New interim warden named for Delaware County prison
The Delaware County Jail Oversight Board appointed Esker “Lee” Tatum as the new Interim Warden of the George W. Hill Correctional Facility during a regular meeting Wednesday night.
“I appreciate the opportunity to contribute to this effort,” Tatum said during a Zoom conference meeting. “I think that we have a strong cornerstone here to work from. We can build here. Obviously there are some improvements that are needed at the facility, but I see that some of those things are going to be on the agenda when we transition from privatization to government control. I’m here to help in any way I can.”
Tatum replaces Donna Mellon, who retired Dec. 17 but has stayed on in a parttime capacity to provide administrative support, and is the first African American to take on the role. He has more than 25 years of experience in corrections, including a year and a half with the Geo Group, the private, for-profit company that manages the county prison in Concord under a five-year, $264 million contract.
Tatum, a graduate of the University of Greensboro, N.C., and a U.S. Air Force veteran, has previously worked in administrative positions in Philadelphia, his native New Jersey, and in Berlin, New Hampshire, where he was warden of a federal correctional institution. He is the former deputy facility administrator for the prison under Geo.
Delaware County Executive Director George Lazarus said he hopes to bring a contract with a recruitment company before county council within the next couple of meetings to begin searching for a permanent warden and some other positions at the prison. He added that Tatum has a calm demeanor and the “heart of a true public servant,” and would not be precluded from being a strong candidate for the job.
“I look forward to this challenge and bringing to bear some of the experiences that I’ve had,” said Tatum. “The cornerstones that I’ll be practicing, that I bring from the Bureau of Prisons and Geo, will be correctional excellence, respect and integrity. I think if you have those three things, anything else is possible.”
Tatum is expected to help transition the prison from private management to county control over the coming months. Majid Alsayegh, principal at Alta Management, LLC, which is providing owner representative services to the county as part of that transition, was also in Wednesday’s call and said he has already been meeting with various stakeholders.
Alsayegh said he would continue those meetings while continuing to the collect data necessary for a financial assessment and would be working with county on how to take the next steps.
Jail Oversight Board Chair and county Councilman Kevin Madden said it is the county’s goal to reduce the prison population through programs and services that reduce recidivism, which improves the heath of the community, the individual and their family, as well as the county’s tax burden.
One of Tatum’s first official duties was reading off staff penalties for Geo in December, which he said came to $202,890. The penalties are based on the number of posts not filled under the contract and typically hover around $100,000 per month.
Tatum said the official staffing rate at the prison is 95%, but absences due to things like COVID-19 and the Family Medical Leave Act brought the effective staffing rate down to 84% for December. There were 42 staff members out on some sort of leave during the month, he said, but 35 of those have returned. Six are still out with one testing positive for coronavirus and the others are awaiting test results.
Though the numbers were high for December, Tatum said he expects they will wane in the next few months. As of Dec. 31, he said there are no known infections among the prison population, though 25 had tested positive and recovered between Nov. 13 and the end of the year.
Tatum additionally reported that a 20-year-old man hanged himself at the prison last month. Staff members cut him down and begin life-saving procedures before a medical team that happened to be on the same block took over, he said. The man succumbed to his injuries and the family was notified, said Tatum.
Staff was able to intervene in time in a second suicide attempt involving a 22-year-old man, Tatum said. In that case, staff again cut the man down and provided assistance before medical took over. That man was transported to a hospital where he was stabilized before being returned to the prison and placed on suicide watch, Tatum said.