The McKean County Prison Board Wednesday replied to statements
made last week by sheriff-elect Brad Mason.

Mason, a Bradford Township Police officer who is the only
candidate for sheriff on the November ballot, criticized the way
the county prison is being run and asked for public support in his
attempt to have the sheriff once again run the jail.

Prison Board Chairman Cliff Lane late Wednesday afternoon sent
out an e-mail which outlined the Prison Board’s “Mission” and
indicated that the board intends to keep the warden system and has
no intention of returning control of the jail to the sheriff.

That mission, the statement says, calls for “the safe, humane,
constitutional prison environment, and provides for treatment,
training and educational opportunities for the inmates.”

Mason had called such programs ineffective and wasteful, saying
that a county prison is a detention center where people who have
committed crimes are locked up, and that it should be a place they
don’t want to return to.

“It is not a rehabilitation facility,” he said.

The Board statement points out that the majority of county
prisons in the state are now headed by wardens, and that fact
“reflects the nearly universal thinking that the duties must be
split between two individuals in two separate, independent
departments.”

It goes on to say that operating a modern prison requires
compliance with a variety of complex regulations and rulings, and
that professional management minimizes the risk of lawsuits.

“The decision to establish a prison board,” the statement
continues, “and to hire a professional warden was made after the
magnitude of the problems at the prison became evident to us last
year.” It also notes that the advisory group that made the decision
included current Sheriff Don Morey.

Among improvements that the Board statement lists are “Improved
Correctional Officer training,” the establishment of a Policies and
Procedures Manual, “dramatic improvements” to the building and
equipment, the establishment of a maintenance supervisor position,
improved medical care for inmates and the hiring of a deputy warden
for Population Control and Programs.

The hiring of that deputy is one of Mason’s major complaints; he
contends that the programs the deputy is responsible for will not
keep persistent offenders from returning to jail, and that the
money spent of that and on counselors is excessive and wasted.

He also contends that the taxpayers of the county do not want to
see their tax dollars spent of jail programs.

“There are people in the county struggling to pay their bills;
they don’t want to see their money spent on the jail.

The Prison Board counters that “Many of the improvements will
save money in the long run; others will result in increased costs,
but will ensure the prison is run in a constitutionally correct
manner.”

The Board statement concludes by saying that the increased costs
are a big concern, but that “changing the way we run the prison is
consistent with our philosophy that county government has to be
managed in a cost effective way.”

“The hardest part of making any change is staying the course in
the face of opposition … Time will prove that this is the correct
decision.”