October 25, 2007
Judge releases fifteen inmates who are awaiting trialBy Gary V.
Murray TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
gmurray@telegram.com
WORCESTER— A judge released another 15 pretrial detainees from the Worcester
County Jail and House of Correction in West Boylston yesterday to enable jail
officials to comply with a federal cap on the number of inmates.
The 15 inmates, who were being held on bail while awaiting trial, were ordered released on personal recognizance by Judge John S. McCann during a Worcester Superior Court hearing attended by representatives of the offices of Sheriff Guy W. Glodis and District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. and the court’s Probation Department.
Brian Knuuttila, general counsel for the jail, told Judge McCann the jail’s population was at 1,463 yesterday, 12 over the cap of 1,451 inmates ordered in July by U.S. District Court Judge Rya W. Zobel under a consent decree first imposed in 1989. The cap will be reduced to 1,351 inmates as of Nov. 1 and to 1,251 Dec. 1.
Superior Court judges have been releasing inmates not considered a risk to public safety to ensure the jail’s compliance with Judge Zobel’s order.
In danger of exceeding the cap on Oct. 9, Sheriff Glodis refused to take a dozen prisoners from the new Worcester Trial Court at 225 Main St., forcing court officers to keep them in custody in a basement lockup until about 9:30 p.m.
Calling the
sheriff’s actions “outrageous,” Judge McCann ordered him the next day to
continue to take pretrial detainees into his custody and to hold sentenced
prisoners until the completion of their sentences. The judge also suggested that
jail officials plead their case before Judge Zobel if they were unable to comply
with the federally imposed cap.
Deputy Jail Superintendent Jeffrey R. Turco said language in the judge’s order
requiring the sheriff to hold inmates “in his facilities” would prohibit the
transfer of prisoners to other jails or prisons, preclude furloughs and force
the return to the jail of more than 60 inmates who are out on electronic
monitoring.
Jail officials filed a motion asking Judge McCann to reconsider his order and
also filed an appeal of the order with a single justice of the state Supreme
Judicial Court.
Judge McCann announced yesterday that he had filed an amended order clarifying
that he never intended to preclude inmate transfers or furloughs or force the
return to the jail of inmates participating in community-based programs. While
saying he would continue to try to help the sheriff comply with the federal cap
by setting pretrial detainees free, he reiterated his refusal to release
sentenced inmates from custody early.
Assistant District Attorney William T. Walsh Jr. said one of the reasons the
district attorney’s office had refused to participate in the reviews of
potential candidates for release was that inmates participating in the jail’s
Project COAP, an electronic monitoring program, were being counted as part of
the jail population, even though they were not physically at the jail.
Mr. Knuuttila said the issue was a subject of pending litigation, but did not
elaborate.
October 12, 2007
Judge blasts Glodis
Request federal help,
sheriff told
By
Gary V. Murray TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
gmurray@telegram.com
WORCESTER— A state court judge took Sheriff Guy W. Glodis to task yesterday
for refusing to accept a dozen pretrial detainees from Worcester District Trial
Court Tuesday night. The judge suggested jail officials plead their case before
U.S. District Court Judge Rya W. Zobel if they are unable to comply with a
federal consent decree placing a cap on the inmate population.
A July 23 modification to the 1989 consent decree, which was spawned by a
class-action civil rights lawsuit brought by five inmates, limited the number of
prisoners who may be housed at the Worcester County Jail and House of Correction
in West Boylston to 1,451 as of Oct. 1. That number will drop to 1,351 Nov. 1
and again to 1,251 Dec. 1.
At risk of exceeding the cap Tuesday night, Sheriff Glodis refused to take a
dozen prisoners from the new courthouse at 225 Main St., forcing court officers
to keep them in custody in a basement lockup that is not designed to accommodate
prisoners overnight. By 9:30 p.m., five hours after the courthouse had closed
for the day, a judge had ordered the release of half the inmates and the rest
were picked up by the sheriff’s department.
