Alan Miller is incensed. The senior vice president of Northwest Chapter of Police Benevolent Association, and who recently retired after working at the Escambia County Jail since 1984, can’t believe Escambia County Commissioner Gene Valentino attacked the work ethics of the detention deputies.
“Commissioner Valentino hasn’t got a clue,” Miller told IN. “I can’t believe that he would make such slanderous insults against my people.”
The county commission voted yesterday for Valentino to work with interim County Administrator George Touart and work out with Sheriff David Morgan the county’s plan for correcting the longstanding problems at the jail with staffing and mental health programs. The plan needs to be submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice in 41 days.
Valentino told WEAR 3 in an interview yesterday, “I’ve got reports coming back to me that some are sitting there playing computer games on their laptops and not even addressing prisoners.”
“If he feels this way about the men and women working at the jail, then Commissioner Valentino needs to remove himself from the negotiations,” said Miller. “We have the leader of the tribe wanting to kill all the Indians.”
The DOJ reports cites the jail for being woefully understaffed–a fact the county’s own consultants determined two years ago, but county officials hid from the public. Miller believes for Commissioner Valentino to ignore the staffing issues, which DOJ says has led to more prisoner-on-prisoner violence at the facility, shows deliberate indifference and is putting the detention officers and the inmates at risk.
“We need to do the right thing,” said Miller. “To not deal with this (under staffing) risks the safety of the inmates and the officers.”