By RAELYNN RICARTE
News staff writer
April 1, 2008

Laura Pryor is redrawing the “fuzzy” lines of authority that led to a communications breakdown at the regional jail.

Pryor, the interim administrator, has asked the Northern Oregon Regional Correctional Facilities Board of Directors to clearly delineate the respective roles of employees and managers. She also wants to differentiate between the duties of the sheriff’s advisory board and NORCOR directors.

The group of elected officials from Hood River, Wasco, Sherman and Gilliam counties will tackle that challenge on Thursday. They meet at noon in the juvenile conference room at The Dalles jail, 211 Webber Road.

Pryor said, by state law, the sheriffs from the four counties are responsible for the welfare of jail inmates. The directors are tasked with setting the policy under which the facility operates.

“It’s sort of like the two sides of the door; one group deals with what’s going on inside and the other with everything on the outside,” she said.

Pryor, a retired Gilliam County judge who came onboard temporarily in December, has a clear goal in mind. She wants everything in order at NORCOR by the time the new administrator arrives. She has agreed to extend her stay from April 1 to a date uncertain.

Pryor said the top candidate from Arizona has undergone a psychological evaluation and background check. The information gathered by an Oregon State Patrol Trooper will be turned over to the NORCOR board for review on Thursday. She anticipates that a decision about his hiring will be made at the April 3 special meeting.

“As we began to figure out what the issues were, according to the people who work here, it all began to fall into place,” said Pryor.

The sheriff’s board interviewed 66 staffers at NORCOR after a spate of complaints was registered by employees with Hood River County Commission Chair Ron Rivers, a member of the NORCOR board. The documentation from the interviews was turned over to Wasco County District Attorney Eric Nisley, who determined that no prosecutable crimes had been committed.

Pryor said 13 out of 18 outstanding issues identified in the interviews could have been prevented if established policies and procedures had been followed.

She said the top five issues related by employees included:

• Liberal use among some staffers and supervisors of sexually explicit, discourteous or profane language.

• Inconsistent application of rules and/or policies that allowed some employees to be treated differently than others.

• No follow-through on issues or problems as identified in the personnel manual.

• Overtime treated as a “favoritism” reward in some cases. Other workers reported a lack of patience, low energy and frustration tied to too many hours on the job. One NORCOR employee racked up almost 700 hours of overtime in six months and another compiled 346 hours during the same time period.

• Cash not being correctly applied to inmate accounts during the booking process, which led to conflicts between inmates and staffers.

Pryor said the juvenile facility has operated without direction by an administrator since NORCOR opened its doors in 1999. And the adult operation has not had an administrator at the helm for the past two years.

“We had more problems reported about the juvenile side of things than the adult side – which makes sense when there is a complete lack of leadership,” said Pryor.

Pryor said the sheriff’s board has recommended change in eight areas to resolve outstanding personnel issues. Their proposal includes re-assessing and re-writing job descriptions, bringing personnel reviews current, and scheduling regular meetings between the sheriffs and NORCOR managers.

Capt. Larry Lindhorst, who oversees the adult facility, and Jeff Justesen, who supervises the juvenile side, will meet independently with the sheriff’s board. Both of these individuals were named in numerous employee complaints.

The sheriffs want to discuss “exactly what the expectation is” for Lindhorst and Justesen as leaders. They will then be given regular personnel reviews and a “plan of assistance will be developed for areas of identified deficiency.”

Pryor said a system is now in place to properly maintain records and documents. She said every employee will be asked to sign an agreement that they will live up to code of conduct policies.

“They need to be reminded that the people of these four small counties are paying for, and putting their trust in, the employees of these facilities,” wrote Pryor in her March report to the NORCOR board.

“They (citizens) deserve a facility of excellence, staffed with honor and diligence. The expectation is also that the NORCOR employee will not degrade to the level of the most common denominator.”

She said each employee must also sign a letter stating that they know, or have access to, NORCOR’s Policies and Procedures Manual and a union contract. By doing so, she said they are acknowledging there is an avenue for them to seek redress for negative actions taken by management and to raise issues and problems.

“Have mistakes been made? Yes. Were they criminal? No. If someone is bent on fixing blame there is enough to go around, place it where you will,” wrote Pryor in her March report.