Judge John S. McCann told the sheriff during a hearing
yesterday in Worcester Superior Court that his actions were “outrageous” and
placed court personnel and inmates, alike, at risk of harm. He said the inmates
were picked up only after Worcester police officials agreed to take them
overnight and bill the sheriff’s department for their stay.
Judge McCann said he was informed by court security personnel Wednesday that the
sheriff planned to again “abandon” pretrial detainees at a dozen courthouses
throughout Worcester County in order to comply with the consent decree. That
plan, described by Judge McCann yesterday as “inappropriate” and “problematic,”
was averted when the judge ordered Sheriff Glodis Wednesday afternoon to “get
the vans rolling again” and pick up the prisoners being held on court-ordered
bail.
“To abandon prisoners in these courts in the manner in which they were, to me,
is outrageous,” Judge McCann said during yesterday’s court session.
In an effort to stay within the federally mandated cap, jail officials presented
Judge McCann Tuesday with a list of sentenced prisoners they considered
candidates for early release. Since the early 1990s, Worcester Superior Court
judges have periodically ordered the release of groups of pretrial detainees not
deemed a risk to public safety to ease crowded conditions at the county jail.
For reasons he said he could only speculate upon, that practice ceased a year or
two ago and the jail population grew from about 1,200 inmates to a record high
of more than 1,500 last month, according to Judge McCann. Sheriff Glodis has
been seeking state funding to enlarge the jail in West Boylston, and he has
criticized the administration of Gov. Deval L. Patrick for placing a moratorium
on such projects pending a $500,000 study of correction needs statewide.
Noting that the list given to him Tuesday contained the names of inmates
convicted of crimes ranging from armed robbery to assault and battery with a
dangerous weapon, the judge said he did not believe he was authorized to release
any of them before they had completed their sentences.
To do so, he said, would be to change a sentence imposed by another judge.
“Frankly, I have concluded that that’s just not legal,” Judge McCann said.
The judge told the sheriff and his lawyers that the modified consent decree
allowed them to return to federal court and seek additional relief, including
the implementation of a “prisoner release plan,” in the event they were unable
to comply with Judge Zobel’s order. While the modified decree resulted from a
threatened complaint for contempt by lawyers representing jail inmates, Judge
McCann said jail officials were unlikely to be found in contempt if they were
able to make a convincing case that the decree was jeopardizing public safety.
“Frankly, it’s my opinion that if the people in the sheriff’s department wish to
deal with these issues, they need to deal with Judge Zobel,” Judge McCann said,
adding that the state courts were not parties to the federal case. In the
meantime, he said, he was ordering the sheriff to continue to take pretrial
detainees into custody and to hold sentenced prisoners until the completion of
their sentences.
The judge concluded the hearing after abruptly denying Deputy Jail
Superintendent Jeffrey R. Turco’s request to be heard.
“In some ways, I’m relieved by the court decision. The last thing I want to do
is release any criminal prematurely,” Sheriff Glodis said later in the day.
“But, today’s hearing seemed more like an orchestrated finger-pointing session
rather than a solution session,” said the sheriff.
“The judge consistently told us what we can’t do, but he didn’t tell us how we
can get around a federal court order forcing us to release inmates,” the sheriff
continued. “I don’t understand the logic of one court defying another court’s
order. It seems like everyone, including Superior Court, is running for cover,”
he said.
The sheriff said he had been warning people of the “crisis situation” developing
at the jail since being elected in 2004, and he said he had fought to get the
federal cap increased from 788 to 1,251 inmates.
Mr. Turco, who is also a lawyer, accused Judge McCann of “grandstanding” and
said he would be filing an emergency motion asking the judge to reconsider his
order. He said language in the order requiring the sheriff to hold inmates “in
his facilities” would prohibit the transfer of prisoners to other penal
institutions and force the return of more than 60 inmates on electronic
monitoring back to the jail
Jail officials have arranged for the transfer of about 76 sentenced prisoners to
other county jails by Nov. 1 in an effort to stay in compliance with the federal
court order. The state Department of Correction has agreed to take another 30
inmates now being held at the West Boylston facility.
