of the Douglas County Department of 15 Corrections, which is the metropolitan of Omaha, 16 Nebraska; it's our largest county jail. The jail 17 will house up to 1,400 inmates, and I had just 18 right at 500 staff for that responsibility. 19 Previous to that, I was assistant 20 director, what we now call deputy director of 21 corrections, over the Community Corrections 6 1 Division. And previous to that, I was a prison 2 warden for 11 years of three different 3 institutions, two maximum-security and one 4 medium-security prison. 5 Before that, I was deputy warden of the 6 Nebraska State Penitentiary. And before that, 7 I'd started as a county corrections officer in 8 Douglas County, where I eventually became 9 director, then came to the state system as a 10 counselor, worked as a senior counselor, unit 11 manager, housing unit administrator, and then the 12 associate warden of a new facility, the Omaha 13 Correctional Center, before going to that deputy 14 director's job at the penitentiary -- or deputy 15 warden's job. 16 I have both a bachelor's degree and a 17 master's degree from the University of Nebraska 18 at Omaha and Lincoln. I became an instructor for 19 the University of Nebraska and did that for 20 20 years up until I got this job. We can't have 21 outside sources of income, so that ended. Didn't 7 1 want to do it for free, so I thought I'd better 2 move on to other things. 3 I'm currently president of the 4 University of Nebraska Criminal Justice 5 Scholarship Fund for the university through the 6 University of Nebraska Foundation. I've been an 7 auditor since 1990 for the American Correctional 8 Association. I've audited about 45 9 penitentiaries and jails throughout the United 10 States. I've done consulting work with the 11 National Institute of Corrections, mostly in the 12 area of unit management and team building. 13 And then I'm currently a member of the 14 Nebraska Crime Commission, the Jail Standards 15 Board, and then several other state boards that 16 came with my appointment as director of 17 corrections. 18 So that's a little bit about my 19 background. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: Mr. Houston, I'm 21 sorry, did you mention, have you been an actual 8 1 correctional officer in the course of -- prior to 2 being unit manager and housing unit administrator 3 and so forth, were you a line officer? 4 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes, in the county 5 jail. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: At the county jail. 7 ROBERT HOUSTON: When I came to the 8 state penitentiary, I was a counselor. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: I see. 10 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. And as far as my 11 testimony is concerned, you have it before you. 12 I just want to say that I'm very pleased to 13 represent my department and to provide 14 information in our commitment in support of 15 eliminating sexual assault and abuse in Nebraska 16 prisons and programs. 17 And I can go through this, if you'd 18 like, or I can skip it if you'd like, whatever 19 you'd like for me to do. If you'd like me to 20 read it into the record, I'd be happy to do that. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: No, it will be 9 1 included in the record, and we have read it. 2 Appreciate it. 3 ROBERT HOUSTON: Okay. I'll make a 4 couple other comments about it. 5 Our agency is entirely accredited by 6 the American Correctional Association. We won 7 the Eagle Award in 2007. And virtually every 8 program in the prison that we have is accredited, 9 including our central office, our training 10 academy, industries, parole system, and 11 throughout. 12 Our ten wardens and deputy director 13 personally review and revise policies that 14 prohibit sexual assault and abuse. With the 15 American Correctional Association comes the -- we 16 review every policy, every procedure, every 17 attachment, every year, sometimes throughout the 18 year, well, often throughout the year, to make 19 certain that our policies are current and up to 20 the national standards. 21 We are very flexible as a department. 10 1 We're small. We have 4,423 inmates currently, 2 right at that number, and so with our smallness 3 comes our ability to make changes, endorse 4 changes, institute policies. 5 We'll have things that if they come up 6 on Monday as an issue, on Tuesday I meet with my 7 executive staff. On Wednesday, our deputy 8 directors can talk directly to their staff, their 9 wardens, their program heads. On Thursday, we 10 can see what the feedback is, and on Friday, 11 we've got a pretty good idea what we're going to 12 introduce on Monday. So I don't know if that 13 gives you an illustration as to how quickly we 14 can respond to things. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Sounds just like the 16 way things work here. 17 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes, I thought so. 18 (Laughter.) 19 ROBERT HOUSTON: And the colleagues I 20 bring with me today are Tony Simon, who you'll 21 meet, and he's our second shift lieutenant. He's 11 1 also on our honor team and does outstanding in 2 both his responsibilities as lieutenant and being 3 a part of the spirit of our department. 4 Benny Noordhoek and I have worked 5 together for years. He's our investigator, and 6 you'll meet him shortly. 7 Michele Hillman comes to us, and I 8 believe Michele has about ten years of 9 experience, right at ten years of experience, and 10 she is now recently promoted to unit 11 administrator, and we're excited to have her in 12 that capacity. 13 Rich Brittenham has been with Tecumseh 14 ever since it opened, and Rich and I worked at 15 the penitentiary together, and he's back at the 16 penitentiary as captain. He found that commuting 17 two hours a day after seven years gets to be a 18 little weary and so forth. 19 Brad Hansen is here, and Brad and I 20 have worked together for nearly 30 years, and 21 he's our investigator -- or the head of 12 1 investigations -- and he's over, also, our teams 2 that have to do with SART, and also our SERT 3 teams, which we use in emergencies. 4 And then, of course, the TSCI warden, 5 Fred Britten, is here today, and Fred and I have 6 worked together for a little over 30 years, and 7 he and I worked at the penitentiary together and 8 have worked at other facilities together. 9 So what you're going to find is, is 10 that the staff all the way down the line not only 11 are very experienced corrections practitioners, 12 but also have been with Tecumseh literally since 13 it opened and watched the development. 14 Now, to tell you a little bit about 15 Nebraska, I think, to -- I'm sorry. And I missed 16 Dave Thomas. Dave is -- 17 I don't know why I don't have you on -- 18 I do have you on here and I walked right over 19 you. 20 Dave is the head of our health services 21 at Tecumseh, and he is with Correctional Care 13 1 Solutions, and is also from -- not only is he 2 responsible for medical, but he's from that area 3 of the state, so he knows that area of the state 4 very well. He has a good educational background, 5 and we truly enjoy having him on staff and having 6 Correctional Care Solutions as our medical 7 provider. 8 Of our ten facilities, only one of them 9 has a medical provider, and that's Tecumseh. 10 Now, over the last couple of years, we've had 11 other contractors. We don't have a bias towards 12 or against having contractors as well as our own 13 staff for different areas. 14 We had a private provider for our 15 education, and we've gone to self-operate. We've 16 had a private vendor for our food service at 17 Tecumseh, and we've now going to self-operate 18 with food service. 19 We have not made that decision with 20 Correctional Care Solutions, because we find that 21 their services are excellent. They're able to 14 1 provide us with professionals, such as Dave, that 2 we wouldn't be able to do using our existing 3 personnel system and limitations by our union 4 contract and how we compensate people to get the 5 best talented people in medical. 6 So a little more introduction than you 7 needed there, Dave, but I thought I would make up 8 for it with overkill. 9 Now, Nebraska, just to give you a 10 little context about Nebraska, and I talked about 11 the small size of the institution -- or of our 12 department. You probably this morning drove by 13 more people to get here than we have in the state 14 of Nebraska. We have about 1.7 million 15 Nebraskans. Nearly all of them -- not nearly all 16 of them, but well over half are from Lincoln 17 East, which is the last 60 miles of a nearly 18 500-mile across state. 19 Our third largest city in Nebraska is 20 Memorial Stadium on football day. So that gives 21 you an idea as to how small our state is. 15 1 Our small towns, and this is going to 2 relate to Tecumseh and why Tecumseh was built in 3 Tecumseh. Our small towns are even smaller than 4 they were in the 1950s, and that's of great 5 concern to those of us in Nebraska, because we 6 want to have our small towns to have larger 7 populations, to retain the people that graduate 8 from our high schools. Our high schools have 9 rodeo teams as well as football teams and 10 basketball teams, to tell you that we do have a 11 western influence. 12 Our incarceration rate is one of the 13 very lowest in the nation. I think we're about 14 44th there. 15 We're able to make changes relatively 16 quickly. Our community corrections resources in 17 Nebraska are growing at a very rapid pace. By 18 that is, we're putting day reporting centers 19 across the state that are accessible not only to 20 probationers who are convicted of felonies, but 21 also for our inmate population that then becomes 16 1 parolees and goes into our community centers -- 2 are able to access those community centers. And 3 so we've really had an increase in our resources 4 available to us in the community. We've had a 5 flat prison population. We're trying to lessen 6 our reliance in Nebraska upon incarceration. 7 As an agency, we are really kind of a 8 big fish in a small role, in that we are the 9 second-largest agency in the state. We're the 10 very largest criminal justice agency in the State 11 of Nebraska. 12 The media, we have media contacts every 13 day. They're very interested in what we do. And 14 when we have media contacts, they're usually very 15 positive media contacts, or at least very 16 informative media contacts. 17 We have inspections in our prisons 18 literally every day. Whether it's the American 19 Correctional Association, our internal audits, 20 which we consider are more rigorous than our 21 external audits. Health inspections. We have 17 1 the State ombudsman's office that is under the 2 legislature, and they have staff, their sole job 3 is to look after our 2,375 staff and 4,400 4 inmates, and so we're under their close eye every 5 day. 6 We have State senators who are very 7 interested in what we do, who have been very 8 supportive, especially recently, in their support 9 of the department, the interests that we're 10 pursuing. 11 We include the people that can be in a 12 position to be adverse, but we don't see them 13 as adverse; we want to make them part of our 14 department, and we've done so in the past three 15 years, and it's been very productive. 16 In fact, Fred Britten sits on the 17 administrative confinement team that included 18 people from the legislature, included senators 19 and their aides on that committee, and we changed 20 how we do administrative confinement, how we make 21 decisions to put people on administrative 18 1 confinement, how we make decisions to keep people 2 on administrative confinement, and also how we 3 transition them out into general population. 4 In fact, we started a transition unit 5 so that the inmates can move out into the 6 population in a way that not only works for us as 7 far as how we make our decisions, but also how 8 the inmates can be introduced to the population 9 so they can make their decisions or come to peace 10 with people that they may have had conflicts with 11 in the prison population. 12 In July 2009, we will have nearly 150 13 psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, mental 14 health workers, and substance abuse workers for 15 that small population of 4,400. We are extremely 16 well resourced and will become even better 17 resourced when it comes to dealing with the 18 mental challenges, with the anger challenges of 19 the inmates that we have in our population. 20 By the end of 2008, we will have ten 21 percent of our inmate population at any one time 19 1 in a residential substance abuse bed. We will 2 have another 20 percent at any one time involved 3 in an outpatient treatment. 4 What we've done is, we've looked at how 5 we deliver our mental health and substance abuse 6 services, and we have looked at the top of the 7 pyramid so that we now dedicate our resources to 8 those people that have the most severe problems, 9 those people that have the greatest addiction, 10 that have the greatest addiction combined with 11 their behavior, whether that be violent behavior 12 or repetitive behavior, and concentrate our 13 resources in that way -- and taking advantage of 14 what I described earlier, and that is, the 15 community resources that have come up and are 16 coming up on board, so that we can move those 17 people who we consider to be of less of a risk 18 into the community and through those resources so 19 that we have a safer Nebraska. 20 By the end of 2008, we will have an 21 acute mental healthcare unit for our department, 20 1 and that will be located at the Lincoln 2 Correctional Center. And the reason we're having 3 it there is that it puts it in Lincoln, where 4 we're better resourced when it comes to mental 5 health professionals and so forth. 6 Every year we have thousands of 7 visitors, professionals and volunteers, who spend 8 thousands of hours with our inmate population. 9 When inmates write my office, which 10 they do often, we make certain that they get a 11 very detailed, very supportive answer regardless 12 of what their question is. We have people that 13 write us four and five times a week, and if you 14 looked over even the people who they know well at 15 Tecumseh that write four or five times a week 16 about the smallest of things, they still get very 17 detailed, very respectful answers to their 18 inquiries. 19 We routinely call upon the National 20 Institute of Corrections. Whenever the manual 21 comes out, we go through it, we go through it 21 1 with our deputy director, Robin Spindler, and we 2 tag every single program that NIC offers, and if 3 we qualify for it, we either have a team or 4 individuals lined up to apply for every program 5 that NIC offers. 6 We use LETRA out of California for our 7 emergency procedures. Brad Hansen will speak to 8 that, which includes our emergency staff 9 services, and also our intent to make certain 10 that we spread those types of services for our 11 inmate population if they become victims of 12 violence or sexual assault or sexual abuse. 13 The Criminal Justice Institute in 14 Connecticut, we do a lot of work with them, as 15 we'll talk about. As we implemented our 16 classification system, it is both sensitive to 17 gender and to risk factors as we move people 18 through the system based upon science rather than 19 on what we think the factors are, and moving 20 people into the Nebraska community. 21 We also call upon the University of 22 1 Nebraska. As you can imagine from my connection 2 there, the University of Nebraska at Omaha and 3 the Lincoln campus are these are -- things that 4 used to be that it would be kind of fun to have 5 them out. Now they're an integral part of our 6 operations. 7 We just went to self-operate with 8 education. We've become a certified school. We 9 have a certified high school at our youth 10 facility. I've become superintendent of schools 11 now. And we make certain that we have the best 12 education program we possibly can. And we've now 13 become -- University of Nebraska at Omaha has 14 become a contractor to that, and they're going 15 statewide to look at all of our prisons, at our 16 education programs, so that everything we do, 17 every breath we take, is geared towards reentry 18 back into the community. 19 We take great pride in transparency, 20 and hopefully you're going to see that today, as 21 we build practices around this reality. As I 23 1 indicated, we are kind of a big fish in a small 2 pool, so we're looked at, especially our budget 3 is looked at, and that's what we're kind of 4 going through now, is our budgetary process, but 5 everything we do is really looked at from a lot 6 of ways. 7 We spend a lot of time with family and 8 friends. I'm going to participate in a seminar 9 here in a couple weeks with family and friends of 10 inmates, and it will be an all-day program of 11 which we'll participate throughout the day. 12 We're taking what we consider to be the 13 head of the pack as far as complying with 14 principles and practices of PREA. There's a lot 15 of things, a lot of language and so forth that 16 we're putting into place. A lot of things we've 17 done, either in relationship to PREA or because 18 of PREA, to make certain that we're where we need 19 to be. 20 A few comments on Tecumseh and then 21 I'll leave it open for questions. 24 1 Tecumseh is one of the facilities I 2 have not worked in. I was here when Tecumseh 3 opened, with the department, working as a warden 4 in another facility. I went to the Douglas 5 County Department of Corrections for two years 6 and then came back, and I can see a marked 7 difference in Tecumseh, having been gone for that 8 period of time and then coming back. 9 And I think a general way of saying it 10 is, is that when I left and Tecumseh had just 11 opened, the expectations that we had came to be 12 true; and that is, whenever we open new 13 institutions -- I was part of the opening of the 14 Omaha Correctional Center, the Lincoln 15 Correctional Center; I went to the youth facility 16 a year after it had opened; I went to Douglas 17 County for the opening of nearly a $60 million 18 addition and the hiring of a lot of staff; also 19 went to the penitentiary in 1981 when we expanded 20 that into the new prison that we have; and we 21 know that when we open up institutions, there's a 25 1 lot of processes, a lot of development, that 2 natural development that happens. 3 Opening Tecumseh with 500 staff, nearly 4 500 staff, in a rural part of Nebraska, not too 5 far from Omaha, not too far from Lincoln, is a 6 very large challenge that you're going to find 7 today, a lot of new staff. 8 But the difference I saw was that the 9 first couple years that Tecumseh was open, the 10 inmates would come up and say, this is what we 11 need; this is what we don't have. And they're 12 making a comparison between what they had at the 13 penitentiary. When I came back, the inmates 14 started saying, this is what I need. 15 And I think that's significant, because 16 as the institution developed and as the programs 17 got better, and as the staff became more 18 confident in what they do, and the small amount 19 of staff that had experience in prisons, which I 20 think Fred will testify to, is about 20 percent, 21 started growing larger and larger, Tecumseh 26 1 became more like our other institutions. And so 2 it's been quite a maturization, a maturity 3 process that they've undergone. 4 We expected to have a high turnover at 5 Tecumseh, and that came to be. We had the same 6 thing at every institution that we opened, a high 7 turnover rate when it started, because we'd get 8 some very good people, but prison work was just 9 not for them, and they would come and they would 10 go. 11 In fact, it was even hard -- it's even 12 hard to keep track of the turnover, because if 13 you have a personnel number 3334 and it turns 14 over during the year, you can see that that 15 position turned over. We've had some position 16 numbers that have turned over twice during the 17 year and three times during the year, people 18 finding that this business is just not for them. 19 But that's because things have to be 20 built around the opening of that institution. 21 Things that are in place at the penitentiary and 27 1 at other institutions, as Tecumseh opened, were 2 not in place there. 3 So if a new staff member starts at the 4 penitentiary, they're going to be working around 5 people that have been there for 15 and 20 years. 6 If a new person starts at a developing 7 institution, whether that be OCC when it started 8 or Tecumseh when it started, they're going to be 9 learning from somebody that has about six or 10 eight months of experience. They're going to be 11 learning from people who are surrounded by people 12 whose corrections experience goes back months or 13 maybe a couple years. 14 And what is really significant, even 15 more significant, is a culture that has to 16 develop when you open a new institution. 17 So I wanted to spend quite a bit of 18 time talking about the groundwork at Tecumseh as 19 it relates to the PREA study. 20 Tecumseh has very dedicated, 21 hard-working Nebraskans, with the Nebraska value 28 1 system, handling the most difficult inmates that 2 we have. The facility that you've picked is the 3 facility where we have transferred the most 4 difficult inmates in our system. And it's not 5 like, although we would like to say, but Fred 6 probably knows, that we didn't take it easy on 7 Tecumseh when we opened Tecumseh. They started 8 out with the most difficult inmates. 9 If we were to redraft that, we'd 10 probably start out with inmates that would not be 11 as great a challenge to that department. If we 12 were to do it again, I would think we would make 13 certain that we had plenty of jobs for the 14 inmates to do before we sent the inmates down 15 there. So, less challenging inmates, more jobs 16 for them, I think, would have been a better way 17 to go when we first opened Tecumseh. Now, that's 18 been several years ago, and a lot of maturing 19 since then, but nonetheless, if we were to 20 redraft that, I think that would be part of our 21 redraft. 29 1 The last thing I have is, is that 2 Nebraska prisons, and more specifically to 3 include Tecumseh, you would find when you go 4 through it that they're very clean, that it's 5 very orderly. We receive very high marks, as 6 Fred will talk about, from national auditors, 7 whether they be NIC people coming through, or the 8 American Correctional Association, the 9 consultants we have and the experts, that we take 10 great pride in our Nebraska prisons and try to 11 keep them clean and orderly and well managed and 12 very humane. 13 So I'll leave it at that. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Thank you, Mr. 15 Director. 16 Have you had an opportunity to read the 17 Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report that 18 was issued on December 16, 2007, about sexual 19 victimization in state and federal prisons 20 reported by inmates? 21 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. 30 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And do you 2 believe it? 3 ROBERT HOUSTON: Well, -- 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: With respect to 5 Tecumseh? 6 ROBERT HOUSTON: One of the figures 7 that's in here is that the -- on page 5, the 8 Table 5 indicates number of incidents per 1,000 9 inmates, and the number came up 869. Now, I 10 would not think that that number would apply to 11 Tecumseh. The error rate was very high. 12 One of the things that Rich Brittenham 13 will talk about is, if we were to redraft this, 14 we would probably give the inmates no choice 15 about showing up to talk to the surveyors. The 16 inmates were given a choice. They could tell the 17 correction officer, no, I don't want to go over 18 there. If we were to redraft this, we'd have 19 made certain they went over there and told the 20 surveyors, no, I wish not to participate, after 21 they found out exactly what it was about. So I 31 1 think if more inmates would have shown up, that 2 the figures would be different. 3 Now, we had Indiana in here yesterday, 4 and I believe their survey indicated that there 5 was about 79 percent of the inmates showed up, 6 and they came out about the same as we did. So I 7 don't know that it would have made a difference, 8 but it probably would have. But we take no issue 9 with this report. 10 I think our job today is to make it 11 very difficult for you to find something that we 12 need to do that we're unwilling to do. You're 13 just not going to find it. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: That's great. 15 ROBERT HOUSTON: So you're going to 16 have to work hard. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: Well, that's 18 refreshing. So when you were referring to a high 19 error rate, what you meant was that it had a 20 lower response rate than Indiana's and some 21 others. 32 1 ROBERT HOUSTON: Exactly, yes. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Because as I 3 understand it, BJS, this NIS survey, which is the 4 most comprehensive and scientifically accurate 5 survey in our nation's history of this issue, 6 opined that there is a 95 percent probability 7 that the number of sexual -- the prevalence of 8 sexual victimization at Tecumseh is between 9 1/2 9 or 9.4 and 17.4 percent of the population. So 10 that's including the error rate, the range of 11 error between plus or minus 4, so it could be as 12 low as 9.4 percent, as high as 17.4 percent, 95 13 percent sure that that's the case. 14 So I take it from your remarks that 15 even if it was as low as 9.4 percent, that's a 16 serious problem that has your attention? 17 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. This report has 18 our full attention. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: What has been done, 20 if anything, since this was released three months 21 ago to address the apparent problem at Tecumseh? 33 1 ROBERT HOUSTON: Well, now, one thing I 2 will say is, I know that as we talk today about 3 the incidents that are actually reported to us, 4 that's what we know, and that number is much more 5 modest than the numbers would indicate in this 6 report. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: I'm sorry, which 8 number? 9 ROBERT HOUSTON: I said the numbers 10 that have been actually reported to us. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: Oh, okay, yes. 12 ROBERT HOUSTON: Is a much more modest 13 number than what the inmates indicate in this 14 report. 15 And to answer your question about what 16 we've done since the report, I think it's 17 probably -- and I gave a little bit of background 18 going back to 2001 about the development of 19 Tecumseh. We see Tecumseh as an ongoing process, 20 just like all of our other institutions that are 21 more mature, and I think as we go through the 34 1 day, you're going to see that a lot has been done 2 previous to 2006, and continues on. 3 The most significant thing most 4 recently, this made a big difference at Tecumseh, 5 has to do with staffing. When we started -- 6 Fred, would that have been a year and a 7 half ago, with our vacancies? 8 FRED BRITTEN: Yeah, a little over a 9 year ago. 10 ROBERT HOUSTON: A little over a year 11 ago, we had 77 vacancies at Tecumseh. Now, if 12 you can imagine, and that's among our corrections 13 officers, that when they're not there, we've got 14 to get somebody else there. We just had 15 thousands and thousands and thousands of hours of 16 mandatory overtime. That number has been cut in 17 half to where we now have about 35 or so 18 vacancies at Tecumseh. 19 I was down to Tecumseh about a month 20 ago and one of the staff members came up and 21 said, Director, one time. I said, one time what? 35 1 She says, I've only been mandatory one time in 2 the past six months. 3 And what staff is able to do now is, 4 they're able to volunteer for their overtime, and 5 then they go to the bottom of the list, and since 6 we don't have the big numbers that we used to 7 have, staff can really pick when they work their 8 overtime to make up for the shortages of those 35 9 staff. And so if your son has a baseball game or 10 you have something going on, you can have some 11 prediction to your life that you couldn't have 12 before. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: When we're talking 14 about overtime, are we talking about back-to-back 15 eight-hour shifts? 16 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 18 ROBERT HOUSTON: We're talking about 19 16-hour days. And much of that, when we can, is 20 now a 12-hour day, where somebody will come in 21 four hours early to meet somebody who stayed four 36 1 hours later. And so we've been able to, even 2 though we have quite a bit of overtime, it's at 3 the staff's choosing, it's at a more reasonable 4 level, and it's managed in a way that allows 5 people to live their life. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: Why do you think you 7 have such a high turnover rate among your staff 8 at Tecumseh? 9 ROBERT HOUSTON: Well, I think part of 10 it is the newness of the institution that I 11 described earlier. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: And when did it open, 13 I'm sorry? 14 ROBERT HOUSTON: 2001. But part of it 15 is, is kind of the dog chasing the tail, in that 16 staff come in and all of a sudden they start 17 working all this overtime, and really in an 18 environment that they're not familiar with, and 19 they think it's really stressful to work eight 20 hours, and now they're working sixteen hours, and 21 they can't hang with all that overtime and so 37 1 they move along. Well, that just creates more 2 overtime for other people to be concerned about. 3 So about a year, a little over a year 4 ago, we put together a Blue Ribbon Panel, where 5 we took this to be State ownership, and so the 6 director of administrative services, the director 7 of banking, who's from that area, the director of 8 health and human services, the State personnel, 9 we meet every other month and look at Tecumseh 10 and to look at what our staffing is, how we can 11 retain staff and how we can recruit staff to that 12 part of the State. 13 And as we go through that month by 14 month, and Tecumseh staff have just been 15 outstanding in implementing everything that is 16 suggested to them, and then even going beyond 17 that and then report back to the committee, a lot 18 of things have happened. 19 One is, we've cut in half the number of 20 vacancies. Number two, the statewide feeling 21 that comes to the facility, although it was good, 38 1 is great now. It's always been good, but this 2 takes it up even further. And the feeling that 3 our agency has, our cabinet members, have about 4 the personnel staff at Tecumseh, the people that 5 you have here today, has just gone up the scale 6 incredibly. 7 And so, I don't know if I'm losing my 8 point on the answer to the question, but that's 9 probably the biggest single improvement, because 10 it's really kind of the underlying tone and run 11 of the institutions that's the most critical. 12 The other thing is, is that we look at 13 culture all the time and we talk about culture. 14 Our former director, Harold Clarke, was our 15 director for nearly 16 years, and he just had 16 outstanding leadership. We're a State where the 17 director of corrections is expected to be a 18 correctional professional and not someone who's 19 appointed. 20 And we've enjoyed that, we've enjoyed 21 that throughout Harold's tenure, and Frank Gunner 39 1 before him, in that we have corrections 2 professionals and not people unfamiliar with 3 corrections that are running corrections. Harold 4 was able to put us in a position where we had 5 both the resources and the culture, the training, 6 skills, and so forth, that we need to be a 7 successful department. 8 My job has been to carry on that 9 mission and take us even further in bringing the 10 nation's best approaches to promising practices 11 to the department. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: So I can take it, 13 because Tecumseh has, as you put it, the most 14 difficult inmates, that it's kind of a volatile 15 mix to have your maximum security, highest, most 16 challenging inmates together with a staff that is 17 inordinately tired and overworked? 18 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. If you take the 19 combination of the most difficult inmates, the 20 newest staff, working a lot of overtime, trying 21 to accomplish a tremendous task of providing a 40 1 safe environment, that is a very hard mixture of 2 things. 3 Now, that has changed considerably from 4 2001 forward. If you go in the institution now, 5 as the auditors do, in 2008, you go, wow. If you 6 look at the relationship, if you just watch the 7 staff and how they interact with the inmates 8 throughout the Department of Corrections, is the 9 first thing that auditors talk about, is they 10 can't believe at such a high security there would 11 be such tension-free conversations between the 12 staff and inmates. 13 And when I talked about jobs earlier, 14 is that a lot of comments that inmates make come 15 out of idleness, and they didn't have a lot to 16 do. Some of these inmates that came to Tecumseh 17 were making a dollar eight an hour; and they came 18 to Tecumseh the next day, they're making a dollar 19 twenty-five a day. Well, that makes a big 20 difference in what their attitude is. And so we 21 really didn't do Tecumseh a lot of favor by not 41 1 having good jobs down there for them, to begin 2 with, but that was the bigger thing. That was 3 certainly something that Director Clarke was well 4 aware of and really tried to do everything he 5 could and everything we could to get as many jobs 6 down there as possible. 7 But one of the challenges we have in 8 getting jobs down there, at the penitentiary we 9 were able to have a lot of private employers come 10 in, because they're right there in Lincoln, it's 11 a metropolitan, they can come and go. Even 12 though we have all the work ethic and work group 13 and everything else at Tecumseh, it's hard to get 14 private employers to do business 70 miles away 15 from a metropolitan area, so that is a challenge. 16 So as a result, we've had to put more public 17 operations down there than private operations. 18 And we now have a wood factory that's starting to 19 come up online that will employ 40 more inmates. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: Wood factory? 21 ROBERT HOUSTON: Wood. 42 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: Cabinetry? 2 ROBERT HOUSTON: Cabinetry, exactly. 3 And we have a laundry operation down there. 4 And how many people do we have? 5 FRED BRITTEN: About 85. 6 ROBERT HOUSTON: About 85 that work in 7 the laundry operation, and those are very good 8 jobs, that pay hourly wages rather than daily 9 wages. 10 And so the future is very bright for 11 Tecumseh, and getting brighter each day, as 12 you'll find out, but it is very much -- the 13 challenge we put to Tecumseh right from the 14 beginning has been tremendous. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Mr. Director, 16 one of the documents that you were kind enough to 17 provide the Panel is Administrative Regulation 18 203.11, a six-page regulation with a number of 19 exhibits or attachments, and it is marked 20 confidential, limited distribution, not to be 21 disseminated to inmates. 43 1 I take it -- well, let me ask you, how 2 can we ask you questions about this that you'd be 3 comfortable with, insofar as this will be a 4 public record and we are planning on posting the 5 transcript as well as the video of this on our 6 Web site, so I doubt that your inmates have 7 access to the Web site, and they may not find the 8 transcript to be great reading, but nevertheless, 9 I want to respect, this document is your sexual 10 assault policy, is it not? 11 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. And it's marked 12 that way right now because it's a fairly new 13 policy. Going to the front page, you can see the 14 effective date was March 31st of 2005. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. 16 ROBERT HOUSTON: And I would think that 17 one of the things is, we're making a checklist of 18 things we learn out of today. I would say that 19 probably the next time we review this, we'll take 20 that off of there, we'll put it in the inmate 21 libraries, so you can say or do anything you want 44 1 about this. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: Great. 3 ROBERT HOUSTON: I've been through 4 this, as you can imagine, several times in 5 preparation for today, and we want the inmates to 6 know what's expected of staff and what we're 7 going to do, and so -- 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: And you want your 9 staff to know that, too. 10 ROBERT HOUSTON: Absolutely. And so I 11 would say that the only reason that we have that 12 on there is because it's a new policy, and we 13 will change that. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. I just wanted 15 to be respectful of your wishes. And so if 16 there's any question that you don't want on a 17 public record, we can go offline, so just 18 indicate that. Otherwise, I'll just proceed to 19 ask some questions about this policy. Is that 20 all right? 21 ROBERT HOUSTON: I think you're going 45 1 to be hard-pressed to find something we're not 2 going to want public, so. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. In 4 reading the definitions in this Administrative 5 Regulation 203.11, the definition of completed 6 inmate-on-inmate nonconsensual sexual acts is 7 described, as well as inmate-on-inmate abusive 8 sexual contacts, and both of them have the phrase 9 "without his or her consent." As the director, 10 do you permit inmate-on-inmate consensual sexual 11 activity at Tecumseh? 12 ROBERT HOUSTON: No. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: So you would be open 14 to clarifying this policy that, with or without, 15 quote, consent, sexual activity, be it the sexual 16 acts or the sexual contacts, are prohibited. Is 17 that fair? 18 ROBERT HOUSTON: That's very fair. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 20 ROBERT HOUSTON: And that's in our 21 history. What we also submitted was our inmate 46 1 rulebook, and one of the -- a Class 1 offense is 2 sex, sexual behavior, and so in here we're being 3 a little more definitive, and I think that we can 4 change this language, but in our rulebook, 5 you'll see sexual activities, and it does not 6 give any permissions, it doesn't give any 7 permissions for consensual sex or sex of any 8 sort. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: So you don't want 10 your staff to be in the position of having to try 11 to determine whether what's going on in the 12 bathroom between those two inmates is consensual. 13 You're just going to say, none of it; that is an 14 administrative disciplinary violation. Is that 15 correct? 16 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. The only reason 17 we would look to see whether or not there's some 18 compliance by the other person is trying to 19 figure out what sanction, what separation to 20 make. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: That's the only 47 1 thing that's germane. 2 ROBERT HOUSTON: Exactly. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: I see. Thank you. 4 Mr. Director, as you know, the BJS found that by 5 far the biggest aspect of the problem at Tecumseh 6 is staff-on-inmate sexual victimization. 7 ROBERT HOUSTON: That's correct. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: By extrapolating the 9 percentage of inmates victimized, the estimated 10 number of victims at Tecumseh of staff-on-inmate 11 abuse or victimization would be 104 of your 12 inmates there, and that's just in 2006. And then 13 on top of that would be another 11 inmates 14 suffering from inmate-on-inmate victimization. 15 So the big issue at Tecumseh, as I understand it, 16 is staff-on-inmate abuse. 17 ROBERT HOUSTON: We've had 18 relationships; we've had criminal charges on 19 staff that have become involved with the inmates. 20 And so, yes. Those numbers, I think, would be 21 not numbers we would agree to, but the fact that 48 1 staff have had sex with inmates is not something 2 we would question. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. How many staff 4 have been cited, whether they were criminally 5 charged or disciplinary proceedings, have been 6 charged at Tecumseh with violating this 7 sexual assault policy? 8 ROBERT HOUSTON: That -- 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Or shall we wait for 10 the warden on that? 11 ROBERT HOUSTON: I think so. Benny? 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Or the investigator? 13 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: In '06? 14 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. 15 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: One staff was 16 charged in '06. 17 ROBERT HOUSTON: We had one staff that 18 was charged. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: One staff who was 20 criminally charged, or administrative? 21 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Criminally. 49 1 ROBERT HOUSTON: Criminally charged. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: And was he 3 sentenced? 4 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Yes. It was a she. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: She. All right. 6 What's the gender breakdown, or do you know, Mr. 7 Director, at Tecumseh of the staff? 8 ROBERT HOUSTON: We have a high 9 percentage of women working at Tecumseh. 10 And, Fred? 11 FRED BRITTEN: About 24 percent of our 12 custody staff are female, about 32 percent of our 13 unit management staff are female, and about 46 14 percent of our support services staff are female. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: That was 24 percent 16 custodial, 32 percent unit managers? 17 FRED BRITTEN: Yes. Unit management, 18 yeah. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: Management. And 46 20 percent support staff. If you include the 21 support staff, almost half of all of your 50 1 staff -- or are you saying 46 percent of the 2 support staff are female? 3 FRED BRITTEN: Yes, 46 percent of the 4 support staff are female. And that includes 5 everything from clerical to working in our 6 canteen and so forth. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Thank you. 8 Mr. Director, the Administrative 9 Regulation 215.01, entitled Correctional 10 Investigator's Duties and Reporting of Criminal 11 Activities, and we'll ask more detailed questions 12 in this regard of Mr. Noordhoek, but if you know, 13 and I direct this at you because this regulation 14 specifically involves you -- as you know, it 15 discusses the prosecution of cases -- the 16 regulation states that the correctional 17 investigator's direct supervisor and the deputy 18 director of institutions shall review the 19 correctional investigator's written report. 20 They must authorize the submission of the written 21 report to the appropriate county attorney for 51 1 review, and if the two don't agree, then it goes 2 to you to decide if the report is to be 3 submitted. 4 The regulation doesn't state what 5 standard is used to determine whether to submit a 6 case to the prosecutor or the county attorney. 7 Do you know -- what standard do you use in making 8 that decision, and what standard do you expect 9 your staff, the investigator, the investigator's 10 direct supervisor, and the deputy director to use 11 in deciding whether to forward something on to 12 the prosecutor? 13 ROBERT HOUSTON: Okay. I can tell you, 14 in three years, that that's never come to me. 15 There's not a case that the investigators -- and 16 Benny can speak to that, that I'm ever aware of 17 that the investigators wanted to send to the 18 county attorney that's ever been turned back. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: I'm sorry, 20 everything has been turned over to the county 21 attorney? 52 1 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 3 ROBERT HOUSTON: And Benny and I 4 haven't had this conversation; he'll probably get 5 up here and tell something different. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: We'll wait, but 7 thank you. 8 ROBERT HOUSTON: But never have we ever 9 even discussed the possibility that our 10 investigators would ever have a case that we 11 wouldn't want to take right to the county 12 attorney. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: As I understand it, 14 though, we only received evidence that there were 15 four staff misconduct sexual assault-related 16 complaints at Tecumseh in all of 2006. 17 ROBERT HOUSTON: I believe that number 18 is five and Brad Hansen will indicate what the 19 fifth one is. Yes. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And only one 21 was substantiated; is that correct? 53 1 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. We actively go 2 after prosecutions for a real practical reason: 3 We are a small Nebraska community, and if we 4 don't actively prosecute those cases that are 5 prosecutable, what will happen is, is that 6 individual will then get back into a human 7 service field, and we don't want that to happen. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: So as far as you're 9 concerned, Mr. Director, you want every staff 10 misconduct complaint that comes to an 11 investigator at Tecumseh to be reviewed by the 12 county attorney for criminal prosecution if it 13 relates to sexual assault? 14 ROBERT HOUSTON: If we find that 15 there's something in there that can be 16 prosecuted, that's what we want to happen. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Now, who do 18 you expect should make the decision as to whether 19 there's something in there that rises to the 20 level of criminal activity? 21 ROBERT HOUSTON: We'd like the county 54 1 attorney to make that decision. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. So as far as 3 your staff, you want them to refer all sexual 4 misconduct complaints from Tecumseh to the county 5 attorney, not doing any screening themselves; is 6 that correct? 7 ROBERT HOUSTON: That's right. 8 Exactly, yes. And we have an outstanding working 9 relationship with the county attorneys. In fact, 10 when these cases start, the State Patrol becomes 11 a partner with us in the investigation, so really 12 the investigations of staff misconduct, whether 13 it relates to this or to other types of things, 14 is really the State Patrol. Our investigators 15 are there because, heretofore, before we had the 16 investigators, the State Patrol is busy doing 17 what they're doing. 18 So, let's relate it to drugs. Two 19 pounds of marijuana moving down I-80 across 20 Nebraska is a big deal, and that's where the 21 State Patrol would concentrate their efforts, 55 1 rather than on an ounce of marijuana coming into 2 the penitentiary. Well, in our world, an ounce 3 of marijuana coming into the penitentiary is a 4 huge deal, and so when you look at it from the 5 State Patrol's perspective, why wouldn't they see 6 two pounds going down the highway as a bigger 7 deal than this. 8 So that's when we formed the 9 investigator's office, and as a huge side benefit 10 of that, has to do with investigations concerning 11 sexual assault and abuse. And so what our 12 investigators do, basically, are the ground 13 troops to get the reports, to know the 14 environment, to work with the State Trooper to do 15 the interviews and gather the evidence and all of 16 those things, but really it's the State Patrol 17 that become our partner early on, not at the 18 later stage but early on. In fact, they're 19 usually called probably the same day as something 20 develops. And then the county attorneys, 21 obviously, are very good at prosecutions. We 56 1 have a long, excellent relationship throughout 2 Nebraska. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Great. And do you 4 have any formal arrangement with the Nebraska 5 State Police or State Patrol about their 6 involvement in sexual assault at Tecumseh? 7 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. Their agreement 8 with us is, they will work on every case with us, 9 because what we've done is made their job a lot 10 easier. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. And so 12 is it your expectation that the investigating 13 authorities at Tecumseh on your staff would also 14 involve the State Police in every case alleging 15 sexual abuse involving inmates? 16 ROBERT HOUSTON: If we can find 17 anything in there that we believe is beyond 18 administrative, that meets any element of 19 something that can be prosecuted, the state 20 Patrol is immediately contacted. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And then 57 1 again, I'm just curious as to who's making that 2 decision about whether you can find anything in 3 there. Are you saying that if the county 4 attorney finds something that rises to the level 5 of a crime, then the State Patrol gets involved; 6 is that what you're saying? 7 ROBERT HOUSTON: No. We get the State 8 Patrol involved first. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes, I would think 10 so. 11 ROBERT HOUSTON: Right. They become 12 involved first. Again, we're small. They work 13 with the county attorneys in whatever county 14 they're at. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: I'm just trying to 16 understand, when do you get the State -- when do 17 you call the State Patrol in to be involved in an 18 investigation? Is anybody at your staff at 19 Tecumseh expected to be able to do some triage 20 and say, well, this isn't worth bothering the 21 State Patrol on; we'll just handle it internally? 58 1 ROBERT HOUSTON: No. It doesn't -- 2 well, maybe I can give you a parallel example 3 that will indicate the attention we pay to sexual 4 assault and sexual abuse. 5 When we have -- for example, in our 6 harassment policy for staff, we have in there 7 that the director of corrections will be advised 8 of harassment cases. So if we have a supervisor 9 who -- or two colleagues that are working 10 together on the first shift at Tecumseh and one 11 of them either says something insensitive to the 12 other where that person finally gets exasperated 13 and says, I'm going to report this, and then they 14 go in and talk to the sergeant, and then the 15 sergeant gets hold of the lieutenant, the 16 lieutenant then makes up a, kind of an outline in 17 a report as to what happened there. 18 Say this is on a Monday morning. By 19 late Monday morning, that goes to Shannon Rowen, 20 who is our assistant director of HR for the 21 department. She goes through those reports and 59 1 then makes up a summary, and then she e-mails me 2 on my BlackBerry, and usually before 1:00 in the 3 afternoon or 2 in the afternoon, it might be 4 later on that day, I've got a complete summary of 5 the argument that happened earlier in that day 6 between these two individuals and the alleged 7 harassment. 8 And the policy on harassment is given 9 to each one of the employees and so forth. And 10 then I make a decision as to whether or not it 11 needs to be investigated or if there can be -- 12 whatever the recommendation of the institution, 13 look that over and agree or disagree with that. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: That's 15 staff-on-staff harassment or disagreement, 16 correct? 17 ROBERT HOUSTON: I use that only as an 18 example to say how much attention we pay to 19 details of interactions. The same would be true 20 with an inmate complaint. 21 If an inmate writes up -- an inmate 60 1 reports to any employee that there is an abuse or 2 something such as that, first it's taken up to 3 the lieutenant's office, and from there they take 4 some initial reports. The captain or the major 5 would become involved with that, possibly the 6 deputy warden, and usually before too many 7 minutes or hours pass, an investigator is 8 contacted; in Tecumseh's case that would be 9 Benny. Benny would be expected to get down there 10 that day or the next day to do the interviews, 11 and probably on the way down he's either 12 contacted or picked up a State Trooper to go with 13 him. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: By Benny, is that 15 Mr. Noordhoek? 16 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And when you 18 say go down there, he's not onsite in Tecumseh? 19 ROBERT HOUSTON: No. He's in our 20 central office. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: I see. Well, what 61 1 I'm asking is, I don't see anything in your 2 policies and regulations that clarifies whether 3 someone in the hierarchy of the department can 4 stop or can decide that the State Police do not 5 need to be involved in this investigation, and 6 I'm trying to clarify what you as the director 7 expect. Is every sexual assault complaint at 8 Tecumseh referred to the State Police, or is 9 somebody deciding whether it's worth their time 10 or not? 11 ROBERT HOUSTON: Well, I think Benny 12 could probably answer that the best. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. 14 ROBERT HOUSTON: Because there's 15 nothing we would do to stop that. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: But they're not 17 going to come unless you call them, right? 18 ROBERT HOUSTON: The State Patrol? 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. 20 ROBERT HOUSTON: Right, yes, would be 21 called. I imagine there's something an inmate 62 1 could say, you know, this inmate touched me, or 2 something that, you sure it was sex -- you know 3 what I mean? 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes, right. 5 ROBERT HOUSTON: There is some -- 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: You don't want to be 7 bothering them on flimsy, minor things. 8 ROBERT HOUSTON: Right. We need to see 9 if there's at least something to it. And if 10 there's something to it, then, yes, contact the 11 State Patrol right away. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: The problem with -- 13 for what it's worth, my two cents. The problem 14 is that if at some lower level an individual can 15 say, no, we don't really need any outside 16 investigation or we don't need to bother Benny to 17 come down here from Lincoln, if that person is 18 the perpetrator or is looking the other way with 19 respect to staff, then that could explain why you 20 have 85 individuals surprising you with a survey 21 response that, hey, I have been abused in the 63 1 last 12 months by staff. 2 So I'm just offering as one possible 3 thing for your consideration is, refer everything 4 and anything of a sexual nature until you are 5 sure that you are just -- there are no stops, 6 there are no speed bumps, everything gets to the 7 State Patrol, and even if it inconveniences them. 8 You've indicated that you've got a legislature 9 that's very cooperative, that you've got the 10 second largest department in the State, that 11 everybody is motivated, and you can have 12 something on your desk or on your BlackBerry 13 within a matter of hours. 14 Then it shouldn't be difficult to say, 15 you know what? We're one of the worst in the 16 country, according to this survey. We need -- 17 and with all the ACA accreditations that you've 18 done, sir, we need to get a -- you know, we need 19 to clean our nose on this, so let's err on the 20 side of absolute punctilious overreporting. If 21 the guy says he got touched in the groin by 64 1 another inmate, we're not going to decide whether 2 that is worth having the State Police get 3 involved. They're going to be called. 4 ROBERT HOUSTON: I think after you hear 5 from Benny and from others, I think you're going 6 to see that that's what we do. We fall on the 7 side of caution. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: Mr. Director, I just 9 want to affirm you about the tremendous attitude 10 that you've expressed. You're the correctional 11 professional, I'm not, but I just greatly 12 appreciate the attitude that you and apparently 13 your staff have, that rather than being defensive 14 and being in denial and saying, gee, you know, we 15 take exception to this, that, or the other thing 16 in the survey, we're going to assume it's true, 17 and we're going to assume we're talking about 18 rape, and we're going to assume that 90 percent 19 of it is happening by staff. And if one percent 20 of it is happening by staff, that's too much. If 21 one of those assaults, be it inmate-on-inmate or 65 1 staff-on-inmate, or harassment or just touching, 2 we're not going to look at it whether it's 3 consensual or not; it is written up and referred 4 up and we're going to have the State Police all 5 over it. 6 And I just greatly appreciate your 7 attitude and your openness to remedying an 8 epidemic that apparently is happening at this 9 relatively new institution, which still has a lot 10 of overtime, a lot of tired officers, with all 11 the worst eggs in your basket, all there with not 12 enough programming, too much time on their hands, 13 and so I greatly want to affirm the attitude that 14 you've brought here this morning. 15 ROBERT HOUSTON: I appreciate it. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: Ms. Ellis. 17 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Thank you. Good 18 morning again, Mr. Director. 19 ROBERT HOUSTON: Good morning. 20 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: I certainly echo 21 the Chairman's sentiments in terms of your 66 1 attitude, and I look forward to a very productive 2 time today in focusing on those areas that will 3 be most beneficial to you and the work that you 4 perform. 5 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. 6 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Thank you for that 7 information about Nebraska. 8 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. 9 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: And certainly about 10 the facility itself, and very useful information, 11 because it helps us to perhaps recognize many of 12 your challenges. I'd like to ask a couple of 13 questions. 14 Is Nebraska a death penalty state? 15 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. 16 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: And do you have 17 lifers at Tecumseh? 18 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. 19 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: I see. Do you have 20 conjugal visits? 21 ROBERT HOUSTON: No. We have 67 1 furloughs, when people achieve community level, 2 but we do not have conjugal visiting. 3 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: And you indicated 4 in answering the Chairman's questions regarding 5 staff-on-inmate sex, that you've had some 6 criminal offenses and you've had some 7 relationships. Could you expound on 8 relationships and what you meant by 9 relationships? 10 ROBERT HOUSTON: Okay. I'll try not to 11 do it by overkill. 12 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: That's okay. 13 ROBERT HOUSTON: But we expect staff to 14 have professional relationships. We are 15 undergoing some changes in our pre-service class 16 over the next year, where we're going to be 17 looking at the training that we offer in 18 pre-service and in-service about just teaching 19 staff -- we do a very, very good job of teaching 20 people the mechanics of cell extractions, uses of 21 force, the policy that we have before us and so 68 1 forth. 2 What we don't really do a good job of, 3 or we can do a better job of, I should say, is 4 teaching the staff how to redirect inmate 5 negative behavior, how to take that criminal 6 thinking and try to direct that in a more 7 positive direction. 8 So we're developing a training program 9 that will start out as two hours and then develop 10 into a four-hour or longer course on just 11 basically how to redirect criminal thinking, and 12 how to better respond to the things that inmates 13 are going to say, so that as you learn your way 14 into the department, you also learn how to 15 establish professional relationships with inmates 16 who will try to capitalize upon what they 17 perceive as a weakness. So those are the types 18 of things we think we can do better at. 19 What I think we do very good job at is, 20 once they get there, is to monitoring the 21 relationships that we see developing and what the 69 1 red flags might be. 2 For example, our officers when they 3 come in are assigned to various security posts. 4 So some of them have very little interaction with 5 inmates and others have -- that's all they have 6 is interaction with inmates; they spend eight 7 hours in a sole post with the inmates. 8 Some of the inappropriate professional 9 or the dual relationships that develop between 10 the inmates and the staff is because the person 11 that greets you in the morning is probably an 12 inmate. The person that tells you that you look 13 very nice today or you're a little tired today or 14 how are the kids and those types of things is an 15 inmate. The person that might reinforce that is 16 an inmate, when you're in these more isolated 17 posts. 18 And so one thing that we've had in our 19 department is post rotation. We try to rotate 20 staff from post to post to try to take away from 21 that a bit and get them around the institution. 70 1 It accomplishes that, training, awareness, and 2 those types of things. 3 But at the same time, there are people 4 who are librarians, who are working other posts, 5 that that's the type of relationship that 6 develops, and out of that comes some negative 7 relationships. And so we need to always be 8 cautious of that. 9 And so I think our supervisors do a 10 good job of trying to identify that, because it's 11 usually staff saying, so-and-so is having a 12 relationship with so-and-so, that brings things 13 -- so that we can identify those a little bit 14 better. 15 An initiative that has been undertaken 16 by both Tecumseh, and Tony can talk to that, and 17 also by the penitentiary, is form what we call a 18 team within a team. Tony as a supervisor has at 19 any one time probably about 50 to 55 staff that 20 work on his shift each evening and they 21 traditionally have looked at the lieutenant as 71 1 being their supervisor. 2 But we have sergeants, so we've taken 3 the sergeant that we have, and some corporal 4 positions and upgraded them to the sergeant, and 5 we've run those supervisors through virtually 6 every training program we have with the 7 Department of Administrative Services; we have 8 leadership courses in the department, two levels 9 of it, and other training that is specific to 10 first-line supervisors. 11 So on January 1st of 2008, we began our 12 program of team within a team. So each one of 13 those supervisors, instead of Tony having 55 14 staff, now has about 15 staff, and they're 15 expected to talk to those individuals, try to 16 make contact with them every day throughout the 17 shifts, maybe several times during the shift, 18 have them do the preparation for personnel 19 evaluations, to answer questions they might have 20 and so forth, so that we can really hone in on 21 those people in second shift that -- and we'll 72 1 spread it to other shifts given that this is 2 successful, so that they're the best trained 3 supervisors we can have, that they are in posts 4 where they can rotate out and see the staff, 5 answer questions, and really, out of 6 conversations, really kind of get a good feeling 7 as to how your shift is going, if an inmate is 8 talking to you in a way they shouldn't be 9 speaking to you, if they're asking something they 10 shouldn't be asking of you, to answer those 11 questions and get at it right away. 12 So that's the program that's coming on. 13 So that's kind of the attention we're paying to 14 those relationships, both teaching them at 15 in-service, pre-service, and then supervise it 16 every day to try to get at that. 17 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Thank you for that 18 information. That's very important in terms of 19 the problems that you have, those relationships, 20 so we'll probably want to ask more questions 21 about that as we move along. 73 1 I was struck by your experience in 2 working with criminal justice within the field 3 and teaching at the university level. So you 4 have had lots of experience or information in 5 terms of victimology and the importance of victim 6 assistance in the criminal justice field. 7 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: And to that, I would 9 ask this question: From your experience in 10 working in prison systems, what do you think 11 contributes to sexual acting out and sexual 12 violence in the overall prison experience? 13 ROBERT HOUSTON: Let's see if I can ask 14 a question correctly: What is it that I think 15 contributes to having sexual violence? 16 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Yes. It's a 17 pervasive problem. 18 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. 19 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Why does it occur 20 when people are confined in those areas, 21 notwithstanding that rape and sexual assault 74 1 exist in the wider society, but what are your 2 thoughts about sexual violence across the board 3 in prison systems? What do you think contributes 4 to that? 5 ROBERT HOUSTON: Okay. Well, I hope to 6 not get off point, but to put it in a very 7 general context, both how I look at it as whether 8 I be teaching at the university or whether I be 9 talking to my staff and so forth, what I guess I 10 look at it as is, is there's a continuum in 11 incarceration. And Gofton's book on asylums, I 12 think, was a very good read of mine, and that had 13 nothing to do with prisons but everything to do 14 with prisons. It was about the mental health 15 institutions. And what he speaks about there -- 16 well, it's not spoken to there but in other 17 areas, but gets at the secondary rewards that 18 inmates look for in relationships. 19 I mean, when an inmate -- the way the 20 inmate looks at things is, is they look both at 21 the use and also the misuse of things. 75 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: I'm sorry, I'm 2 having difficulty hearing. 3 ROBERT HOUSTON: They look at both the 4 use and misuse of things. So the use of 5 relationships and maybe the misuse of 6 relationships. 7 But prisons in general, the way I look 8 at them is, you start with your higher security 9 institutions and then you go all the way to your 10 community centers, and there's a continuum from 11 the highest security to the lowest security. And 12 the influences that they have, both from external 13 forces and also internal forces, is you move from 14 what's called imprisonization, prisonization and 15 the effects of that, to importation. Okay. 16 So prisonization is those types of 17 behaviors that develop because you have a closed 18 community. Importation are those things that are 19 of influence because they come from the outside. 20 So it comes from the outside; it would be 21 victims' groups, families, friends, the 76 1 opportunity for reentry into society, programs, 2 substance abuse programs and so forth, things 3 that happen as you get into lower custody 4 facilities and into community centers. A lot of 5 activities, a lot of optimism by the inmates to 6 get back into society, to go on furloughs, to 7 have conjugal contacts, and so forth. That 8 happens at the lower end of any prison system, 9 including ours. 10 At the higher end has to do with 11 imprisonization, and those are the types of 12 behaviors, I think, that arise in closed 13 communities. And so with the inmate population 14 that we have, they're doing a long period of 15 time. They know that they're never, ever going 16 to be free again. And so they look for the 17 amenities that we can provide and those types of 18 things. 19 But being deprived of the amenities and 20 being deprived of the mental health counseling 21 and that type of thing, the imprisonization -- 77 1 the prisonization effect, I think, is that 2 certain behaviors and relationships that develop 3 that are very closed, very much can become 4 predatory on one another, because there isn't, as 5 at the other end of the continuum, those types of 6 things being imported from the general society 7 that cause things to be like the community. 8 And it's there that we have to move 9 with the greatest amount of caution, and 10 therefore our penitentiary, therefore Tecumseh -- 11 so that we know that those are the types of 12 effects or the inward looking, the very much on 13 the inmates' part, the "I" oriented. 14 And you can tell from the 15 correspondence you get, there's a marked 16 difference between somebody in a high-security 17 institution and somebody in a low-security 18 institution. They're very much concentrated on 19 "I" in the high-security institution, and very 20 much concentrated on community optimism, family 21 optimism, and so forth at the lower end. 78 1 And so by understanding the dynamics of 2 what a high-security, long-time serious offender 3 looks at, we need to respond accordingly with 4 resources, with programs, with jobs, with mental 5 health, and all the other resources. And that's 6 why by bringing in Dr. Thomas White, who said, 7 look at your department as a pyramid and look at 8 the top of the pyramid and look at your most 9 serious offenders, your most mentally ill, those 10 people that have the greatest challenges when it 11 comes to substance abuse and substance abuse 12 where they act out violently and so forth, and 13 concentrate your resources there. 14 Because if you can make -- if we can 15 make a dent, even though we know it's very 16 expensive and we're spending a lot of money and a 17 lot of time with, with our clinical psychologists 18 and hiring psychiatrists and so forth, if we can 19 make a dent in that population, two things 20 happen. 21 One is, is that you're going to have a 79 1 safer prison. Because now, now the inmates are 2 going to get those types -- that type of 3 importation they would normally be deprived of. 4 And the other thing that's going to 5 happen is -- when those individuals do reenter 6 society, they have the highest probability of 7 reoffending. And so if we can deal effectively 8 with that top end of the pyramid, it's going to 9 make a huge difference on how the institution is 10 run and how safe the Nebraska community is, and 11 that's where we've concentrated our resources, 12 and we're migrating even more resources to that 13 higher level. 14 One thing that Tecumseh did not have 18 15 months ago that they have now is, we have two 16 mental health professionals right on our 192-bed 17 special management unit, and that is at Tecumseh; 18 it's the highest risk inmates, the people that, 19 they earned their way there by bad behavior. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: That's Ad Seg, sir? 21 ROBERT HOUSTON: Administration Seg, 80 1 yes. We call it the special management unit. So 2 we now have mental health professionals there. 3 We now have at the Lincoln Correctional 4 Center an acute mental health unit that we're 5 developing. The only reason that -- we're just 6 trying to get a psychiatrist hired. We gave up a 7 couple of positions in central office to fund 8 this thing. We've had it advertised for a year 9 and a half. We've had a couple of candidates. 10 We hope to get that person hired. If we don't, 11 we're still going to proceed anyhow, try to get 12 nurses of those qualifications and so forth to be 13 there. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: So that's 192 beds 15 in the SMU at Tecumseh? 16 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. And so I know 17 that's a long road to answer your short question, 18 but I really think that where the violence comes 19 from is the fact that, if you take people who are 20 in a highly closed set of circumstances and if 21 you don't well-resource them, keep them busy, 81 1 have the amenities that are necessary, you're 2 going to have behaviors that arise naturally in 3 human behavior in closed communities that is all 4 the bad in what we are. And so that's why we're 5 concentrating our resources with those 6 individuals. 7 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Thank you. And I'm 8 also hearing you say in terms of your staff and 9 relationships, that you recognize that there are 10 some areas in terms of your staff and their 11 specific needs and that you are addressing them, 12 as well. 13 ROBERT HOUSTON: Absolutely. 14 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: I have one more 15 question. I want to ask you about PREA and the 16 implementation of PREA across the board in your 17 facilities in Nebraska. What has been your 18 greatest challenge? 19 ROBERT HOUSTON: Well, I don't know 20 that -- I think the challenge has just been 21 getting after it, you know, and implementing 82 1 things. 2 There is not a single thing that I have 3 read, a single training program that we haven't 4 tried to participate in. I can't think -- and 5 Brad Hansen will speak to this when he gets up; 6 there's not a thing that we find in PREA, as far 7 as standards are concerned, as far as the SART, 8 having that model put into place, talking to Dave 9 Thomas about having a nurse undergo the education 10 for the SANE; there's not a thing that we find in 11 PREA that we can't do, either that we're not 12 doing now or that we're not willing to do. It's 13 just a matter of just putting it into place. 14 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: PREA is pretty 15 basic in terms of safety and security and 16 information and access to resources and those 17 things that are most important in addressing 18 sexual assault, so I'm encouraged to hear that 19 you're feeling very positive about what you are 20 doing at this point and, as you said, looking 21 forward to perhaps discussing it a little more in 83 1 depth as we move along. Thank you very much. 2 ROBERT HOUSTON: You're welcome. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Mr. Director, I just 4 had two follow-up questions. One is, are your 5 COs at Tecumseh unionized? 6 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And do you 8 feel that you have the latitude under your 9 collective bargaining agreement to make the 10 hiring decisions, staffing decisions, necessary 11 in your judgment to cure the problem of excessive 12 overtime? 13 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. Well, no, now 14 that you ask. There is something we'd like to do 15 differently. 16 One of the things we've been working 17 with our union is, is to allow us to have 18 alternative shifts, so that not all our shifts 19 are eight hours, that some of them be 12-hour 20 shifts. We would not have -- in our estimation, 21 we believe we could make a dent in the overtime 84 1 we have if we had the ability to have some 2 officers, not all officers, but some officers 3 that work 24-hour posts on 12-hour assignments, 4 at least to try that out. 5 And the reason I say that and the 6 reason we think specifically about Tecumseh is, 7 when you look at -- and the institution keeps 8 very good track of where our staff come from; 9 they come mostly from southeast Nebraska, but 10 it's a very sparsely populated part of our State, 11 so, as a result, staff have to travel 15, 20, 30 12 miles each way. Well, that's an hour or more 13 each day that they have invested in travel. And 14 we think if they went on to 12-hour shifts, at 15 least for some of them, and then had 78 more days 16 a year off to go about their business of farming 17 or farming-related activities, that we could 18 attract some people that would stick around a 19 little bit longer. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: Reduce the turnover. 21 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes, exactly. 85 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: Great. And we had 2 asked -- Mr. Siedlecki of our office had asked if 3 we could get information about suicides and 4 attempted suicides at Tecumseh. Do you have that 5 information? 6 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. Well, let's see. 7 More specifically, I think the last suicide in 8 the department was, I believe, 2003. We had one 9 case within the past year and a half where a 10 person had taken their own medication in a larger 11 quantity, and I don't know for sure, Benny might 12 be able to assist with that, whether or not that 13 was determined to be a suicide. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: What about attempted 15 suicides at Tecumseh? 16 ROBERT HOUSTON: That I'd probably 17 leave up to Benny to respond to, but I don't know 18 that we've had many of those. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 20 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: What about 21 homicides? 86 1 ROBERT HOUSTON: Homicides. We have 2 one case now that's going on, we don't know if 3 it's a homicide or not, but we know that two 4 individuals, what we see, got into an altercation 5 and one of them died, and that's a court 6 proceeding that's occurring now, but that's 7 really the only one we've had. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: Are there any 9 pending lawsuits against the department that 10 relate to either treatment of an inmate or staff 11 at Tecumseh? 12 ROBERT HOUSTON: Not that I'm aware of. 13 We do get a healthy amount of litigation, and 14 we'll have individuals that will, you know, have 15 individual cases. Usually it's about their time 16 calculation and things such as that. But I can't 17 think that we have or ever have had any 18 litigation that pertained to the safety and 19 security at Tecumseh. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Do you have 21 any litigation or, to your knowledge, has there 87 1 ever been any litigation relating to or alleging 2 sexual abuse or sexual harassment of a staff 3 member at Tecumseh -- I'm sorry, by a staff 4 member at Tecumseh? In other words, somebody is 5 suing alleging that a staff member or a former 6 staff member at Tecumseh sexually abused or 7 harassed them? Might be another -- the victim, 8 or plaintiff, might be another staff member or 9 might be an inmate or a former inmate at 10 Tecumseh? 11 ROBERT HOUSTON: Well, I can't imagine 12 that we haven't had some complaints of that, but 13 I certainly don't know what they would be. 14 That's something we can certainly get and get to 15 you and add to the record. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: Would you expect 17 your -- I assume the department has some legal 18 counsel. 19 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: And I assume that 21 legal counsel would brief you on any litigation 88 1 against the Department of Corrections? 2 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 4 ROBERT HOUSTON: Our legal counsel, we 5 obviously prepared for today, I think as you'll 6 see, and they have been with us on several 7 occasions for half-day and day-long sessions in 8 preparation for today. But I can't think out of 9 that experience that there was -- I really 10 couldn't tell you what we have for litigation in 11 that area. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Did your 13 legal counsel come with you today, or no? 14 ROBERT HOUSTON: No. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Mr. Director, thank 16 you again for both your testimony and your 17 attitude, and we look forward to learning 18 together the rest of the day. 19 ROBERT HOUSTON: Okay. Thank you. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: At this time, could 21 we have Mr. Brad Hansen, Major Brittenham, 89 1 Lieutenant Simon, and Mr. Thomas come join us for 2 this, to start the first panel. 3 Good morning, gentlemen. Thank you for 4 joining us. Would you please raise your right 5 hand and let me swear you in. 6 (The witnesses were placed under oath.) 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Starting with Major 8 Brittenham, would you please state your full name 9 and rank and your responsibilities at Tecumseh 10 for the record? 11 RICH BRITTENHAM: My name is Richard E. 12 Brittenham. I currently am a captain at the 13 Nebraska State Penitentiary. As Director Houston 14 stated, I was a major there from the opening of 15 Tecumseh State Correctional Institution until 16 February 18th of this year. Part of my duties 17 was, I oversaw the custody department -- 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: This is at Tecumseh? 19 RICH BRITTENHAM: At Tecumseh, yes, 20 correct. I oversaw the custody department, 21 reviewed and disseminated reports. I made 90 1 recommendations dealing with staff 2 professionalism, worked with enforcing the rules 3 and regulations, and dealt with inmate discipline 4 as far as overseeing the disciplinary committee 5 coordinator's office. I attended what we call 6 the IRC, Incident Review Committee, every day, to 7 review the previous night's reports. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: That's the IRC, 9 Inmate Review Committee? 10 RICH BRITTENHAM: Yeah, it's an 11 Incident Report Committee. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Incident Report, 13 sorry. 14 RICH BRITTENHAM: From the reports from 15 the night before, we meet every day, every next 16 working day, I should say, and review the night 17 or the weekend's previous. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Thank you, Captain. 19 Mr. Thomas. 20 DAVE THOMAS: Good morning, Chairman 21 McFarland, Ms. Ellis. My name is David R. 91 1 Thomas. I'm the health service administrator at 2 Tecumseh State Corrections. I ultimately have 3 administrative authority over all of the medical 4 care that's given at Tecumseh State Corrections. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: And that includes 6 mental health? 7 DAVE THOMAS: I have authority over the 8 pscychologists at Tecumseh State Corrections. 9 The psychiatrist and the -- or I have authority 10 over the psychiatrist at Tecumseh State 11 Corrections. The psychologists and licensed 12 mental health professionals are part of the 13 Department of Corrections; however, we have an 14 excellent working relationship and meet daily. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. So you have 16 control over the psychiatrist but not the 17 psychologists at Tecumseh. 18 DAVE THOMAS: Not administrative 19 control. 20 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Is there a position 21 in addition to the psychiatrist there who is 92 1 strictly in terms of medical needs? 2 DAVE THOMAS: Correct. The 3 psychiatrist, Dr. Baker, at our facility sees the 4 patients that need medication, and she prescribes 5 that medication. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: That was Dr. Baker? 7 DAVE THOMAS: Yes, sir. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: And should we be 9 addressing you as Dr. Thomas? What's your 10 professional credentials, sir? 11 DAVE THOMAS: I have a bachelor's 12 degree in nursing. 13 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: In nursing. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Thank you, sir. 15 Lieutenant Simon. 16 ANTON SIMON: Yes, good morning. My 17 name is Anton Joseph Simon. I'm a lieutenant 18 assigned to second shift at Tecumseh State 19 Correctional Institution. I'm assigned to 20 oversee second shift and all the staff assigned 21 to second shift, to include completing their 93 1 evaluations, conducting on-the-spot counseling, 2 and informal and formal counseling. I am also 3 responsible to oversee the facility after hours 4 and to ensure the safety and security of the 5 institution is met after hours. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: And the second shift 7 is from when to when? 8 ANTON SIMON: Two p.m. to ten p.m. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: And, Lieutenant 10 Simon, how long have you been in any capacity at 11 Tecumseh? 12 ANTON SIMON: I've worked at Tecumseh 13 for just over six years now. I started as a unit 14 caseworker for about two years, I was a sergeant 15 for about two years, and I have been a lieutenant 16 for about two years now. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: And Mr. Thomas, how 18 long have you been at Tecumseh? 19 DAVE THOMAS: I've been at Tecumseh 20 since before the facility opened. I started in 21 June of 2001, and we started to take inmates in 94 1 the first part of December 2001. So almost seven 2 years. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: And, Captain 4 Brittenham, how long were you at -- I know when 5 you stopped, but when did you start? 6 RICH BRITTENHAM: When I was a major, I 7 was promoted in September of 2000. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. So you first 9 set foot or started duty at Tecumseh in -- 10 RICH BRITTENHAM: September of 2000. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: -- September of 12 2000. 13 RICH BRITTENHAM: Before it was even 14 built. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: That's 12 months 16 before you got your first inmate. 17 RICH BRITTENHAM: Right. We were 18 setting up post orders and policies and hiring 19 staff and getting them to training for when we 20 opened it up in phases. So it was back then. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: So this is kind of 95 1 your baby. You and Lieutenant Simon have been 2 there from the outset. Okay. Mr. Hansen. 3 BRAD HANSEN: Yes. My name is Brad 4 Hansen. I'm the department emergency management 5 supervisor. I've been working for the department 6 for 30 years. Some of my -- part of my 7 responsibilities are that I supervise the 8 Division of Investigation, where we have two 9 investigators. I'm also responsible since early 10 last year, 2007, of reporting our incidents to 11 BJS for our PREA report. And in the last couple 12 weeks, I've been identified as the PREA 13 coordinator, but I don't know that that will 14 last, but our current PREA coordinator is moving 15 on to other jobs. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: Who is your current 17 PREA coordinator? 18 BRAD HANSEN: Janee Pannkuk. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: Would you mind 20 spelling that for the record. 21 BRAD HANSEN: Sure. It's J-e -- or J- 96 1 -- someone is going to have to help me. J-e-n -- 2 RICH BRITTENHAM: J-a-n-e-e. 3 BRAD HANSEN: J-a-n-e-e. 4 RICH BRITTENHAM: P-a-n-n-k-u-k. 5 BRAD HANSEN: Yeah, thank you. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: Would you try it 7 again; I'm a little slow here. 8 RICH BRITTENHAM: J-a-n-e-e. Last name 9 is Pannkuk, P-a-n-n-k-u-k. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: Just like it sounds. 11 And Ms. Pannkuk has left or is -- 12 BRAD HANSEN: I think she's got five 13 days or six days left. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And when did 15 she start as PREA coordinator? 16 BRAD HANSEN: I don't know; I'd have to 17 ask Bob. Probably a year ago, year and a half 18 ago, she was named. 19 ROBERT HOUSTON: She's been responsible 20 for the change to the classification system -- 21 she's been responsible for -- at least I think, 97 1 the last couple of years, her job is over 2 programs, so she's over the programs we've done 3 in our classification system, where we evolved 4 the Criminal Justice Institute, and she's over 5 volunteer services, education. So there's a 6 variety of things she's over. Included with that 7 is the PREA effort as it involves the grants. We 8 now added, about a year and a half ago, Patricia 9 Sattler, who is our grants coordinator, so she's 10 kind of picked up as far as the grants. But Brad 11 came out because of his capacity; we thought he 12 could better answer the questions that you would 13 have. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Well, thank you, and 15 welcome. 16 Lieutenant Simon, what's the atmosphere 17 on your shift among staff as it relates to sexual 18 comments, jokes, labels? Do the guys and ladies 19 on staff have occasion to make jokes about the, 20 you know, a particular effeminate inmate or other 21 sexualized references to inmates? 98 1 ANTON SIMON: Well, I'm sure it 2 happens, but it doesn't happen around me. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Doesn't happen -- 4 ANTON SIMON: Around me. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: -- around you. Why 6 is that? 7 ANTON SIMON: I would assume because 8 I'm their supervisor. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Before you 10 became the lieutenant on the second shift and you 11 were a unit counselor, would you hear sexualized 12 comments, jokes, labels, you know, about 13 so-and-so is obviously gay or, you know, I wonder 14 what those two cellees are up to tonight, or that 15 sort of thing? 16 ANTON SIMON: I am sure that I have, 17 but I don't recall any specific incidents. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Sure. And why did 19 that change when you became their supervisor? 20 ANTON SIMON: Why did -- 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: Why did you stop 99 1 hearing those sorts of things when you became the 2 supervisor of the second shift? 3 ANTON SIMON: Well, because I was a 4 supervisor, more was expected of me. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: So has there been a 6 change in the policy such that, now that you're 7 in a position to enforce it, you're not hearing 8 it? Or was there -- the policy has always been 9 against that kind of joking and you just -- now 10 you're in a position to do something about it? 11 ANTON SIMON: That's right, the policy 12 has always been against it. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. What about 14 the presence of pornography or skin magazines in 15 Tecumseh, is that allowed? 16 ANTON SIMON: Inmates are allowed to 17 purchase magazines. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: They can have 19 subscriptions to pornographic, adult-type 20 literature? 21 ANTON SIMON: Yes, that's correct. 100 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: Is there any limit 2 on, you know, soft porn, whatever that is, 3 hard-core porn, or is it just if they subscribe to 4 it, they can get it? 5 ANTON SIMON: Yes, we do have 6 restrictions. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: What is that? 8 ANTON SIMON: I don't know all of them, 9 but I know like bestiality, aggressiveness, stuff 10 like that is banned. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: I see. And who -- 12 did you have something to add? 13 ANTON SIMON: I was just going to add, 14 pictures or pictures that depict rape or sexual 15 violence, that that is not allowed, as well. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And as long 17 as it doesn't depict rape or violence or 18 bestiality, they can have it in their possession? 19 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: And can they put it 21 inside their cell, visible inside their cell? 101 1 ANTON SIMON: What do you mean by 2 visible? 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Can they put it on 4 the wall? 5 ANTON SIMON: No. Inmates are not 6 allowed to post items on their walls. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Can they put 8 it on the mirror? 9 ANTON SIMON: No. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: Anywhere visible to 11 them in the cell? 12 ANTON SIMON: No. They're not allowed 13 to post items like that. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: So they can pull it 15 out under the pillow and look at it all they 16 want, but it can't be posted. 