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Main Page Jail guards union files complaint over president's suspension
(Click here to view the original thread on the MassCops Message Board)

Posted by: DeputyFife

Published: 09/12/2007
Jail guards union files complaint over president's suspension
By Julie Manganis
Staff writer

MIDDLETON - The union representing guards at Middleton Jail has filed a complaint with the state Labor Relations Commission alleging that its president was suspended for 30 days in retaliation for writing a critical letter about Sheriff Frank Cousins to The Salem News.
Lt. Jerry Enos was suspended without pay for 30 days last month after a hearing officer ruled Enos had violated several jail rules during the course of an investigation into a June 7 melee in the jail's high-security administrative segregation unit that left three guards injured.
But Enos and union attorney Howard Lenow are saying that the alleged violations are "all a pretext, in our view."
"This is an effort by the sheriff to retaliate against Jerry Enos, not just for this letter for a long series of letters and public comments," Lenow said yesterday, a day after the prohibited practice complaint was filed. "The sheriff is just aching to get Jerry."
The letter, which appeared on The Salem News editorial page June 15, was critical of Cousins for appearing in a television news interview about celebrity heiress Paris Hilton on the same day as the melee. Enos also said in the letter that jail officials had information beforehand that there would be such an incident, and that Cousins then interrupted a security "shakedown" to accommodate the WBZ reporter.
Paul Fleming, a spokesman for the sheriff, said jail officials had already launched an investigation into whether anyone had prior knowledge of the incident. They would come to learn that another lieutenant had heard something but did not report it.
In subsequent interviews with a jail superintendent and in a written report, Fleming said, Enos did not disclose the conversation with the other officer.
Enos was accused of filing a false and misleading report, with making untrue statements about what he had told the superintendent, and, in writing the letter, with violating a jail rule about publicly commenting on internal affairs investigations. Fleming said neither he nor the sheriff had seen the complaint and would not comment on it.
Fleming also called the allegation that Cousins interrupted the security sweep for a TV interview "completely ridiculous." While acknowledging that the timing of the interview request was unfortunate, he said Cousins, as head of the Massachusetts Sheriffs' Association, felt obligated to respond to the television reporter's request.

Lenow, meanwhile, said the union has also appealed Enos' suspension, demanding an arbitrator hear the case, and is considering other legal action.
Ed Srednicki, the executive secretary of the Labor Relations Commission, said the union has 20 days to follow up with further documentation of its charge, and then the sheriff will have 20 days to respond. After that, it could take several months for an investigator to review those filings and determine whether to recommend a formal complaint be issued by the commission.

Posted by: honor12900

"Fleming also called the allegation that Cousins interrupted the security sweep for a TV interview "completely ridiculous." While acknowledging that the timing of the interview request was unfortunate, he said Cousins, as head of the Massachusetts Sheriffs' Association, felt obligated to respond to the television reporter's request."

I generally don't comment on the sheriffs board or bash anyone. Not my style. But I take serious issue with this comment and this subject in general. I was conducting this "security sweep" when I was ordered to stop and told the sheriff will be entering the facility for a TV interview. The shakedown was never completed. When we found out the interview was in regards to Paris Hilton you can imagine my anger.
Just my 2 cents

Posted by: mechanixman

With all the bad blood is there going to be any new class. Are their classes or do you start as a P/T Guard. Is there one test for the Sheriff's Department or do you need to take individual ones. I live in the Boston area are there residence requirements or can I go to the North Shore.

Posted by: Niteowl

There is a new academy class starting soon. Most people start out as a reserve then go full time. No, there is no residency requirement.

Posted by: honor12900

Quote:

Originally Posted by mechanixman

With all the bad blood is there going to be any new class. Are their classes or do you start as a P/T Guard. Is there one test for the Sheriff's Department or do you need to take individual ones. I live in the Boston area are there residence requirements or can I go to the North Shore.

Academy class started Thursday. No residency, and everyone starts off as a P/T correctional officer.

Posted by: pahapoika

everyone starts off as a P/T correctional officer.

has anyone ever tried to get rid of that ?

Posted by: Niteowl

The current sheriff stopped hiring reserves when he took office. Then about 2 years ago, he returned to hiring reserves to cover staff shortages and vacations.

Posted by: mechanixman

How does one become management in the Sheriff's Department? Do they come up from the ranks (i.e. tests)? Does anyone know. Please tell me.

Posted by: COto50

management in the sheriff's dept = donations to the campaign

Posted by: CampusOfficer

Here is the latest in the long battle between the sheriff and the union.