Mr. Turco said the jail was denied due process when Judge McCann refused to
allow him to address the court.
In addition to asking Judge McCann to reconsider, Mr. Turco said he had arranged
a conference call Monday to apprise the federal court of the state court order
and to “seek guidance” from Judge Zobel.
October 12, 2007
Recently released inmate rearrested
By Kim Ring TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
SPENCER— Joshua D. Ryder, who had been released last month after a federal court ordered Sheriff Guy W. Glodis to take steps to ease jail overcrowding, was allegedly shouting obscenities across Main Street Tuesday as he carried a 12-pack of beer off to a friend’s party about 9:30 p.m.
Two officers driving to another call with their cruiser windows down heard the profanities being exchanged and stopped to speak with Mr. Ryder. Officer Norman L. Hodgerney Jr. wrote in a report that he and Detective Michael Shea believed a fight was about to break out. He wrote that he told Mr. Ryder, who he believed was intoxicated, to go home and stay inside.
Mr. Ryder, 29, of 126 Main St., Apt. 14, allegedly agreed, then ran behind a building with a female and headed to the party. Because he did not go home, police followed Mr. Ryder to the party.
When they arrived, Mr. Ryder answered the door and said, “It’s the big, bad Spencer police here to give me a hard time,” the report reads.
As he was taken into custody for causing a disturbance, Mr. Ryder was shouting to passers-by on the street, “Come bail me out!” and making disparaging remarks about Spencer officers, the report states.
Mr. Ryder was released Sept. 24 from the Worcester County Jail and House of Correction, where he was being held without right to bail following his arraignment on Sept. 17 on a charge that he drove after his license was suspended for drunken driving.
But court documents indicate he was released one week later as part of the sheriff’s efforts to comply with a federal order that allows the Worcester County Jail and House of Correction in West Boylston to have no more than 1,451 inmates.
That number is set to be reduced to 1,351 inmates on Nov. 1 and cut again to 1,251 on Dec. 1.
Deputy Jail Superintendent Jeffrey R. Turco said last night that the Sheriff’s Department is trying to find ways to better monitor pretrial detainees.
“We are looking at alternative means of supervision,” he said, adding that some inmates awaiting trial may be released and closely monitored by probation officials or attached to electronic monitoring and global positioning devices.
“We recognize that there is a problem,” he said.
Mr. Turco said similar issues have arisen at other jails across the state over the years and releasing inmates early or while they are awaiting trial is nothing new. He said such releases take place in other jails in Massachusetts. He said Sheriff’s Department staff is reviewing how releases are done from other facilities.
Mr. Ryder has now been ordered held again without right to bail and is due back in Western Worcester District Court in East Brookfield Monday
October 11, 2007
State to take 30 county prisoners
Glodis in bind over
crowded jailhouse
By Gary V. Murray TELEGRAM & GAZETTE STAFF
gmurray@telegram.com
WORCESTER— Fallout from a federal court order to ease overcrowding led to a
late night at the new Worcester Trial Court.
On Tuesday, instead of being transported to the Worcester County Jail and House
of Correction at the end of their court appearances — the usual procedure — a
dozen prisoners were held into the night at the courthouse lockup.
All of which left Sheriff Guy W. Glodis in a legal bind yesterday when a state
court judge ordered him to take steps that could put him in violation of a
federal judge’s order.
The sheriff has been looking for a solution to overcrowding at the Worcester
County Jail and House of Correction in West Boylston. Late yesterday, the state
said it would help Sheriff Glodis by taking 30 county prisoners into the state
system.
Under an order issued in August by U.S. District Court Judge Rya S. Zobel, the
Worcester County Jail and House of Correction in West Boylston may now house no
more than 1,451 inmates, a number that will be reduced to 1,351 on Nov. 1 and to
1,251 on Dec. 1.
In an attempt to comply with the terms of the federal consent decree, first
issued in 1989, Sheriff Glodis refused to accept a dozen pretrial detainees
Tuesday night, temporarily leaving them in the custody of court officers in the
lockup at the new courthouse on Main Street.
