Hazelton Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Preston County Prison Workers Get Pay Bump To Boost Retention

Employees at Federal Correctional Complex Hazelton who are in good standing will receive a 25 percent pay increase — part of an effort to boost staff retention and promote facility safety.

Personnel at a Preston County prison will soon receive a 25 percent pay increase, following union protests over understaffing last year.

The Federal Bureau of Prisons and the United States Office of Personnel Management approved the pay increase Thursday as part of an effort to increase staff retention at the Federal Correctional Complex Hazelton.

Staffing issues at the federal prison gained attention in 2018 following the deaths of three inmates in a seven-month span, including the murder of an inmate serving a life sentence.

Leadership changes following the incident improved staffing levels at the facility, according to corrections officer Justin Tarovisky, who also serves as union president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 420 chapter.

Tarovisky’s union represents more than 600 workers at the facility, from West Virginia, Maryland and Pennsylvania, he said.

But the departure of some members of the facility’s leadership, coupled with the fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic, exacerbated prior staffing issues to a new degree, Tarovisky said.

“Since that, we’ve drastically declined,” he said. In September, union representatives reported that more than 80 corrections officer positions were vacant.

Tarovisky said that understaffing in correctional facilities poses safety risks for current personnel.

“I mean, we’re a 24-hour operation. It’s not a job where you just leave at the end of the day, you go home, and you don’t have nobody there,” he said. “We have to have correctional officers at the facility to run a safe mission.”

To raise awareness about challenges to the facility, union workers lined a Monongalia County roadside last September, picketing with bright-colored signs demanding new hiring initiatives.

“We need hiring incentives to bring in new recruits,” Tarovisky said. “You have a lot of other law enforcement agencies within this country — whether it’s state police, whether it’s corrections in Pennsylvania — that … were offering higher incentives. So why would you want to come to Hazelton?”

Tarovisky said state officials were receptive to the union’s requests.

In November, Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., sent a letter to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) urging the organization’s approval of a 25 percent retention incentive for staff at the facility.

“FCC Hazelton faces a dangerous staffing shortage that, while challenging, could be improved by providing current employees with a much-deserved pay increase,” he wrote in the letter.

After the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) published a report in February that the BOP failed to prevent the deaths of 14 inmates at the West Virginia facility in just eight years — the second-highest number in the nation — Manchin renewed his calls for federal intervention.

Other allegations disclosed in a 2023 DOJ report included the falsification of documents from supervisory staff at the facility; the usage of racial slurs and punitive housing restrictions from workers; and even the assault of inmates by facility staff.

Manchin said that understaffing exacerbated dangerous conditions like these in the facility. Likewise, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., said that the 2023 DOJ findings suggested the facility was unable to provide a safe environment for inmates and workers.

Tarovisky credits calls from West Virginia’s senators, plus additional support from U.S. Rep. Alex Mooney, with pushing the pay increase forward.

“Unbelievable job, what they’ve done for the staff at Hazelton. This is what we’ve been asking for, and this is what they’ve been pressing on,” he said. “They put all politics aside to represent the people at FCC Hazelton.”

The pay raise will apply to all of the facility’s corrections officers who are currently in good standing. But it will also bump starting salaries at the facility up by 25 percent, which Tarovisky said will help make the facility more enticing in a competitive job market.

“That’s what’s so great about this,” he said. “Now, we can compete even higher with other agencies.”

Manchin applauded the new funding in a Thursday press release, adding that he hopes it will reduce safety risks in the prison.

“The facility has long suffered from severe staffing shortages, especially of correctional officers, that have resulted in a hostile environment for both employees and inmates,” he said. “This pay incentive is much-deserved for current employees and will help recruit new qualified officers and staff, which will promote safer conditions for employees and inmates.”

**Editor’s note: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that allegations of falsified documents and staff abuse came from a February 2024 Department of Justice report. They came from a September 2023 report. The story has been updated with the correction.

U.S. Attorney Launches Hotline For Information On Federal Prison

A hotline has been set up to gather more information about abuses at a federal prison in Preston County.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office is seeking information from witnesses or victims of physical assault while incarcerated at Federal Correctional Complex Hazelton.

