Times Chronicle & Public Spirit
Warden retires after 45-year public safety career
LOWER PROVIDENCE » After a more than a four-decade career in corrections, Julio M. Algarin retired on Friday as warden at the Montgomery County Correctional Facility, leaving a legacy of dedicated service and commitment to public safety.
“After 45 years, I think it’s time to move over and let fresh blood come in. I will miss everyone. I will miss it dearly,” said Algarin, who stepped down from the job on Friday after working for the county for more than 45 years, the last 15 as warden.
“I have to say ‘thank you’ to the people who have been working alongside of me and those people who work here every day. I salute them, I take my hat off to them and I wish them the best,” Algarin humbly added.
Expressing their appreciation, law enforcement colleagues recently surprised the 70-year-old warden with a special emergency vehicle escort on one of his last commutes to work at the Lower Providence jail.
“I was overwhelmed,” Algarin said.
Algarin, of Lower Pottsgrove, began his career with the county in 1974 as a correctional officer when the jail was located on Airy Street, across the street from the courthouse in Norristown. Algarin rose through the ranks as corporal, sergeant, lieutenant, captain, assistant warden and deputy warden before being appointed warden in 2005, succeeding then retiring warden Lawrence Roth Jr.
Algarin, a Marine Corps veteran who served during the Vietnam War, initially dreamed of being a police officer in New York City but a hiring freeze there prevented that dream from coming to fruition. During a subsequent visit to the home of his parents in Pennsylvania Algarin saw a newspaper employment ad for a prison guard, answered it and the rest is history.
“I stayed in corrections. I rose up the ranks,” Algarin said proudly. “It was challenging and it was on the cusp of changing, that’s what interested me the most. I have to give credit to Warden Roth, my predecessor, who gave me the opportunity to make some changes and free reign to do it.”
Algarin, who obtained a degree in criminal justice from the Montgomery County Community College, has seen a lot of changes in the field of corrections during his tenure.
When Algarin began as a correctional officer, the Airy Street jail held about 300 inmates. The current jail in Lower Providence, which opened in 1986, has housed, at times, more than 1,300 inmates.
Algarin oversaw a $23.5 million renovation and expansion to the jail in 2011, a minimum-security 512-bed addition for non-violent offenders that relieved then overcrowded conditions at the jail.
During his career, Algarin said he was provided an opportunity to develop ideas and implement new programs and he was particularly interested in programs regarding the treatment of inmates and finding solutions to deal with the changing inmate population.
Algarin oversaw the development of technological advances including a camera monitoring system at the jail to protect inmates and staff, improved phone services for inmates and recreational programs for inmates.
“Technology-wise I think we are a very progressive county,” Algarin said.
“I feel more proud of opening the doors of the jail to outside groups that can assist the inmates and the operations - churches, social service agencies and counseling. We’ve done that,” Algarin added. “We’ve introduced and instituted great cooperation with the courts - mental health court, drug court and veterans’ court. We have a medical assistance program for drug addiction in the prison.
“I believe in technology and I believe in the fair treatment of inmates. You need to have compassion and I strongly believed in my staff. I think they do a great job,” Algarin continued.
Of course a job as a correctional officer and warden is not without its dangers.
“It was dangerous, at times. I experienced a lot of things that were very dangerous,” said Algarin, recalling being assaulted and being the target of a death plot by some inmates in the 1970s and 1980s. “I was almost thrown off the second floor of the old prison by an inmate. Anything that could happen in a prison, from hunger strikes to work stoppages, to assaults on staff and on me personally, unfortunately, throughout my career I did experience it.”
But the danger didn’t deter Algarin from his calling, a career in public safety.
“I think it made me more determined to continue and to affect change and I hope that I have done that in my 45 years, that I’ve affected change,” Algarin said.
Algarin expressed gratitude to the judges, court administrators, the county commissioners and the district attorney’s office for their assistance over the years.
“I was blessed to have their support,” Algarin said. “I have to really thank our judges and our commissioners because they are so progressive.”
Last month, the jail received its fourth accreditation certificate from the National Commission on Correctional Healthcare for compliance with the commission’s standards for health services in jails.
“The work that the MCCF staff under the helm of Warden Julio Algarin has done over the years to keep our inmates as healthy as possible, and more recently to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in the prison, has been extraordinary in keeping the case count low,” county Commissioners’ Chairwoman Dr. Valerie Arkoosh said last month.
“We thank him for his dedicated service and we will miss his leadership and commitment to the public health and safety.”
Algarin played a critical role in putting protocols in place to address the budding coronavirus epidemic.
The jail operates a 24/7 on-site medical department, which performs a preliminary health assessment of each new incarcerated individual arriving at the facility. If the person needs medical attention, they are immediately referred for treatment. The policy also includes testing newly incarcerated people for COVID-19 and isolating them until they test negative for the virus. All incarcerated individuals are given the same level of care and access to COVID-19 testing.
“Our responsibility is to provide the best healthcare possible to people within our custody,” Algarin said.
While jail administrators have had to respond to viruses such as H1N1 at the facility in the past, the COVID-19 virus, Algarin said, “was very, very challenging both for the staff and the inmates.”
“You try to mitigate. In a closed environment how are you going to stop this, how are you going to prevent its spread? We came up with a lot of things that I think were creative and necessary. It has been challenging,” Algarin said.
When the pandemic struck in March, the jail’s administration began taking measures to meet state and federal COVID-19 guidelines and reduce the virus’ spread. Under a judicial emergency, the prison population was reduced. The reductions were achieved by the courts through a combination of early parole for eligible inmates, electronic monitoring for work-release inmates, expediting administrative dispositions for probation violations and deferral of weekend sentences for nonviolent inmates.
Since the emergency judicial order was enacted, the prison population was reduced from 1,342 last March to 825 in December.
Ongoing efforts as part of the jail’s pandemic plan have helped protect the prison population and staff from large outbreaks of COVID-19, officials have said.
His success, Algarin said, is also the result of the love and support of his family, a wife, “two wonderful daughters, two great sonsin-laws” and four grandchildren.
“My family is very supportive, my wife, especially. When that phone rings at 2 o’clock in the morning she never complained. When I had to go to work and miss a family function, she was supportive. I love her dearly for that,” Algarin said.
Deputy Warden Sean McGee has been appointed to replace Algarin as warden.
“He’s a gentleman,” Algarin said about McGee, expressing confidence in McGee’s taking over the helm at the jail.