3 months ago
Erie County, NY-- Management within the Erie County Sheriff's Department has ordered a massive shake up of its staff, transferring dozens of guards from the Alden Correctional Facility.
2 On Your Side was able to confirm it with multiple sources, and while the Sheriff's Department will not say anything about it, to some the timing of the decision may not seem coincidental.
During a recent visit to the Alden jail, inspectors from the state reported that they noticed some of the deputies were leaving their posts unattended. The problem was serious enough for the New York State Commission of Corrections to address the issue at its most recent meeting Tuesday.
During the meeting, Commission Chairman and former Niagara County Sheriff Thomas Beilein called the issue involving the guards "unsettling."
"I see that they continue to abandon assigned posts," Beilein said. "And these are primarily not housing units, but security posts in hallways."
Multiple sources confirm that, after that meeting, the Erie County Sheriff's Department transferred more than 50 senior corrections officers out of the Alden Jail, sending them to the downtown Buffalo Holding Center, which is viewed by many in law enforcement as a less desirable assignment.
The more junior deputies from the holding center were then transferred to the Alden jail.
The head of the local Teamsters Union office representing the deputies said he was "stunned" by the decision to transfer the staff.
"Certainly, our deputies do not leave their post," Teamsters Local President Ron Lucas said. "I think what (the sheriff's department) did today was wrong. These people have lives that were just disrupted."
We tried to ask the sheriff's department's spokesperson about the changes. She returned none of our phone calls. When we bumped into Sheriff Timothy Howard outside his office Friday afternoon, he would not answer our questions. Howard walked away from us and referred all of our questions to the superintendent of the jail. The superintendent's office never returned our phone call.
Our sources tell us the shake-up at the Alden Jail is essentially the sheriff's way of sending a message to the senior deputies - that the behavior observed by the state is unacceptable.
Both the state and federal government are currently suing the sheriff's department and the county over conditions at the downtown holding center.
