SMETHPORT – Dennis Luther ended his tenure as warden of the
McKean County Prison Friday with confidence that the facility has
improved in the past year.

He also is confident he is leaving it in good hands now that
former probation officer and deputy warden Tim Woodruff has taken
over.

“I’m comfortable with Tim,” Luther said as he shared results of
a state inspection conducted at the end of his 15-month term as
head of what used to be the county jail.

That inspection showed a marked improvement over the low score
the facility received last April, three months after Luther took
over. Luther himself requested this inspection as a kind of
closing-out audit of what he has done and as an indication of the
status when Woodruff took over.

Luther notes, “I’ve made a huge investment here, and I wanted
someone with the same beliefs to carry on.”

Woodruff’s philosophy of how a prison should be run is
compatible with his, Luther said.

One of the basic tenants of that philosophy is that an attempt
has to be made to break the pattern of destructive behavior, habits
and attitudes that led to most inmates being in jail.

Woodruff, who was in charge of inmate programs during his
several months as deputy, is a firm believer in making that effort,
even though he knows it will often be unsuccessful.

“The fact is these people are going to return to the community,”
he said of the inmates, “we’ve got to provide them with the tools
for fitting in … whether or not they use them”

To provide some of those tools, the prison now offers, in
addition to a GED program, classes in basic life skills beyond what
the General Equivalency Diploma requires.

As a way of encouraging participation in the several programs,
Woodruff hopes to institute a “Good Time” policy that could reduce
the sentence of successful participants.

He also is looking at ways to get the community more involved in
the process, perhaps with volunteers who might act as mentors for
inmates after they are released, someone to whom they can turn when
they have a problem.

“It’s well known that the probation officer is the last person a
guy on probation wants to talk to …” Woodruff said, calling the
mentors similar to the “sponsors” in the Alcoholic Anonymous”
program.

The largest participation by volunteers right now is by AA
members, who provide regular AA meetings at the prison.ðOther
volunteers teach parenting and other life skills.

A need for more programs was one of the deficiencies noted in
last year’s inspection report, which gave the local jail one of the
lowest rankings in the state.

While an exact comparison of this year’s ranking to last year’s
is not possible because the state will no longer apply a percentage
number, Luther says the improvement is significant.

All of the areas listed as deficiencies, he notes, have to do
with the difficult and persistent problem of too many inmates for
the size of the facility.

One deficient area noted was for three beds in the common area
of the Work Release Unit.ðCommon Areas are supposed to be free of
beds, but the jail has consistently been forced to make the area
into a kind of dormitory because of the number of people
incarcerated.

The Work Release Unit got another black mark for having four
beds in rooms designed for two persons.

The third deficiency came from the isolation cell in the female
unit not being separated from the general population, something
Luther calls a “construction/design flaw.” He suggests it could be
solved by the addition of a prefabricated sell placed next to the
existing unit.

His memorandum on the inspection notes, “These three issues were
assigned ‘deficiency’ status because of the good faith effort to
reduce overcrowding.” It goes on to point out that the issues could
become “citations” if not corrected by the next inspection, and
could raise serious liability and legal ramifications.

One way of reducing the overcrowding may lie in the GPS
monitoring devices now being worn by three inmates on work
release.

The devices keep track of the inmate’s location, and could lead
to non-violent people being sentenced to house arrest rather than
jail.

Among the deficiencies noted last year, but now corrected, are
staff training, which now averages 45 hours per person a year, with
all having attended the DOC academy; better security procedures and
a written manual of policy and procedures.

Also, incoming inmates now are screened for medical problems and
are classified for medical, education and security levels.

A full-time counselor is in place and inmate access to medical
care has been improved and procedures refined, with a nurse at the
facility several days a week, and a grievance procedure for inmate
complaints is in place.

Other deficiencies in food preparation and service, sanitation
and bedding have been corrected.