17 ANTON SIMON: Correct. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Can they 19 share it with inmates? 20 ANTON SIMON: Our inmate rules prohibit 21 passing and receiving items from one inmate to 102 1 another, but, yes, that does happen. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: Sure. Kind of hard 3 to enforce. 4 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: You can put a 6 centerfold in a lot of places on your body and 7 accidentally on purpose drop it in somebody 8 else's cell. Is that fair to say? 9 ANTON SIMON: Yes, sir. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: So that would 11 become, while it's technically contraband, that 12 can become a valuable item or currency, if you 13 will, among inmates. Is that fair? 14 ANTON SIMON: It could be. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: That's something to 16 sell; is that right? 17 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Has anybody on your 19 shift, Lieutenant, ever been disciplined or 20 written up for making a sexualized joke in the 21 presence of an inmate? 103 1 ANTON SIMON: Not to my knowledge. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. But you think 3 that it happens? 4 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: Just not around you. 6 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Do you think that -- 8 is it fair to say that among staff, there's 9 something of a -- you know, TV might call it a 10 code of silence, but I mean, there's a sense of 11 camaraderie and commitment and to get along with 12 one another; you generally don't, unless it's 13 life threatening, you don't rat on your fellow 14 staff member? 15 ANTON SIMON: No, I don't think that's 16 necessarily true. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. What 18 sort of things do you think are reported 19 regularly and what sort of things probably go by 20 the wayside, if you know? 21 ANTON SIMON: Some of the things that 104 1 are reported regularly are, we deal with a lot of 2 rumors floating around staff. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Like what? 4 ANTON SIMON: So-and-so is dating this 5 officer, stuff like that. Or, I can't think of 6 any examples off the top of my head. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Rumors about 8 activity among inmates? 9 ANTON SIMON: Sometimes. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: How about rumors 11 about activity between a staffer and an inmate? 12 ANTON SIMON: Sometimes. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: And you've heard 14 that recently in Tecumseh, some such rumors, 15 whether they're true or not? 16 ANTON SIMON: Recently, in the past few 17 months? 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. 19 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And what do 21 you do about it, if you hear those rumors? 105 1 ANTON SIMON: If one of my staff comes 2 up and says so-and-so is telling me this, I have 3 them write an incident report and follow up. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: And where would it 5 go; where would the incident report go? 6 ANTON SIMON: I would submit it to the 7 major's office. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: And that would be 9 Captain Brittenham's successor? 10 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And who is 12 that? 13 ANTON SIMON: Right now we have not 14 appointed a major. They conducted interviews a 15 couple weeks ago, I believe. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: So if it happened 17 yesterday, who would you have given the incident 18 report to? 19 ANTON SIMON: Right now, Captain Conley 20 is our acting major. 21 RICH BRITTENHAM: Sir, I believe 106 1 they're rotating the captains through that office 2 every two weeks. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. So there's 4 somebody to give it to you. 5 ANTON SIMON: Yes, sir. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. So if we were 7 to talk to Captain Conley or some of the other 8 rotated captains, they'd be able to tell us how 9 many, if any, incident reports they received 10 recently? 11 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: They should be able 13 to tell, Captain? 14 RICH BRITTENHAM: I believe they 15 should, yeah. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And is there 17 a log of incident reports, to your knowledge, 18 Lieutenant? 19 ANTON SIMON: I don't know. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: Captain? 21 RICH BRITTENHAM: I don't think there's 107 1 a written log like on a ledger or anything. It 2 just depends, after -- usually what they would do 3 with that is, they would take it the next day to 4 IRC, and there's a group of people in there who 5 would discuss it and follow up. If there's 6 information, whoever enters into a database, they 7 might have it in there, if it warrants it. But a 8 steadfast hundred percent, no, I wouldn't say 9 there would be a log. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. So are 11 incident report forms -- there are forms, I take 12 it? 13 RICH BRITTENHAM: Yeah, it's a green 14 sheet of paper with lines that has, like, name, 15 number, and report written by. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: Are those forms 17 numbered in such a way that you'd know if one had 18 been filled out and lost, if it hadn't been 19 logged? 20 RICH BRITTENHAM: The only way a number 21 is put on it is if it's put into a database. 108 1 Otherwise, there's no number -- I mean, other 2 than page 1 of 2. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: So if Lieutenant 4 Simon or his other shift supervisors on the other 5 shifts were to have filled out an incident report 6 and it got lost between Lieutenant Simon handing 7 it to the major or to the acting major, there 8 would be no way of knowing; is that correct? 9 RICH BRITTENHAM: No. They put it in a 10 lockbox, and then the next morning I would go 11 there, open up a lockbox, and it's got a slot, 12 oh, a couple inches by that much -- so if it was 13 in there and when I was there, when I came in, if 14 it wasn't there, I wouldn't know about it. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: So if I understand 16 this correctly, and I appreciate all of your 17 candor and honesty on this, if I understand the 18 way it could work, if the shift supervisor -- 19 backwards. 20 If a correctional officer on any shift 21 heard a rumor about sexual activity between a 109 1 staff member and an inmate, they have the option 2 of filling out an incident report, or do you need 3 -- does the shift supervisor have to direct them? 4 In other words, does the shift supervisor make a 5 decision, okay, officer, that sounds serious; I 6 want you to fill out an incident report? How 7 does it work? Do you expect your officers on 8 your shift to always fill out an incident report 9 if they hear a rumor of sexual activity, either 10 staff-on-inmate or inmate-on-inmate, or is it up 11 to you to tell them, oh, that sounds serious; 12 please fill out an incident report? 13 ANTON SIMON: My expectation of them is 14 that they would take the initiative and do it 15 themselves. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. So if 17 you hear a rumor, you're going to expect that 18 somebody is in the process of or has already 19 filled out an incident report? 20 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And then 110 1 you're going to fill out the -- or you're going 2 to review the incident report, and then do you 3 make a decision as to whether you want to turn it 4 in to the major, or are you supposed to turn in 5 every one of them? 6 ANTON SIMON: I'd turn it in to the 7 major's office. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: But I know that's 9 what you do -- or do you understand that you must 10 turn it in? Are you expected to turn it in, or 11 is it just your personal practice that, hey, I 12 turn them all in? 13 ANTON SIMON: No, we're expected to 14 turn them all in. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Is that in any 16 policy? Is that written down anywhere? 17 ANTON SIMON: Not that I'm aware of. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. In your 19 in-service training, do you have any training 20 about this process of sexual abuse reporting; 21 does that come up in your annual in-service 111 1 training? 2 ANTON SIMON: Yes, it does. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And do you 4 recall any discussion in that training about what 5 all folks are supposed to do on staff in 6 forwarding up the food chain any kind of 7 allegations of sexual abuse? 8 ANTON SIMON: I'm sorry, I didn't -- 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: That was a very long 10 question. Is it included specifically in the 11 training; do you recall the training actually 12 addressing what you're supposed to do with an 13 incident report on sexual abuse? 14 ANTON SIMON: Yes. They are instructed 15 to report it to their supervisor. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And are the 17 supervisors, in this case, you, are you directed 18 in that training to always forward it to a major, 19 or are you supposed to do a little sorting 20 yourself and decide, well, this sounds flaky or 21 this doesn't sound very serious; I don't think I 112 1 need to bother the major with it? 2 ANTON SIMON: No, we are not instructed 3 to sort it ourselves. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. So everything 5 goes up? 6 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. But it's 8 possible that the incident report, because it's 9 not numbered, forms are not numbered, could get 10 lost and the major would never know that one was 11 coming his way and just never made it to him. Is 12 that correct? 13 ANTON SIMON: I suppose it's possible. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Do you talk 15 to the major after every shift and say, now, I 16 take it you found in the lockbox the incident 17 report that I filled out or that my officer 18 filled out from yesterday's shift? 19 ANTON SIMON: No, I do not. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. So it is 21 imminently possible that an incident report gets 113 1 filled out by an officer and maybe it doesn't 2 make it to you; is that right? 3 ANTON SIMON: It's possible. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: And there's no log, 5 so we don't know if -- you're not going to have 6 reference to a log to find out, I never got that 7 from Officer Hansen; I'm going to go back and 8 find out what happened to it. Is that correct? 9 ANTON SIMON: Correct. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: And then, similarly, 11 for the same reason, we're never going to know if 12 it never made it from you to the lockbox; is that 13 correct? 14 ANTON SIMON: Correct. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: And we're never 16 going to know what the major did with it when he 17 got it out of the lockbox; is that correct? 18 ANTON SIMON: Correct. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Lieutenant, 20 you know this facility, you've been there since 21 it opened, and you've testified that you believe 114 1 that sexual activity is going on there. If I was 2 to tell you that a staff member sexually -- was 3 sexually involved last night with an inmate at 4 Tecumseh but I wasn't going to tell you where it 5 happened, where is the first place you would 6 look? In other words, where is the most 7 secretive place? Where's the place where it 8 would be most difficult for you or anybody else 9 to find out about? 10 ANTON SIMON: Are you talking in our 11 physical plant? 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes, sir, in your 13 physical plant. 14 ANTON SIMON: I don't know of any 15 particular place that's any more difficult to 16 hide than any other. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. Let's 18 talk about video cameras. Are there video 19 cameras anywhere in Tecumseh? 20 ANTON SIMON: Yes, there are. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: And where are they? 115 1 ANTON SIMON: There's numerous cameras 2 throughout the institution. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. Let's 4 start with the residential units. Are there any 5 video cameras in those? 6 ANTON SIMON: Yes, there are. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: In all of them? 8 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And is this 10 single cell, double cell, or dura-member style? 11 ANTON SIMON: Most of our general 12 population is double-celled. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: And as I understand 14 it, Tecumseh has all custody levels; is that 15 right? 16 ANTON SIMON: We're primarily medium 17 and maximum. We do have a small number of 18 minimum-custody inmates for working outside of 19 our fence. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: So you have 21 everybody from folks that are about ready to go 116 1 on community corrections up to death row? 2 ANTON SIMON: Correct. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And are there 4 any inmates who are not double-celled? 5 ANTON SIMON: Yes, there are; there are 6 some single cells. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Setting aside Ad 8 Seg? 9 ANTON SIMON: Yes. Currently, our 10 minimum unit is single-celled. Our substance 11 abuse treatment unit is single-celled, and I 12 believe right now there's 22 inmates in our 13 substance abuse unit. And then we have one 14 general population unit that's single-celled, 15 which houses 64. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: I'm just curious and 17 I'm showing my ignorance: Why would the minimum 18 custody be single-celled and your most difficult 19 folks be double-celled? 20 ANTON SIMON: I don't know. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: Anyone have an -- 117 1 RICH BRITTENHAM: I would think some of 2 it is, it's kind of like a little bit of a 3 benefit. And the design of the unit would be, 4 because they do work outside the fence, so that 5 would be that. They also do not have any contact 6 with medium- and maximum-custody inmates unless 7 they're escorted by staff. So it's kind of an 8 isolation, too, because they can have access to 9 outside the perimeter. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: Warden, I take it 11 you want to say something? If so, you need to 12 raise your right hand. 13 (The witness was placed under oath.) 14 FRED BRITTEN: Well, the reason we put 15 the minimum-custody inmates in the gallery that 16 they live on -- the physical plan of our facility, 17 though the gallery they live on is Housing 18 Unit 1, F Gallery -- and F Gallery is the closest 19 gallery to the administration building where we 20 bring them to to process them out, to work in the 21 administrative building, and to work outside the 118 1 facility. 2 And so, subsequently, it's just 3 strategically the best place to house them, and 4 it just happened to be single-celled. It wasn't 5 some mystery as to why do the minimum guys get 6 single cells. It was just a strategic location 7 where we could put them to process them so they 8 don't have contact with the maximum-custody 9 inmates. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Thank you. 11 Thank you very much, Warden. 12 Lieutenant, going back to the cameras, 13 I take it the cameras, you can't see into the 14 cells from the cameras in general populations; is 15 that correct? 16 ANTON SIMON: That's correct. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: So you can see 18 anybody who's going in or out of a cell or coming 19 up to a cell door, but you can't see, once they 20 go in, you can't see in there? 21 ANTON SIMON: Correct. 119 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: And how long are the 2 tapes kept? 3 ANTON SIMON: We don't normally record 4 our cameras. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 6 ANTON SIMON: They can be set to 7 record, but we do not record all of our cameras. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: And do you have an 9 officer always monitoring these live feeds? 10 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: Captain, you were 12 shaking your head. 13 RICH BRITTENHAM: They're in central 14 control, and so they have other duties, but they 15 also can, or they have monitors in the control 16 stations where they can monitor it, but dedicated 17 eight-hour solidly watching that I don't think is 18 -- I think they have other duties, as well. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: So they could miss 20 something -- 21 RICH BRITTENHAM: You know what I'm 120 1 saying? 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes, so they could 3 miss something. They turn their head or they're 4 looking at another monitor? 5 RICH BRITTENHAM: Or somebody come up 6 to their hatch and ask for a grievance or an 7 inmate interview request, yeah, then that monitor 8 wouldn't be watched unless, by chance, somebody 9 is in there. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: And what are the 11 responsibilities of the folks, of the officer who 12 would be monitoring this in central control; what 13 else does he or she have to do? 14 RICH BRITTENHAM: Well, they open all, 15 like down along our central services, the doors 16 into the library, into the kitchen, to the 17 gymnasium, they have to open those when the 18 access call button is punched; then the camera 19 comes up to make sure it's identified so an 20 inmate who's not authorized to go in there or 21 into the admin building or something like that, 121 1 so when they do, and they hit that camera, that 2 picture goes to that monitor, so they have to see 3 who's there. Then it leaves other things. And 4 in central control, they issue radios, keys, 5 handcuffs, whatever the case may be. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. And how 7 many officers are in central control doing what 8 you just described at any one time? 9 RICH BRITTENHAM: First shift will have 10 three, second shift will have three, and third 11 shift will have two. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Third shift is from 13 ten to six? 14 RICH BRITTENHAM: Correct. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And does 16 control also have to operate the, is it the 17 sallort or the entrance for visitors into the 18 prison? 19 RICH BRITTENHAM: Yeah. The gatehouse 20 tunnel slider doors and stuff, yes, they do that. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. So at any 122 1 given time, there might not be anyone watching 2 all monitors. 3 RICH BRITTENHAM: Dedicated 100 4 percent, I don't think that would happen. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. So, 6 therefore, if an individual arranged for a 7 visitor at a set time, it's conceivable that they 8 could be occupying the attention of central 9 control right at the stroke of 10:00 such that it 10 would be reasonably sure no one was watching a 11 particular cellblock at that moment. 12 RICH BRITTENHAM: For central control. 13 Now, again, there's cameras and monitors in the 14 housing units, too. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Who's looking at 16 those? 17 RICH BRITTENHAM: The control center 18 officer. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: Oh, I see. So the 20 same camera could be seen either by central 21 control, but they have other duties. 123 1 ANTON SIMON: I don't know if the 2 camera could view both places. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Lieutenant Simon. 4 RICH BRITTENHAM: Yes, they can. I 5 didn't know that. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: What do you expect 7 your people to be doing; should they be watching 8 all the time, watching the monitor, or walking 9 around in the residential area? 10 ANTON SIMON: They spend most of their 11 time sitting at their computer station, operating 12 the doors, answering the phone. I'd say that's 13 what they spend the majority of their time doing. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Captain? 15 RICH BRITTENHAM: Just a point of 16 clarification is, the custody staff will staff 17 the control center that opens the door and issue 18 the things like I discussed. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. 20 RICH BRITTENHAM: There's unit 21 management staff who will be out on the floor and 124 1 working the floor. So it's just not totally 2 custody. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. So on your 4 second shift, Lieutenant, how many folks do you 5 have in one of your double-celled general 6 population residential units and who's doing 7 what? 8 ANTON SIMON: At a minimum, we would 9 have one control center officer and at least one 10 housing unit caseworker. Control center officer 11 is responsible for the operation of the housing 12 unit doors, the cameras. They keep the log. 13 They also issue out various supplies throughout 14 the day to inmates. 15 The unit caseworker is responsible to 16 be on the floor, to help with the day-to-day 17 needs of the inmates, to help them place phone 18 calls and scheduling of -- oh, I guess we no 19 longer schedule shower time; the inmates are free 20 to shower in open day rooms. But they're on the 21 floor to help in the day-to-day needs of the 125 1 inmates and to conduct cell searches and security 2 checks. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And are there 4 any other officers expected to be in a 5 residential unit during your shift, other than 6 the one in the control center and one unit 7 caseworker? 8 ANTON SIMON: The yard staff will 9 periodically enter a housing unit. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: And how many at one 11 time might enter for the yard staff? 12 ANTON SIMON: Probably be no more than 13 one. Maybe two. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And where are 15 you at all this time? 16 ANTON SIMON: Well, we do have an 17 office where we work out of, but I am also 18 responsible to conduct area checks throughout the 19 facility, so I could be anywhere throughout the 20 facility at any time. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: So at any one time, 126 1 there are at least, during your second shift, 2 there are at least two officers in a residential 3 unit and there might be as many as four or even 4 five if you happen to be there along with one or 5 two yard staff; is that correct? 6 ANTON SIMON: No, I think you're kind 7 of high. It would be -- for each unit would be 8 one officer and one caseworker. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Oh, I'm sorry. Yes, 10 one officer, one caseworker, and then in terms of 11 other custodial staff, there might be a, at any 12 given time might be one or two or even three in 13 that particular dorm? 14 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And how many 16 inmates are in this dorm that we're talking 17 about, general population? 18 ANTON SIMON: One hundred sixty-four to 19 a housing unit. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And during 21 your shift, I assume the inmates are allowed to 127 1 be up and around between two and ten. When can 2 they not -- when are they locked down in their 3 cells, other than the general lockdown? 4 ANTON SIMON: Okay. At 3:15 in the 5 afternoon we close the yard and we lock down the 6 day rooms. We have a formal count at 1600. When 7 the count clears, we start feeding our evening 8 meal, and at that time when they are released for 9 the evening meal, they can access the day room or 10 go to the yard, if the yard is open, or the 11 gymnasium or any other various activities that we 12 have going. The yard will stay open right now 13 until dark. The day rooms stay open until 8:15 14 p.m., at which time the day rooms are cleared off 15 and they start locking down for a 2100 count. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: 9:00 is the next 17 count? 18 ANTON SIMON: Correct. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: Last count? 20 ANTON SIMON: Yes, for second shift 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: For second shift. 128 1 And are they allowed out after the 9:00 count? 2 ANTON SIMON: General population 3 inmates, no. The minimum-custody inmates come 4 out after the 9:00 count, until midnight, I 5 believe. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: And how long is the 7 rec area open? 8 ANTON SIMON: The yard area? 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: No, not yard; that's 10 till dark, right? 11 ANTON SIMON: Correct. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Is there a gym or 13 recreation -- 14 ANTON SIMON: Yes. The gym is open 15 until 7:45. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And general 17 population, even high-security custody level, are 18 allowed to use the recreation facility? 19 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: As well as the yard? 21 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 129 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. So after the 2 4:00 count, you can have 164 high-security 3 inmates in the day room as well as coming and 4 going to the yard, with as few as one control -- 5 one officer and one unit caseworker? 6 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. How much 8 overtime have you had to put in, say in the last 9 year? 10 ANTON SIMON: As a lieutenant, I'm now 11 salaried, so I don't get paid overtime. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: That kind of stinks. 13 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: I know the feeling. 15 So whether you're getting paid for it or not, 16 what kind of hours have you been putting in the 17 last year? 18 ANTON SIMON: I'm not required to work 19 an extra shift like the hourly employees are, but 20 there are certainly nights when I'll be staying 21 late an hour or two writing reports or come in 130 1 early an hour for a meeting. I don't know an 2 exact number. Forty-five hours in a week. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And how about 4 your unit caseworkers, how much overtime are they 5 putting in, say over the last 12 months? 6 ANTON SIMON: Over the last 12 months, 7 I think our unit staff has been pretty decent; 8 they haven't had to be required to work a lot of 9 overtime. If anything, it would be voluntary 10 overtime. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And how often 12 does that happen, in 2007, how much voluntary 13 overtime? 14 ANTON SIMON: I don't know. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. What about 16 '06? I take it things were different then. In 17 '06, was there any mandatory overtime on your 18 shift? 19 ANTON SIMON: Yes, there was. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And how much? 21 ANTON SIMON: It would vary day to day. 131 1 Some days it would be as low as one or two; some 2 days would be around 15 maybe. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Fifteen? 4 ANTON SIMON: Fifteen staff members. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: Fifteen staff 6 members all do double shifts? 7 ANTON SIMON: Yes, that's correct. But 8 like Director Houston mentioned, we have the 9 split-shift program, plus on second shift is 10 post-close down; I can use that staff member to 11 relieve an overtime and send him home. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Was that option open 13 to you in '06? 14 ANTON SIMON: Yes, it was. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: And does the unit 16 permit you to do the split shifts? 17 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. You heard the 19 director talk about, when I asked about the 20 union, that if he had his druthers, he'd like to 21 have a little bit more freedom under the 132 1 collective bargaining unit to do some creative 2 shifts, like 12-hour shifts. Is that possible 3 today? 4 ANTON SIMON: Is it possible? 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes, do you know if 6 any of your staff are allowed to do 12 hours, not 7 16 but 12 hours or something more than eight hours? 8 ANTON SIMON: Yes. We have -- although 9 we're still set up to do three eight-hour shifts, 10 we have a lot of staff that do work 12 hours. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. And was 12 that true of 2006? 13 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Hi, Warden. 15 FRED BRITTEN: Hi. I wonder if I could 16 just explain a little bit what Tony is talking 17 about. The union has never authorized us to go 18 to 12-hour shifts. What he's talking about is if 19 somebody has worked eight and then they work over 20 four hours of overtime. So we don't have an 21 assigned 12-hour shift. 133 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: I see. 2 FRED BRITTEN: We don't have anything 3 like that. He's just talking about somebody 4 that, okay, this person worked eight, somebody 5 come in early, so they went over four hours, and 6 somebody come in early from the next shift to 7 work the other four hours. So then that person 8 has four hours at the front end and they work 9 their eight-hour shift on the back end. That's 10 what he's talking about as far as 12 hours. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: I see. But you're 12 going to pay overtime if that happens? 13 FRED BRITTEN: Anytime anybody works 14 overtime, they're going to get overtime for it. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: And, Mr. Director, 16 when you were responding to me then, you were 17 saying -- did you mean that you wish you could 18 have officers who could work 12 hours and you not 19 have to pay them overtime for the four hours? 20 MR. HOUSTON: Well, if we had 12-hour 21 shifts available, we would pay them at straight 134 1 time, and we would make that a schedule that they 2 can rely on. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Sure, and they 4 wouldn't have to drive so often. 5 ROBERT HOUSTON: Exactly. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay, I see. 7 Thanks. 8 Why don't we take a break and we'll 9 reconvene at 11:35, 15 minutes. Thank you. 10 (Recess taken.) 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: Welcome back. 12 ANTON SIMON: Thank you. Mr. 13 McFarland? 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes, sir. 15 ANTON SIMON: If I may add something 16 for clarification? 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: Please. 18 ANTON SIMON: Okay. I have a schematic 19 of one of our general population housing units 20 here. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: Great. 135 1 ANTON SIMON: The way they're divided 2 is, this side would be the AB side, this side 3 would be the CD side. The AB side would hold 128 4 inmates, so my original number of 164 is wrong. 5 Each side, like AB and CD, each side has one 6 control center officer and one housing unit 7 caseworker. 8 FRED BRITTEN: So this would be where 9 they come in the unit. Okay? And this is AB and 10 this is CD. So here's the control center that 11 the major was talking about, and here's a wall 12 that divides this in half, so there's potentially 13 64 guys over here and potentially 64 guys over 14 here. So this officer that sits here in this 15 control station can see the whole unit from his 16 control station. And then the unit staff that 17 work here, also, that patrol this half -- this is 18 just half a unit. But this is considered a unit; 19 this is a housing unit. 20 For example, this is 2, so this would 21 be housing unit 2-AB, this would be housing unit 136 1 2-CD. So there would be this control center 2 officer here and unit staff, and control center 3 officer here and unit staff. 4 So the other thing is that, they just 5 don't get to come and go as they please. We run 6 doors on the hour. So like five minutes before 7 the hour till five minutes after the hour, that's 8 doors. Otherwise, the doors are shut down. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: I see. 10 FRED BRITTEN: So you're either going 11 in or out of the unit, but when the doors are 12 over -- that's just a term we use, doors; but 13 when that is over, then there is no free flow of 14 traffic in and out of the unit. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: I see. Okay. 16 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: While you're here, 17 where are the showers? 18 FRED BRITTEN: The showers are -- well, 19 like right here are the showers. Here and here 20 are the showers. And here and here are the 21 showers. Okay? 137 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: Is there a line of 2 sight from here into the showers, or no? 3 FRED BRITTEN: There is no direct line 4 of sight into the showers; that's correct. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. 6 FRED BRITTEN: I don't know if that's 7 helpful or not, but I wanted to -- 8 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Thanks very much. 9 Thank you, Warden. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: Thank you. Just for 11 the record, can we make a copy of this? 12 FRED BRITTEN: You may. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: Thank you. It's very 14 helpful. This is Housing Unit 2, Area B, 15 first-level floor plan. 16 FRED BRITTEN: All the units are 17 designed basically the same way. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: And how many housing 19 units are there? 20 ANTON SIMON: Three. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: Three. All right. 138 1 So all three of them, and each of these four 2 wings has up to 64, capacity of 64 double-celled 3 inmates, correct? 4 ANTON SIMON: Correct. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: So did you say there 6 are three housing units? 7 ANTON SIMON: Yes, there's three. One 8 of those housing units does have our -- one of 9 those galleries would be the minimum, and the 10 opposite to that would be the substance abuse 11 units. That's single-celled. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Oh, okay. 13 ANTON SIMON: Also, I forgot to add, 14 SMU. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes? 16 ANTON SIMON: Our Ad Seg, that would be 17 our fourth unit. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Got it. So that has 19 100 -- 20 ANTON SIMON: That's 192-bed, 21 single-celled. 139 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. So if I'm 2 doing the math right, we've got 64 in each wing, 3 times four wings, times three units, would be 4 768, but we have to reduce one of those units 5 because you have single-celled substance abuse as 6 well as -- did you say the minimums are in one of 7 these? 8 ANTON SIMON: Correct. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And they're 10 single-celled, as well. 11 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And I believe, 13 for the record, I don't know if it was picked up, 14 that the warden was saying that there's not a 15 direct line of sight into the showers from the 16 control station that looks at AB wing or the 17 control station that looks at CD wing. Did I get 18 that right, Warden? 19 FRED BRITTEN: That's correct. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: Thank you. 21 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: And just to follow -- 140 1 up, did someone say that inmates are allowed to 2 shower at any time? 3 ANTON SIMON: Anytime the day rooms are 4 open for their access, they can shower. 5 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: So they can walk 6 out and go and have a shower any time of the day 7 that they -- 8 ANTON SIMON: They would have to go at 9 a set time when the doors are open, which is 10 usually the top of the hour; we'll give them a 11 ten-minute time frame when they can go to the 12 yard or the gym or come in or go to the shower. 13 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: And just as a 14 matter of course, how did you arrive at electing 15 to do something like that, rather than having 16 scheduled times? Because I guess I'm wondering, 17 how does that interfere with the daily 18 activities, with the special programs, the 19 educational programs, recreational time, on and 20 on; how does that -- is there a conflict there? 21 ANTON SIMON: I don't think so. I 141 1 think the inmates generally like it, because then 2 they can shower at the end of the day when they 3 come back from working in the laundry or back 4 from playing their ballgame in the gym, or, it's 5 up to them when they shower. 6 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: I see. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Warden, did you have 8 something else you wanted -- 9 FRED BRITTEN: I'm sorry, I just wanted 10 to add some clarification to this description of 11 the housing units, if I might approach you. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes, please. Please, 13 please, please. 14 FRED BRITTEN: Okay. Let me just give 15 you a general layout of the institution. Housing 16 Units 2 and 3 are designed exactly the same, so 17 that schematic that you have here is exactly the 18 same for Housing Units 2 and 3. But this housing 19 unit is, really, we consider there's two housing 20 units here. 21 Like, for example, here there's 3-AB, 142 1 is a housing unit; 3-CD is a housing unit; 2-AB 2 is a housing unit; 2-CD is a housing unit. Then 3 we get over to 1; 1 has a different design, 4 because originally when the facility was built, 5 we were looking to do more programming over here. 6 And then there is some of that that goes on over 7 there. But because of the resources and so 8 forth, it didn't necessarily come to complete 9 fruition. But if you look at Housing Unit 1, 10 this is Housing Unit 1-AB. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. 12 FRED BRITTEN: This part of Housing 13 Unit 1 is double-celled. So, in that respect, 14 Housing Unit 1 has 128 units, just like the other 15 AB or CD does. But then we go on from there, 16 though, it's different. These cells in Housing 17 Unit 1, this is 1-AB, these are double-celled. 18 But here's Housing Unit 1-CD; it's single-celled. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 20 FRED BRITTEN: And then 1-EF, it is 21 also single-celled. And so over here on 1-E, 143 1 this is where our substance abuse unit is. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: Got you. 3 FRED BRITTEN: And 1-F is where our 4 minimum-custody inmates are housed. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: Got it. 6 FRED BRITTEN: Okay? And so in each 7 building, in Building 3, Building 2, and Building 8 1, there's 256 beds. It just happens to be that 9 over here, in 1-CD and 1-EF, those are all single 10 bunks. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: Got you. So I've got 12 it right then, just doing the math, A and B are 13 double-celled in Unit 1, so that's 128. 14 FRED BRITTEN: Correct. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: C and D are 16 single-celled; that's 64. 17 FRED BRITTEN: Right. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: E and F are also 19 single-celled, so that is another 64. 20 FRED BRITTEN: Correct. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: And then 2-A, Housing 144 1 Unit 2 has 128. 2 FRED BRITTEN: 2-AB has 128. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: And CD has 128. 4 FRED BRITTEN: Correct. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: And the same with 6 3-AB is 128 and 128. 7 FRED BRITTEN: Correct. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. 9 FRED BRITTEN: I wanted to point out 10 Housing Unit 1, it was a little bit different by 11 design -- oh, I'm sorry. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: No, no, go ahead. 13 FRED BRITTEN: And so as you can see 14 from these control centers in Housing Units 1, 15 these control centers can see directly into the 16 shower. Like, so here's the control center, 17 here's the showers. You see what I mean? 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: In 1. 19 FRED BRITTEN: In 1. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: Unlike 2 and 3. 21 FRED BRITTEN: Unlike 2 and 3, that's 145 1 correct. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 3 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Are those the 4 special management units? 5 FRED BRITTEN: Well, when the facility 6 was originally designed back in the late '90s, it 7 was anticipated that this whole building would be 8 somehow set up for programming, and some of it 9 is. We just didn't have the programming staff to 10 do it all. And so this was meant to be a 11 substance abuse unit, this was meant to be more 12 of a mental health area, and this was meant to be 13 some sort of a transition area. 14 And so ultimately, because of needs, we 15 used them as we needed them. And so this is 16 general population, this is general population. 17 We typically house inmates in 1-CD that have 18 been, for example, they've been in segregation 19 for a long period of time so we're transitioning 20 them back into the general population. Or if we 21 have some inmates that have some issues that make 146 1 it difficult for them to have a roommate, we'll 2 put them in 1-CD. And then, of course, you 3 already know about E and F as far as the 4 substance abuse and the minimum custody. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: Where's the SHU? 6 FRED BRITTEN: Pardon me? 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: I'm sorry, the SMU? 8 FRED BRITTEN: Oh, the special 9 management unit? 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes, sir. 11 FRED BRITTEN: That's down here in the 12 back part of the institution. That 192-bed 13 special management unit, it's completely 14 separated from the rest of the institution. 15 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: I see. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: So there are 768 17 inmates, if you're at capacity. 18 FRED BRITTEN: Right. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: In Housing Units 1, 20 2, and 3, and another 192 in SMU? 21 FRED BRITTEN: Right. We're a 960-bed 147 1 facility. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: Got it. 3 FRED BRITTEN: Okay? 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: Great, thank you. 5 FRED BRITTEN: Thank you. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: And what's the count 7 as of today, or yesterday? 8 FRED BRITTEN: Well, when we left, it 9 was, I think, 915. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And was the Ad 11 Seg -- Mr. Hansen, is the Ad Seg filled? 12 BRAD HANSEN: I wouldn't know that. 13 You'd have to ask Tony that. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Oh, I'm sorry. Tony? 15 ANTON SIMON: Our count at Ad Seg has 16 been running about 170, 174. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: This is very helpful. 18 Thank you. 19 Oh, are there female officers who are 20 assigned to the housing units, either in the 21 control room or as unit caseworkers? 148 1 ANTON SIMON: Yes, there are. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And all shifts 3 have female officers in the residential units; is 4 that right? 5 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And is there 7 any -- are there any special restrictions or 8 rules that apply to female officers working in 9 the residential units? 10 ANTON SIMON: Referring to just general 11 rules? 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: What they can or 13 can't do. Can they do anything that a male -- 14 are they allowed to do anything that a male CO is 15 allowed to do? 16 ANTON SIMON: No. Females are not 17 allowed to strip search an inmate, unless it's at 18 a time of emergency. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 20 ANTON SIMON: But females are permitted 21 to perform pat searches. They can do cell 149 1 searches. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: With a pat search, 3 can an officer touch genitalia, you know, private 4 areas? 5 ANTON SIMON: Touch? 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: Touch. 7 ANTON SIMON: We instruct them, when 8 they place their hands on the legs, to go up, 9 have brief and incidental contact, and then go 10 down. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And incidental 12 -- brief, incidental contact with the groin area? 13 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And what about 15 the rectal area? That would probably include -- 16 ANTON SIMON: It's one area. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: It's one area? Okay. 18 And you don't have any female inmates? 19 ANTON SIMON: No, we do not. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. And so a 21 female officer may conduct a patdown that 150 1 includes brief, incidental contact with the groin 2 area of a male inmate. 3 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: Get any complaints 5 about that from the inmates? 6 ANTON SIMON: Complaints about pat 7 searches? 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: That a female can do 9 a patdown like that? 10 ANTON SIMON: No, I have not. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: Captain, did you ever 12 hear about any grief from inmates about that? 13 RICH BRITTENHAM: Oh, I can't say 14 specifically a case, but I'm sure there has been, 15 where they're too thorough or something like 16 that. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. 18 RICH BRITTENHAM: But specifically, I 19 can't recall a situation, inmate or a staff 20 person. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: I take it these 151 1 inmates file a lot of grievances; is that fair? 2 You wouldn't see the grievances. 3 ANTON SIMON: I don't normally see 4 grievances, correct. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Captain, do 6 you see the grievances? 