William Ihlenfeld, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia, said that for the past several years, his office has received allegations of and investigated civil rights incidents at Hazelton.

“We are interested in learning what correction officers know or former inmates know or members of the public know about incidents that have occurred at Hazleton, and we want those people who have information to know how they can get that information to us and we wanted to make it as simple as possible,” he said.

Ihlenfeld said his office’s goal is to enforce federal law, and the number and types of incidents coming out of Hazelton demands that more be done.

“Sometimes through enforcing federal law, we identify ways that a particular facility can be improved,“ he said. “For anyone that might be at FCC Hazleton, or a comparable complex, we’re not an entity that is set up to make those kinds of systematic changes within an institution. We’re not the Bureau of Prisons. However, if we identify something that is a problem that, if addressed, could improve the conditions within a facility, we will certainly share that information at the appropriate time.”

The hotline number is 1-855-WVA-FEDS (982-3337). Complaints and tips can also be sent to wvafeds@usdoj.gov.

Prison Workers Protest Staffing Shortage

More than a dozen correctional officers, medical staff and counselors from Hazelton lined Cheat Lake Road outside of Morgantown Friday morning to demand help at Federal Correctional Complex Hazelton.

On Friday, workers from Federal Correctional Complex Hazelton in Preston County protested in Morgantown against what they call dangerously low staffing at the prison.

More than a dozen correctional officers, medical staff and counselors from Hazelton lined Cheat Lake Road outside of Morgantown Friday morning to demand help at their federal correctional complex.

Hazelton houses a correctional institution and women’s facility, as well as a high-security United States penitentiary.

Justin Tarovisky, union president of Local 420 of the American Federation of Government Employees at FCC Hazleton, said the facility has more than 80 correctional officer positions vacant, which leaves other staff like teachers and counselors to fill in the gaps in a practice called augmentation.

“We’re taking teachers away from their jobs to be augmented. We’re taking other programs, the facilities, the workers,” Tarovisky said. “They’re taking other staff that aren’t correctional officers, and they’re putting them in correctional officer spots because we’re vacated.”

Protesters say existing officers are often mandated to work 16 hour shifts several times a week. Tarovisky said the issue is further exacerbated by not having local hiring authority. He said applications to work at Hazelton are sent to a bureau of prisons office in Texas for review, and most are rejected.

“When you have a job fair in the heart of Morgantown, West Virginia with 60 applicants and hardly anyone were hired, we have a problem with our hiring,” Tarovisky said.

The shortage poses safety risks for inmates and staff alike, as well as other problems. Lucretia Row, a nurse at Hazelton, said reduced officer staffing means delays in getting inmates their medication.

“Our job is to provide treatment,” Row said. “We can’t do that, because they have to stay locked in because we don’t have staff to let them out.”

Row said many mornings the facility’s “pill line” is delayed by several hours. If inmates are put on lockdown due to low staffing, medication must be brought to each cell individually, further delaying dosage. Row highlighted the danger this poses for inmates, particularly diabetics, as it pushes morning and evening dosages closer together than is medically advised.

“That’s detrimental to things like insulin. Insulin should not be given that close together,” she said. “Not only that, they’re not getting fed in a timely manner because they’re being held in longer. It’s not just about our officer’s rights, it’s about the rights of these inmates as well. They deserve that just treatment and it’s hard on our officers to keep up with everything, because there’s so few of them.”

Staffing issues are not unique to Hazelton. Joe Rojas works at FCC Coleman in Florida, and drove up to support his fellow union members Friday.

“Working for the bureau for 29 years, this is the worst that I’ve ever seen it when it comes to staffing,” he said.

Rojas said he is concerned that reduced staffing across the country will result in serious consequences, including death. He said he doesn’t want to see anyone get hurt.

“We’re here to make the public aware of the possibilities of an escape or the possibilities of an unfortunate homicide,” he said.

