PEF gets improved response to attacks at Hudson Valley PC
By DEBORAH A. MILES
“Over a period of years, our staff has been assaulted, bludgeoned, kicked, had chairs thrown at them, the whole nine yards,” recalls Phil Sullivan, a psychologist at Hudson Valley Psychiatric Center and council leader of PEF Division 238. “And for whatever reason, police intervention fell by the wayside.”
Sullivan knows about the frustrations of on-the-job violence firsthand. A few months ago, he witnessed a patient smashing a window with his fists. The patient was being escorted to the “time-out” room when he broke free and headed for a charge nurse. Sullivan intervened and got punched in the jaw.
This incident resulted in blood-to-blood exposure for Sullivan. After a cursory exam at Hudson Valley PC, he was transferred to St. Francis Hospital. But it was another two weeks before he was tested for exposure to bloodborne diseases, such as HIV or hepatitis B.
“The hospital had no plan in place for the immediate intervention of people who were exposed to bloodborne pathogens. There was no crisis team, no follow-up, nothing,” Sullivan said. “And we ran into a roadblock with local authorities. When we requested police intervention, nothing happened.”
After that, Sullivan contacted the PEF Health and Safety Department and developed a proactive strategy with the labor-management committee at the psychiatric center.
Waste of time
“I went on my own time to press charges against this patient, but the police and state troopers said it was a waste of time. The assumption was that anyone who resided in a psychiatric center was not competent and was already incarcerated,” Sullivan said.
A couple of months later, another violent incident occurred with the same patient. He hit Sullivan in the head, knocking his glasses off and cutting his nose. Two female employees were bitten. But this time, there was a better outcome as a result of a meeting with the local district attorney and management.
“We demanded police and they came. The state trooper was very good. He talked to the assistant district attorney, and I have a copy of the statement. The attending psychiatrist said this patient was mentally competent (to stand trial),” Sullivan said.
Cooperation worked
PEF President Roger Benson met last year with several district attorneys to discuss the need for law enforcement’s cooperation with institutional facilities to protect the rights of employees. Together, they developed recommendations for improving prosecution of patient or inmate attacks on employees.
As they recommended, PEF’s Region 9 Coordinator Neila Cardus, field representative Jim Kemenash and Director of Health and Safety Jonathan Rosen helped Sullivan by phoning Dutchess County authorities urging the police to respond.
“I went to the administrative heads of our facility to explain the situation and, since then, we’ve received nothing but support and full cooperation,” Sullivan said.
“The days of an adversarial relationship with administration on a local level are over,” Sullivan said. “People have to shed the adversarial mentality, except for contractual and critical situations.”
By being tenacious and diplomatic, and with the support of PEF and the Civil Service Employees Association, Sullivan said troopers are now responding to dangerous situation calls from the facility. Charges are being filed, and three patients at the facility are facing court dates.
“There’s a noticeable improvement in the patients’ behavior when they know they have to go to court. Other patients see that justice is given out on a proportionate basis, and it has a positive effect on the whole facility,” Sullivan said. Hudson Valley also made an agreement with St. Francis Hospital to provide every possible service to employees regarding bloodborne-disease-exposure treatment and testing.
Despite the improvements at Hudson Valley, employee protection and workers’ rights in psychiatric settings remains a sensitive issue.
“The situation at Hudson Valley is an example of how local leaders can successfully advocate to ensure that the criminal justice system works when PEF members are assaulted,” Rosen said.
“We can never accept the notion that employees lose their constitutional rights because they work in a state institution.”
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Member credits personal alarm with saving his life
By DEBORAH A. MILES
A vocational instructor at the Elmira Correctional Facility credits his personal safety alarm for saving his life when he was stabbed and held hostage by an inmate in October.
“I would have been dead. Plain and simple,” said PEF member Charles Whitford. “I was stabbed four times. And shortly thereafter, I set the alarm off. Then I was taken hostage by the individual. The device literally saved my life.”
Amare Selton, the inmate who held Whitford hostage with two screwdrivers and a pen, brandished his weapons and refused to leave a prison office. Authorities talked to Selton for an hour after he released Whitford, but it took another PEF member — the prison’s Muslim imam, Mamoun El-Hassan — to finally persuade the 29-year-old New York City man to surrender his weapons.
Selton is serving a 25-year-to-life sentence for first-degree murder, first-degree escape and four counts of first-degree robbery.
Whitford was treated for cuts on the back of his neck in the prison infirmary.
Whitford, a print instructor for seven years at Elmira, said this incident was not personal. According to Whitford, the inmate said it was a continuation of September 11 — a Christian-Muslim conflict.
PEF’s labor-management chair at the state Department of Correctional Services, David Stallone, said the incident was a reminder of the dangerous surroundings in which many PEF members work.
Stallone said the alarm system worked well in this case.
“When Whitford hit his personal-warning device, help came immediately. Prison security took control of the situation and talked the inmate into releasing him,” he said.
Although the personal-warning device worked well in this incident, Stallone stressed the need to acquire a more precise tracking device. For example, if an instructor is in the mess hall and hits the device, then runs to the print shop, the message will be for prison security to go to the mess hall. Upgraded alarms could target the precise location of a person, no matter where the device was activated.
“The Legislature was going to give us a half million dollars to initiate this new system, but then everything fell apart after September 11,” Stallone said. Because the state is facing a fiscal shortfall, the upgraded alarms will be put on hold for another year or two.”
The good news is, PEF members at all of the medium and maximum correctional facilities have personal-warning devices.
“This is a lesson for any members who don’t use them. Even though the system isn’t totally precise, it’s still an alarm,” Stallone said. “It’s a deterrent. But one of the problems we face is that some of our members do not use these alarms. This incident with Whitford has been a wake-up call.”