7 RICH BRITTENHAM: Not as a rule, I 8 don't see them. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. We'll say that 10 -- everybody is pointing at Ms. Hillman. 11 RICH BRITTENHAM: They do have the 12 opportunity to file an emergency grievance which 13 Tony would have to deal with within 24 hours. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 15 RICH BRITTENHAM: So if they filed one 16 at 5:00 at night, it would go to Tony. Now, 17 Tony, Lieutenant Simon, has the option of calling 18 what we have as ODs or something, for advice, or 19 to find out what is going on, you know, get a 20 report from staff or whatever the case may be. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 152 1 RICH BRITTENHAM: So they do have that 2 emergency grievance, which it has to be responded 3 to and back within 24 hours. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Do you want to 5 say something, Lieutenant? Oh, okay. 6 What about the gender of the 7 correctional officers working in 1-F, the 8 minimum-security population; that includes women, 9 as well? 10 ANTON SIMON: Yes, it does. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And 1-C, 1-D, 12 1-E, and 1-F are all single-celled? 13 ANTON SIMON: Correct. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Am I correct that a 15 correctional officer can enter a single cell? 16 ANTON SIMON: Enter it for? 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: For any reason: 18 search, patdown. 19 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: Strip search? 21 ANTON SIMON: Yes, you are correct. 153 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. But a female 2 officer is not supposed to be in a cell doing a 3 strip search of an inmate; is that correct? 4 ANTON SIMON: Yes, that is. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: Has that ever 6 happened? 7 ANTON SIMON: Not to my knowledge. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And when an 9 inmate -- I'm sorry, when a correctional officer 10 enters a cell, in the single -- in any of the 11 single-celled areas, which would be, I guess, all 12 in Unit 1? 13 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Are they supposed to 15 be accompanied by another officer, or is it 16 possible and permissible for a single officer to 17 approach and enter a cell by himself, a single 18 cell by himself? 19 ANTON SIMON: It is possible and it is 20 permissible. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And the person 154 1 at the control center could see that a single 2 officer went into a cell but wouldn't be able to 3 see what was going on in there; is that correct? 4 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: And when an officer 6 enters a single cell, does the officer have to 7 document, tell anybody what he or she did or 8 didn't do? There's no policy that says you've 9 got to write down, I entered Cell 1-E, 12:22, to 10 do the following? 11 ANTON SIMON: No, there is not. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. And you 13 don't keep a tape of the video; is that correct? 14 ANTON SIMON: That is correct. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. So it's 16 not going to be like there is any evidence of how 17 long the correctional officer went into the cell 18 and when he or she came out; is that correct? 19 ANTON SIMON: Other than the control 20 center officer who would be working on that unit. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: And he's got, in the 155 1 case of 1-E and F and 1-C and D, that control 2 officer is looking at 64 cells; is that right? 3 ANTON SIMON: Yes, it is. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: At any one time. And 5 these are single-tier; there's not two-story, 6 right? 7 ANTON SIMON: These are double-tiered. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: They are 9 double-tiered? 10 ANTON SIMON: Yes, they are. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. Now, is 12 it fair to say that the officer at the control 13 desk -- is that the name of it, control desk? 14 ANTON SIMON: We call them control 15 centers. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: Control centers, that 17 officer has TV monitors; is that right? 18 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: And has some line of 20 sight, as the warden has indicated, some line of 21 sight of the doors of their wing; is that 156 1 correct? 2 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: But not, except for 4 maybe -- it looks like someone sitting at the 5 control center might be able to see into 6 partially a couple of the cells in 1-E and F or C 7 and D, but generally he's not going to be able to 8 see either by camera or line of sight; is that 9 correct? 10 ANTON SIMON: Yes, it is. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: And not going to be 12 able to see into the showers from the control 13 center; is that right? 14 ANTON SIMON: In that unit they can. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: E and F you can. 16 ANTON SIMON: Yes. Housing Unit 1, 17 they can see in the showers. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. 19 ANTON SIMON: 2 and 3 they cannot. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: 2 and 3 you can't. 21 All right. And, well, what's the line of sight 157 1 from the control center up on the second tier; 2 can you see even less of that, or -- 3 ANTON SIMON: No, they can see 4 everything on the upper tier. Our tiers, the 5 upper tier only has a three- or four-foot walkway 6 in front of the cell doors. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. So it's not a 8 whole lot of overhang -- 9 ANTON SIMON: Correct. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: -- to block your 11 view, okay. 12 ANTON SIMON: Correct. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: And I take it that 14 there's just a railing and not a half wall. 15 ANTON SIMON: There is a railing, yes. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Captain, was 17 there ever any discussion when you were at 18 Tecumseh about keeping a tape of the video 19 surveillance, you know, for 30 days or 60 days? 20 RICH BRITTENHAM: Oh, I'm sure there 21 was, but I can't recall. I would think -- we had 158 1 four VCRs, a rack which you had to access through 2 our central control into the armory to 3 accentuate, to start them. And so it was a 4 little difficult. Now, they were -- before I 5 left, they were working on an upgrade to put the 6 VCRs out into central control, which would be 7 easily accessible to push record. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: I see. 9 RICH BRITTENHAM: But you had to go 10 into a sub-room off of the central control to the 11 VCRs to record. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: To start it, I see. 13 RICH BRITTENHAM: Yeah, exactly. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Mr. Director, did you 15 want to say something? 16 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. We now have a 17 full-time electronics person and -- specifically 18 working on cameras for the department. And our 19 overall -- we have a proposal out there, which is 20 quite expensive and not something I think that 21 we're going to get right away, in which we want 159 1 to have a front-end project on our large 2 facilities, expand the front entrance. We want 3 to put in cameras, and we do some of the control 4 centers with the idea of having, A, more cameras 5 throughout all of our institutions. Number two, 6 we want those to be continually recorded and 7 permanently hold those. And number three, we 8 want to get to video visitation as an option. 9 Not to take away personal contact between the 10 inmates and their family, but to supplement that. 11 So that's where we're going. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: That's great. That's 13 wonderful. Mr. Director, before you go, you said 14 it's quite expensive and you're probably not 15 going to get it for a while. Is there some plan 16 that if you got whatever money you could get 17 towards this purpose -- have you considered 18 starting with Tecumseh, given this report, rather 19 than waiting until you could do it to all the 20 facilities? I mean, Tecumseh has got death row, 21 it's got your worst eggs, as you say, and you've 160 1 got a really disastrous report about misconduct. 2 So could you start there? 3 ROBERT HOUSTON: Tecumseh lends itself 4 to be the place where we would start because it's 5 got the latest and newest technology. 6 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Exactly. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Great. Thank you. 8 RICH BRITTENHAM: Mr. McFarland, 9 Lieutenant Simon told me that central control 10 does have the ability to record in central 11 control. I am not in there that often, so I 12 couldn't have told you that. He could probably 13 answer better to that. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Lieutenant, 15 tell us about that. 16 ANTON SIMON: Well, it is a 17 touch-screen computer. All they have to do is 18 hit a couple buttons to turn the camera on and 19 then hit another button to record that camera. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: I see. 21 ANTON SIMON: A supervisor would have 161 1 to remove the tape from the VCR, however. The 2 staff working our central control don't have 3 access to the VCRs, but they do have the ability 4 to record. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And what's 6 your understanding of what they record and what 7 they don't right now? 8 ANTON SIMON: Unless somebody tells 9 them to record something, unless certain staff 10 throughout the facility call them up and say 11 record this camera, they don't normally record. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: I see. And 13 similarly, if somebody wanted to be sure that 14 something wasn't recorded, like the supervisor is 15 the only one that can change the VCR? 16 ANTON SIMON: Mm-hmm. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: Is that logged in and 18 out, the tape, or do you know? 19 ANTON SIMON: Yes, we do -- when we 20 change the tapes or if we remove a tape for a 21 certain reason, we do log that. 162 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: But only supervisors 2 can do that. 3 ANTON SIMON: Correct. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: Namely, yourself. 5 ANTON SIMON: Right. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: Got you. 7 ROBERT HOUSTON: If I could add one 8 more thing to it? 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. 10 ROBERT HOUSTON: Also, we're putting 11 our cameras onto the Internet, so I can actually, 12 very shortly, in fact I can now with some of the 13 institutions, I can watch the cameras unbeknownst 14 to the institutional staff. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Great. 16 ROBERT HOUSTON: And so that's the 17 technology. And again, this person specifically, 18 their full-time job is to move that forward. 19 Also, the Tecumseh cameras -- 20 You have in your office? 21 FRED BRITTEN: Correct. 163 1 ROBERT HOUSTON: So Warden can also, 2 and I know Fred does throughout the day, watch 3 the cameras as he goes about his other business. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: You know, just as, 5 for what it's worth, some systems that have 6 cameras, some prison systems have told us that 7 they can't afford to have staff just sitting 24/7 8 watching monitors, but that they felt that there 9 is a prophylactic or a preventative benefit of 10 having an eye in the sky in the residential 11 areas, where everyone knows it's being taped, so 12 you never know if someone is actually watching 13 but you know that it can be reviewed. 14 And so that's something you might want 15 to consider about the importance of taping it. 16 Even if -- it just might get the word around 17 among inmates: We're always watching, and just 18 because you see that Joe at the control center 19 isn't looking at his monitor but he's being 20 distracted by somebody who's talking to him or 21 he's opening the doors over there, there's always 164 1 visual -- it's being taped. If he doesn't see it, 2 it's still being taped. Somebody is going to 3 review it. The warden might be watching it; the 4 director might be watching it. Right now, I 5 suspect, everybody knows nothing is taped unless 6 Lieutenant Simon said so. 7 ROBERT HOUSTON: Well, that's exactly 8 where we want to go. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. 10 ROBERT HOUSTON: And let me take it one 11 step further. Before I became deputy director, I 12 was warden of our youth facility, where we do 13 have continuous recording, and the inmates would 14 go up to the staff member and say, I'd check out 15 A Wing from last night. And they just keep on 16 walking. They wouldn't say anything beyond that. 17 When we get those incident reports, those would 18 then follow the process that was described here 19 today at the youth facility, and then the 20 lieutenant and the, there, the captain, would 21 then pull out the video from the evening before 165 1 and go through it. And we've discovered fights, 2 or exchanges of contraband, or those types of 3 things that the officers might have missed. 4 And the inmates, they don't have any 5 particular interest in getting after the inmate, 6 but they want it to run calmly, and a lot of 7 misconduct reports and discipline came out of 8 that. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: That's great. So you 10 might have more than five incident reports on 11 sexual assault in an entire year if you made it 12 that easy for somebody to give you a tip. 13 ROBERT HOUSTON: It could be. And 14 other types of misbehavior. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes, sure. 16 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: I do have several 17 questions, I think. I'd like to find out about 18 those relationships between staff and inmates, 19 those infractions, misconduct. Are they 20 generally between males and females? Or might 21 they be homosexual relationships, as well? 166 1 RICH BRITTENHAM: I would estimate that 2 the majority of them would be between male and 3 female. 4 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Male and female. 5 Do you have any idea of the staff most likely to 6 commit infractions? Have you kind of looked at 7 what might typify an individual who might cross 8 the line, in your experience? You have 9 considerable experience along those lines, 10 Captain. 11 RICH BRITTENHAM: It would be a best 12 guess or an educated -- I wouldn't say educated, 13 but a best guess. 14 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: We'll take your 15 best guess. 16 RICH BRITTENHAM: Thank you. I would 17 say somebody who has attention given to them, 18 maybe that they wouldn't get attention normally, 19 whether it's a physical characteristic or 20 whatever the case may be, but that would be my 21 best guess. Somebody who would -- had some 167 1 attention given to them. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: By an inmate? 3 RICH BRITTENHAM: Yeah, by an inmate, 4 that they might not normally get by staff or 5 something, or at home or whatever the case may 6 be. You know, that here's somebody who's 7 treating me special or something like that, that 8 they might not normally get. 9 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Lieutenant, you 10 mentioned that rumors fly around an institution 11 among staff, among inmates. Is it your sense 12 that inmates are aware of these relationships 13 between staff and inmates? Is it widely known? 14 Is it discussed? Taken for granted? Is it a 15 matter of, well, nice work if you can get it? 16 Just how do folks perceive, or is that an 17 atmosphere? 18 ANTON SIMON: Well, I guess I don't 19 really know. I would assume usually that the 20 inmate population would know, but at the same 21 time, if the whole inmate population would know, 168 1 we'd end up having one inmate come forward and 2 say, this staff is doing this. So I guess I 3 don't really know. 4 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: So somebody might 5 out that relationship? 6 ANTON SIMON: Right. 7 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Use it in one way 8 or another. 9 ANTON SIMON: Right. 10 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: I see. If I may, 11 I'd like to direct some questions to you, Mr. 12 Hansen. 13 BRAD HANSEN: Sure. 14 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: You are our PREA 15 person. 16 BRAD HANSEN: Correct. 17 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Concerned with 18 those issues related to sexual assault. 19 BRAD HANSEN: Yes. 20 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Now, as I 21 understand it, you do have a SART team. 169 1 BRAD HANSEN: We do not have a SART 2 team, an official SART team. What we do have is, 3 in each institution is members such as our 4 professional mental health. We don't identify 5 them as SART, but that's who would be involved in 6 that. We have our chaplaincy services, if we do 7 that. We have our health services that would 8 respond initially if an inmate claimed that he or 9 she was sexually assaulted. And eventually, 10 within a day or maybe the same day, our 11 investigators might become part of that team in 12 trying to piece together what is going on. 13 But in all cases, I think we've got the 14 professional staff in place to deal with the 15 emotional conflict that can happen to an inmate 16 if they were sexually assaulted, but we don't 17 specifically call them a SART team. 18 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: I see, but you have 19 the components. 20 BRAD HANSEN: We have the components. 21 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: You've got a team 170 1 compiled of individuals who are knowledgeable 2 about sexual assault, have been trained, and have 3 the ability to respond in specific areas to the 4 needs of those inmates. 5 BRAD HANSEN: That's correct. 6 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: In your experience, 7 can you recall any instances where the team went 8 into operation because there was a sexual 9 assault, that you can share with us? 10 BRAD HANSEN: No. Inmate-on-inmate, 11 there was -- we've only had -- since our Division 12 of Investigation -- let me give you a little 13 background on our investigative division. 14 We've been in existence for four and a 15 half years. Up until that time, if an inmate 16 claimed that he was sexually assaulted, we would 17 automatically call the State Patrol. They would 18 come in and do the investigation, or any criminal 19 activity. Most of the time, State Patrol would 20 only show up if it was severe injury, sexual -- 21 something of a high nature. 171 1 Any kind of contraband issue, letters 2 being sent between staff and inmates, and some of 3 those things would more than likely never get 4 charged, even though we have a law on the book -- 5 on the books, that we could charge them with a 6 felony. A lot of times a staff were disciplined 7 or allowed to quit, and there was no pursuit 8 after that. 9 When we started our Division of 10 Investigation, we started with two -- we still 11 have two, but what we did was hire from within 12 our facility, so they'd have good ideas of how 13 the institutions worked, had good rapport with 14 not only staff, but I wanted to make sure that 15 they had good rapport with inmates, so that 16 inmates would view them as ethical and fair. And 17 then we sent them to our Nebraska law enforcement 18 training so they're certified law enforcement 19 officers, so they could arrest and detain. 20 So our policy, as you were speaking to 21 Mr. Houston, it does require us in a staff -- any 172 1 kind of staff criminal activity, we have to call 2 the State Patrol. Practice is, State Patrol will 3 then talk to our investigators, start the initial 4 investigation, but fundamentally we're under 5 their jurisdiction of the investigation. And 6 sexual assault, we will again be under the 7 jurisdiction of the State Patrol. We would do a 8 lot of the leg work. If we initially find, boy, 9 something's -- we got some initial evidence, 10 they'll come in really quickly and assist us and 11 we assist them on putting together the product to 12 turn in. 13 So since that time, I can remember 14 there has been two instances at other 15 institutions where an inmate claimed that they 16 were sexually assaulted. We called the State 17 Patrol. We sent them -- our policy is, an inmate 18 who claims that they were recently sexually 19 assaulted where there might be evidence still in 20 play, 24 to 72 hours, we would take them to our 21 local hospitals. We have mutual aid agreements 173 1 with our hospitals. They have SANE nurses that 2 are qualified to do that. And we immediately 3 take them out there under escort. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: By SANE, sexual 5 assault nurse examiners? 6 BRAD HANSEN: Examiner, that's correct. 7 We don't -- and that's our policy in our 8 department. I know some states will have their 9 own SANE nurses, but it's developed in our 10 department that it feels better to us that we get 11 an outside, objective person really taking a look 12 at it, and so that's why we haven't trained any 13 nurses that we have within our department. 14 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: How are the inmates 15 transported, in the company of two, three? 16 BRAD HANSEN: It would depend on the 17 custody, but there's probably two staff with 18 them. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: Well, folks coming to 20 Tecumseh, unless they were from the minimum GP, 21 Tecumseh inmates would be accompanied by how many 174 1 to the hospital? 2 BRAD HANSEN: At least two, yeah. 3 RICH BRITTENHAM: Two staff and full 4 restraints is how we would send them out. Even 5 the minimums, we -- 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: Oh, is that right? 7 RICH BRITTENHAM: Well, we did when I 8 was -- yeah, we did it that way. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Is that still the 10 case, Lieutenant? 11 ANTON SIMON: Yes, it is. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 13 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Do you begin a 14 chain of custody before leaving and collecting 15 clothing and then offering the inmate a fresh 16 change of clothing, or how do you -- 17 BRAD HANSEN: One of the things that 18 we've discovered -- you asked what have we 19 learned since the report came. As I told Mr. 20 Houston, I don't know, a couple weeks ago, what 21 it's done is really focused us on a lot of the 175 1 steps that we should be taking. 2 What would happen is, if in Tecumseh an 3 inmate came up to say, Lieutenant Simon, say, 4 I've just been sexually assaulted, they would 5 call my office, either myself, one of the 6 investigators, and they also know if they can't 7 get one of us they'd call the State Patrol 8 immediately, and the process would begin. 9 Our investigators or the State Patrol 10 would tell them or instruct them the proper 11 procedures to take, so that evidence is retained. 12 If the inmate has told us where the incident 13 occurred, that cell would be locked down. And 14 then either the investigator or the State Patrol 15 would meet the -- go to the hospital and then 16 continue with the evidence collection there 17 through that. 18 So one of the things that I learned is, 19 I think that we could do a little better job on, 20 is provide some training with those -- that line 21 staff and shift supervisors, particularly about 176 1 -- everybody knows to lock the cell down, but 2 particularly when we're going to do a strip 3 search before that inmate goes out, probably, or 4 medical -- if it just occurred and there's going 5 to be some medical injuries or something, we'll do 6 a medical. And we need some initial instruction 7 for them on how to maintain that custody of 8 evidence. 9 Now, if they immediately got a hold of 10 an investigator, we could tell them that, but, 11 you know, there's sometimes gaps there, and I 12 think I need -- we need, as a department, to 13 cover that gap and provide a little training on 14 the evidence collection, from the inmate coming 15 up and telling us and maybe the doctor seeing 16 them, the nurse seeing them, and then something 17 has happened, and then out they go. 18 So there's -- I don't know; I think you 19 understand what I'm talking about; there's a gap 20 there. 21 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: You indicated that 177 1 you prefer to use the independent nurses, and 2 that's fine; however, I would suggest that SANE 3 nurses are an excellent source for training. 4 They understand -- 5 BRAD HANSEN: That's a good point. 6 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: -- the entire, 7 entire process, and are willing to do that. 8 That's part of their charter. 9 BRAD HANSEN: Right. 10 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: So getting them on 11 board to provide training is an excellent idea. 12 BRAD HANSEN: I attended some PREA 13 training, in 2006, I think, and one of the -- I 14 think it was for four hours; a SANE nurse came 15 in, provided a wealth of information to our 16 department. So I agree with you. 17 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: And not only are 18 they on in terms of the medical portion and the 19 evidence and testifying in court, they also are 20 required to have a victim services track in their 21 training, so they're very, very much on top of 178 1 the psychological impact of sexual assault on its 2 victims. 3 DAVE THOMAS: Ms. Ellis, if I may? 4 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Yes, sir. 5 DAVE THOMAS: Director Houston and 6 Warden Britten have both encouraged me to seek 7 some information on SANE nursing, which I have, 8 and I've got a couple articles, one from John 9 Hopkins School of Nursing on the clinical 10 requirements for SANE nurses. And it's something 11 that they certainly have encouraged that we work 12 towards to continue to give our patients a 13 community standard of care. It's certainly 14 something that will probably come out in the 15 recommendations from your committee here, and 16 it's certainly something that we will take a look 17 at and move forward towards SANE nurses. 18 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Excellent. Now, 19 when that individual, when that inmate is being 20 transported, when do you begin to address the 21 emotional needs? 179 1 BRAD HANSEN: The institutional staff, 2 I have to talk to that, but we are very -- the 3 investigators can refer them to mental health, 4 and I know it's not uncommon, because I've worked 5 in the institution, too. It's very common for 6 staff to refer inmates to mental health, make 7 sure mental health is notified that there's going 8 to be some issues. Now, in that case, there's 9 always a mental health OD, if it happened at 10 night when they're not on staff, and they would 11 either come out or, depending on the time they 12 start, first thing in the morning, they're going 13 to bring that -- bring that inmate up and start 14 talking to them. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Is that the usual 16 practice, or is that the required practice? 17 BRAD HANSEN: I think it's required -- 18 I couldn't tell you whether it's in policy, but I 19 remember that it was required practice, that if a 20 staff member discovered an inmate having 21 problems, whether it be sexual assault or not, 180 1 there's referrals always made to mental health, 2 for their safety and concern for the inmates. 3 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Do staff receive 4 any special cross-gender training? Question for 5 anyone on the panel. 6 BRAD HANSEN: I'm not sure about that. 7 RICH BRITTENHAM: What do you mean by 8 cross-gender? 9 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: A training that 10 would deal with being able to address the issues 11 associated across gender. 12 RICH BRITTENHAM: I'm not aware of any. 13 ROBERT HOUSTON: Let me see if I can 14 respond to that. We do have the cross-gender 15 training when it comes to searches and of that 16 sort, but as far as having cross-gender where we 17 discuss issues and so forth, in our department, 18 past or forward, as we developed and brought more 19 -- introduced more women into our agency, we did 20 have different pockets of addressing those 21 issues. 181 1 We do have the staff, especially the 2 female staff, that are very mature, very good, 3 very seasoned at what they do, that really spend 4 a lot of time. I think that's an area where we 5 can do better, and certainly will, because my 6 women employees tell me that the new women coming 7 into the department do need to have a little bit 8 more mentoring concerning the games that inmates 9 will play with them. What I referred to earlier, 10 also, has to do with the training that we're 11 introducing into our academy about the things 12 that -- trying to redirect inmate comments. A big 13 piece of that has to do with the gender-specific 14 comments. 15 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Absolutely, 16 absolutely. For custody and noncustody staff. 17 ROBERT HOUSTON: Absolutely. 18 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: How would you 19 generally compare the turnover rate of male and 20 female staff? 21 BRAD HANSEN: I wouldn't know that. 182 1 RICH BRITTENHAM: I don't know if I 2 would say it's higher in females or males. I 3 couldn't tell you which would be higher. I would 4 think the numbers in itself would be higher for 5 males because there's more males in the custody 6 than females, but I wouldn't know percentages. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: We'll ask the warden 8 later when he's up. 9 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: And also, I will 10 zero in on questions regarding the 11 highest-ranking female. 12 BRAD HANSEN: I'm sorry? 13 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: The highest-ranking 14 female. 15 BRAD HANSEN: We do that. Deputy 16 director. 17 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Oh, good, 18 excellent. I had another question specific to -- 19 I suppose for your staff -- that you have an array 20 of resources in addressing the special needs of 21 staff, psychological needs, emotional needs. 183 1 What's available for staff if they're getting a 2 little weary on duty and would just necessarily 3 like to talk with someone informally, as well as 4 someone is seeking something a little more 5 serious in terms of meeting their needs for 6 stress and burnout? 7 BRAD HANSEN: We have an EAP program 8 that's available. We advertise -- I mean, we get 9 that information in pre-service. We have posters 10 out so that we really are assertive in making 11 sure staff are aware that they have those 12 services, as well as that it's appropriate to 13 seek those services when they need help. 14 Unfortunately, in corrections, 15 sometimes, we're like law enforcement sometimes; 16 we don't like to admit that we're having 17 troubles; and we're trying to break that kind of 18 cycle, I think. In emergencies, we have a system 19 which we call emergency staff services, which we 20 would immediately deal with somebody who has been 21 injured or has witnessed somebody who's been 184 1 injured or taken hostage. We have a special 2 support function that has stood up to deal with 3 staff. 4 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Your support for 5 those -- 6 BRAD HANSEN: Yes, CISM, stress 7 debriefing. 8 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Exactly. Because 9 this is very difficult and highly stressful work 10 for staff in institutions of this nature. 11 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Classification 12 questions, is that going to be somebody else? 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: Who does the risk 14 assessment and classification of potential sexual 15 predators and potential sexual victims? Would 16 that be Michele? 17 (No audible response.) 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And how 19 about -- who does the classifications on change 20 of security level, custody level? And how about 21 housing assignments? 185 1 (No audible response.) 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Anything else? 3 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: No, other than I 4 appreciate your candor. Thank you. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: I have some more, if 6 I may. 7 Mr. Thomas, who is -- you head up all 8 the health services for the whole department; is 9 that correct? Or is it just Tecumseh? 10 DAVE THOMAS: Just Tecumseh. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And how many 12 staff do you have, how many nurses, physician 13 assistants, physicians at Tecumseh? 14 DAVE THOMAS: I have 15 full-time 15 equivalent nurses, a mix of RNs and LPNs. I have 16 four full-time pharmacy techs. I have a 17 full-time physician's assistant; one full-time 18 medical director, doctor. I have .5 FTE or a 19 half-time position of a psychiatrist. I have a 20 full-time dentist, and a part-time optometrist. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: And are you 186 1 physically officed at Tecumseh? 2 DAVE THOMAS: Yes, sir. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And so you're 4 there during what period of time? 5 DAVE THOMAS: I'm there typically from 6 6 a.m. in the morning till about 3 to 3:30 in the 7 afternoon, Monday through Friday. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 9 DAVE THOMAS: On call 24/7. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. 11 DAVE THOMAS: Thank you. I also have, 12 besides myself as health service administrator, I 13 have a full-time director of nursing, also. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Oh, okay. When do 15 any of your medical staff have direct contact or 16 communication with inmates? 17 DAVE THOMAS: We have a unique setup in 18 Tecumseh that's called open sick call, where our 19 inmates have immediate access every day to 20 medical providers. From 8:00 in the morning till 21 11:30, open sick call runs. And then also from 187 1 12:30 till 3:00 in the afternoon, open sick call 2 runs. That means while the inmates are out of 3 their housing units, they can walk over, they are 4 triaged immediately by a nurse in open sick call, 5 and the nurse will make the decision at that 6 point whether it can be handled by the nurse, 7 whether it needs to go to a physician's 8 assistant, or whether it needs to be elevated to 9 the doctor at that point. 10 They can also send health service 11 requests through the inter-institution mail 12 system and request any type of care, also, dental 13 care, eye care, to see Dr. Baker, the 14 psychiatrist, to see the chronic care nurse. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Where do they get 16 those forms to request a medical appointment? 17 DAVE THOMAS: A couple places: They 18 can get them at medical, or they're also 19 available on the housing units. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: And would they have 21 to ask a CO for it? 188 1 DAVE THOMAS: I don't believe so. I 2 think those are available just out in the open. 3 I can't answer that. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: Lieutenant Simon? 5 ANTON SIMON: Yes, they would. They'd 6 have to ask the control center officer for that 7 form. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. So it's not 9 like there's a pack of them hanging on the wall 10 and you can just walk by, grab a form, and so 11 forth. 12 ANTON SIMON: There is a pack sitting 13 outside of our clinic door, where they can walk 14 by and take one, though. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: The clinic door is in 16 the medical clinic? 17 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. So unless they 19 go by the medical clinic, they're going to need 20 to ask an officer to get a sick call request 21 form? 189 1 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 2 DAVE THOMAS: Once again, that's just 3 one way that they can access medical. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: Sure. 5 DAVE THOMAS: There's a lot of 6 different ways you can access medical. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Any other ways they 8 could get the word to any of your staff that they 9 need to be seen? 10 DAVE THOMAS: Absolutely. I think they 11 have -- and you'd have to ask Ms. Hillman for 12 sure, but I think in each of the rooms they have 13 a call button where they can access if they're 14 having trouble. Emergency response teams can 15 react to emergencies on the yard or in the 16 housing units. Open sick call, again. There's a 17 lot of different ways that they can access health 18 care at the facility. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: And would they have 20 to be ready to leave during the five or ten 21 minutes that the doors are open in order to go to 190 1 an appointment, or would you allow them to leave 2 a unit, Lieutenant, if they had an appointment or 3 wanted to go and get an appointment? 4 ANTON SIMON: Okay. For open sick 5 call, they would either have to go after 6 breakfast or at doors. However, if they have a 7 scheduled appointment, they would be issued a 8 pass and would be allowed to leave at any time 9 that pass is for. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. So if they had 11 got a form and didn't have to ask -- I'm trying 12 to explore with you -- if someone had been raped 13 by their cellmate or by an officer in the 14 residential unit, the victim might be fearful of 15 repercussions for reporting it, so he wants to be 16 rather discreet, and so I'm just wondering, if 17 you didn't want to ask an officer in the sight of 18 the perpetrator, officer, for a sick call, you 19 don't have an appointment, you didn't go -- you 20 don't have a stack of forms that you've picked up 21 from the medical clinic, how could you 191 1 discreetly -- how could a victim discreetly get the 2 word out without the CO or the caseworker finding 3 out that I need to be seen, I need to be seen 4 now, and without the entire world and everybody 5 in the dorm knowing that something is going on, 6 and he's just snitched? 7 ANTON SIMON: Well, there's other staff 8 on duty other than the one caseworker throughout 9 the day. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: Sure, so he may be 11 off his shift. 12 ANTON SIMON: Right. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: The perpetrator, 14 right? 15 ANTON SIMON: Correct. They could find 16 other staff. They could -- maybe they have a 17 friend in the unit; they could have their friend 18 go tell staff. They could make a legal call to 19 the ombudsman's office, which is the state 20 agency, kind of an oversight agency for the 21 Department of Corrections. 192 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: How many calls does a 2 maximum-security inmate get a month? 3 ANTON SIMON: Legal calls? 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. 5 ANTON SIMON: Legal calls, I believe 6 legal calls are unlimited. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 8 ANTON SIMON: Personal telephone calls, 9 they are allowed one a day. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: One a day? 11 ANTON SIMON: One 15-minute time block 12 a day. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. But an inmate, 14 other inmates are going to know if you're asking 15 for a legal call? 16 ANTON SIMON: Yes. The phone use for 17 the legal calls is in the day room, so -- 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And is it in a 19 place where the phone call could be overheard by 20 anybody, including officers? 21 ANTON SIMON: Possibly. 193 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. So it's not in 2 a closed office or something. 3 ANTON SIMON: No, it's not. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. Is there 5 any kind of an office in your residential units 6 where you had plenty of line of sight for the 7 correctional staff to see an inmate so he 8 wouldn't be doing anything, but he would have 9 privacy to have a conversation with, on a legal 10 call or a nurse or the investigator, Mr. 11 Noordhoek? 12 ANTON SIMON: Yes, there's a room. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: There is a room? 14 ANTON SIMON: I think so. If you'll 15 look at the schematic, there is a multipurpose 16 meeting room, which is generally secured from the 17 inmates; inmates don't normally go into those 18 rooms, unless they're escorted by staff. So I 19 guess maybe I'm confused, but is that kind of 20 what you're looking for there? 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. I'm just 194 1 wondering where somebody could make a private 2 phone call other than in a closet, where the CO 3 could not hear what he was saying and none of the 4 other inmates could hear who he was informing on. 5 ANTON SIMON: I suppose that could 6 work. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Oh, there it is. 8 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: This is a 9 multipurpose room. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: And that's within 11 line of sight of the command center, right? The 12 multipurpose room? 13 ANTON SIMON: No, it wouldn't be. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: So, is it a solid 15 wall? 16 ANTON SIMON: Yeah, that's a solid 17 wall. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Oh, okay. So it's a 19 stone's throw from the command center, but he 20 can't see through the wall, so you'd have to 21 punch some windows in there in order to use that 195 1 for that purpose. 2 ANTON SIMON: Correct. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. I'm just 4 curious on the multipurpose room, when is that 5 open? Whenever the day room is open? 6 ANTON SIMON: I'm going to stop for a 7 minute. I guess I was confused. I thought you 8 were wondering if we could possibly make a room 9 for -- 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: Well, I was. 11 ANTON SIMON: And put a phone in it. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes, you answered. I 13 understand there isn't right now, but the phone 14 is somewhere in the day room where God and 15 everybody else could hear conversations; is that 16 right? 17 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. But without a 19 great deal of expense, you could put a window 20 into the wall of the multipurpose center so that 21 -- multipurpose room, so that the command center 196 1 could see the inmate at all times, know that he 2 wasn't doing contraband or killing somebody, but 3 not hear the conversation; is that what you're 4 saying? 5 ANTON SIMON: Yeah, it's possible. 6 DAVE THOMAS: And I think there's 7 opportunities, too, and it's certainly something 8 that we'll take a look at, as far as a tip line 9 and that type of thing, that don't cost a lot of 10 money. And so those are types of things, but I 11 don't think, you know, there's any way to 12 guarantee 100 percent anonymity either. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: Is anything secret in 14 a maximum-security prison? 15 MULTIPLE SPEAKERS: Yes. 16 DAVE THOMAS: So, I mean, it's 17 certainly -- once again, it's one of those things 18 that we've talked about, a tip line or those 19 types of things, and, you know, we have to look 20 at best practices from other facilities and see 21 what works in other facilities. We're certainly 197 1 looking out for the best possible medical, mental 2 health, and all types of care for our patient 3 population, so -- 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes, that comes 5 through. We really appreciate it. 6 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: It certainly does. 7 ANTON SIMON: Mr. McFarland, I thought 8 of another possibility. An inmate could file an 9 emergency grievance, seal it up, have it sent up 10 to the shift supervisor. The staff carrying it 11 up aren't going to open it, so that way, only the 12 inmate and the shift supervisor would know what 13 it would say, so that's a possibility also. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Would everybody in 15 the dorm see him escorting an emergency 16 grievance? I'm not poopooing idea; I mean that's 17 a good idea, but -- 18 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: If the perpetrator 20 was a staff member and he's on that shift, he's 21 going to know that an emergency grievance has 198 1 been filed by the guy that he raped a few hours 2 ago. 3 ANTON SIMON: Right. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: And if the predator 5 is a cellmate, he's really going to be watching 6 and he's going to know that the guy, his victim, 7 just filed a grievance. Is that true? 8 ANTON SIMON: Yes. 9 RICH BRITTENHAM: More than likely, I 10 think. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: More than likely. 12 RICH BRITTENHAM: I would think that 13 they would see staff carrying a sealed -- yeah, 14 staff carrying a sealed envelope, wondering 15 what -- what's in there and what's going on or 16 what happened. 17 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Of course. 18 RICH BRITTENHAM: That could happen. 19 I'd like to say that, on times, I don't know if 20 it's regular, but they have made what they call 21 time and charges phone call from staff offices, 199 1 where staff would dial the number, they wouldn't 2 leave them, they wouldn't leave them in the 3 office, but they would dial the number so that 4 they could have a phone call. It's not a regular 5 occurrence, and they have to get authorization, 6 but it has -- at least it gets them off of the 7 day room to a more isolated place. 