In a document prepared by the American Federation of Government Employees, the union said there are currently 12,731 correctional officers in the Bureau of Prisons, down from 13,808 officers in 2020. This is despite several years of presidential requests that there be 20,466 correctional officers, and allocated funding for those positions.

Last week, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) joined with Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) in calling on the Department of Justice and Bureau of Prisons to investigate inmate abuse and staffing shortages at FCC Hazelton.

Union members are asking the public to contact their federal representatives about the officer shortage.

Four More Out-Of-State Prisoners Test Positive At Federal Institution In Gilmer

The U.S. Bureau of Prisons is reporting five positive cases of COVID-19 at the Federal Correctional Institution in Gilmer County, West Virginia, less than two weeks after 124 out-of-state prisoners in quarantine were transferred to the state.

The BOP did not respond to repeated requests for comment, but prison officials allegedly identified the four most recent positive cases through a faster form of testing, according to corrections officer Derek Crihfield. Crihfield is the local president of the American Federation of Government Employees, a union representing staff at FCI Gilmer.

Crihfield said executive staff at Gilmer notified the union they were discontinuing the faster tests, offered through Abbott laboratory. Officials said there was concern the tests were both less accurate and could add to the total positive count of coronavirus cases at the facility, according to Crihfield.

“They feel no need to test the inmates because all it’s going to do is run the numbers up,” Crihfield said of officials. “We’re going have to report a bunch of numbers to Gilmer County, and then it’s going to hold us up from being able to transfer the inmates out somewhere else.”

The first positive prisoner at Gilmer was reported earlier in May, after being tested at a local hospital. Crihfield said all five positive prisoners, the last four of which seem asymptomatic, are being isolated from all other incarcerated individuals.

These five are among a total 124 prisoners that the BOP transferred to Gilmer on April 28. The BOP moved them to the medium security correctional facility after designating the institution one of seven quarantine sites.

Crihfield says the BOP assured staff at Gilmer that these prisoners had minimal contact with the coronavirus before their transfer. With a growing number of positive COVID-19 cases, he said he is concerned the BOP might continue to transfer an unclear number of asymptomatic prisoners to other facilities, spreading the disease.

“We didn’t want to be the quarantine site, but now we have a duty to make sure these guys are clear, and not just asymptomatic,” Crihfield said. “Because we don’t want to not test an inmate, send him to the next institution as asymptomatic, and then he spreads it within that institution. That kind of defeats the whole purpose of the quarantine site if we’re just sending these guys out without testing them.”

U.S. Attorney General William Barr told U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., on Friday he was stopping future transfers to Gilmer and the Hazelton Federal Correctional Center in Preston County, which also had been a designated quarantine site. Union leaders report Hazelton has not received any new transfers.

Before the transfer on April 28, Gilmer FCI had roughly 4,000 prisoners.

When dealing with the five prisoners who are isolated because they’ve tested positive, Crihfield says the BOP has provided protective wear and well-fitting N95 face masks to staff.

So far, Crihfield says no corrections officers or nonuniform staff have tested positive. FCI Gilmer is not testing its staff, but they have access to outside testing. Still, he said there has not been enough communication by prison officials with the local community, which has caused some tension.

“People are afraid of interacting with our staff,” Crihfield said. “I’d like to stress that we have the proper PPE. And at the end of the day, it’s our job, we have to do it. And we didn’t vote to have these guys come here. We didn’t want them here. But we have to, you know, we have a job to do and we have to do it.”

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.

Manchin: U.S. Attorney General Calling Off Transfers To Hazelton, Gilmer Prisons

This is a developing story that will be updated.

U.S. Attorney General William Barr has agreed to stop sending additional out-of-state prisoners to two West Virginia correctional facilities during the coronavirus pandemic.

The move followed weeks of criticism from officials, including Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who made the announcement today in a press release.

The federal Bureau of Prisons transferred 124 out-of-state prisoners to the Federal Correctional Institution in Gilmer County on April 28 because this facility, and the Hazelton Correctional Center in Preston County, were both named as quarantine locations for new inmates entering the federal prison system. One of the newly-added Gilmer prisoners tested positive for COVID-19 shortly after the move.