Prisoners are usually returned to the county jail by late afternoon. Court
officers stayed beyond their shifts.
Later Tuesday evening, Judge Paul F. LoConto, the presiding justice of Central
District Court, ordered the release of six of the inmates by reducing their
bails to personal recognizance, according to Deputy Jail Superintendent Jeffrey
R. Turco. The last of the remaining six were transported to the jail about 9:30
p.m., five hours after the courthouse normally closes for the day, and then only
after arrangements were made to free up six jail beds.
Jail officials met yesterday with Superior Court Judge John S. McCann and
representatives of the office of District Attorney Joseph D. Early Jr. and the
Superior Court Probation Department to discuss the jail cap and try to come up
with a plan that would enable the jail to comply with Judge Zobel’s order
without releasing potentially dangerous prisoners into the community.
Judge McCann, one of the judges who has been reviewing the names of inmates
submitted by the sheriff’s office to determine whether their release would pose
a threat to public safety, asked Mr. Turco during the afternoon meeting whether
jail officials planned to turn away pretrial detainees again last night.
When told that the jail was at its cap of 1,451 prisoners and was “compelled to
follow that federal court order,” Judge McCann advised Mr.Turco that it was the
sheriff’s legal obligation to accept prisoners who were unable to post the bail
set by a judge.
“Custody attaches when bail is set. They’re your prisoners and they’re your
responsibility,” Judge McCann said.
Mr. Turco responded that he would violate the federal consent decree if he was
being ordered to do so, but said he wanted Judge McCann’s ruling in writing.
“I am going to order you now to get the vans rolling again and take in
prisoners. That’s my order,” said an obviously angry Judge McCann, who went on
to call the sheriff’s actions “outrageous,” and told Mr. Turco he wanted to meet
with Sheriff Glodis at 9 this morning. The judge said he would not order the
release of any more inmates at the jail until after today’s meeting.
Sheriff Glodis voiced frustration with Judge McCann’s order.
“It’s easy for a judge to get his feathers ruffled when he’s sitting in a new,
spacious, $180 million, state-of-the-art Taj Mahal, while the rest of us are
operating out of a decrepit, dangerously overcrowded institution that, quite
frankly, the state should have addressed before today’s court session,” Sheriff
Glodis later said.
Mr. Turco said it was “unfortunate” that a state court judge would order the
sheriff to violate a federal court order. He said jail officials would comply
with Judge McCann’s order before seeking guidance, and possibly a protective
order, from the federal court.
Yesterday afternoon, the state Department of Correction said it would help
Sheriff Glodis by taking 30 county prisoners into the state system. Mary Beth
Heffernan, undersecretary for criminal justice in the state Executive Office of
Public Safety, which directs the state prison system, said such a short-term
solution has become commonplace throughout the state as the Patrick
administration seeks long-term solutions to overcrowding.
In this case, prisoners taken from Worcester County will be prisoners who, at
one time, were part of the state prison system, Ms. Heffernan said.
Judge McCann said during yesterday’s court session that he wanted to solicit
input from prosecutors and probation officials before acting on the proposed
releases.
“If I’m releasing sentenced people who should be doing time, that gives me great
concern for the safety of the community,” he said.
The judge also suggested that jail officials would not necessarily be found in
contempt of court for violating Judge Zobel’s order if they had a compelling
reason for doing so.
“How can you possibly be held in contempt of court when you are faced with an
issue that is releasing people who are a major danger to society?” Judge McCann
asked.
Brian Knuuttila, general counsel for the jail, said jail officials shared the
judge’s public safety concerns, but viewed Judge Zobel’s order as “sacrosanct.”
He said alternatives to releasing inmates to comply with the federal cap were
being implemented, including the expected transfer of 76 sentenced inmates to
other county jails by Nov. 1.
District Attorney Early said he is opposed to releasing any inmates until all
other options had been exhausted
Scott. J. Croteau, Shaun Sutner and Mike Elfland, of the Telegram & Gazette
staff, contributed to this report.