8 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Discreet. 9 RICH BRITTENHAM: A more discreet 10 place, but there still would be staff in there, 11 as a rule, so that they would hear and monitor 12 it, so they wouldn't hang up and call an 13 unauthorized number or something like that. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: I want to ask each of 15 you this question, and this is -- as the director 16 indicated, we're just exploring ideas, and you 17 folks are on the front line. So do you have any 18 ideas from your experience on how Tecumseh could 19 reduce staff sexual victimization of inmates, 20 assuming it's happening? Any ideas that we 21 haven't touched on, procedures, buttons, you 200 1 know, locking closets, changing procedures, 2 putting numbers on the incident reports, changing 3 the lockbox procedure, anything that we haven't 4 talked about that you thought about, you know, 5 that could make our life -- I mean, we could -- 6 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Change things. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: We could really 8 change things if we'd just do this. Yes, Mr. 9 Hansen? 10 BRAD HANSEN: A couple of things that, 11 and Mr. Noordhoek could speak to this, too, that 12 we've talked about this quite a bit over the last 13 couple of years, and some of the things that we 14 see from the investigations just recently we had, 15 this was not at Tecumseh but this was at another 16 institution: An individual who had been left 17 alone at long times with inmates, who supervised 18 inmates, and it was not sexual but a friendship 19 occurred, and this individual ended up bringing 20 contraband in because of that friendship. So I 21 think one thing, you have to take a look at those 201 1 individuals that are left in long periods by 2 themselves without camera, maybe moving them out, 3 those kinds of things. 4 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Staffing issues. 5 BRAD HANSEN: Yes, staffing issues. 6 And I forgot what -- I had another thing in mind, 7 and I forgot. 8 But, yeah, that's one thing. Another 9 thing is, maybe we can do things like posters, 10 just to get the word out. I guess it's my 11 thought that, you know, I had supervised 12 investigations but that's kind of the 13 end-of-the-road kind of thing. It would be nicer 14 not to have to investigate any of those kinds of 15 things. So more training and those kinds of 16 things are what we look at. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: Are there any posters 18 or other advertising that make it clear that 19 there's zero tolerance for any staff-on-inmate 20 sexual activity? 21 BRAD HANSEN: I don't think so. 202 1 RICH BRITTENHAM: Pre-service training. 2 BRAD HANSEN: Well, for staff there 3 are. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: For staff there is. 5 But I'm talking in terms of having it -- inmate 6 housing units would break the -- I've seen some 7 recently that they break the code of silence, 8 something like that, where you're encouraging 9 inmates to speak up. 10 BRAD HANSEN: To speak up, yeah. That 11 it doesn't have to happen. 12 DAVE THOMAS: Once again, I think 13 you're encouraging, and we're certainly going to 14 take a look at the recommendations you make, but 15 some of the examples that you're trying to bring 16 us are encouraging things that -- and we've 17 talked about expensive things right off the bat, 18 but there's some inexpensive things that we can 19 do, and a couple of the things that I wrote down 20 as we've been talking and a couple of them we've 21 already talked about, you know, is the tips line. 203 1 You know, is that a type of thing that we can 2 initiate pretty inexpensively? Yeah, I think so. 3 I certainly don't have control over the budget, 4 but it's certainly a recommendation that I think 5 we could go forward with. 6 The SANE nurse, to have a couple nurses 7 that are trained onsite as SANE nurses. Is that 8 important? Absolutely. I think even though we 9 aren't involved in the forensics part of it, just 10 to have a SANE nurse that understands the 11 situation, other than the basic training that we 12 get in medical school or nursing school, I think 13 that would be really important, and that's 14 something inexpensively we can do. 15 Can we increase all staff training for 16 staff-inmate communication? Do we not do a good 17 job sometimes of communicating, or do we not know 18 the techniques to communicate effectively with 19 the inmate population? And I think that's a 20 point we can take a look at. 21 Are there classes out there where we 204 1 can communicate better with the inmate population 2 so maybe they respect us a little more and we 3 respect them a little bit more, and so 4 communication becomes an easier process between 5 them, where they feel better about coming to us? 6 Education is a pretty inexpensive tool 7 that we can use. 8 Is there an opportunity for a specific 9 inmate victimizations rep, either within the 10 department or at our facility? And I think 11 that's a possibility, too, where we have a 12 specific person that is just dedicated -- and 13 maybe it can be an outside person that's not 14 necessarily hired by the brass or Department of 15 Corrections that can come in and work with 16 inmates that have been victimized. I think 17 that's a possibility, too. 18 So those are the four things that I 19 wrote down from the short time that I've spent 20 with you guys, and hopefully there will be more 21 recommendations that we can take a look at. 205 1 But as professionals in the medical 2 arena, which is a part of the whole big picture 3 of the Department of Corrections, you know, we're 4 dedicated and professional medical staff that 5 treat these gentlemen as patients, and so there's 6 not a big difference in how we treat these 7 patients. They're patients to us, and we 8 certainly are concerned about their medical and 9 mental health, and their spiritual and their 10 emotional and physical needs. And so I take a 11 look at this whole Panel thing as a real learning 12 experience, and what can we do better. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: Great. Mr. Thomas, I 14 wanted to ask you about Operational Memo 15 115.23.02, which is about mental health services, 16 and the confidentiality section has nothing about 17 the confidentiality of communications with 18 inmates. 19 What is your understanding of what your 20 staff is supposed to do if an inmate is being 21 seen and indicates that they've been abused 206 1 sexually or they've had a, quote, consensual 2 relationship going with a staff member or with 3 another inmate; does that staff member have an 4 obligation to report that communication and 5 breach the confidentiality of the medical 6 relationship? 7 DAVE THOMAS: Absolutely. And there 8 are -- I mean, I think maybe what it's directed 9 at is the HIPAA laws, which require 10 confidentiality. But there are areas of HIPAA 11 that can be breached when it concerns custody 12 issues, so, absolutely. My staff is fully aware 13 that if somebody comes to them with a sexual 14 assault, sexual victimization, or rape, that that 15 absolutely goes up the chain immediately. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: And what happens if 17 they don't? 18 DAVE THOMAS: I would imagine, if I 19 find that out, there would be corrective action 20 taken. I'm not aware of that ever happening. 21 And my staff is acutely aware. Once again, it's 207 1 no different -- a nurse that is reported in the 2 community has a responsibility, and this is once 3 again a nursing or a medical issue; this isn't 4 necessarily because they're inside a prison 5 issue, so that the reaction from a nurse would be 6 exactly the same. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes, unless the nurse 8 was the predator. 9 DAVE THOMAS: If the nurse was the 10 predator, I would imagine that that nurse 11 would -- 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Probably not report 13 it. 14 DAVE THOMAS: -- probably not report 15 it. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: And do you have 17 female nurses? 18 DAVE THOMAS: Yes, sir. The majority 19 of my nursing staff is females. I do have male 20 nurses, too. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: And in the clinic, 208 1 are there any areas that are not visible from the 2 hallway? 3 DAVE THOMAS: In the clinic, in 4 hospital areas, they're all visible by either 5 staff or custody staff. There are some 6 restricted areas to the inmate population that 7 would not be visible to staff. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: So, I'm not trying to 9 be salacious, but if some of your medical staff 10 was involved in a relationship, quote, consensual 11 or otherwise, with an inmate, there would be 12 places where he or she could take the inmate in 13 the clinic and have some sexual activity without 14 clearly being seen; is that correct? 15 DAVE THOMAS: That's a possibility. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: They'd have access, 17 have keys to closets or some other windowless 18 area where they could take that inmate and there 19 wouldn't be any cameras, there wouldn't be any 20 logs that are indicating where that person was 21 or -- 209 1 DAVE THOMAS: Yes, sir, that's a fair 2 statement. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: And when somebody has 4 an appointment and they go to the nurse, do they 5 log in the time that the inmate came to the 6 clinic and the time they came out? 7 DAVE THOMAS: Yes, sir. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And does the 9 nurse have to describe what the activity was? 10 DAVE THOMAS: The inmate, whether he 11 comes to open sick call or comes over on a pass 12 or comes over on an emergency, he is logged in by 13 the officer. There's custody staff in the clinic 14 and hospital 24/7. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Got you. 16 DAVE THOMAS: So they do log in. The 17 nurse writes a note in the inmate medical record 18 of every occurrence that, you know -- 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: Sure. Does the 20 custodial staff, say, have to record anything 21 about what was done during that 22 minutes that 210 1 this inmate was behind closed doors with the 2 nurse? 3 DAVE THOMAS: No, sir. There's no 4 reason for the custody staff to know. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: That's right. So the 6 nurse, hypothetically, if he or she was the 7 predator, would be able to just come out and say, 8 thank you very much, you know, take one of these 9 and call me in the morning, and she doesn't have 10 to explain to anybody what she did with or to the 11 inmate; is that right? Doesn't have to tell the 12 custodial staff, doesn't have to record a log; 13 the nurse would just write down as medical 14 services provided, or even if that; is that 15 true? 16 DAVE THOMAS: The custody staff, once 17 again, documents what time the inmate comes into 18 medical and documents what time he leaves. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: But not what went on? 20 DAVE THOMAS: No, sir. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: And unless the nurse 211 1 -- I mean, and the only person that is recording 2 what was going on is the nurse in the medical 3 file; is that right? 4 DAVE THOMAS: Correct. 5 Hypothetically -- 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: So if she's the 7 predator, she's probably not going to write down 8 that we had intimate activities going on; is 9 that correct? 10 DAVE THOMAS: No, sir. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes, sir, Mr. Warden? 12 FRED BRITTEN: Could I just try to 13 clarify something? When you're doing sick call 14 and the inmates are in the clinic rooms, are 15 those doors to the clinic rooms open or closed? 16 DAVE THOMAS: And that was a point I 17 was going to make, that always an officer in that 18 area that can see into the clinic rooms. The 19 clinic rooms are set up where the officer can see 20 each clinic room. The emergency room, if an 21 inmate has to go into the emergency room for a 212 1 procedure, there's always an officer in that. We 2 do try to protect the privacy of the -- of our 3 patients, but at times there may have to be a 4 shield that's put up that somebody can still see 5 or hear into that without compromising -- 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: A shield as in a 7 curtain? 8 DAVE THOMAS: As a curtain-type, yes, 9 sir. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. And is 11 there anywhere where a nurse can examine an 12 inmate without the correctional officer seeing 13 what she's doing? I assume that the CO could be 14 a female, and so as a matter of privacy, this 15 inmate doesn't have to strip in front of the 16 correctional officer and everyone else, but 17 there's some place where he could be out of 18 sight. Is that right? 19 DAVE THOMAS: That's certainly true. 20 That's where we would use a shield. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. 213 1 DAVE THOMAS: That is still accessible 2 within hearing range or over the top or bottom of 3 the shield without compromising -- 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: What's the shield? 5 Are we talking about a partition, a movable -- 6 DAVE THOMAS: We're talking about a 7 folding partition that you can unfold and put in 8 the doorway. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Is there anywhere 10 where the nurse could take them that would not be 11 audible? 12 DAVE THOMAS: There could be behind a 13 closed or locked door. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And is that 15 true of any shift? Well, I assume they can't go 16 to sick call, unless it's an emergency, after 17 what time? 18 DAVE THOMAS: Basically, our clinic and 19 hospital close down about 4:30 or 5:00 after the 20 diabetics have come and done their diabetic 21 checks. The hospital is an acute care licensed 214 1 hospital that's open 24/7, so there's always 2 staff and custody staff in the hospital. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. The BJS survey 4 -- and we're just about done, I think. The BJS 5 survey indicates a profile of where the -- 6 according to the inmates at Tecumseh, what 7 happened, where it happened, by whom, when, and 8 under what circumstances. And the singlemost 9 prevalent profile of staff-on-inmate 10 victimization indicates that the incident 11 occurred afternoon, but before six in the evening, 12 though it happened elsewhere, all the other 13 shifts as well, but the most prevalent, in the 14 afternoon, in the inmate's cell room or sleeping 15 area, and as the result of a bribe or blackmail, 16 threatening with harm or a weapon. It resulted in 17 no injury to the victim, and the perpetrator was 18 typically a female staff member, and only one 19 perpetrator was typically involved. 20 Assuming that's true, how could it 21 happen, given your front-line experience, how 215 1 might this happen that a female officer could use 2 -- could blackmail or bribe an inmate to engage 3 in sexual activity, let's say, during the 4 afternoon? Any ideas? 5 RICH BRITTENHAM: Are you talking like 6 threatening to write the inmate up? 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Right. 8 RICH BRITTENHAM: To have him lose good 9 time? 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: Right. 11 RICH BRITTENHAM: I think that's a 12 possibility that could exist. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. If the 14 predator has something on the inmate, knows that 15 the person has contraband, knows that he screwed 16 up or assaulted, you know, he's got something to 17 hold over that perpetrator -- that inmate. Isn't 18 it fair to say that that's the kind of blackmail 19 that could -- say, look, I just might forget what 20 I saw last week if we just have a little fun in 21 the closet? 216 1 RICH BRITTENHAM: I think that's a 2 possibility. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: And I'm not asking -- 4 I'm just asking, exploring with you, given your 5 experience, is this a reasonable possibility? 6 I'm not trying to say is it -- can you conceive 7 of it. Do you think that that is a reasonable 8 explanation that you need to consider? 9 RICH BRITTENHAM: I think we should 10 consider everything, but I think that is a 11 reasonable possibility. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Lieutenant, what do 13 you think? 14 ANTON SIMON: Well, being as most of 15 them are occurring in the afternoon, it's kind of 16 worrying me because it would be happening on my 17 shift. So, what's obvious to me is, I need to 18 start varying my routine and conducting area 19 checks at different times throughout the day so 20 that I can check to make sure staff are doing a 21 proper job. 217 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: And what about -- I'm 2 just thinking out loud here, but what might you 3 do to eliminate the leverage that one of your 4 staff might have, one of your female staff might 5 have, to blackmail inmates? In other words, can 6 you think of some way that you could make it 7 absolutely required for staff to report, under 8 penalty of disciplinary action against the staff 9 person, report anything they've got on an inmate 10 when it happens? 11 ANTON SIMON: Yeah, it's certainly 12 possible that we could -- the department could 13 make a policy stating what you just said. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. Is that your 15 understanding of the policy? Is there anything 16 that requires a CO to report any misconduct by an 17 inmate, and if he fails to report or she fails to 18 report, she's going to be disciplined? 19 ANTON SIMON: No, I'm unaware of any 20 policy. But I think most staff have the 21 integrity when something fairly serious has 218 1 occurred, they're going to report it. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: I would assume so. 3 ANTON SIMON: I know that people say, 4 passing and receiving, for instance, some staff 5 might just verbally counsel the inmates and send 6 them on their way, and that's fairly minor if 7 they're handing a book from one inmate to other, 8 but I think staff are honorable enough to report 9 serious incidents. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: Sure. Any other 11 ideas? Mr. Thomas, do you have any ideas on how 12 we might -- let's see, you gave us four, I'm 13 sorry. 14 Mr. Hansen, anything occur to you that 15 might reduce the possibility for staff misconduct 16 sexual-wise? 17 BRAD HANSEN: Yeah, I gave you a 18 couple. And the other one that I didn't remember 19 that I thought of -- 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: Oh, yes, yes. 21 BRAD HANSEN: And this is in some of 219 1 the PREA training, so this is not some light bulb 2 going off in my head, but really, and we've done 3 this, really taken a long look at our hiring 4 practices, and what we find -- and again Mr. 5 Noordhoek and I and the other investigator, we 6 take a look at this because we do the 7 investigations, and I think Captain Brittenham 8 said the same thing when you asked him about the 9 staff -- a lot of times we have inmates who have 10 emotional needs, who have emotional problems, and 11 sometimes because of the nature of our work we 12 hire staff who have the same kind of needs and 13 the same sort of problems, and when the two mix, 14 it cannot be a good thing. So, but that's in the 15 PREA training, too; you'll get that there, too. 16 So I think that's the other thing, is 17 maybe taking a look at hiring -- our hiring 18 practices and things like that, even though we, I 19 think, since Mr. Houston has got here, we've 20 looked at it 100 percent. We've really, really 21 worked hard at trying to improve that, so that 220 1 would be the only other one. 2 If I could just make one clarification 3 before we break? 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: Please. 5 BRAD HANSEN: So I don't forget this. 6 You had asked Mr. Houston earlier about a case 7 about an inmate filing suit against an employee 8 for sexual assault. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes, sir. 10 BRAD HANSEN: Well, there was a case in 11 2006. And I should tell you, the numbers that we 12 submitted to BJS had five, and what we -- and you 13 requested that we write down an explanation of 14 each one. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Sure. 16 BRAD HANSEN: We sent you four; we 17 didn't send you that fifth one. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes, I was going to 19 bring that up. 20 BRAD HANSEN: Were you? I didn't know 21 if we were coming back after lunch or what. 221 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay, good. 2 BRAD HANSEN: I just wanted to make 3 sure that you knew that we did have that. We 4 found out about this, an inmate filed civil suit 5 against an employee in 2006, the employee gets 6 served with a civil suit, gives it to his 7 supervisor, and that's when we were called; 8 that's the first we were notified of it. The 9 case itself, we did do an investigation on that, 10 and there was -- we couldn't place them together 11 at the same time, couldn't get witnesses, which 12 is sometimes difficult. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: Sure. 14 BRAD HANSEN: One of the things that we 15 have changed in investigations, we just don't -- 16 just because we can't get something that day or 17 the next day, we don't close the case. We let it 18 sit and go back and talk and -- because even on 19 consensual sex, we get notified. Now, you're not 20 going to charge somebody downtown for consensual 21 sex. 222 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: Right. 2 BRAD HANSEN: But it may not be 3 consensual, so we've elongated the investigation. 4 We'll go back and talk to them again when they 5 may be more apt to say, look, I was pressured, or 6 something like that. So we've elongated that. 7 In this particular one, what happened 8 is we ended up closing it. The inmate should not 9 have went through civil court, should have went 10 through the tort claims, according to Nebraska 11 law. It was dismissed in early -- April 3rd, 12 2007, and because the inmate did not refile a 13 tort claim and because we haven't got any other 14 evidence or say-so, we eventually ended up 15 closing that case, but we just couldn't come up 16 with anything. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: And what was the 18 allegation? 19 BRAD HANSEN: The allegation was that 20 the inmate said that this particular employee was 21 in a conference room, I think it was in the 223 1 conference room on a unit that has a window on 2 it, and the employee approached him, grabbed his 3 penis and said -- this particular inmate was 4 having canteen; several inmates were 5 complaining about canteen process at that time, 6 and this inmate was one of them -- and said that 7 this staff member said, well, you know, if you go 8 along with what I have in mind, I'll help you 9 with your canteen process. 10 Well, we do know that several inmates 11 were complaining about the canteen process, and 12 Mr. Noordhoek can talk more about it because he 13 did the investigation, but generally speaking, we 14 couldn't place them together, we couldn't get any 15 witnesses, and then there was some testimony that 16 said this particular inmate, the reason he was 17 doing this was because he wanted to get to our 18 Lincoln Correctional Center and needed sex 19 offender programming to get paroled down the 20 road. We didn't have any evidence that that was 21 true or not true. 224 1 We try to take things at face value and 2 then try to judge the evidence as best we can, if 3 there is any. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: And this was a male 5 or female correctional officer? 6 BRAD HANSEN: This was a male 7 correctional officer. Actually, a caseworker, 8 I'm sorry. A male caseworker. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: And by conference 10 room, did you mean the multipurpose room? 11 BRAD HANSEN: That's how I took it. I 12 think -- Benny? That's -- yeah, he's shaking his 13 head. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. We'll ask 15 Mr. Noordhoek. 16 BRAD HANSEN: But I wanted to let you 17 know that, because I knew that you had a letter 18 from the attorney general's office indicating 19 that, so. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: Thank you. 21 BRAD HANSEN: You bet. 225 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: Anything else? 2 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: No. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes, sir? 4 RICH BRITTENHAM: I'd just like to add, 5 I think Brad touched on it, but I think one of 6 the things we could do is start mapping a little 7 bit at the institutional level: frequency of 8 where the allegations are; where they're at; the 9 time of day; the staff, you know, so you can get 10 a history. Maybe it's always in the library and 11 that becomes an isolated post or something of 12 that nature, and we can go back and look at where 13 we have a formal mapping. 14 I think right now it's, you know, two 15 or three of us thinking, okay, do you remember, 16 didn't something similar about this happen in the 17 past with this person or at this post or 18 whatever -- and I think a more formalized 19 process -- I know Mr. Hansen has started that with 20 the investigative services, but I think on the 21 institutional level it might help. They do for 226 1 all the institutions, but if we had some kind of 2 a running thing so we know, and it would help the 3 lieutenants, whether it's first, second, or 4 third, alternate their time out and about within 5 the institution. You know, off times or the 6 times that this always comes up at 4:00 or 5:30 7 in the afternoon, maybe let's have the area 8 checked so that the supervisors are there or 9 something of that. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: Mr. Hansen -- 11 Thank you for that, Captain. 12 Mr. Hansen, I just want to be clear. 13 You said that before your division was created 14 four and a half years ago, that the usual 15 practice would have been to call the State Patrol 16 if it was a high-nature problem and that if it 17 involves staff, they would be allowed to resign 18 in lieu of discipline and not getting written up? 19 BRAD HANSEN: Not in lieu of 20 discipline. What has been the practice, because 21 the State Patrol is extremely busy, they would 227 1 identify what they would take from us or not take 2 from us. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. 4 BRAD HANSEN: What has happened in the 5 past -- since we got our own investigators, we're 6 very aggressive on -- even if they quit, resign, 7 if they committed the act while they were on 8 duty, they're going to get prosecuted if we can 9 get the evidence. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: I see. 11 BRAD HANSEN: Before that time, what 12 had happened, a lot of times, the State Patrol 13 wouldn't see that a relationship between a staff 14 and inmate was that high a priority, and it was 15 difficult to get some of that prosecuted. And 16 what usually happened is the inmate -- or the 17 staff member knew they should quit, and that kind 18 of would be the end result of it. Not in lieu of 19 discipline. If they wouldn't quit, they'd be 20 disciplined, and if there was evidence, they'd be 21 fired for that, too. 228 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: Got you. All right. 2 Well, I want to thank all of you for your time 3 and candor and ideas, testimony, and we'll 4 adjourn for an hour and start the next panel at 5 2:00. Thank you. 6 (Recess taken.) 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Good afternoon. 8 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Good afternoon. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Would you please 10 raise your right hand, Mr. Noordhoek and Ms. 11 Hillman. You're already sworn, Captain. 12 RICH BRITTENHAM: I was going to do it 13 again. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Unless you need it 15 again. 16 RICH BRITTENHAM: No. 17 (The witnesses were placed under oath.) 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Ms. Hillman, could 19 you give us your full name and your title, 20 please. 21 MICHELE HILLMAN: Michele Lynn Hillman, 229 1 and I'm the unit administrator of the Tecumseh 2 State Correctional Institution. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Unit administrator? 4 MICHELE HILLMAN: Of TSCI. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: Of TSCI. And as unit 6 administrator, what does that mean you do? 7 MICHELE HILLMAN: I'm over -- or 8 overall responsible for all the unit staff and 9 the inmate classification, the training of the 10 staff for basically the daily activities on the 11 unit, and a couple other things that you 12 mentioned earlier. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: Also including the 14 sexual victim and predator assessment? 15 MICHELE HILLMAN: Mm-hmm. Yes. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: And housing 17 assignments and reassignments? 18 MICHELE HILLMAN: Yes. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay, great. And how 20 long have you been there, Ms. Hillman? 21 MICHELE HILLMAN: I've been at TSCI for 230 1 five years, and then I worked at a facility we 2 had in Lincoln for five years prior to that. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: So ten years in the 4 corrections industry? 5 MICHELE HILLMAN: Yes. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: Five of it at TSCI. 7 All right. Mr. Noordhoek. 8 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Bernard Lee 9 Noordhoek, II. I'm currently the criminal 10 investigator for the Nebraska Department of 11 Corrections. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: And by criminal 13 investigator, that would also include 14 administrative noncriminal investigations, as 15 well? 16 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: That's correct. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And how long 18 have you had that position? 19 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: I've been an 20 investigator since September of '03, a certified 21 investigator, law enforcement officer. I've been 231 1 with the department since 1989. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: And how long have you 3 been at TSCI? 4 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: I was captain at 5 TSCI when we opened, from '01 to '03. Before 6 that I was at the penitentiary in Lincoln, the 7 diagnostic center in Lincoln, and Lincoln 8 Correctional Center. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay, great. Well, 10 Ms. Hillman, let me just ask you to identify some 11 documents so I know -- and we're not going to 12 walk through all these documents because I assume 13 they mean what they say, so I wanted to just make 14 sure we have the latest stuff. 15 Administrative Regulation 201.05, an 16 11-page document with some attachments, and it's 17 last revised October 8, 2007. Is this the latest 18 version of this? 19 MICHELE HILLMAN: Is it the inmate 20 classification? 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: Inmate Classification 232 1 and Assignment, hyphen, Special Management 2 Inmates. 3 MICHELE HILLMAN: I believe so. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. By the way, do 5 you have anything to do with the special 6 management unit? 7 MICHELE HILLMAN: I was the unit 8 manager down there for two years before I was 9 promoted to unit administrator, so I'm quite 10 familiar with the unit. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: And does this 12 document govern how the SMU is run? 13 MICHELE HILLMAN: Yes. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: And there's no -- 15 hasn't been revised since October 8 of last year? 16 MICHELE HILLMAN: I don't believe so. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Who runs the 18 SMU now? 19 MICHELE HILLMAN: Unit manager Jason 20 Hurt. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: How do you spell 233 1 Hurt? 2 MICHELE HILLMAN: H-u-r-t. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Oh, Hurt, okay. And 4 document dated December 13, 2007, prepared by Dr. 5 Patricia Hardman, from a Connecticut think tank, 6 and it's entitled Nebraska Department of 7 Correctional Services, Aggression and 8 Vulnerability Attentional Risk Assessment Manual. 9 And it also has, with attachments, it's about 24 10 pages long. Have you ever seen that document 11 before? 12 MICHELE HILLMAN: Yes, I have. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And do you use 14 this in the course of your duties? 15 MICHELE HILLMAN: Not so much that 16 actual document, but the forms that were 17 generated out of that and the training that was 18 generated out of that, I use in my daily 19 activities. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 21 MICHELE HILLMAN: And my staff also use 234 1 that. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: By the way, how many 3 staff do you have as unit administrator? 4 MICHELE HILLMAN: Approximately 55. 5 Those include unit caseworkers and then the unit 6 case managers. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: What's the difference 8 between a unit caseworker and a unit case 9 manager? 10 MICHELE HILLMAN: The caseworkers are 11 on the floor, on the housing unit with the 12 inmates, and that's their primary responsibility, 13 is to have contact with those inmates throughout 14 the day. And then the case manager also is on 15 the floor, but they hold most of the caseload -- 16 or unit staff -- or the unit workers also have a 17 small caseload, but then they're responsible for 18 the majority of the classification of the 19 inmates, and then also the supervision of the 20 unit staff. And then we also have a unit manager 21 on each unit who, obviously, then would supervise 235 1 the unit, case manager, and then the unit 2 caseworkers. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: I'm sorry -- okay, I 4 see. So there's a unit caseworker, who's on the 5 floor? 6 MICHELE HILLMAN: Yes, that's our 7 entry-level position. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: Entry level. And 9 then over him or her is a unit case manager? 10 MICHELE HILLMAN: Yes. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: Who would also be on 12 the floor but have responsibilities for 13 classifying and supervising. 14 MICHELE HILLMAN: Yes. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: And by classifying, 16 we're talking about what? 17 MICHELE HILLMAN: Job changes. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Job changes. 19 MICHELE HILLMAN: Good time 20 restorations, promotions, demotions, and custody, 21 and then they're also involved in their 236 1 personalized plans. They help complete those, 2 which they receive recommendations for mental 3 health, and from education; they help complete 4 those papers, also. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: Personal plans, are 6 those the reentry? 7 MICHELE HILLMAN: No. The 8 personalized plans are -- when they first come to 9 the department, they're evaluated, and based on 10 their crime and their history we determine what 11 programming that they would need as far as mental 12 health is concerned and education and substance 13 abuse. And then from that, it's like a goal 14 sheet for the inmate. So the inmate knows that 15 we expect you to complete, say, these three 16 things before you're discharged or you reach a 17 certain level in your custody. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Great. 19 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Goal setting. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: And then over the 21 unit case manager is a unit manager? 237 1 MICHELE HILLMAN: Yes. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: And I assume that 3 means that that person is over the entire, all 4 four wings of a unit; no? 5 MICHELE HILLMAN: No. Each unit 6 manager -- like we were talking before, Housing 7 Unit 1-AB is considered a different unit. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: That's right. 9 MICHELE HILLMAN: So we would have a 10 unit manager for each one of those units. And 11 then the SMU unit that we talked about before, 12 that is Jason Hurt, and he's responsible for that 13 entire unit. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. So with 15 three buildings, residential buildings, each 16 having two units, we've got six unit managers 17 plus Mr. Hurt, so a total of seven unit managers? 18 MICHELE HILLMAN: Yes. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: Got it. All right. 20 And you mentioned that you don't work so much 21 with this manual as you do with the -- with some 238 1 unnamed forms, and I'm wondering if these -- 2 Appendix A to this manual, do you work with this 3 aggression, predation, and vulnerability 4 assessment instrument? 5 MICHELE HILLMAN: Most generally, 6 that's completed by our mental health staff when 7 they evaluate them in the institution at TSCI. 8 When they first come into our intake center, they 9 complete a detailed psychological evaluation. 10 They kind of go through and see what the needs of 11 the inmates are. And that's the first time that 12 that instrument is used. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Who's the most 14 knowledgeable of the folks that came with you 15 today about the risk assessment for aggressors, 16 predators, and vulnerability, sexual 17 vulnerability? Would you be, or would Mr. Hansen 18 be? 19 MICHELE HILLMAN: I would say I 20 probably would be. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Do you know 239 1 how this works, I mean, how you use these 2 instruments to assess the potential for somebody 3 being a predator or a victim? 4 MICHELE HILLMAN: As far as the scoring 5 levels? 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. 7 MICHELE HILLMAN: I believe I'm fairly 8 familiar with those. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. So can you 10 just tell us how you use these instruments? 11 MICHELE HILLMAN: Well, like I said, 12 when they came into our intake center, that's 13 completed, and depending on any past 14 victimization that they've reported or, you know, 15 if they would report that they were a predator in 16 some nature, obviously depending on their crime, 17 if they're in there for a sexual assault, all 18 that's evaluated and any type of documentation 19 that we can get previous before their 20 incarceration. 21 And then I guess the biggest part I 240 1 play, with my role, is, then once they come to 2 the institution, if we have reports that they're 3 pressuring somebody or if we believe that they're 4 being victimized as far as canteen or for sex or 5 in any way, we keep -- it's kind of like on a 6 continuum, we keep updating that and reevaluating 7 them. 8 And most recently, we're going to start 9 April 1st, we're going to complete a test 10 instrument or victimization instrument every time 11 we do their classification, so, depending on their 12 sentence structure, we could review their victim, 13 predator potential every six months or annually, 14 or it could be event-driven, also. So if there 15 was an event that staff reported or another 16 inmate reported that we can substantiate, then 17 that could be generated and we can also complete 18 the form then. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: So custody level is 20 reevaluated every six months or twelve months? 21 MICHELE HILLMAN: Mm-hmm. 241 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: Unless there was some 2 event that required you to trigger it earlier. 3 MICHELE HILLMAN: Right. And then I 4 believe the mental health staff, every time 5 they're transferred from one institution to 6 another institution, they do another complete 7 assessment there. They go off the past 8 information, but then obviously they look to see 9 if there's anything that would, an event that 10 would cause you to label them as a victim or a 11 predator at that time. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. So you use, 13 not you, but staff in the intake center use this 14 instrument to do an initial score of the 15 potential risk for them to be a sexual aggressor 16 or a sexual assault victim; is that right? 17 MICHELE HILLMAN: Yes. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: And then the mental 19 health folks do their own interview, and they 20 might use this or some other instrument? 21 MICHELE HILLMAN: Right. I believe the 242 1 actual instrument they use at D&E is an initial 2 instrument, obviously, since we haven't had 3 contact with them if this was their first 4 incarceration. And then the one that we do with 5 our classification is fairly similar to that, 6 that we're going to start here soon, that we'll 7 do every six months or annually. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: I see. And do you or 9 whoever administers these in the intake center 10 get any particular specialized training to know 11 how to complete this assessment? 12 MICHELE HILLMAN: Well, our mental 13 health staff, I believe they have particular 14 training that they take in order to complete the 15 instrument. And then the instrument that we're 16 going to start using in April with the 17 classification, we're individually training the 18 unit staff to complete that. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: Great. And is there 20 a different assessment instrument for female -- 21 you're not going to have any female inmates. 243 1 Do you administer this assessment, you 2 or anyone else that you know at TSCI, do you 3 administer this ever to any staff? 4 MICHELE HILLMAN: No, I don't believe 5 so. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: Captain, have you 7 ever had occasion to suggest or know of any staff 8 that needed -- somebody suspected that they might 9 be involved in misconduct and they used an 10 assessment as a tool? 11 RICH BRITTENHAM: I've never seen that 12 used on staff. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: Might be something to 14 consider. You know, I'm not a psychologist, but 15 it seems like if it works for inmates, you might 16 want to think about it for certain staff. 17 Yes, Mr. Director? 18 ROBERT HOUSTON: A developing approach 19 we're taking to dealing with both law enforcement 20 issues, rules and regulations, is we have a 21 full-time person that does what's called data 244 1 mining, and what we do is we take different 2 indicators, such as visitor lists, checks going 3 out, misconduct reports, other types of things 4 that are indicators when putting together data 5 mining -- take data and turn it into information. 6 And we're doing a very good job of that, our 7 investigators; as we go along it's going to get 8 better. 9 Now, the reason I bring that up is, is 10 we also have a professor by the name of Sam 11 Walker at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, 12 and what he does is he consults nationwide on 13 early warning indicators concerning law 14 enforcement, and we've worked with him. As we 15 get down the line and get more things 16 computerized and more indicators, we may do the 17 same thing when it comes to staff -- not as a way 18 to punish staff or anything, but to generate 19 information so that the number of misconduct 20 reports that a person writes, for example, the 21 nature of those misconduct reports, the geography 245 1 we talked about and so forth, where all that data 2 could come together as information and tell us 3 more about staff as well as the inmates. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: That's great. 5 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: That sounds good. 6 And I would add, as well, that there are a number 7 of tests that could be, you know, from the 8 standpoint of making determinations about 9 personality and staff -- that are not quite as 10 intense as this one that you might want to 11 consider, as well. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Ms. Hillman, there's 13 a document entitled Internal Classification, 14 Initial Screening Instrument Manual, and it 15 discusses presenting characteristics for someone 16 with a potential for sexual violence and 17 presenting characteristics for someone with a 18 potential for sexual victimization, and notes 19 that it's revised -- it was revised on June 26, 20 '06. Are you familiar with this six- to 21 eight-page document? 246 1 MICHELE HILLMAN: Yes. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: And do you ever use 3 that? 4 MICHELE HILLMAN: Again, it's mainly 5 used by our mental health staff, but it's 6 available to all the unit staff, also. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 8 MICHELE HILLMAN: It just helps them 9 complete the initial instrument when they come 10 in, and then the updated evaluations as they are 11 transferred from institution to institution. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Now, this manual that 13 we're talking about now helps them fill out a 14 different document, which is numbered AR, I 15 assume Administrative Regulation, 203.11, 16 Attachment E, revised on June 26, '06, a little 17 over two pages -- a little over one page. Is 18 that separate? 19 MICHELE HILLMAN: Yes. That's the one 20 that most generally our unit -- or our mental 21 health staff use at TSCI. 247 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And so the 2 mental health staff, do they also use this for 3 offenders, this earlier one? 4 MICHELE HILLMAN: I believe that's the 5 initial instrument they use at the intake 6 facility. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Ah, okay. Great. 8 All right. So the Aggression and Vulnerability 9 Potential Risk Assessment Manual is used in the 10 intake center, and the Internal Classification, 11 Initial Screening Instrument Manual and the 12 accompanying form, 203.11, is used by mental 13 health staff for a subsequent classification? 14 MICHELE HILLMAN: I believe so, yes. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And this is a 16 helpful document; it lists a number of questions 17 that appear to be deemed important for 18 establishing whether someone has a certain risk 19 level in this area. Do you have any -- have you 20 received any training in how to use and fill out 21 this document, other than this manual? 248 1 MICHELE HILLMAN: No, I have not. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. How about the 3 folks in mental health; we don't have them here 4 so I can't ask them. What training other than 5 the six-page manual do they have in filling out 6 this profile of victims and predators? 7 MICHELE HILLMAN: I believe they were 8 initially trained when we started the instrument. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And I note 10 that among the factors that it lists as sexual 11 victimization potential, they list: naive to the 12 prison environment, yes or no; physical 13 condition or weakness makes him or her 14 vulnerable; slight physical stature; 15 unassertive; lacks self-confidence; timid or 16 withdrawn; projects fear or nervousness. 17 Expresses concern about sexual pressuring or 18 victimization; vulnerable to sexual 19 victimization due to the nature of his or her 20 crime; comprehension difficulties. 21 Then, among other factors: some special 249 1 ed placement; difficulty asking -- I mean 2 answering, questions or speech processing; reports 3 a history of sexual victimization; a history of 4 difficulty living independently; passively 5 acknowledges homosexuality; or has a drug problem 6 that would increase vulnerability. 7 Are there any other factors that you 8 understand are relevant to potential sexual 9 victimization in prison? 10 MICHELE HILLMAN: No. I believe that 11 basically covers all the indicators that we use. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And, similarly, 13 there are only about six or -- there are six 14 questions, seven questions, and then another five 15 factors for sexual violence potential. Are there 16 any other factors that you use to assess who 17 might be a predator? 18 MICHELE HILLMAN: When they come into 19 our intake center, part of the psychological 20 evaluation -- we have their victim -- their victim 21 potential, basically, and we use that a lot for 250 1 housing unit assignments. They report it 2 initially in the first classification, and has an 3 indicator whether we believe they're a low, 4 moderate, or high victim. And we use that to 5 also match up inmates for housing unit 6 assignments. And then you can glance at that, 7 it's a really good information piece, in their 8 initial workup, where you learn some of their 9 background, and you can kind of judge, from what 10 category they put them in at that time, where 11 they would be successful at. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Could you just 13 describe for us how you do your work in 14 determining housing assignments or reassignments? 15 MICHELE HILLMAN: When they're 16 transferred to TSCI, we do initial intake on 17 them, basically, and that's mental health and 18 medical and housing unit staff all meet 19 individually with the inmate, privately, and then 20 we come together as a committee and basically 21 decide what housing would be appropriate for 251 1 them. We use mental health's input from the 2 updated form that they do at that time. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: The June 26, '06? 4 MICHELE HILLMAN: Mm-hmm. But 5 primarily, before they even reach the 6 institution, we look at that low/moderate/high 7 that I was talking about earlier, and based on 8 that and just their sentence structure, and any 9 type of information we can pull off their initial 10 workup, we use that to determine who we believe 11 they should be paired up with. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: I see. And when 13 you're making those classifications, what 14 information do you have on their medical history, 15 what information do you have other than what 16 you've got from the intake, the initial intake 17 interviews? 18 MICHELE HILLMAN: Medical, I wouldn't 19 have any information. As far as, usually when 20 they arrive at the institution, if you can't see 21 -- like if they would need a bottom bunk pass or 252 1 if there's some type of medical condition that we 2 wouldn't be familiar with, that wouldn't be 3 documented in their file, because the file in, 4 what we call the reporter classified, is on the 5 computer, where we can -- other people can view 6 it. So a lot of times the medical information 7 isn't on the computer, so we rely on our medical 8 staff that does the initial evaluation to tell us 9 if there's any concerns at that time. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: How would you know if 11 somebody had been raped before, either in or out 12 of incarceration? 13 MICHELE HILLMAN: It would be 14 self-reported by the inmate. Otherwise, we would 15 -- well, I guess when they complete that initial 16 instrument in the mental health -- like I said, 17 they're off to the side by themselves, so 18 hopefully at that time they would report that to 19 the mental health staff. Otherwise, if they were 20 at another institution, I would hope that they 21 would inform staff and seek protective custody, 253 1 perhaps. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: Do you get any 3 information from jails or from other 4 incarcerating agencies about inmates that you're 5 receiving? 6 MICHELE HILLMAN: It just varies. Like 7 the Douglas County Jail, we have a very good 8 rapport with them, and also Lancaster County, 9 which is located in Lincoln, where most of our 10 facilities are. So -- 11 Oh, thank you. 12 And then the actual PSI, the 13 post-sentence investigation, is part of their 14 file, and we usually have that when they arrive 15 at the institution. And then it's also 16 documented, I believe, on the computer where we 17 can review that. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Is the PSI all 19 self-reported information, or would there be some 20 official reference from the jail that, yeah, this 21 person reported that he was raped the night 254 1 before we put him on the bus to Tecumseh? 2 MICHELE HILLMAN: The majority of it is 3 self-reported. But then they can also speak to 4 them. It just kind of varies between inmate. 5 And obviously, if this isn't their first time in 6 prison or the jail, we have more history that we 7 can evaluate them on. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: Just as a for what 9 it's worth, we have seen that the level of 10 information forwarded to prisons from jails is 11 spotty at best, and it sounds like your 12 institution you used to head up is good about 13 providing more information than most. 14 MR. HOUSTON: Yes. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Mr. Director. 16 ROBERT HOUSTON: If I could make a 17 couple comments about the future. Also, we hope 18 to go to electronic records-keeping of our 19 medical, mental health records, and also 20 substance abuse. And we want to give that to 21 every county in the state. We have 93 counties 255 1 in Nebraska and 78 county jails. We have an 2 excellent rapport with those county jails. 3 Should we get to the point where we can get the 4 resources to do that, we want to give that 5 program -- we make a part of that program, so 6 it's up to every jail in the State. 7 What the idea is, is that when an 8 inmate rolls into a county jail, that the medical 9 checks that they do, any pharmacy, psychiatric, 10 substance abuse information that's generated 11 there would then go into that electronic records- 12 keeping. Then when they come to us, our selfish 13 interest is that there's some basic checks that 14 might have just been done three months before in 15 the county jail that we wouldn't have to repeat. 16 But more selfishly, we would then get the records 17 that you're talking about, and then that becomes, 18 before they even arrive at jail, in our prison 19 system, we would already know any victimization 20 or medical conditions or anything such as that. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: That's great. 256 1 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Yes. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: Ms. Hillman, what are 3 you doing differently, if anything, in your job 4 at Tecumseh in the way of orientation or 5 classification to address sexual abuse since, 6 say, PREA was passed? 7 MICHELE HILLMAN: At the initial intake 8 at the facility, at TSCI, when the mental health 9 staff evaluate the inmate, they also go through 10 kind of a checklist of the sexual assault 11 victimization. And then after that, usually the 12 following Friday, we have -- they may schedule an 13 orientation class where we also talk about it 14 there openly. And then just day-to-day, we count 15 on the relationships that we have with the 16 inmates, the professional relationships, so we 17 have that rapport with the inmate so they would 18 feel comfortable coming to the staff if they 19 would have any of those problems. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: Anything else that 21 you've changed of late to address or prevent 257 1 sexual abuse as far as your procedures? 2 MICHELE HILLMAN: Well, basically, 3 we've been addressing the staff and inmate more 4 frequently, making sure that our staff know what 5 our expectations are, that there's zero tolerance 6 for that, and just making other staff aware that 7 they need to feel comfortable talking to us about 8 that -- if they would recognize some of the red 9 flags we talked about earlier, about other staff 10 spending too much time with the inmates or 11 becoming too familiar with them, that they need 12 to feel comfortable with us to report that. And 13 that we'll investigate that properly. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Are you familiar with 15 the orientation in the intake center? I mean, do 16 you know -- 17 MICHELE HILLMAN: The orientation, we 18 actually do -- 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: With the new inmates. 20 MICHELE HILLMAN: At TSCI, so they're 21 familiar with the facility and the different 258 1 programs that we offer? 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. 3 MICHELE HILLMAN: Right, yes, I've 4 completed that before. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And are you 6 familiar with the way it's done now? Because I'm 7 not hearing that that's part of your present 8 responsibilities. 9 MICHELE HILLMAN: Right. I believe 10 it's still the same. We follow the same -- 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Who is -- 12 forgive me if you've already answered, but who is 13 the person who is most directly involved in 14 orienting the new inmates? 15 MICHELE HILLMAN: That would be all my 16 unit managers. We all cycle through there and 17 take turns, so everybody is familiar with it and 18 we're on the same page. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. All right. 20 There is a brochure, is there not, about sexual 21 assault that's given to new inmates? 259 1 MICHELE HILLMAN: Yes, there is. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: And it doesn't 3 contain much information, if any, on staff sexual 4 misconduct. Is that your recollection? 5 MICHELE HILLMAN: It clarifies that 6 staff sexual assault and sexual victimization of 7 an inmate is inappropriate. But, right, it's the 8 majority inmate-on-inmate sexual assault. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Inmate-on-inmate. Is 10 there anything in that about -- and I can't put 11 my hands on it if we have it. Is there anything 12 about the fact that staff cannot pressure inmates 13 for sex? 14 MICHELE HILLMAN: As in the pamphlet? 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: In the pamphlet. 16 MICHELE HILLMAN: I don't believe so. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: Is there anything in 18 your lesson plan that your unit managers who do 19 the orientation are supposed to talk about in 20 regards to staff sexual misconduct? 21 MICHELE HILLMAN: Well, they speak of 260 1 it when they give the orientation, and also 2 mental health also addresses that, and they just 3 -- they make it very aware to the inmate that 4 it's unacceptable and that we don't tolerate it, 5 and that they need to feel free to report that to 6 staff or however means they can. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Is there some lesson 8 plan or whatever, a checklist that documents the 9 fact that your unit managers do go over, not just 10 inmate-on-inmate, but staff sexual activity as 11 well, or is that just something that they're 12 supposed to remember to do but there's no 13 curriculum or checklist? 14 MICHELE HILLMAN: Well, when they do 15 the initial intake at TSCI and then the 16 orientation, there's a page that we go over with 17 the inmate, and it's basically bullet points of 18 the brochure that they cover. And then at the 19 end of that session, both the intake and then the 20 orientation, the inmate actually signs a form 21 that he received that information, so we have the 261 1 documentation from the inmate showing that the 2 staff actually spoke to them about these issues, 3 so we have the documentation so we know it's 4 getting completed. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: There's this -- 6 Did you want to jump in? 7 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: I did have a few 8 questions. In that information provided to the 9 inmates, are there precautions to inmates about 10 how to avoid being sexually abused? 11 MICHELE HILLMAN: Well, the staff will 12 talk to them about the different triggers. You 13 know, like if somebody wants to buy you canteen 14 or if they're giving you contraband, tobacco, 15 whatever, doing you favors, gambling debts, 16 there's a variety of things that they speak about 17 to kind of -- especially the naive inmates, it 18 kind of gives them an idea of what to expect 19 that, you know, they're not doing that just 20 because they're a really nice person. You know, 21 there's other reasons for them offering those 262 1 services. 2 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: And during that 3 information collection period, the intake period, 4 are inmates asked to identify their sexual 5 orientation? I note the question in the 6 information that you provided, that one of the 7 ways for identifying vulnerable inmates is that 8 they don't readily admit or are hesitant 9 admitting their sexual orientation. Is that an 10 official question that's asked? 11 MICHELE HILLMAN: I honestly -- I don't 12 know. I would think that part of the 13 psychological evaluation maybe at the intake 14 facility, they might cover that, but I'm not sure 15 if it's actually on a sheet where they check 16 whether they ask them what their sexual 17 preference is. 18 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Do you think that's 19 important information for you? 20 MICHELE HILLMAN: It would be helpful. 21 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: What about staff, 263 1 are there homosexuals on staff at Tecumseh? 2 MICHELE HILLMAN: I would imagine. 3 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: What about race, 4 does race play a role in housing classification, 5 in that process at all? 6 MICHELE HILLMAN: We take that into 7 consideration, but it's not a definite. We don't 8 house inmates of the same race, like an absolute. 9 It doesn't mean that we'll have two white people 10 together or two black people together. We just 11 -- we use it as a consideration, but it's not a 12 definite way that we cell inmates. 13 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Is there racial 14 tension in your facility? 15 MICHELE HILLMAN: I don't believe so. 16 I guess I'd like to clarify that. I 17 was just thinking, with the gangs, obviously we 18 have gang activity, and so I believe that would 19 be some type of -- I don't know if I'd call it 20 racial tension, but we do have the gang activity 21 in the institution, so -- 264 1 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Is there anything 2 associated with the gang, the gangs, that impacts 3 sexual abuse in any way? Do the gangs seem to 4 take a stance against it? Do they engage in it? 5 What is the relationship with gangs regarding 6 sexual abuse? 7 MICHELE HILLMAN: As far as I know, we 8 don't have any documentation saying one way or 9 the other whether that would play a role in that. 10 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Do you have a sense 11 or kind of an unwritten law or ruling or 12 knowledge? 13 MICHELE HILLMAN: I don't -- there's 14 nothing that I can think of where like a 15 particular gang participates in that, or -- 16 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Maybe a particular 17 gang frowning on it or having strong feelings 18 about predators, sexual predators? 19 MICHELE HILLMAN: I'm sure they do, but 20 I'm not -- as far as -- I'm not too -- obviously 21 I work with the inmates, but I'm not sure what 265 1 the expectations of some gangs are over the 2 other. 3 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: I don't believe we 4 asked the question regarding the general culture 5 within the institution. What is the culture like 6 in terms of its values related to sexual issues? 7 Is there a lot of joking, open conversation about 8 it? 9 MICHELE HILLMAN: I personally don't 10 believe so. Obviously, we've had staff in the 11 past who made poor decisions and engaged in that 12 type of activity. But, as a general rule, I 13 believe the majority of our staff are 14 professional. They come to work and they're 15 respectful to the inmates, and I believe, 16 overall, we have a really good institution. 17 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Do you have any 18 peer education programs? Are there ever times 19 when more experienced inmates who may be on the 20 way out of the door are helpful in mentoring or 21 sharing information with inmates who are newly 266 1 arrived? 2 MICHELE HILLMAN: Occasionally, I 3 believe most of the time, that works in a 4 negative manner. That they'll -- 5 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Explain. Tell me a 6 little more. 7 MICHELE HILLMAN: Well, if an inmate is 8 part of a gang, usually the newer inmates, 9 depending on -- they'll try to recruit the inmate 10 for that gang. 11 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: I see. 12 MICHELE HILLMAN: But, I mean, we have 13 some inmates who, you know, they're in doing 14 their time, they've done the program, they have 15 seen that it doesn't pay to go through life that 16 way, and occasionally they'll take a younger 17 inmate aside and kind of show them the ways, I 18 guess. And then we also have different clubs 19 that they belong to; they kind of bring them into 20 that. We have the religious activities, too, 21 that they can participate in. 267 1 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: What type of clubs 2 do you have? 3 MICHELE HILLMAN: We have the stamp 4 club. 5 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Are these stamp 6 collectors? 7 MICHELE HILLMAN: They are. Pretty 8 good collections. We have a few inmates that 9 have some pretty outstanding collections in 10 there. 11 You're going to have to help me out on 12 this one. 13 RICH BRITTENHAM: There's a Harambee 14 club, which -- African culture awareness. I can't 15 think what the H stands for. There's the MADA, 16 Mexican awareness, Mexican awareness. There's -- 17 they have AA. There's a vets -- a vets club, a 18 veterans club of inmates who are incarcerated who 19 were in the military, whatever branch it was, and 20 that they have document. I think the form is -- 21 I don't know what the form is called, but they 268 1 have to have documentation that they were 2 actually in the military. 3 They just started a club, Seventh Step, 4 which it was new when I was leaving; I couldn't 5 tell you -- I think it's about like helping 6 Toastmasters. Toastmasters, Seventh Step, 7 Toastmasters. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: The warden just gave 9 you something? 10 RICH BRITTENHAM: Yeah, he did. He has 11 Toastmasters, and NASCO, Native American, Seventh 12 Step, Vets, AA, MADA, and Harambee. And 13 Toastmasters, I know, is public speaking. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. 15 RICH BRITTENHAM: But Seventh Step, I 16 really couldn't tell you all what that's about. 17 But those are the clubs that -- there's a club 18 counselor who deals with them and helps set up 19 their symposiums and banquets and et cetera, like 20 that. 21 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Thank you. 269 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: Let me just ask, Ms. 2 Hillman, there's a document entitled Inmate 3 Orientation Information Regarding Sexual 4 Abuse/Sexual Assault. It's one page, has five 5 paragraphs. Are you familiar with it? 6 MICHELE HILLMAN: Yes. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: And how do your folks 8 use it? 9 MICHELE HILLMAN: That's when they 10 review with the inmate during the initial intake 11 and during, then, the orientation process. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Is this the thing the 13 inmate signs that they received, or is it 14 something else? 15 MICHELE HILLMAN: The second page of 16 that would be the, where they indicate that they 17 signed that. And then we keep a copy of that in 18 their treatment file and also in their 19 institutional records, so that will go with them 20 from institution to institution. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 270 1 MICHELE HILLMAN: So we have 2 documentation of that. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: There's nothing -- 4 there's not a whole lot on this form about staff 5 sexual activity with an inmate. Almost all of it 6 is about what inmates shouldn't be doing. 7 There's one line in the whole page. It says: 8 Staff volunteers and contractors who engage in 9 the above cited prohibited acts are subject to 10 appropriate administrative action. 11 But the list, the bullet point list of 12 zero tolerance is: physical sexual assault; 13 physical sexual pressuring; extortion; physical 14 sexual intimidation or manipulation; or 15 retaliation or retribution. There's nothing 16 about, quote, consensual, willing activity. So 17 it would lead a new inmate to believe that if a 18 staff -- if you're willing and the staff is 19 soliciting sex, if it's all right with the 20 inmate, the staff person is not engaging in any 21 of those five prohibited acts and it's okay and 271 1 the zero tolerance doesn't apply. 2 MICHELE HILLMAN: Well, that's one 3 thing that they cover in the brochure then, with 4 the inmate. And then in preparation to come out 5 here, obviously, that's one thing that we 6 recognized that we could do a little bit better 7 on, that we need to revise both the pamphlet and 8 the information so it has more detail explaining, 9 so the message to the inmate is that we do not 10 tolerate that, and then obviously more detail in 11 how we expect them to report that to staff. So 12 that's one of the things that we recognized. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: That's great. There 14 was also another document, it's a five-page 15 document entitled NDOC Internal Classification 16 Manual. Are you familiar with that? 17 MICHELE HILLMAN: Yes. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: And where does this 19 get used? 20 MICHELE HILLMAN: Is that with the PREA 21 assessment? 272 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: No. PREA doesn't get 2 mentioned here. 3 MICHELE HILLMAN: Oh, sorry. Oh, this 4 is similar to what we spoke about earlier. I 5 believe this is what mental health also uses, I 6 believe, at our intake center. Just some of the 7 examples of the questions they can use to 8 determine their level of violence, or if they're 9 a predator or victim. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: And there's also, 11 there are a couple more documents that are 12 attachments to the sexual assault policy. One is 13 Attachment F, Potential Perpetrator/Victim 14 Monthly Tracking Form. Who uses this? 15 MICHELE HILLMAN: That's what the unit 16 staff complete. We recognize when they come into 17 the institution, if they have a high -- if 18 they're rated as a high potential for a victim or 19 a high potential for a predator, we track them 20 monthly. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: That's great. 273 1 MICHELE HILLMAN: Then we complete 2 those, and then we report them to our mental 3 health staff. And so they can gather that 4 information, and they have -- they can add that 5 to their mental health file, just so we can make 6 sure that we're paying attention and tracking the 7 inmate through his incarceration. 8 And then any time during that, if we 9 determine -- say if I come in and I'm considered 10 a low victim, if there's some activity that would 11 happen, they can be generated onto that monthly 12 list, so we're evaluating them monthly and then 13 potentially changing what category they fit in. 14 So if they were a low victim, if we believe 15 they're being pressured or being targeted, we can 16 up their level to moderate or high and possibly 17 track them monthly. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: That is great. I 19 notice that Item 10 on the perpetrator review 20 criteria is sexual activities with a staff 21 member -- yes, no, suspected, unconfirmed. That's 274 1 good to know. How would your staff be expected 2 to address that particular criteria? I mean, 3 they can ask the inmate, are you having sex with 4 any of the staff; and I'm not trying to be 5 flippant. 6 MICHELE HILLMAN: Right. I mean, they 7 could ask them that. And I believe most 8 generally, staff are going to know if the inmate 9 is too familiar with somebody. Especially the 10 unit staff, they're on the unit eight hours a 11 day, they're working with those inmates, they're 12 building that rapport. You're going to notice if 13 somebody is consistently going to another 14 employee or, you know, if they're shying away, if 15 you feel like maybe they're, you know, there's 16 not the same character that they were the day 17 before or the week before, and just little 18 triggers like that. 19 Obviously, they're not going to have 20 the documentation if the major's office is 21 investigating an employee or, you know, another 275 1 inmate for something, perhaps, but that at least 2 gives us a tool to use. And then possibly, like 3 if the inmate would report that, obviously, that 4 would give us information and details to report 5 to the major's office for review. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes, this is great. 7 Because at the bottom, you have a place for -- a 8 blank for: complete each item for either the 9 potential perpetrator or victim assessment. All 10 items checked yes or suspected or unconfirmed 11 require explanation and recommendations. That's 12 great. So you expect your staff, if they know of 13 sexual activity or they suspect it, they're 14 supposed to give some details about this. 15 MICHELE HILLMAN: Most definitely, and 16 then follow up immediately. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: And then what do they 18 do with it? 19 MICHELE HILLMAN: They should follow up 20 immediately with me if they suspect any of that, 21 and then we'll talk to the major's office. And 276 1 then if there was some type of activity, 2 obviously, it would go to investigation, but then 3 mental health would also be notified immediately. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: It would go to Benny, 5 to Mr. Noordhoek? 6 MICHELE HILLMAN: Right. I would turn 7 it into the major's office, and the major's 8 office is our contact with Benny, so he would 9 contact Benny immediately then. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Has this ever 11 happened: Have you ever -- any of your staff 12 ever brought to you one of these tracking forms 13 and said, hey, check this out; I think inmate Joe 14 has something going with female or male staff X? 15 MICHELE HILLMAN: Not from the form. 16 But just general observation, staff have came to 17 me and expressed concern that an inmate and a 18 staff seem too familiar. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: I see. But they 20 haven't used this form? In other words, -- 21 MICHELE HILLMAN: Well, they use the 277 1 form. I don't believe it's been generated, you 2 know, the discussion has been generated from 3 completing the form. 4 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: I see. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: I see. I'm just 6 wondering if -- I mean, the verbal is great, but 7 I'm wondering if there's documentation anywhere 8 or could be documentation anywhere about 9 follow-up? 10 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Or with 11 investigations. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: In other words, has 13 anybody ever written anything on the bottom of 14 this form, Attachment F, relating to Item 10 15 about perpetrators or Item 6 about victims, both 16 of which is sexual activities with a staff 17 member? Would be there any document that you're 18 aware of that has ever addressed those criteria 19 in writing? 20 MICHELE HILLMAN: Since I've been the 21 unit administrator, I don't believe anybody has 278 1 flagged that on their form. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: How about when you 3 were unit manager yourself, did you ever fill out 4 one saying, I think somebody's got something 5 going with a staff member? 6 MICHELE HILLMAN: Not a staff member; I 7 have with another inmate. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: Another inmate, which 9 is Item 9 and 5. 10 MICHELE HILLMAN: Right. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: Do you think there's 12 a reluctance to put in writing something about 13 one of your fellow staff members having sexual 14 activities with an inmate? 15 MICHELE HILLMAN: I personally don't 16 believe so, because we have staff -- staff are 17 very quick to report that. There hasn't been a 18 lack of staff willingness to report that, or at 19 least I don't believe so, that somebody is being 20 too close with an inmate. Or even inmates, 21 really; I mean, they're usually our first 279 1 indicator. And then we tend to pay more 2 attention, I believe, to that and see if we can 3 find any other indicators. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: And this looks like 5 another mental health document, and it's great 6 that this is being addressed. This is 7 Attachment G, a Potential Perpetrator/Victim 8 90-Day Mental Status Examination. One of the 9 assessment questions, not upper behavioral 10 observations, but one of the ten assessment 11 questions is: Pressured or pressuring others for 12 sexual favors -- yes, no, or suspected. And 13 again, there's a place for elaborating on it. Is 14 this something that your unit staff use? 15 MICHELE HILLMAN: I believe that form 16 is utilized by our mental health staff. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: Just the mental 18 health staff? 19 MICHELE HILLMAN: Right. And I know 20 they've often reported concerns. I don't believe 21 they've actually, like, photocopied the paper and 280 1 gave it to staff. But obviously I know they've 2 reported concerns that they may -- like I said, 3 usually inmate-on-inmate. I can't think of any 4 examples where they reported that they believed 5 there's an inappropriate staff with staff and 6 inmate. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. What's the 8 90-day deal? Is this 90 days after their initial 9 mental health examination? 10 MICHELE HILLMAN: I believe that's 90 11 days after their arrival at Tecumseh, TSCI. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay, which is one 13 and the same, right? I mean, they get a mental 14 health examination. 15 MICHELE HILLMAN: Right. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Now, I believe 17 the inmate grievances go to you and the potential 18 disciplinary cases go to Mr. Noordhoek; is that 19 right? 20 MICHELE HILLMAN: Potential staff 21 discipline? 281 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: Potential -- any 2 investigation, any case investigation goes to Mr. 3 Noordhoek, right? 4 MICHELE HILLMAN: Right. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: But all grievances 6 first go to you? 7 MICHELE HILLMAN: Well, the grievances 8 would be logged on the unit, and then, depending 9 on what level, they would be responding. But, 10 yeah, I'm responsible for tracking all the inmate 11 grievances. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And we asked 13 for all the inmate grievances relating to sexual 14 harassment or assault for calendar '06, and there 15 were just two that were produced. Does that 16 sound right? 17 MICHELE HILLMAN: I believe so, yes. 18 We went through the whole log of 2006 and 19 reviewed them all. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: Would you have 21 expected more grievance forms to be relating to 282 1 sexual harassment and sexual touching and so 2 forth, for a 12-month period? 3 MICHELE HILLMAN: For our institution, 4 typically, no. 5 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: For your 6 institution, typically, no, did you say? 7 MICHELE HILLMAN: Correct. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: Not just generally 9 but Tecumseh? 10 MICHELE HILLMAN: Well, I believe -- I 11 mean, I've worked in Tecumseh for the last five 12 years, so, I mean, obviously -- 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: And now let me just 14 ask you briefly about these two grievances. One 15 is an attempt to be an emergency grievance, which 16 we heard about. 17 MICHELE HILLMAN: Right. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Do you remember one 19 being filed by -- is it all right to mention the 20 inmate's name? 21 MICHELE HILLMAN: Probably not. 283 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. 2 MICHELE HILLMAN: If I could just look 3 at them real quick. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes, April 3, '06, is 5 when it was filed. 6 MICHELE HILLMAN: Okay. (Reviewing 7 documents.) Okay. Thank you. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: Do you remember this 9 one? 10 MICHELE HILLMAN: Not -- no, I do not. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. The inmate was 12 asking to speak to the lieutenant, said that he 13 is filing a sexual harassment charge against the 14 facility and against a sergeant, that we'll leave 15 unnamed. "He violated me, made me feel stupid, 16 and made me do things that were very hard to do 17 because I have a bad foot. He came into my unit, 18 strip-searched me in my room, even though I told 19 him that" -- I can't quite figure out what the 20 next is. The case number, I don't know whether 21 that's UA or WA, 061557, and 591. 284 1 MICHELE HILLMAN: Oh, there we go. 2 Okay. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: And he has 4 handwritten "emergency" and underlined on the top 5 of the grievance form. And the response dated 6 the same day and signed by the chief executive 7 officer, who I assume would be the warden? 8 MICHELE HILLMAN: Actually, that's our 9 deputy warden's signature. In the absence of 10 him, the deputy warden can sign for that. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: Got you. And who's 12 that? 13 MICHELE HILLMAN: Deputy Warden Brian 14 Gage. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: And the response to 16 the grievance is: "The information contained in 17 your grievance does not meet the criteria which 18 governs the emergency grievance procedure, as you 19 are in no immediate danger of being subjected to 20 a substantial risk of personal injury or serious 21 or irreparable harm. You may resubmit via the 285 1 routine grievance procedure outlined in DCS 2 Rule 2. According to rules and regulations, all 3 employees, inmates, and property within the 4 Department of Correctional Services are subject 5 to search any time, with or without reason. 6 Staff are not required to justify as to why you 7 or your cell are being searched at any given 8 time." 9 The inmate doesn't indicate in 10 particular why he thinks there was a sexual 11 harassment charge aspect to this strip search. 12 But evidently, he received it back and 13 immediately wrote another one, wrote "emergency" 14 at the top, and said: "You didn't understand what 15 I meant. Sergeant so-and-so sexually harassed 16 me. What proper channels should I go through?" 17 And the typed response, also the same 18 day, is: "The information contained in your 19 grievance does not meet the criteria which 20 governs emergency grievances, as you are in no 21 immediate danger of being subjected to a 286 1 substantial risk of personal injury or serious or 2 irreparable harm. Your comments are noted, and 3 sergeant so-and-so is not present for comment. 4 The proper grievance procedure is outlined in DCS 5 Rule No. 2. You may resubmit via the routine 6 grievance procedure as outlined in DCS Rule 7 No. 2." 8 And evidently, it was handed back to 9 him by another officer, and receipt acknowledged, 10 and it appears that on that receipt the inmate 11 wrote that the subject was sexual harassment. 12 So all that is to say, it looks like 13 this inmate tried twice the same day, using 14 grievance procedure and trying to invoke the 15 emergency grievance procedure, and got it bounced 16 back twice because he wasn't deemed to be in 17 immediate danger of a substantial risk of 18 personal injury or irreparable harm. 19 Is that the way this should be handled, 20 according to your understanding of procedure? 21 MICHELE HILLMAN: Usually when we 287 1 receive grievances like this, the lieutenant 2 would call him up there immediately. And then 3 they would -- 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: Call who? 5 MICHELE HILLMAN: The inmate. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 7 MICHELE HILLMAN: And then they would 8 interview him, and provide more details. I don't 9 know if the sexual harassment was just because he 10 was strip-searched in his cell. I'm not sure 11 what the level of harassment he received. But -- 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Would anything else 13 be done besides the lieutenant calling up the 14 complainant? 15 MICHELE HILLMAN: He would contact the 16 employee. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: The sergeant. 18 MICHELE HILLMAN: Mm-hmm. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: And -- 20 MICHELE HILLMAN: I don't know if that 21 happened or not in this particular situation. I 288 1 don't know if he called him at home and received 2 more details on the complaint. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Would you expect 4 anything further to be done beyond -- by the 5 lieutenant or anybody else, in response to this 6 grievance? 7 MICHELE HILLMAN: Any time we have 8 contacts or allegations of that, we notify the 9 major's office, because he logs all the sexual 10 assault and sexual victimization complaints, so 11 usually the major would be notified. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: So by log, does that 13 mean he would have a log, a written log of the 14 case number and his disposition of it? 15 MICHELE HILLMAN: I believe the major's 16 office notifies each time they're contacted about 17 that, yes. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: So it keeps some 19 physical log -- 20 Well, you used to do it, so -- 21 RICH BRITTENHAM: Yeah, I was going to 289 1 say, the log I keep is my contact with the 2 departmental investigators about that, not 3 actually -- 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: Not about grievances. 5 RICH BRITTENHAM: Not about grievances, 6 not a log, a running log of sexual victimization. 7 It's a log book I have where I contact 8 Investigator Noordhoek or Mr. Hansen stating we 9 have this issue. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: Mr. Noordhoek, do you 11 remember -- 12 If you wouldn't mind passing that down 13 to him. 14 Have you ever seen any documentation 15 regarding this emergency grievance or sexual 16 harassment claim? 17 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Not that I can 18 recall, no. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: In preparation for 20 your testimony today, did you review your files 21 looking for any and all cases that involve sexual 290 1 harassment or sexual misconduct? 2 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: In calendar year 3 '06, yes. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: How about '07? 5 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: No, I did not. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Ms. Hillman, 7 should anything else have been done, as you 8 understand procedure, with this attempt for an 9 emergency grievance alleging sexual harassment 10 other than what you've described? 11 MICHELE HILLMAN: Well, I would hope in 12 the future that they wouldn't use that first. 13 This is not an emergency response. And then 14 basically, just inform the inmate whether or not, 15 you know, they were in fear for their safety, and 16 then we would give the option to go to 17 segregation if they were to report that. And 18 then when they responded to the grievance, just 19 say, you know, your allegations are being 20 investigated, and basically we'll report back to 21 you once we can determine whether they are true 291 1 or not. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And then there 3 is, the second grievance that you produced is one 4 dated -- it's typewritten and it's dated, 5 date-stamped November 3, 2006, unit 6 administrator's office. That would be you, 7 right? 8 MICHELE HILLMAN: Yes. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Unit administrator. 10 And you were unit administrator at that point, 11 right, November 3 of '06? 12 MICHELE HILLMAN: I believe so. Right 13 around there. I don't know my exact date. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Do you have this? Do 15 you want me to show it to you? 16 MICHELE HILLMAN: No, is it the -- it 17 was received what date? Right on the bottom on 18 the left-hand side. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: 10-31-06. 20 MICHELE HILLMAN: Yep, I have that one. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. Is that 292 1 your signature under -- no, that's the chief 2 executive officer -- again, is Mr. Grant or 3 Brent? What was it? 4 MICHELE HILLMAN: On the first page? 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: Or that looks like 6 Mr. Britten. 7 MICHELE HILLMAN: That's, yeah, Mr. 8 Britten's signature. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 10 MICHELE HILLMAN: It looks like it 11 originally started from the housing unit, though, 12 the informal grievance. And then actually looks 13 like he initially started with the inmate 14 interview request form. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: You must have 16 something I don't. Do you have a handwritten 17 grievance that's not typewritten? 18 MICHELE HILLMAN: From the same inmate 19 or different inmate? 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: Same inmate. I just 21 have an inmate interview request form, which 293 1 looks like the inmate says, "Please send this 2 case law to be added with my grievance which 3 applied to the Department of Correction." 4 MICHELE HILLMAN: Yes, I do. I have 5 that in the packet. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: You say you think 7 there was a grievance that went before this 8 typewritten one, or -- 9 MICHELE HILLMAN: Well, I seen the 10 inmate interview request form. I just thought he 11 generated this first and then went to the 12 grievance. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: Looks like it's the 14 other way around, right? 15 MICHELE HILLMAN: Correct. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: He's saying stick 17 this statute on sexual -- he includes the sexual 18 abuse statute in Nebraska, and he wants it to 19 stick in his grievance file. 20 MICHELE HILLMAN: Mm-hmm. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. So are 294 1 you aware of any other documentation of his 2 particular complaint, this grievance? 3 MICHELE HILLMAN: No, I don't believe 4 so. I think that's all of it. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: And what do you 6 remember -- this one in a nutshell: I filed a 7 complaint with my unit counselor the same day I 8 was sexually assaulted by officer so-and-so 9 during a routine pat search. Officer blank 10 grabbed my buttocks and put his hands between my 11 legs and fondled my genital and penis. I pulled 12 away from him and told officer so-and-so out 13 loud, you cannot put your hands on me like that. 14 You're not allowed to grab my genital and penis 15 like that. And then there's an exchange. I told 16 officer so-and-so a pat search was brief and 17 incidental. I disagreed with the officer, et 18 cetera. 19 So it's about a pat search and an 20 allegation of sexual assault. And the response 21 is, your comments are noted. However, I concur 295 1 with the response set forth in the informal 2 grievance. 