The Bureau didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Last month West Virginia Public Broadcasting reported on the bureau’s plans to transfer hundreds of Washington, D.C.-area prisoners to the Hazelton Federal Correctional Center in Preston County. Those transfers have not happened, according to the local chapter of The American Federation of Government Employees union, which represents Hazelton corrections staff.

On Friday, that chapter’s executive vice president Justin Tarovisky called Barr’s move a “common sense, safety and security decision” that “should have been made from the beginning.”

“These are inmates from throughout the country that come to West Virginia,” he said. “And with this COVID-19 that’s going around, the smart decision is to not move inmates until this pandemic has been squashed, has been handled with a vaccine or whatever.”

As of May 7, the Washington, D.C., Department of Corrections had recorded 304 positive cases of COVID-19 among its personnel and prisoners, as well as two deaths as a result of the disease.

Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., has also opposed additional transfers, along with U.S. Rep. David McKinley, R-W.Va and Gov. Jim Justice, who wrote the bureau a letter on April 24.

Data on May 8 from the BOP’s website shows there are 3,456 prisoners at Hazelton, and 1,545 prisoners at Gilmer.

There were 8,821 federal prisoners statewide, in six counties.

Emily Allen is a Report for America corps member.

Whitey Bulger, Boston Gangster, Killed in 'Apparent Homicide' at West Virginia Prison

Updated: October 20, 2018 at 7:45 p.m.

Notorious Boston gangster James “Whitey” Bulger was found dead Tuesday morning in a federal prison in West Virginia. An official for a union representing prison guards said the death is being investigated as a homicide.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Federal Bureau of Prisons, Bulger was found unresponsive at 8:20 a.m. Tuesday. Live-saving measures were attempted before he was pronounced dead by the Preston County Medical Examiner, according to a news release.

Bulger rose from the projects of South Boston, along with his brother William, who went on to become president of the Massachusetts Senate and later the University of Massachusetts.

Whitey, though, would spend his life being one of the most feared men in Boston.

The mob boss-turned-FBI informant fled Boston in 1994, following a tip from his FBI handler, and then spent more than 16 years on the lam. With his escape being a subject of criticism for the FBI, police finally caught up with Bulger in 2011. He was tried and convicted in 2013.

According to a news release from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, he was serving a life sentence for racketeering, conspiracy, racketeering, extortion conspiracy, money laundering, possession of unregistered machine guns, transfer and possession of machine guns, possession of firearms with obliterated serial numbers, and possession of machine guns in furtherance of a violent crime.

Richard Heldreth, president of the American Federation of Government Employees Local 420, called Bulger’s death an “apparent homicide” based on information from responding guards. He said two officers were assigned to the housing unit where Bulger was found.

Specific information on injuries Bulger sustained was not immediately available, Heldreth said. The FBI was notified and has started an investigated.

“It is being investigated as a murder,” Heldreth told West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

The 89-year-old had been transferred to the Hazelton Penitentiary near Morgantown, West Virginia, the day before his death. He had been in a prison in Florida before a stopover at a transfer facility in Oklahoma City. Federal officials and his attorney declined to comment to the Associated Press as to why he was transferred.

Bulger’s death is the third at the Hazelton facility in the past seven months, which raises concerns about the safety of inmates and staff alike, according to union officials.

“Today’s reported death at USP Hazelton, while concerning, is unsurprising,” American Federation of Government Employees National President J. David Cox Sr. said in a news release.

He and the AFGE have attributed the deaths at Hazelton to staffing issues.

“Federal prisons across the country are suffering from severe understaffing, and the situation is perhaps no more dire than at Hazelton,” Cox said.

One in five positions that were authorized two years ago are currently vacant, including correctional officers and medical staff, according to the union.

“Our union’s call to fill these vacant positions unfortunately has fallen on deaf ears,” Heldreth said in the Tuesday news release from AFGE. “We weren’t even notified by the prison warden about today’s death for hours after it had occurred. This incident only exacerbates the tense work environment at the prison and highlights how neglectful management is readily putting all staff in danger.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.