Published: 10/04/2007
After three years, two jail guards fired over racist Web postings

By Steve Landwehr
Staff writer

MIDDLETON - Two Middleton jail guards embroiled in a three-year dispute with Essex County Sheriff Frank Cousins were fired yesterday.
Sgt. Jerry Enos and Sgt. K. Ricky Thompson were found to have allowed racially derogatory remarks about Cousins, who is black, posted on the jail guards' Web site to remain there, despite having the ability to remove them. Enos was the president of the 450-member Essex County Correctional Officers Association, Thompson its treasurer and Webmaster.
The decision to terminate the two was made by Special Sheriff Thomas Goff, a longtime jail employee and Cousins' second in command. Goff found Enos and Thompson "caused disruption or potential disruption" in the effective operations of the jail by leaving the postings on the Web site, and also impaired "the discipline and morale" of their fellow officers.
"I'm personally relieved, and relieved for the department," Cousins said yesterday.
Howard Lenow, the Wayland attorney who represents the union, said he was outraged.
"This is absurd," Lenow said. "It's a violation of everything that's fair and decent in this world."
Under the terms of the union contract, Enos and Thompson have the right to appeal their firings to a panel of three arbitrators. Lenow said he already informed jail officials the men want a hearing as soon as possible.
Enos and Thompson have steadfastly claimed they removed offensive remarks from the Web site as soon as they found them, that anyone could register to post remarks on the site and those remarks are protected by the First Amendment. Lenow has also said Cousins' anger is actually directed at a former union member who has been out of the union for seven years.
The union has made its own complaints about the sheriff. After Cousins suspended Enos for 30 days in September, the union filed charges against the sheriff with the state Labor Relations Commission, claiming the suspension was retaliation for a critical letter Enos wrote that was published in The Salem News.
The suspension was handed down after a hearing officer ruled Enos had violated jail rules during an investigation into a June 7 melee in the jail's high-security administrative segregation unit that left three guards injured.
This is the second time in less than two months Enos and Thompson have been reprimanded over the Internet postings. In August, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination ruled the pair created a "racially hostile" work environment by not properly monitoring the Web site.

Cousins was referred to as a "pimp," and the women under his supervision were called "whores," according to the commission's summary of its investigation. One poster also referred to one of Cousins' subordinates, who is also black, as a "house slave."
"We just can't have this in the workplace," Cousins said.
Lenow said yesterday's decision was predetermined.
"It was completely controlled by the sheriff," he said.
Cousins shrugged off the criticism.
"If it was predetermined, they would have been terminated in 2004," he said. "Some people have asked why I didn't terminate them sooner, but we try to follow policies."

www.salemnews.com

Posted by: pahapoika

Goff found Enos and Thompson "caused disruption or potential disruption" in the effective operations of the jail

or as they like to say at the state level "for the betterment of the institution" we're canning your ass !

i'm guessing from their inception , county and to a lesser extent state prisons ( thank you civil service ) are run more like dictatorships than anything else.

Posted by: DeputyFife

Published: 10/04/2007
After three years, two jail guards fired over racist Web postings
By Steve Landwehr
Staff writer

MIDDLETON - Two Middleton jail guards embroiled in a three-year dispute with Essex County Sheriff Frank Cousins were fired yesterday.
Sgt. Jerry Enos and Sgt. K. Ricky Thompson were found to have allowed racially derogatory remarks about Cousins, who is black, posted on the jail guards' Web site to remain there, despite having the ability to remove them. Enos was the president of the 450-member Essex County Correctional Officers Association, Thompson its treasurer and Webmaster.
The decision to terminate the two was made by Special Sheriff Thomas Goff, a longtime jail employee and Cousins' second in command. Goff found Enos and Thompson "caused disruption or potential disruption" in the effective operations of the jail by leaving the postings on the Web site, and also impaired "the discipline and morale" of their fellow officers.
"I'm personally relieved, and relieved for the department," Cousins said yesterday.
Howard Lenow, the Wayland attorney who represents the union, said he was outraged.
"This is absurd," Lenow said. "It's a violation of everything that's fair and decent in this world."
Under the terms of the union contract, Enos and Thompson have the right to appeal their firings to a panel of three arbitrators. Lenow said he already informed jail officials the men want a hearing as soon as possible.
Enos and Thompson have steadfastly claimed they removed offensive remarks from the Web site as soon as they found them, that anyone could register to post remarks on the site and those remarks are protected by the First Amendment. Lenow has also said Cousins' anger is actually directed at a former union member who has been out of the union for seven years.
The union has made its own complaints about the sheriff. After Cousins suspended Enos for 30 days in September, the union filed charges against the sheriff with the state Labor Relations Commission, claiming the suspension was retaliation for a critical letter Enos wrote that was published in The Salem News.
The suspension was handed down after a hearing officer ruled Enos had violated jail rules during an investigation into a June 7 melee in the jail's high-security administrative segregation unit that left three guards injured.
This is the second time in less than two months Enos and Thompson have been reprimanded over the Internet postings. In August, the Massachusetts Commission Against Discrimination ruled the pair created a "racially hostile" work environment by not properly monitoring the Web site.

Cousins was referred to as a "pimp," and the women under his supervision were called "whores," according to the commission's summary of its investigation. One poster also referred to one of Cousins' subordinates, who is also black, as a "house slave."
"We just can't have this in the workplace," Cousins said.
Lenow said yesterday's decision was predetermined.
"It was completely controlled by the sheriff," he said.
Cousins shrugged off the criticism.
"If it was predetermined, they would have been terminated in 2004," he said. "Some people have asked why I didn't terminate them sooner, but we try to follow policies."

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