3 There must have been an informal 4 grievance that preceded this, right? 5 MICHELE HILLMAN: Yes. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: But we didn't get it. 7 You don't have one, right? You don't have the 8 informal grievance? 9 MICHELE HILLMAN: Oh, yes, I do. I 10 have it right here. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Does he say 12 anything that I didn't just read in typewritten? 13 MICHELE HILLMAN: In the initial -- 14 yeah. You might want to look -- I believe it's 15 not as descriptive as the grievance that you 16 have, but there's other information. Usually the 17 inmate will start out with an informal grievance. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. 19 MICHELE HILLMAN: And then that's 20 resolved on the unit. Then if they don't believe 21 that the answer was appropriate enough or 296 1 addressed their concerns, then they can take it 2 to the next level, which the warden ultimately 3 will answer. Or they can also do the Step 2 4 grievance, which goes directly to our central 5 office, and then they formulate their response 6 for that. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: The initial informal 8 grievance, which is typewritten and dated and 9 signed October 15, '06, the response 12 days 10 later -- who's the -- all right, I'll give this 11 back to you. 12 MICHELE HILLMAN: I believe it's unit 13 manager Joel Conratti. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes: Inmate, your 15 comments are noted. However, pursuant to 16 such-and-such, this grievance is being returned 17 to you unanswered due to this informal grievance 18 was not filed within three calendar days of the 19 incident of concern. 20 Is that true, that if somebody is 21 sexually assaulted in the form of, especially 297 1 like this, where there's an allegation of sexual 2 -- intimate sexual contact, that if the guy 3 doesn't report it in three days, tough luck? 4 MICHELE HILLMAN: Part of our -- one of 5 the responses they give you is, they're supposed 6 to file it within three days. However, if it was 7 something of that serious of a nature, we would 8 still investigate the matter. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: So despite Mr. 10 Conratti's response that it's being returned to 11 you unanswered, are you saying that it could have 12 been investigated anyway? 13 MICHELE HILLMAN: I believe, if you 14 look at the next one, it was investigated, the 15 one that the warden signed off, that we did 16 complete the investigation. Unfortunately, Mr. 17 Conratti didn't indicate that in his response. 18 He chose to put a different response on there. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. So the 20 response -- so he refiled three days after 21 getting this initial response, October 30, he 298 1 repeats it in more detail, and then six days 2 later the warden replies: Mr. so-and-so, your 3 comments are noted. However, I concur with the 4 response set forth in the informal grievance. In 5 addition, this incident was investigated. TSCI 6 is currently awaiting the results from this 7 investigation. Your patience in this matter is 8 greatly appreciated. 9 What was the result of the 10 investigation? 11 MICHELE HILLMAN: I believe it was 12 unfounded. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: Were you involved in 14 that investigation? 15 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: I believe I was. 16 Could I review the grievance? 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. 18 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Just so I know who 19 we're talking about. Thank you. (Reviewing 20 documents.) Yes, I was involved with this. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And would 299 1 there be any documentation of your involvement in 2 it? 3 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Yes. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Do you happen 5 to have that? 6 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Did you get a copy 7 of all of my investigations for '06? 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. 9 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: I believe that 10 would be Case No. 200602TSC461, if I'm not 11 mistaken. I don't have a copy of it. 12 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Do you have a copy 13 of it? 14 RICH BRITTENHAM: Well, not the whole 15 investigation, just a synopsis is what he has. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes, I just have -- 17 what have you got? 18 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Would you like to 19 see a copy of my synopsis? 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes, could I please? 21 Thanks. 300 1 All right. So this summarizes five 2 cases. 3 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: That's correct. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: In '06, and one of 5 them is, is it the third one? 6 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: I believe so. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Inmate claimed 8 that a male officer grabbed his genitals and 9 buttocks area while conducting a search. The 10 incident occurred while leaving the dining room 11 during the noon meal. Staff and inmate were 12 male. And the disposition was unfounded. 13 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: That's correct. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: What do you remember 15 about your investigation? 16 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: I remember speaking 17 with the inmate. He was upset over the search. 18 He felt staff went too far up into the genital 19 area and searched his buttocks. There was three 20 or four other staff members present. When 21 inmates are exiting the kitchen, normally there's 301 1 a group of officers there. There was a senior 2 corporal who was interviewed that witnessed this 3 incident and confirmed the officer's report, that 4 it was a routine pat search and nothing 5 inappropriate occurred. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: And so you took the 7 word of the correctional officers; is that right? 8 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: There was three or 9 four different correctional officers, yes. And 10 this incident happened out on the yard, plain 11 view of the tower and anyone else who had been 12 out there. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: While leaving the 14 dining room. 15 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Yes. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Now, 17 grievances only get to you if -- who decides that 18 they rise to the level of something that's worth 19 your time? 20 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Normally, it's the 21 major who contacts me. 302 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 2 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: But, you know, the 3 deputy warden or the warden also could, if it was 4 brought to their attention. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: So of the -- as long 6 as we're talking about the cases, there aren't 7 any other grievances in '06 related to sexual 8 harassment other than those two; is that right? 9 MICHELE HILLMAN: I believe so. I 10 believe those are two that I have. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. So then 12 turning to investigations related to sex in '06, 13 you list five cases. 14 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: That's correct. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Four of them were 16 found to be unfounded, one substantiated. 17 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Yes, sir. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: And what does it take 19 for a case investigation to be substantiated? 20 What level of certainty or what level of review, 21 what measuring stick do you use? 303 1 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Well, if there's 2 physical evidence, obviously, we substantiate off 3 that. In this case, the employee admitted guilt. 4 If it's observed by other staff members and 5 substantiated that way. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay, I don't want to 7 cut you off. 8 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: No. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: If there's physical 10 evidence, if there are other staff witnesses? 11 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: That's correct. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: How about inmate 13 witnesses, would that be important? 14 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: We consider that, 15 but we don't base our findings just off the 16 inmates' statements, no. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: No, I don't mean the 18 victim's statement. But if it was corroborated 19 by another prisoner? 20 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: We still wouldn't 21 base our findings just off of inmates. 304 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: I see. But you could 2 find it unfounded on the basis of a correctional 3 -- one correctional officer's denial; is that 4 correct? 5 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: That's correct. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. So some 7 witnesses are more credible than others; is that 8 the idea? 9 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Yes. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: The accused is going 11 to trump any number of inmates, eyewitnesses? 12 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: If there's no 13 physical evidence, we're just going by 14 statements, yes. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And any other 16 evidence that you would want to consider? 17 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Like a video. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Video. Of course, 19 not many of them are taped, are they? 20 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: No. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: Do you have any -- 305 1 can you tell me how often you've ever had video 2 recording of, that has helped you in any 3 investigation; in other words, just fortuitously 4 somebody pressed the right buttons and got the 5 VCR started? 6 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: During physical 7 assaults, if there's a response team en route, a 8 lot of times the main control staff will start 9 recording a physical assault that's in progress, 10 and we'll use that video. We have a VCR camera 11 on planned uses of force; we use that video also 12 for prosecution during assaults and things. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And anything 14 else besides physical evidence, eyewitnesses of 15 inmates, albeit that's not enough in itself, 16 witness, if the witnesses are inmates, a 17 videotape, anything else that you would want to 18 look at? 19 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Yes. We also 20 listen to the phone calls on the inmate calling 21 system. If an inmate is talking to a family 306 1 member, we'll take that into consideration, as 2 well as monitor the mail in some situations to 3 see if they're writing home. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: Just so I understand 5 what the process is, do you have anything that 6 says in writing what are the -- lists the kinds 7 of evidence that you can consider, should 8 consider, kind of the way your investigation 9 should proceed, and what the standard of -- that 10 is necessary to prove in order for something to 11 be substantiated? 12 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: To substantiate? 13 Nothing that I'm aware of in writing. Normally 14 what I do on most of my cases is, I confer with 15 county attorney and our legal counsel, we sit 16 down, we talk periodically, several times a 17 week, I would say. I'll contact the county 18 attorney and say, this is what I've got, this is 19 what the allegations are, this is what I have, 20 and seek advice from county attorney. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: Sure. 307 1 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: And also with the 2 State Patrol, we speak with them daily, the 3 sergeant in charge of the investigators. Usually, 4 we bounce most of our cases off him every day. 5 And sometimes he'll send someone to assist us or 6 he'll monitor our reports, and we stay in contact 7 and seek guidance from him. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay, now, how many 9 other investigators are there in the department? 10 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Besides myself, 11 there's one other. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: And male or female? 13 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Male. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: And do you ever use 15 any third-party outsiders to help with 16 investigations? 17 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: The State Patrol. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And do they 19 have any female investigators? 20 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Yes. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: They do. Any 308 1 accessible to Tecumseh, if you thought it was a 2 good idea? 3 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Normally, we've got 4 such a good working relationship with the State 5 Patrol, if we would request a female or any kind 6 of assistance, we get it the same day. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: And who does the 8 training of investigators? Is there any ongoing 9 in-service training for you all? 10 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Myself and Jeff 11 Britain, the other department investigator, we've 12 got to go through our annual training like 13 everyone else, and we also went to the law 14 enforcement academy and got certified. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: The other 16 investigator is Jeff Britain? 17 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Yes, sir. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Any relation to the 19 warden? 20 FRED BRITTEN: Spells it differently 21 and no relation. 309 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: So have you ever been 3 briefed by the county attorney or anybody else on 4 the legalities of conducting an investigation 5 that might lead to a criminal prosecution? 6 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Briefed as in? 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Like your standard of 8 review or your standard for substantiation should 9 be more likely than not or preponderance of the 10 evidence or clear, cogent, convincing evidence, 11 or beyond a reasonable doubt or something like 12 that; do you have any legal buzzwords or some 13 kind of a standard so that it doesn't depend on 14 which side of the bed you got out of? And I'm 15 not being disrespectful; I'm just saying so that 16 you have some kind of an even, consistent 17 standard every time? 18 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Yeah. We meet 19 weekly and discuss all our cases with either our 20 legal counsel, which is more often than not, and 21 if I'm not in the office to speak with our 310 1 counsel, then I speak with the county attorney. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: And does Mr. Britain 3 join you in those weekly meetings with the county 4 attorney? 5 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Well, Mr. Britain 6 and myself, we're responsible for all the 7 institutions, so we're never usually in the same 8 place at the same time. But I know he meets with 9 county attorneys just as much or more than I do, 10 as well as our general counsel. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay, but when you're 12 discussing something out of Tecumseh, he wouldn't 13 be there as well, right? 14 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: No. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: But does he ever go 16 to Tecumseh? 17 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Not very often. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: But he could be the 19 investigator for Tecumseh? 20 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Yes, he could. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: So if you were 311 1 unlucky, you might have an investigator who has 2 not had the benefit of weekly meetings with the 3 county attorney about Tecumseh and might not get 4 the same shake that you would give it; is that 5 fair? 6 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: The same -- you 7 mean the same consideration from the county 8 attorney? 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: No, no, no. Might 10 not be applying the same standards because he 11 hasn't had the benefit of focusing on Tecumseh 12 and talking with the same county attorney who 13 would be prosecuting Tecumseh rapes as you have. 14 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: We have weekly 15 meetings, Jeff Britain, myself, and Brad Hansen, 16 our supervisor, and we discuss our cases. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 18 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Staff meetings. 19 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: And what's going 20 on, yeah. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: Well, in this one 312 1 substantiated investigation, it says that a 2 female staff member admitted having sex with an 3 inmate who had been recently paroled and that 4 this occurred off premises. 5 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: That's correct. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: Because he was still 7 on paper, that's why it was -- 8 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: A parolee, yes, 9 sir. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: So that's why it was 11 a disciplinary matter, because she was -- I 12 assume she was off duty? 13 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Yes. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: This occurred on a 15 dirt road outside of Lincoln. 16 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Yes. She picked 17 him up at the community center when he paroled. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: I see, okay. 19 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: But she was also 20 guilty of a felony violation by taking phone 21 calls, bringing him in letters, I believe. She 313 1 was in possession of some of his property in her 2 car that was reported to us, so she was charged 3 with two felonies. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: So one felony is 5 having sex with a parolee? 6 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Yes. And the other 7 was for introducing contraband, 83-417, Nebraska 8 statute. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Was this individual 10 -- what was the ultimate disposition? 11 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: I believe the 12 county attorney struck a plea bargain with her, 13 where the sexual assault of an inmate parolee was 14 dismissed, she pled guilty to the Class 4 felony, 15 the 83-417, received two years' probation and 50 16 hours' community service. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: Isn't it true that by 18 dropping the first felony, that she didn't have 19 to register as a sex offender? 20 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: That would be true. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: Would this person be 314 1 eligible for rehire by the department? 2 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: No. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Because of any 4 felony? 5 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Because of the 6 felony, and we also in these situations place a 7 letter in their file that they're not eligible 8 for rehire. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Have you ever heard 10 or suspected of similar explicit sexual activity 11 between an off-duty CO or staff member and a 12 parolee? 13 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Have I heard of it? 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Heard of it. 15 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Yes. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: Is it pretty common 17 knowledge, that after they get out of corrections 18 and are still on paper, that some correctional 19 officers might be hooking up with them? 20 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: It's not common 21 knowledge. That is something we would pursue, if 315 1 we had the information to start an investigation. 2 But obviously you hear things, so I had heard 3 that before. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: And you've got two 5 investigators to cover how many institutions? 6 Juvenile, female, and male, how many total would 7 you have on your plate? 8 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Does anybody know 9 exactly? 10 MULTIPLE SPEAKERS: Ten. 11 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: I wanted to say 12 ten, but -- 13 FRED BRITTEN: No juvenile. 14 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: No juvenile. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: No juvenile, all 16 right. So you've got ten prisons, between the 17 two, Mr. Britain and you, to cover. So you 18 probably don't have a whole lot of time to follow 19 rumors and innuendos and suspicions, right? 20 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: That's correct. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: You might want to 316 1 have more. That's just unsolicited advice. 2 ROBERT HOUSTON: Well, I've already 3 talked to the judiciary about it and told to come 4 back if we need to add some more. We also have 5 internal investigators at each one of the 6 institutions, and we have trained investigators. 7 They're not law enforcement trained to the level 8 of Benny and Jeff, but they are trained 9 investigators. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: Oh, okay. 11 ROBERT HOUSTON: So we have that, in 12 addition. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: Oh, thank you. All 14 right. Who else could do investigations at 15 Tecumseh? 16 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: The captains, in 17 some cases the major would, unit administrator, 18 unit managers. They initially begin the 19 investigations, a lot of times, and then as they 20 progress, they get bumped up to ourselves. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: So maybe I'm slow 317 1 here, but the way it often could work is, 2 informal grievance is filed by an inmate and they 3 get bounced back, go through a formal grievance 4 and they get bounced back, it eventually winds up 5 with the major in the lockbox? 6 RICH BRITTENHAM: Or she could hand it 7 directly to me, if she received the formal 8 grievance. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Or if it's an 10 emergency grievance procedure, somebody walks it 11 up in a sealed envelope. 12 RICH BRITTENHAM: Something like that, 13 it could, yeah. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: It gets to you. And 15 then you exercise some judgment as to whether 16 this sounded -- whether, A, it had been filed 17 within the three days unless there's irreparable 18 harm, or what -- 19 RICH BRITTENHAM: I would read it, and 20 if it had the word "sexual harassment" or 21 something like that, I normally would call Mr. 318 1 Noordhoek. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: And you would -- 3 okay. 4 RICH BRITTENHAM: As far as the three 5 days, you know, how often -- I'm not that well 6 versed, to be honest with you, on their time 7 frames of the grievances. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Do you have 9 anything? 10 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: I do, sir. I would 11 like to ask, is there any training on sexual 12 assault and victimization that you and your 13 partner have experienced, undergone? 14 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: At the law 15 enforcement academy, yes. 16 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: To what extent? 17 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Just the same as 18 all the law enforcement in Nebraska go through, 19 the curriculum through the academy. 20 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Okay. And you had 21 some training regarding post-traumatic stress 319 1 disorder and how trauma impacts the investigation 2 regarding sexual assault? 3 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Not that I can 4 think of. 5 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Would you be open 6 to some training of that nature? 7 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Absolutely. 8 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Can you recognize 9 the need for such training as you interview 10 sexual assault victims? 11 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Yes, ma'am. 12 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Very good. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: Ms. Hillman, is this 14 the brochure that's given at orientation on 15 sexual assault? 16 MICHELE HILLMAN: Yes, I believe so. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Is there 18 anything on this that informs the inmate that 19 staff are not supposed to have willing, 20 consensual sexual activity with an inmate? 21 MICHELE HILLMAN: I believe it is 320 1 mentioned as one -- (Reviewing documents.) 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right, there it 3 is on Item 3 in the column -- 4 MICHELE HILLMAN: You did find it? 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: Sexual assault, yes. 6 All sexual acts involving staff, volunteers, or 7 contractors are considered misconduct. Now, this 8 is much clearer than the lesson outline that we 9 talked about earlier, so this is good. 10 MICHELE HILLMAN: We still talked about 11 expanding that, though, to be more clear and to 12 discuss it a little bit more detail. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: That's great. And 14 you have it in Espanol. 15 MICHELE HILLMAN: Yes. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: I think we'll take a 17 break now. And I thank you both very much, or 18 all three of you, for your input. 19 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Thank you very 20 much. 21 MICHELE HILLMAN: You're welcome. 321 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: We'll break for 15 2 minutes and start at twenty of four with the 3 warden. 4 (Recess taken.) 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: I have a couple more 6 questions for Benny. And both of you have been 7 sworn. 8 Mr. Noordhoek, I just realized that 9 someone had told us earlier this morning that a 10 fifth case had been left off what had been 11 produced to us, and you were great about telling 12 us that there was a fifth one, and I just noticed 13 at the bottom of the page that you sent up, so I 14 wanted to ask you about this case because it's 15 pretty significant. 16 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Yes, sir. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: And this is one 18 involving an inmate who claimed he was sexually 19 assaulted by a male caseworker, claims the staff 20 member grabbed his genitals through his gym 21 shorts, staff member -- and stated that the staff 322 1 member could help him with his canteen account if 2 he, the inmate, participated in this activity. 3 The inmate claims this incident 4 occurred when the inmate was called to the 5 conference room to receive clothing issue from a 6 caseworker. TSCI learned about this situation 7 after the caseworker received court documents 8 indicating inmate was civilly suing the 9 caseworker. An investigation ensued and there 10 was no corroborating evidence obtained. The 11 inmate was offered protective custody but said 12 was -- did not have a problem with anyone at 13 TSCI. The case was closed as unfounded. 14 Caseworker was terminated from employment in May 15 2007 due to a securities procedure violation. 16 The civil suit was dismissed due to the inmate 17 not filing first a tort claim with the tort 18 claims court. 19 Do you remember investigating this 20 case? 21 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: I do remember that. 323 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: And is this summary 2 accurate of the facts? 3 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Yes. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And by 5 conference room, is that the equivalent of the 6 multipurpose room in each of the housing units? 7 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Yes, that is. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And so do you 9 remember what time of day this occurred? What 10 shift? 11 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: I don't. I would 12 have to look at the roster to see when that 13 particular caseworker was on duty. I want to say 14 in the afternoon. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: And what was the 16 result of your investigation? 17 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: There was not 18 enough evidence to substantiate the inmate's 19 allegations. I spoke with him on, I believe, two 20 different occasions about his allegations. Spoke 21 with the staff member. Received a report from 324 1 him. He denied the allegations. There were no 2 other witnesses to the incident. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: No video? 4 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: No, sir. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: And the multipurpose 6 rooms, do they have any windows? 7 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Yes, there's a 8 window in the doorway. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: But it's not visible, 10 there's not a line of sight, I recall, from the 11 control center into the multipurpose room; is 12 that correct? 13 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: No, maybe a little 14 bit. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Command center, I'm 16 sorry. 17 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: It would depend on 18 where the table -- usually they set up a table to 19 hand out clothing issue and things, so it would 20 depend on where they were located in the room. 21 It's a fairly large room. 325 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: Suffice to say is 2 that if there was truth to this allegation, the 3 caseworker would have been alone with the inmate? 4 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Yes. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: If it was true, he 6 probably wouldn't have placed the table in line 7 of sight with the command center; is that right? 8 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: I wouldn't think 9 so. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: Do you remember any 11 evidence in that regard about where things were 12 situated, and did that play any role in your 13 investigation? 14 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: You know, from my 15 experience at TSCI, the table is usually -- we 16 hold disciplinary committee and some other things 17 in there, so I didn't go out to the housing unit 18 and specifically look. I just assumed the table 19 was where it always is. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: And am I 21 understanding this correctly, that the caseworker 326 1 was later terminated? How much longer after this 2 incident was the May 2007 -- 3 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: I would have to 4 look at the date of my report. I would say 5 several months. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And who makes 7 the decisions on terminations? Would that be -- 8 well, who? 9 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Well, it was based 10 off an investigation I did which was probably 11 more likely than not. He would have received a 12 statement of charges and had a hearing before Mr. 13 Britten and a committee, and they would have 14 recommended termination to be approved by the 15 director. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And, Mr. 17 Britten, do you remember this case? 18 FRED BRITTEN: I remember the case in 19 general. I don't recall all the details and 20 specifics. But in general, I do remember that. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: You remember firing 327 1 the guy? 2 FRED BRITTEN: Well, as Mr. Noordhoek 3 was saying, there's a process we go through, the 4 employee disciplinary process, and so we create 5 what we call a statement of charges, which we 6 give to the employee to make them aware of the 7 allegations that have been lodged against them. 8 And then we have an administrative hearing, and 9 typically the warden will chair that 10 administrative hearing, have some other staff in 11 there, typically the associate warden or deputy 12 warden, major or captain, or depending on if it 13 was a unit staff member, probably the unit 14 administrator would be in the office, too. 15 We would review the information 16 available to us, and we would obviously talk with 17 the employee, get some feedback from the employee 18 with regards to the situation. And then 19 ultimately I would make a recommendation to the 20 -- if it was going to be for termination, I would 21 make a recommendation to the director, because at 328 1 that time the director was the only one that 2 could terminate an employee. That authority 3 didn't fall within the purview of the warden at 4 that time. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: Does it now? 6 FRED BRITTEN: For new-hire employees 7 that are on new-hire probation, it would. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And this was 9 not a new hire? 10 FRED BRITTEN: No. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And did the 12 previous allegation of sexual molestation by this 13 same caseworker, did that play any part in your 14 recommendation that he be terminated? 15 FRED BRITTEN: No, it couldn't. 16 Because, unless the behavior that was in front of 17 us being reviewed was similar, that history 18 wouldn't be there. And typically when we deal 19 with employee discipline, we're going to deal 20 with the situation that's immediately in front of 21 us and the documentation surrounding that 329 1 situation that's immediately in front of us. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. So, Mr. 3 Noordhoek, this allegation of molestation was 4 unfounded because there wasn't any video, there 5 wasn't any -- there weren't any corroborating 6 witnesses, there was just the victim's word 7 against the correctional officer's word; is that 8 right? 9 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: That's correct. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: And is it fair to say 11 that, whether it's regarding sex or anything 12 else, usually or frequently your cases are "he 13 said, he said" or, I mean, it's just a swearing 14 contest, right? 15 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Most of the time, 16 yes. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: Especially if you 18 don't record and keep the tapes, there's never 19 going to be any visual evidence? 20 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Unless they were 21 caught up in a situation where we happened to be 330 1 recording. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: You happened to hit 3 the button, yes. 4 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Exactly. In this 5 specific case, I do recall during my interview 6 speaking with this inmate. When I investigate 7 these kind of allegations, obviously we do a lot 8 of talking about what led up to it, you know, 9 what's there to gain. When I'm finished with the 10 interview, I'll speak with the major and the 11 warden or the deputy warden, whoever is 12 available. We'll go through the case and see, 13 you know, is there another motive here? What's 14 this allegation about? And my follow-up 15 interview with this inmate, he demanded 16 repeatedly to go to another facility, into a 17 program. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: To any facility or to 19 a particular facility? 20 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Particular. The 21 Lincoln Correctional Center. He wanted in, I 331 1 believe it was a sex offender program. He was on 2 a waiting list, and it was kind of my 3 understanding after speaking with him several 4 times that he was angling towards getting out of 5 the institution by making this allegation. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: I see. And was he a 7 sex offender himself? 8 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: I believe so. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: So he wanted to get 10 into this program so he wouldn't be a registered 11 sex offender when he got out? 12 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: It was part of his 13 sentencing guideline. Mr. Britten could probably 14 tell you more about that; I haven't worked on 15 that side. But I believe he had to complete this 16 program before he was parole eligible or he could 17 be released. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: Just as a suggestion 19 as we're discussing here, I may be naive, but you 20 had earlier said that it doesn't matter how many 21 offenders are witnesses, they can never be enough 332 1 to overrule a denial by a correctional officer, 2 that they're never enough to substantiate a 3 claim. Did I understand that right? 4 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: I hate to use the 5 word "never," but so far, we don't take inmates' 6 word over a staff's statement. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: So to use an 8 exaggerated example, it wouldn't matter if half 9 the dorm said, "Sergeant Smith inappropriately 10 touched this guy at this time and I saw it," if 11 it's not on the video and if Sergeant Smith says, 12 "No, I didn't," end of investigation, unfounded? 13 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: There would be some 14 serious discussion with my boss and the warden 15 and other people about the number of inmates 16 making allegation; and we also keep track of how 17 many times the staff member has been accused of 18 this. So there would be some other 19 considerations. But to answer your question, at 20 this time, I would have to say we would go with 21 the staff's statement. 333 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: And so you ordinarily 2 do inquire about previous allegations against COs 3 or staff that are being accused? 4 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Yes. Mr. Hansen 5 keeps track of that, and since I'm at Tecumseh 6 most the time, I would say I know. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: By the way -- 8 Mr. Hansen, did you have something you 9 wanted to say? 10 BRAD HANSEN: Yeah, I just wanted to 11 help clarify what Mr. Noordhoek is saying. If 12 you had three or four inmate testimony, two 13 inmate testimony, depending on what they're 14 saying and what they saw, we would certainly 15 discuss that with our county attorney or State 16 Police and go, what do you think? What do we got 17 here? Could we do something further? Could we 18 -- even though you can't introduce this, but we 19 have requested polygraph tests, things like that. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes, I was just going 21 to ask. 334 1 BRAD HANSEN: We could move into 2 something like that to give us a direction on and 3 give us some sense if they saw what they saw. So 4 while, you know, what Mr. Noordhoek said is 5 probably not exactly correct, you do kind of go 6 in that extra step. But we certainly would 7 listen and take the extra step to try to verify 8 what they're saying. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Sure. 10 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: So it isn't a total 11 close-out for the inmate in terms of 12 believability; there would be some way that you 13 possibly would believe the inmate. 14 BRAD HANSEN: Right, there could be. 15 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Over the staff. 16 BRAD HANSEN: Yeah. And I think what 17 Mr. McFarland says, it is true if we -- and what 18 Mr. Noordhoek said, too, is if we had some sort 19 of other evidence that would suggest, that would 20 give it a lot of credibility there, too. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: Thank you. Mr. 335 1 Noordhoek, just a couple other questions. In 2 response to our document request, you all 3 responded that there were no reported 4 inmate-on-inmate investigations at Tecumseh in 5 '06; is that right? 6 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: That's correct. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: And did you check 8 with Mr. Britten; he didn't happen to have any 9 investigations? 10 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Mr. Hansen keeps a 11 database and we checked the database. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Got you, okay. Is 13 that unusual? I mean, do you have any other 14 institutions of this range of custody level that 15 can go a whole year without an inmate-on-inmate 16 investigation related to sexual assault or 17 touching or harassment? 18 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Yes. That doesn't 19 seem unusual to me. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. And then 21 finally, one of the other attachments is an 336 1 investigative flowchart, Attachment H to the 2 earlier document we talked about. Is this an 3 accurate description of how your office works, 4 how an investigation proceeds? Do you want me to 5 show it to you? 6 BERNARD NOORDHOEK: Yeah, could I have 7 a look at that? Thank you. (Reviewing 8 document.) Yes, that looks pretty accurate. 9 Thank you. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Mr. Britten, 11 thanks for your patience and we appreciate your 12 interjection. 13 Thank you, Mr. Noordhoek; appreciate 14 your interjections during the course of today. 15 I don't think we've asked you about 16 your professional history, or did we? 17 FRED BRITTEN: Okay. No. 18 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: No, we haven't. 19 FRED BRITTEN: No, you swore me in 20 when I was trying to interject something, and so 21 I didn't have a chance to do that. 337 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: That's right. 2 Alrighty. How long have you been in corrections; 3 how long have you been with the department? 4 FRED BRITTEN: Okay. I started with 5 the Nebraska Department of Corrections in 1977 as 6 a correctional officer at a facility that no 7 longer exists. It was a men's reformatory. And 8 when we closed that facility down, I went to the 9 Lincoln Correctional Center, which just replaced 10 the men's facility that closed, and I was 11 assistant unit manager there. They call them 12 case managers now; it's the same, basically the 13 same job. I was unit manager there. 14 And then I was a unit manager on the 15 protective custody unit at our, at the time, the 16 Diagnostic and Evaluation Center in the Lincoln 17 Correctional Center; we were combined under one 18 leadership. And so, technically, I was working 19 for LCC but it was in the Diagnostic and 20 Evaluation Center Building. 21 And then I transferred to the Nebraska 338 1 State Penitentiary as a unit manager in the 2 control unit there. Then I became unit 3 administrator at the Nebraska State Penitentiary 4 and an associate warden and deputy warden, and 5 finally I became a warden at the Tecumseh State 6 Correctional Institution in July of 2000. And I 7 was appointed at that point in time in an effort 8 to help prepare for the opening of the facility. 9 We received our first inmates at TSCI in the 10 first week of December in 2001. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: So you are the one 12 and only warden that Tecumseh has seen. 13 FRED BRITTEN: That's correct. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: And how many staff 15 are you responsible for there? 16 FRED BRITTEN: We have -- well, it 17 would be about 450 TSCI employees, and then we 18 have additional staff that we work with under 19 medical, under education, and mental health and 20 substance abuse. So all totaled, there's about 21 500 staff that work at TSCI. 339 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: And they're looking 2 after 700-some-odd -- 3 FRED BRITTEN: Our total -- our 4 facility capacity -- 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: Nine hundred fifteen. 6 FRED BRITTEN: Yeah, our facility 7 capacity is 960, and in more recent months we've 8 been averaging in the upper 890s, the low 900s, 9 and in more recent weeks we've been in the 10 nine-teens pretty consistently. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: And where do you see 12 it going? Is it going to get more crowded or 13 less? 14 FRED BRITTEN: Well, I anticipate that 15 our count at TSCI will stay pretty consistent. 16 Based on the nature of the inmate population and 17 the flow of inmates in our institution, I would 18 anticipate that our count would stay pretty 19 consistent with what it is right now, in the 20 nine-teens to the 920 range. