Geiger errors trigger reform

Geiger Corrections officials were continuing to work out the kinks that led to one man’s escape from a transport van and another man being mistakenly released from the jail earlier this week.

The two men – Eric D. Peterson, 32, and Steven J. Silversten, 34 – remained at large Friday, officials said.

Leon Long, who was appointed Geiger Corrections director in January, said his advice to Peterson and Silversten is to turn themselves in because “they are being hunted.”

With Peterson and Silversten, that makes seven inmates who have escaped or been mistakenly released from Geiger Corrections in less than a year.

Geiger Corrections is a minimum-security facility. It had an inmate population of 538 as of midnight Thursday.

Peterson, who was sentenced Monday to 15 months in prison after he pleaded guilty to two counts of drug possession, was mistakenly released Tuesday because of a “breakdown in communication,” officials said.

Long said two changes have already been put into effect in hopes of avoiding an inmate being mistakenly released.

Now, after a corrections officer has completed the release paperwork, a shift supervisor gives it a second look and matches it up with the inmate before the release, Long said.

This new procedure – and an alert corrections officer – stopped another inmate from being prematurely released Wednesday night.

The inmate had been charged by the prosecutor’s office and was being held at the jail until he appeared in court the next day, but due to a mix-up he was about to be released. When he started looking antsy, a corrections officer and the shift supervisor realized he was not supposed to be released, Long said.

Inmates scheduled for transport to another facility or who are awaiting a court appearance are now going to be kept separate from the inmates who are in general population, Long said.

Long said one of his goals is to make sure incidents such as the recent escapes and mistaken releases don’t happen again.

Silversten was being taken to Geiger in a transport van Wednesday when he escaped by kicking out a window and fleeing on foot. He was in custody for drug possession.

Long said Geiger’s three transport vans are temporarily out of service while bars are installed on the windows. Meanwhile, officials are using inmate transport buses with cages in them and are having an additional corrections officer ride on the bus. Inmates will now be required to wear waist chains to which they will be handcuffed while being transported.

“We are also addressing personnel issues that we are not able to talk about right now,” Long said.

“We think we’ve addressed it,” Long said of the recent problems. “And we’ll continue to address it. We are intensifying security with transportation and on site.”

Phil Harris, a Spokane County commissioner, said he’d like to assure the community that county officials are doing everything possible to make necessary changes, but sometimes things like this happen.

“I’m just thankful that they aren’t hard-core criminals,” he said.

After each escape or mistaken release, Geiger has made changes to address the problems.

Charles J. Johnson, 40, was mistakenly released in July because the filing system gave only the month and not the year of an inmate’s release, officials said. Authorities became aware Johnson had been released after a terrified ex-girlfriend received a two-word phone call from him saying “I’m out,” according to a previous Spokesman-Review article.

The filing system now includes the year, officials said.

In late August, an inmate used a kitchen mat to pad the razor wire fence topper and crawl over, Long said. Inmates no longer have access to items that would prevent injury while scaling razor wire, he said.

In late November, three men crawled under an area of fence that was apparently out of corrections officers’ view, Long said. The area is now off limits to inmates.

Harris defended Geiger’s record.

“When you look at the hundreds of thousands of prisoners that have been through there, the number of escapes is small,” Harris said.

“They aren’t acceptable, but they’re minimal,” he said. “When you are dealing with that many people I don’t think there’s any perfect way to prevent it. The embarrassment of it happening is enough to do something about it.”