Employee who told of broken cell locks claims retribution
1720 S. Mesa Drive • Mesa
The corrections officer who prompted a statewide investigation by exposing broken cell locks at Arizona prisons said Tuesday coming forward had taken a toll on her professionally, resulting in a lost week of pay and a missed promotion.
But Sergeant Gabriela Contreras said she did not regret her decision to download and leak videos of attacks related to broken locks at Lewis Prison, saying her conscience wouldn’t allow her to stay silent.
“I think law enforcement is about having integrity and good ethics,” she said during a news conference in Phoenix. “I don’t think (the Department of Corrections could) ever give me enough money to say, ‘Hey, just allow people to get killed every day and just be quiet about it.’ I don’t think that I could ever do that.”
A Corrections spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment regarding Contreras’ retribution claims. On Friday, Corrections Director Charles Ryan had issued a statement saying retaliation against officers who reported problems was “not acceptable.”
“Our officers and personnel should never be afraid to raise concerns, and when they do, we want them addressed,” Ryan said.
Contreras said she first escalated complaints to supervisors about broken cell-door locks, dangerously low staffing and “other security breaches” last fall, after documenting the issues several times.
She said her unit was experiencing up to a dozen “Incident Command System” situations a day related to inmates leaving their cells without permission. An “ICS” is an incident or emergency that requires officers to request immediate backup.
“Nothing was done,” Contreras said. Because her unit had low staffing levels, “our administration was basically like … ‘We want you guys to continue your feeding, continue your recreation. We’ll deal with (roving inmates) later.’”
After running her concerns up the ladder didn’t work, Contreras downloaded and shared videos illustrating lock-related assaults with ABC15.
She said Corrections leaders found out she had downloaded the footage before reporters published it.
Her supervisor “tried to intimidate me and tried to make it seem like I was a criminal, that (officials) could press charges on me for getting this evidence out there or obtaining it and having it in my possession,” she said.
She also lost 40 hours of compensation when higher-ups forced her to take a week of unpaid leave and did not get a promotion she was anticipating, which the corrections-officers union described as clear acts of retaliation.
Contreras said supervisors “never addressed what was on the video, as far as the inmates actually being able to come out of their cells” in their conversations with her.
After ABC15 aired the security tapes, the ensuing backlash resulted in a call for Ryan’s resignation as director and a third-party investigation into security issues at state prisons.
Gov. Doug Ducey responded to those calls by recruiting two former state Supreme Court justices to launch an investigation. As of Tuesday, Ryan remained in charge of the department.
“The justices’ independent investigation will review security issues occurring at Lewis Prison and other state prisons,” Governor’s Office spokesman Patrick Ptak said, including “events contributing to these issues, actions taken by Corrections, incidents of assaults on inmates or staff and more,”
Representatives from both the corrections-officers union and an inmatesrights group, who appeared Tuesday alongside Contreras, were nonetheless unimpressed by what they viewed as a sluggish response to a problem the state had known about since the 1980s.
They said the scope and deadline for the investigation were unclear and demanded more comprehensive updates from the investigative and emergencymanagement teams.