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: If you had the money 340 1 to add a dozen more video cameras, where would 2 you want to put them? 3 FRED BRITTEN: Well, in the areas where 4 there's probably the highest inmate activity, and 5 typically that's going to be on the housing unit 6 and in the yard area; although we have cameras 7 out there, they're not as plentiful as they could 8 be. And then areas where there's a higher 9 likelihood of being blind spots. Maybe like the 10 kitchen prep, the food prep area in the kitchen, 11 or maybe in our industries building. Those would 12 be the things that would initially come to mind. 13 Obviously, we would identify with a group of 14 staff what we thought were the most critical. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yesterday we were 16 talking to a system, and you may have been here 17 at that time, talking about it, but their 18 associate warden does a walk around the facility 19 at least quarterly for the express purpose of 20 finding blind spots and identifying them to all 21 the staff, and with an eye to, hey, at a minimum 341 1 we've got to be conscious of this and check these 2 places, and maybe we need cameras there. Is that 3 something that you've ever had a chance to do? 4 FRED BRITTEN: Well, we have executive 5 staff and another supervisor staff that are 6 routinely in the facilities, and obviously we'll 7 look at all kinds of things. Security issues and 8 concerns, safety issues and concerns, sanitation 9 issues and concerns, and those sort of things. 10 So I can't sit here and tell you, okay, we made a 11 specific tour through the facility to look 12 exclusively for blind spots. Although early on, 13 before we opened that, that was one of the things 14 that we did take a look at: Okay, where are our 15 issues and concerns, and we wanted to be aware of 16 that. 17 And so it's not like there hasn't been 18 any discussion about where the potential blind 19 spots are in the facility, because there has 20 been. But as far as having this being an ongoing 21 part of a discussion about, after we do tours or 342 1 after we make our rounds, that, okay, well, let's 2 talk about the blind spots, I wouldn't be 3 completely forthright if I said, yeah, that's a 4 typical topic of discussion, because it's not. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: Sure. Can you expand 6 at all on the blind spots? You mentioned food 7 prep area, the industry building. Where is the 8 industry building relative to the housing units? 9 FRED BRITTEN: Yeah, the map that has 10 just the layout of the facility. Right there. I 11 think you just had your hands on it. This right 12 here is the industries building, okay? 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Great. So 14 that's -- 15 FRED BRITTEN: It's in the far 16 southwest part of the institution. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. What about the 18 gym, is that someplace you'd consider a blind 19 spot? 20 FRED BRITTEN: We do have cameras in 21 the gym. 343 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: Oh, you do? 2 FRED BRITTEN: Yes. And of course, we 3 have staff in the gym at all times when the gym 4 is open, so there aren't necessarily a lot of 5 blind spots. Now, it's hard to be in any kind of 6 area where there's absolutely no blind spots. 7 That would be almost impossible, unless you just 8 had a perfectly square room and there's no way 9 that anybody could -- 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. 11 FRED BRITTEN: But obviously, there are 12 areas that would lean towards more issues and 13 concerns regarding blind spots than others, and 14 with appropriate supervision, the gymnasium is a 15 relatively blind-spot-free area. That doesn't 16 mean we haven't had incidents there, but that had 17 nothing to do with them trying to take advantage 18 of a blind spot. That just happened to be with 19 some inmates in the right place at the wrong time 20 or vice versa. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: I see. And how many 344 1 staff have keys to the gym? 2 FRED BRITTEN: Well, typically it would 3 be the corporal that's assigned there, and the 4 A&R, the recreation staff, the activities and 5 recreation staff that are there. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 7 FRED BRITTEN: And if that's wrong, I 8 would encourage the major or lieutenant to 9 correct me. If that's not correct. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: Captain? 11 RICH BRITTENHAM: When those staff are 12 not there, those keys are kept on a key caddy in 13 central control. So, like third shift, if we 14 tell them we need to shake down the gym to look 15 for any contraband or something, they can check 16 out those keys. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 18 RICH BRITTENHAM: So if somebody has 19 them on their person, they're in use; but if not, 20 they're hanging on a rotation key caddy in the 21 central control that could be checked out for a 345 1 reason. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: Have you thought 3 about, Warden, keeping closer tabs perhaps on who 4 has access to keys in areas that would be not -- 5 that might be vulnerable to sexual assault and 6 keeping a log of who took them and when, and 7 whether they were authorized and when they were 8 brought back? Is that something you already do? 9 FRED BRITTEN: Yeah, we have a key 10 checkout system, and for staff to have keys to 11 certain areas, they have to turn in key chips, 12 and those key chips are put on the key caddy, and 13 then in turn the keys are given to the staff 14 person. And when they come back, then of course 15 the keys are put back on the key caddy and the 16 chips are given back to the staff person. I 17 don't know if that's what you're asking, but 18 that's -- 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes, no, that's part 20 of it. I wonder about how many folks have access 21 to those keys? I mean, provided they put in 346 1 their chip, can any staff person get the keys to 2 the gym or to a conference room or some other 3 place that might be accessible for assault? 4 FRED BRITTEN: No. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 6 FRED BRITTEN: The staff that are 7 assigned to those areas are the ones that are 8 able to check out the keys. And, typically, 9 there's going to be some exception to that; 10 they're going to have to make a request either 11 through some sort of a supervisor that would 12 authorize it to happen -- 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. Have you 14 thought -- 15 Lieutenant, did you have something to 16 add? 17 ANTON SIMON: Yes, sir, I do. I'd like 18 to add that we use a color-coding system for the 19 keys, and staff not assigned to the gym, they 20 would be -- only the staff -- only the corporal 21 assigned to the gym can check out those keys. 347 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: Got you. 2 ANTON SIMON: When they're done, they 3 turn them back in. From that point on, they 4 would need the shift supervisor's authority to 5 check them out. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: Great. 7 ANTON SIMON: And it is documented at 8 that point. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Great. That's great. 10 Going back for a second to the "he said, he said" 11 nature of most of the investigations that Mr. 12 Noordhoek discussed, we heard testimony yesterday 13 that sometimes when there's been that kind of an 14 impasse between what the victim says and what the 15 staff says, that they'll give a CVSA, a voice 16 stress analysis test, to one or both of the 17 individuals, and that usually -- in one case, 18 that led to somebody confessing and resolved the 19 matter. 20 Have you given any thought to or do you 21 have any access to either lie detectors or voice 348 1 stress analysis to determine whether an inmate is 2 being honest about a sexual assault? 3 FRED BRITTEN: I'm not aware of any 4 voice analysis equipment or tests that we've ever 5 done. In my recollection, I can't come up with 6 any. And as far as lie detectors, the inmate 7 always has the option of requesting to take a lie 8 detector test, but the onus of responsibility 9 falls on the inmate. It's not like Inmate A can 10 say I want a lie detector test, and then the 11 Department of Corrections goes out and lines up a 12 lie detector test for them. If the inmate 13 requests to take a lie detector, they can notify 14 on their own a polygrapher, who in turn can make 15 the arrangements to perform a lie detector test. 16 STEVE MCFARLAND: What, for free? 17 FRED BRITTEN: No, the inmate would 18 have to pay for it. 19 Rich, is that right? 20 RICH BRITTENHAM: Yeah. The last time 21 I knew, it was about $350. 349 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: Three hundred fifty 2 bucks, and what's the top hourly rate for one of 3 your inmates in work? 4 FRED BRITTEN: For general, for the 5 general laborers, the high rate of pay is 3.78 a 6 day, $3.78 a day. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: So he's going to have 8 to really want a polygraph to pay 100 days' wages 9 for it. 10 FRED BRITTEN: Obviously, that would be 11 a substantial investment on the part of any 12 inmate; that's correct. 13 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. Again, Mr. 14 Director, just a suggestion, because you were 15 asking for any ideas: One would be, maybe it 16 would be a good investment to have a voice stress 17 analysis test that -- so that there isn't a normal 18 course of practice to summarily discount the 19 credibility of any inmate's testimony. 20 ROBERT HOUSTON: We'll so note, and 21 we'll talk with our general counsel. Our concern 350 1 -- well, that's not a concern, because we'll 2 check into it. We tried to make our correction 3 officers certified law enforcement by law about 4 nine years ago. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: Certified? 6 ROBERT HOUSTON: Law enforcement 7 officers. And the reason for that was, part of 8 the reason -- a lot of it had to do with pay, but 9 part of the reason also had to do with use of a 10 polygraph. At that time in Nebraska, it was 11 decided the corrections officers are not law 12 enforcement officers and therefore they could not 13 forcibly be given a lie detector test. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: I see. 15 ROBERT HOUSTON: So we don't have the 16 ability to force to do that. We can ask them to 17 volunteer, as we do investigations, but we can't 18 force them. But as far as the other technology, 19 we will certainly check into it and see if 20 there's some viability to it. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: And maybe the 351 1 legislature could amend that with respect to 2 correctional officers. 3 ROBERT HOUSTON: We're allowed every 4 year to offer laws, so that's one we could offer. 5 So, thank you. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: Thank you very much, 7 Mr. Director. You can sit wherever you want, if 8 you'd like to stay. 9 ROBERT HOUSTON: Okay. 10 STEVE MCFARLAND: Warden, just a couple 11 of other things. We haven't talked about death 12 row, and I believe you have capital defendants 13 there? 14 FRED BRITTEN: Correct. The inmates 15 sent by the court to capital punishment are 16 housed at the Tecumseh State Correctional 17 Institution. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: And where are they 19 housed? 20 FRED BRITTEN: They're housed in our 21 special management unit. 352 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: In the SMU. 2 FRED BRITTEN: Correct. 3 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Do you perform the 4 executions there? 5 FRED BRITTEN: No. The executions, if 6 they were to take place, would take place at the 7 Nebraska State Penitentiary. However, recently 8 the Nebraska Supreme Court made a decision that 9 the methodology, which is the electric chair, 10 utilized by the State of Nebraska is cruel and 11 unusual punishment, and so, subsequently, while 12 Nebraska still has a death penalty on the books, 13 we don't have a methodology in place that's been 14 authorized to be used. 15 Director Houston, is that correct? 16 ROBERT HOUSTON: That summarizes it, 17 yes. 18 STEVE MCFARLAND: How many inmates are 19 under death sentence at Tecumseh? 20 FRED BRITTEN: Ten, I believe. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: And so that accounts 353 1 for ten of the 192 cells in Ad Seg? 2 FRED BRITTEN: Correct. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: And how many have 4 life without parole? 5 FRED BRITTEN: There are a hundred-plus 6 inmates at TSCI that have a life -- I don't know 7 the exact number; I didn't bring that with me. 8 STEVE MCFARLAND: Sure. 9 FRED BRITTEN: But I know it's 10 100-plus. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: And are they all in 12 Ad Seg, or are they in GP as well, some of them? 13 FRED BRITTEN: Most of them are in 14 general population. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Really? Okay. How 16 do you enforce discipline against a lifer who has 17 nothing to lose from getting another incident 18 report? 19 FRED BRITTEN: Oh, I don't agree they 20 have nothing to lose. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 354 1 FRED BRITTEN: They do have something 2 to lose. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: What do they have to 4 lose? 5 FRED BRITTEN: They have to lose their 6 access to daily activities. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 8 FRED BRITTEN: If you're doing time in 9 prison, and especially if you're doing life in 10 prison, but whether you're doing life or not, 11 your routine that you have in prison is what 12 helps you get through the day. You have a 13 routine, and every day that routine helps sustain 14 you. 15 And so if you're doing life in prison 16 and you have this routine that you go through 17 every day and -- you don't want that routine to be 18 interrupted by going through the inmate 19 disciplinary process, where they give you extra 20 duty, they give you room restriction, they could 21 ultimately result in disciplinary segregation 355 1 being imposed and you being displaced from 2 general population into the special management 3 unit. So they do have something to lose. Maybe 4 not as far as their sentence structure goes, but 5 as far as their daily activities and daily 6 routine, and that means a great deal to them, 7 because at that point in time, that is what they 8 have. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: That's huge, yes. 10 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: That's all they 11 have, yes. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: That's their life, 13 yes. 14 ROBERT HOUSTON: If I could add one 15 thing to that. Also, the parole board stipulated 16 almost two decades ago that, unless you bring five 17 years of no misconduct reports to them, they will 18 not consider you for recommendation to 19 commutation. And then also, we have several 20 lifers whose crime partners have been paroled 21 years ago that, because of a walkaway or serious 356 1 incident, got left in the institution and now 2 have very little chance of ever paroling. So 3 lifers really know what's at stake, and I think 4 actually, as a group, they know they have more to 5 lose than the rest of the inmates. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. Warden Britten, 7 you've heard the testimony of all your staff as 8 well as the director this morning, and you heard 9 the director's comment that he has no reason to 10 doubt the accuracy of the BJS survey. Do you 11 agree that the evidence seems to indicate that 12 there's a serious problem, especially staff 13 sexual misconduct, at Tecumseh that you need to 14 look at? 15 FRED BRITTEN: Yes. I think that -- 16 the report was, to be quite honest with you, very 17 disheartening, because we take a great deal of 18 pride in what we do at TSCI, and because, as I 19 noted in my prepared statements that were sent to 20 you, this strikes at the very core of who we are 21 and what we do in corrections. And if you pride 357 1 yourself in being a corrections professional, to 2 look at a report that says what this report says 3 is indeed very disheartening. 4 And so I guess one of the things I was 5 thinking about as I was thinking about my 6 testimony today and about what this all means to 7 us -- earlier today, Director Houston had mentioned 8 our former director, Harold Clarke, and one of 9 the things that Director Clarke introduced years 10 and years ago was our quality initiative, 11 continuous quality improvement we called it, CQI, 12 and that's still alive and well today in many 13 respects, because all the facilities have quality 14 councils and we have an executive steering 15 council with the department and so forth. 16 But I tell you this because one of the 17 things -- the whole backbone behind CQI was to 18 continue to learn and get better at what we do. 19 We want to look at processes that we use and we 20 want to get better at it. And so, subsequently, 21 when you see this report, initially to me it's 358 1 disheartening, but also, I guess, reemphasizes 2 the need to continue what was started years ago, 3 and that's to continue to improve and get better 4 at what we do. And so while I'm disappointed in 5 the report, it will not -- and in fact not only 6 will it not deter us, it will give us more drive 7 to do better at what we do. 8 And so, you know, if you're in charge 9 of an area, like if you're running a facility, 10 you're in charge of a facility and you see 11 something like this, and I heard your comments 12 earlier, well, folks want to be in denial, and I 13 do understand that, because you put all your 14 heart and your soul and your energy into an area 15 and then you get these kind of allegations, it 16 really touches you. And so I don't think that's 17 all that unusual. 18 But so I know that we can do better, 19 and I know that the results of this survey will 20 prompt us to do some things. I didn't like the 21 results of the survey. When I walk around TSCI, 359 1 when I talk to the staff and inmates at TSCI, 2 there's a part of me -- the survey doesn't 3 necessarily reflect what I see, but that doesn't 4 mean that I'm disregarding what the survey has to 5 do. And so, subsequently, I'm taking it very 6 much to heart. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: That's great. Well, 8 I'm sure I speak for Ms. Ellis to say that, for 9 what it's worth, all of your staff and, not 10 surprisingly, the director at the top, have just 11 displayed such a tremendously constructive, 12 proactive attitude that I have no doubt that we 13 won't ever see Tecumseh on any lists, at least 14 any bad lists. So if there's anything that we 15 can do -- I mean, we'll obviously provide you, 16 for what it's worth, what we gleaned from these 17 hearings, and there are more hearings to come, 18 and we don't have all the answers, but we just 19 want to really affirm you for all the things 20 that -- the attitude and the ideas and your candor, 21 no defensiveness; it's been really refreshing. 360 1 My last, I was going to -- 2 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: I have a few more 3 questions before we go to our last issue. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: Go right ahead. 5 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: I didn't get an 6 answer to what is the highest-ranking female in 7 Tecumseh. I know about the system. What about 8 in your facility, Warden? 9 FRED BRITTEN: Okay. We have -- 10 obviously, Michele Hillman is our unit 11 administrator. We have our business manager, 12 which is one of our executive staff. We have our 13 human resources staff, which is one of our 14 executive staff. Those are the three highest 15 ranking female staff we have in our facility. 16 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Okay. 17 FRED BRITTEN: And then we have a unit 18 manager that's a female staff person. 19 ROBERT HOUSTON: Also go through the 20 managers. 21 FRED BRITTEN: And then we have a unit 361 1 manager that's a female staff person. But as far 2 as the highest-ranking ones, those are the ones 3 that are female. 4 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Okay. The other 5 question has to do with family members of 6 inmates. What kind of a program do you have in 7 terms of having, not necessarily an open door, 8 but certainly a listening ear to complaints that 9 they may share with you that they've received 10 from their family members? Are those complaints 11 taken seriously, with high regard? Do you follow 12 up on them? 13 FRED BRITTEN: Yes and yes. We take 14 those -- we get calls on a regular basis from 15 family members sharing concerns, issues, ideas, 16 asking questions. I receive a lot of calls. I 17 know that Ms. Hillman receives a lot of calls. 18 Like I said, I've worked in this 19 business for 30 years, and so I've worked with 20 lots and lots of inmates over the years and I 21 receive lots and lots of phone calls from 362 1 families and friends of inmates over the years, 2 wanting to talk about their loved one that's in 3 prison and the impact of them being in prison has 4 had on their lives. 5 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Of course. 6 FRED BRITTEN: And, of course, them 7 sharing their concerns about their loved one 8 that's in prison. And so we do take those calls 9 very seriously. We do follow up on them. We do 10 get back to them. It's essential that we do. I 11 want them to have a sense that if they call, it 12 means something. 13 Now, that doesn't mean we're always 14 going to agree with all those calls, and 15 sometimes we get calls that -- where they've been 16 given misinformation by their loved one that's in 17 prison. And there are times that we have to 18 explain that to them, and, of course, that's 19 always kind of a tough situation to be in. 20 And I know there's even been times over 21 the years where the inmate will say something to 363 1 their family member and the family member will 2 call us, and we'll say, well, no, that's not 3 true. And there have been occasions where we'll 4 simply call the inmate up to the deputy warden's 5 office and we'll get the relative that the inmate 6 called and inmate and we're all in the same room 7 together, and we'll clarify to that loved one 8 that's concerned, okay, inmate so-and-so told you 9 this, and we're sitting in front of you telling 10 you -- and basically, it may not seem fair, but 11 then ultimately the inmate is on the spot. They 12 have to clarify to their family member, well, 13 yeah, it wasn't exactly true; it really wasn't 14 exactly what the situation was. 15 And so even though the inmates have a 16 great deal of love and care for their family 17 members, unfortunately there are still times when 18 they try to take advantage of them. They'll want 19 them to send them money. They'll want them to do 20 something for them. They'll want them to come 21 visit them. They'll want them to do whatever. 364 1 And so they'll, on occasion -- there have been 2 situations where they've shared some situation 3 with their family or loved one that wasn't 4 exactly correct and it caused some concern on 5 their part, and so, subsequently, they give us a 6 call, they write us a letter. Sometimes, when 7 they come down to visit the inmate, I've gotten 8 calls from staff saying visitor so-and-so wants 9 to talk to you about inmate so-and-so because 10 they have a concern. 11 So, yes, they do have avenues to 12 communicate with us. And I know that the 13 director's office and other individuals, other 14 staff get letters and calls from family members, 15 and we follow up on those. And so it's part of 16 our routine. It's not something that's some 17 out-of-the-ordinary thing. It's just built into 18 how we do business. 19 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Okay. All right. 20 Thank you very much. 21 STEVE MCFARLAND: We were going to 365 1 follow up on attempted suicides, and I think you 2 were the only one who had that information. 3 FRED BRITTEN: And I appreciate the 4 fact that Mr. Houston thought I had it. I don't 5 have the statistics with me. I didn't realize 6 that that was part of the discussion, so I've got 7 to tell you, I didn't bring any information or 8 numbers with me. 9 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 10 FRED BRITTEN: And so I don't have any 11 figures for you. 12 STEVE MCFARLAND: Is that something 13 that you all could provide us? 14 FRED BRITTEN: Absolutely. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: You keep records of 16 that, I assume? 17 FRED BRITTEN: We keep records of 18 situations that are involved with activity of 19 self-harm, and so we do have the information on 20 that. And so it's not something that's not 21 available. It's just something that I wasn't 366 1 prepared to discuss; I didn't bring anything with 2 me. 3 STEVE MCFARLAND: Oh, sure. No, I 4 understand. 5 FRED BRITTEN: I didn't know that was a 6 topic of conversation. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: No -- and given your 8 experience over the last 31 years in corrections, 9 is the number of attempted suicides or attempts 10 to harm high at Tecumseh? 11 FRED BRITTEN: I think what -- and 12 here's what I find. Typically, the incidents of 13 self-harm, and I'm not trying to minimize what 14 we're talking about here, but it really is a 15 definition of self-harm as opposed to attempted 16 suicide. And that doesn't mean that that 17 inadvertently -- a situation that self-harm 18 couldn't lead to something more serious. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: Sure. 20 FRED BRITTEN: But most of the 21 incidents that I see are of self-harm, as opposed 367 1 to attempted suicide. 2 STEVE MCFARLAND: All right. 3 FRED BRITTEN: And I realize, okay, I'm 4 not a psychologist, I'm not a psychiatrist, so I 5 can't sit here and tell you from an academic 6 point of view, okay, this is attempted suicide 7 and this isn't. But what I can tell you is that, 8 based on my experience -- is that often times the 9 attempts of self-harm are more inclined to be 10 attempts to get attention and then reaction from 11 staff, as opposed to really wanting to hurt 12 themselves or really wanting to commit suicide. 13 It's very few and far between that they're real 14 serious attempts at suicide. 15 And our mental health staff does an 16 outstanding job, including the work that Dr. 17 Baker does with our inmates that help us identify 18 the inmates that are really at risk for doing -- 19 attempting suicide. 20 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. Is there, to 21 your knowledge, a difference in the number of 368 1 attempted suicides among male inmates versus 2 female inmates? 3 FRED BRITTEN: You know, I don't have 4 that information. I couldn't speak to that 5 intelligently one way or the other. 6 STEVE MCFARLAND: Because earlier this 7 week, we were talking with one system that had 11 8 attempted suicides in a four-month period. Does 9 that sound exceptional to you? 10 FRED BRITTEN: That would be 11 exceptional as far as I'm concerned. If they 12 were truly attempted suicide situations as 13 opposed to incidents of self-harm. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: Yes. And finally, 15 did we hear about all the programs that are 16 available? There was discussion about clubs and 17 stamp club, and what else is there to keep your 18 inmates busy? 19 FRED BRITTEN: Okay. Well, part of the 20 reason I wanted to mention -- you brought up the 21 question or somebody brought up the question, the 369 1 clubs and, actually, what do we do -- the 2 question was about, as far as inmates, what do 3 other inmates do to help other inmates get 4 through their time. 5 And, of course, the clubs are one of 6 those areas where it makes me become involved -- 7 and, of course, Mr. Houston can speak -- early in 8 his career he was -- dealt with clubs, too, and 9 so he has probably a more intimate knowledge of 10 this than I do. 11 But what I do know is that oftentimes 12 participation in those clubs is a very positive 13 influence on the inmates that are participating 14 in them, and so, subsequently, when the 15 experienced inmates are in a situation where 16 newer inmates are coming in and joining those 17 clubs, then they have the benefits of sharing 18 because, let's face it, being in a club, they 19 share their stories and their histories and those 20 sort of things and about doing time and that sort 21 of thing. And so it really does have a positive 370 1 influence. 2 But, of course, all of our religious 3 programs -- we have a lot of religious programs 4 at our facility, and they're well attended. The 5 inmates take advantage of those. 6 We have lots of volunteers who, like 7 Mr. Houston was saying, volunteer thousands and 8 thousands of hours to work with the inmate 9 population and help them keep a positive 10 perspective about life while they're in prison, 11 as well as life when they get out of prison. And 12 we have hobby programs. We have recreation 13 programs. Of course, we have the education of 14 substance abuse and mental health programs. And 15 our education program, I think I maybe already 16 mentioned that. 17 STEVE MCFARLAND: And what goes on in 18 the industry? You mentioned that because of the 19 remote nature of the facility, it's hard to get 20 private employers to come in, so you've gone to a 21 lot of publics there. Specifically, what public 371 1 industry is going on in the industry building? 2 FRED BRITTEN: The two industries that 3 we have at TSCI is our laundry industry and the 4 woodshop. 5 STEVE MCFARLAND: Cabinetry. 6 FRED BRITTEN: And the woodshop is just 7 kind of getting up and running, and we have high 8 hopes for that as this year unfolds. It just 9 became operational just several weeks ago, just 10 earlier this year, actually. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: But right now that's 12 got about 20 inmates in it? 13 FRED BRITTEN: Well, right now, it's 14 probably got about a dozen at most, right now. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: But you've got a 16 hundred in the laundry, right? 17 FRED BRITTEN: Well, right now the 18 count is about 85. We can go up to 100 in the 19 laundry. It's been around 85, 83, 85 for the 20 most part. Because guys come and go, job changes 21 and so forth, so -- but, of course, the laundry, 372 1 we were -- 2 Also, one of the things we're doing in 3 our agency, we have a committee working on this, 4 is to create a certification program, so that 5 inmates can get a certificate in laundry -- 6 laundry management. I got to tell you, I can't 7 recall right off the top of my head the specific 8 names of the certification, but it's one more 9 thing we've just recently added in our agency 10 that will allow this to happen. 11 But the beauty of the industries is 12 that the inmates are really busy for several 13 hours a day, several hours at a time, and it 14 keeps their time occupied. And, of course, doing 15 time in prison, the best thing to keep -- the 16 best thing is to have people gainfully occupied 17 in constructive behavior, and, of course, being 18 at work you have to be. Because they value those 19 jobs. It's, one, the highest-paying jobs in the 20 institution as well as the department, and, two, 21 if they don't conduct themselves appropriately, 373 1 they lose those jobs. 2 And so, subsequently, they're risking a 3 lot if they have to involve themselves in 4 inappropriate behavior. Because those laundry -- 5 those industry jobs are -- they have less 6 tolerance for misbehavior. Because the bottom 7 line is, if those guys are misbehaving and 8 they're getting on room restriction or something 9 like that and they're missing work, well, they 10 don't need those kind of employees. They need 11 employees that are going to behave themselves and 12 be to work on a regular basis so they can 13 continue to do business. Because we do about six 14 million pounds of laundry every year. We need 15 inmate workers onsite every day to take care of 16 business, and if they're not going to do their 17 time in a manner that allows them to continue to 18 be in this job uninterrupted, they're probably 19 going to wind up working someplace else. 20 I don't know if that answers your 21 question or not. But those are the two 374 1 industries we have. 2 And John McGovern, he's our deputy 3 director over industries, and he's continuously 4 looking for opportunities to expand what we do at 5 Tecumseh. And I know sometime in the next, they 6 say two to four years, we're going to add another 7 industries building onto what we already have, 8 and so we'll have opportunities to expand even 9 further the inmates employed in the industries 10 area. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: If an inmate doesn't 12 have a high school diploma or a GED, is he 13 required to be pursuing it? 14 FRED BRITTEN: Not required to. 15 STEVE MCFARLAND: Okay. 16 FRED BRITTEN: We have a very active 17 involvement in our education program, and we 18 typically have a waiting list for inmates wanting 19 to get involved in a GED. As Mr. Houston, I 20 think, alluded to earlier, we just recently 21 switched from having a provider for our education 375 1 to being self-operate. And so we are very -- and 2 not that participation level wasn't significant 3 when we had a contractor, because it was, but 4 it's even more so now. 5 In fact, we've increased by one the 6 number of teachers we had at TSCI, so now we have 7 five staff that are dedicated to working with 8 ABE, GED, ESL programs. And so the numbers of 9 participants in that program has significantly 10 increased since we went self-operate. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: And how do you avoid 12 hiring any individual, full- or part-time, or any 13 contractors that may have a sexual misconduct in 14 their past? Do you run appropriate checks? 15 FRED BRITTEN: Right. Whenever we have 16 an employee come to work for us, we do an NCIC 17 check, it's a criminal background check. We do 18 that on every new employee. Plus, we always do 19 our reference checks, and when we hire an 20 employee, we always go back to their previous 21 employers and do a reference check. 376 1 Now, I realize that nothing is 2 absolutely fail-proof, and I do understand that, 3 but I think we've had fairly good success across 4 the board with regards to those types of checks 5 that we do to help us identify any significant 6 issues that are out there. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Ms. Ellis, do you 8 have anything else? 9 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: No. Just some 10 wrap-up statements when we get to that point. 11 STEVE MCFARLAND: I think we're there. 12 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Okay. I, too, want 13 to thank you for your attitude, your approach, 14 and certainly all the efforts that are under way 15 already in your system, your enthusiasm in 16 seeking new ideas and new information. 17 I would put forth to you that we use 18 something in victim assistance that translates 19 across the board in so many instances; that, first 20 and foremost, safety and security are of utmost 21 importance, and then information. There's never 377 1 enough information. We talk communication all 2 the time, but information ought to be readily 3 available to everyone -- certainly to staff in 4 the form of training, adequate training, and 5 certainly to inmates in terms of their rights and 6 what they ought to know about sexual assault. 7 The other issue involves resources. 8 Resources, never enough. And I hear you talking 9 about all of the activities and the programs and 10 using resources in the community, using resources 11 from every single field that you can possibly 12 pull from. 13 Most importantly, continuity. 14 Continuity across the board, in every aspect of 15 your institutions; that everyone ought to meet a 16 certain level and standard of performance, and 17 that should be reflected, that should be dealt 18 with in terms of constant evaluations, constant 19 vigilance. 20 The other aspect is one that I think is 21 so important, and that is the idea of compassion, 378 1 and I certainly have picked that up from you, in 2 a large amount, in a large way, in terms of how 3 you feel about the work that you do, about the 4 inmates that you house, and certainly in terms of 5 your staff and each other. I think also that 6 compassion is a component of professionalism -- a 7 very important component of professionalism. 8 I think also justice is foremost. 9 Justice has to be foremost. Justice for your 10 staff, justice for your inmates that you house. 11 Again, continuity in terms of that justice. 12 And finally, having voice. Having the 13 ability to sit down and talk about issues. And 14 that, too, applies across the board. 15 I would be remiss if I didn't also talk 16 a little bit about vicarious traumatization. 17 Burnout. Working in proximity to horrific 18 stories and events. And certainly you are on the 19 front row of that type of drama, and so it's very 20 important to address the issues associated with 21 burnout, with trauma, across the board for staff 379 1 as well as inmates themselves. 2 And lastly, I see so much hope here. I 3 see so much hope and unbelievable potential, and 4 I say that in regards to the fact that this is a 5 new facility and you are not belabored by all of 6 the problems that we see in old facilities. 7 You've got new things to work with here, so it 8 must be an unbelievable environment in terms of 9 your technology and your ability to put certain 10 things in place. 11 I can only wish you the very best and 12 say to you, if there's anything that we can help 13 you with further in pointing you in the direction 14 of resources, we're happy to do that. You've 15 been an unusual experience for us in the course 16 of our week in terms of having the opportunity to 17 actually address your issues in a very, very 18 positive way. 19 So I thank each and every one of you. 20 I'm pleased with the staff that you've brought 21 along. I like your sense of humor; that's been 380 1 delightful as well. So I wish you safe travels 2 back to Tecumseh. 3 FRED BRITTEN: Thank you. 4 STEVE MCFARLAND: Mindful of the 5 director's request that we offer any ideas, and I 6 know that you've been gracious enough to be 7 taking notes, but just in case we've missed 8 anything, let me just run down 13 things that I 9 think -- again, nobody elected us any great 10 expert, but for what it's worth, having sat 11 through quite a few hours of this and looked at a 12 lot of documents, this might be helpful. 13 One is in the investigations. Consider 14 having some means of, like CVSA -- some kind of a 15 voice stress analysis, short of requiring an 16 inmate to pay 300 bucks for a polygraph, so that 17 you don't necessarily discount a prisoner's 18 eyewitness or a prisoner's testimony. 19 Second, I would suggest that you get 20 rid of the porn. You may get sued by the ACLU, 21 but allowing anything short of bestiality in the 381 1 possession of the inmates, as Lieutenant Simon 2 said, is probably not helpful. 3 And third, more investigators would be 4 a suggestion. Two for ten units all over the 5 State and no onsite inspectors who don't have day 6 jobs -- you know, I mean, captains and majors and 7 everybody, unless they're especially trained, 8 they're probably not going to have the time to do 9 a thorough investigation. And so every time your 10 investigation department gets a call, they've got 11 to wonder, you know -- Mr. Noordhoek needs to do 12 a triage, and it might be a lot better if you had 13 somebody onsite. 14 Fourth, your staff hiring and staff 15 training could be a place to start as far as 16 really looking at the level of training and 17 seriousness, because there's not a whole lot 18 there about your biggest problems, and that's the 19 staff sexual misconduct. It's kind of -- it's 20 focused, and it's pretty male-oriented and it's 21 pretty inmate-oriented, and, ironically, it looks 382 1 like it's female perpetrators, staff members. 2 The fifth, and this plays on what Ms. 3 Ellis just said, support for the staff in very 4 stressful -- and we're not just talking about 5 EAP, you know, alcoholic hand-holding or 6 something, but we're talking about support 7 services for high-stress individuals who are 8 working with the worst of your system. You can 9 only handle getting feces thrown at you so many 10 days before -- and then you add some mandatory 11 overtime, and you get that on your head in the 12 15th hour and you just might want to kill 13 somebody, or at least might want to look the 14 other way if you heard something going on in a 15 cell. 16 Which relates to the sixth one, which 17 is no mandatory overtime. And I know that that's 18 certainly something you'd love to get rid of. 19 But tell your legislature you really need more 20 staff. And it would be a lot cheaper for them, 21 as well, as long as your union doesn't give you 383 1 any grief about that. 2 Number seven, the PTSD and trauma 3 training that Ms. Ellis mentioned would be -- 4 post-traumatic stress disorder and other trauma 5 training is important, as you well know. 6 Number eight, a simple thing of -- 7 you've got a great idea in having the TIPS line, 8 but just put it in a private place. Just ask 9 yourself, as an inmate, is there anything about 10 any of the avenues of reporting that would give 11 me pause? And if everybody in the dorm is going 12 to hear me talking on a legal phone, chances are 13 I'm not going to make the call. So just punch a 14 window in the multipurpose room so they can be 15 seen but put a short cord on the phone; you could 16 always see them, they can't wander around, but 17 you can't hear them. 18 Ninth, line of sight should probably 19 include the showers. Your command centers, the 20 lieutenant indicated, in Units 2 and 3, I think, 21 do not have a line of sight into the showers, and 384 1 the BJS study seems to indicate that's, not 2 surprisingly, a hotbed. 3 ROBERT HOUSTON: We'll try to look at 4 that in terms of where we have staff located 5 inside the institution when they're not walking 6 around. 7 STEVE MCFARLAND: Tenth would be 8 making sure that you have avenues for family to 9 give you tips, give you hot tips, and that they 10 are affirmatively encouraged. There's nothing in 11 the brochure that says you really solicit input, 12 I don't believe, so the inmates may not know that 13 you're as open as you are. 14 Eleventh is, more and more programs and 15 evaluating the programs, including getting inmate 16 evaluation. You know, an idle prisoner, 17 especially in a maximum-security, is a bomb 18 waiting to go off. 19 And twelfth, something real simple is 20 numbering your incident report forms. So if 21 somebody took one and filled it out and it didn't 385 1 show up in the lockbox, it's got to be traced, or 2 somebody's throwing them away. And that somebody 3 is probably a perpetrator. 4 And thirteenth is, really affirm your 5 desire to -- that was mentioned about rotating 6 posts. Because it's the librarian, it's the 7 person in the law library, it's the gym 8 coordinator, whatever, and he sees just one or 9 two inmates all day every day. You get too 10 familiar, somebody gets compromised, and then you 11 have contraband or whatever to bribe or extort 12 sexual favors. 13 And lastly -- let's make it 14, and 14 that is, whatever it takes, always tape your 15 videos and keep them for 60 days. 16 ROBERT HOUSTON: That's just a matter 17 of the budget, and we're moving in that 18 direction. 19 STEVE MCFARLAND: And broadcast that to 20 -- not literally broadcast. Tell everybody in 21 the institution the eye in the sky is always on 386 1 and we tape it. So it's not just a matter of 2 whether somebody happens to be looking at it. 3 They'll always assume that they're always -- when 4 they're in the shower, when they're in the 5 laundry room, any of the places that you consider 6 blind spots, they never know, they have to assume 7 somebody's watching. And I think that's cheaper 8 than personnel and it's a lot cheaper than 9 lawsuits. 10 ROBERT HOUSTON: Yes. We'll get 11 digital recordings, so they'll be permanent, not 12 just tapes. 13 CARROLL ANN ELLIS: Great. 14 STEVE MCFARLAND: So, again, I really 15 thank you for your time, for bringing your 16 excellent staff out here. This was a breath of 17 fresh air for me and I think for Ms. Ellis, as 18 well. And enough gushy stuff, but thank you for 19 your attitude, and if we can be of any help, 20 please don't hesitate to call us. 21 ROBERT HOUSTON: Thank you very much. 387 1 STEVE MCFARLAND: We are adjourned 2 until March 27 in Houston, Texas. 3 (Proceeding adjourned at 4:39 p.m.) 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 388 1 DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 2 I, Warren Brey, Digital Recorder, do 3 hereby certify that the witnesses named herein 4 personally appeared before me at the time and 5 place herein set according to law, and were 6 interrogated. 7 I further certify that the examination 8 was recorded digitally by me and then transcribed 9 from my digital recording to the within printed 10 matter by means of computer-assisted 11 transcription in a true and accurate manner. 12 I further certify that the stipulations 13 contained herein were entered into by counsel in 14 my presence. 15 I further certify that I am not of 16 counsel to any of the parties, not an employee of 17 counsel, nor related to any of the parties, nor in any way interested in the outcome of this 18 action. 19 20 21 389 1 2 ________________________ 3 Warren Brey Digital Recorder 4 5 6 7 8 9 ________________________ 10 Donna J. Bellous 11 Digital Transcriptionist 12 13 14 15 16 17 18