Murphy – Following a year-long investigation regarding allegations of civil rights violations at the Cherokee County Detention Center, federal authorities determined that no criminal acts occurred.
“Barring any new credible facts coming to light, we have determined that there are no prosecutable federal offenses,” U.S. Attorney R. Andrew Murray wrote in a letter to area District Attorney Ashley Welch. “Therefore, we have closed this investigation.”
In fall 2019, the U.S. Attorney’s Office and Federal Bureau of Investigation began investigating the local jail regarding allegations of civil rights violations following the firing of former detention officers Wesley Gage Killian and Joshua Gunter, both of whom were involved in an altercation with an inmate.
The letter to Welch, dated Oct. 6, says federal authorities conducted an extensive investigation concerning possible deprivations of civil rights at the jail, which included “a large number of personal interviews and the examination of numerous records.” The letter does not detail the scope of the investigation, nor does it mention Killian or Gunter by name. However, Sheriff Derrick Palmer said he asked Welch and state authorities to investigate actions at the detention center dating back to when he was first elected.
“There were allegations from all the way back in 2017, when the guy tried to hurt himself and detention officers handcuffed him to a drain, plus the jail death that happened in July 2018,” Palmer said. “My formal request was to go back to 2014, when I was elected, and investigate any allegations that came up. I contacted District Attorney Ashley Welch and asked her if I needed to do separate requests for every allegation, and her response was, ‘No, we’ll just cover it all in one big investigation and let them see what they dig up.’ ”
Welch declined to comment on the investigation and the letter she received from the U.S Attorney’s Office when contacted by the Cherokee Scout on Monday afternoon.
“It’s good to know that we didn’t have officers who were abusing people,” Palmer said. “Hopefully, we can lay that chapter to bed, put that behind us and move on with our new administration.”
Today, the culture at the jail is nothing like what took place in 2017 and 2018. In
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fact, over the last year, the Scout has received letters from at least two inmates who lauded the jail administration staff for their professionalism and concern.
In addition, NCWorks praised the detention center staff earlier this year for their role in helping inmates re-acclimate to society. From June-September 2019, NCWorks Tri-County ranked No. 1 in the state for delivery of justice-involved services to individuals as a result of its partnership with the Cherokee County Detention Center, according to documentation obtained by the Scout.
NCWorks presented a letter touting the accomplishment to jail staff earlier this year. The Scout has tried to speak with an NCWorks representative numerous times since learning about this in March but was told no one is available for an interview due to a backlog of unemployment claims resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.
The jail administrator, Major Shon Crisp, said the partnership with NCWorks helps increase an inmate’s mental confidence to overcome barriers that keep them from obtaining employment upon release from custody.
“We don’t want to keep seeing [the same inmates] over and over again; that’s why we brought all these services in for them,” Crisp said. “We want them to turn things around, go back out there and serve the community. Do something positive.”
Palmer recruited Crisp, who brought along several detention officers from other counties, in December 2018 and gave them a mandate to change the jail’s culture.
“When I came in as sheriff in 2014, I still had a lot of employees who were retained from the previous administration,” Palmer said. “There was a lot of that culture from the previous administration still in the detention center. I talked to Shon about changing the perception and the culture of the center itself, changing the way we do things and the way we approach the inmates.”
Crisp said his first initiative was to create a culture where inmates were treated like human beings.
“When we first got here, there was a culture of looking down on the inmates,” he said. “The respect level just wasn’t there between the officers and the inmates.”
In addition to helping Palmer implement the NCWorks program, which was in motion prior to Crisp’s recruitment, the detention center staff gave inmates a voice and encouraged them to express concerns and complaints. Crisp and jail staff also established a daily routine of duties in service to inmates.
“You’d think inmates come from chaos and that’s what they would like, but they want structure,” Crisp said. “Establishing consistently for each shift was huge.”
Crisp also hired a new food service company after realizing the previous vendor was shorting inmates’ calorie counts with each meal. Officials say previous vendors would shave off small portions of each meal throughout the day, which would add up to a loss of about 1,000 calories per day.
“Sometimes they were supposed to get a 4-ounce piece of meat, but it would weigh 3 ounces,” Capt. Marty White said.
The new jail administration also organized a better recovery peer support group and increased the amount of times inmates attend ministry activities each month.
“A lot of these types of assistance services were happening with the prior jail administration, but weren’t taking place on a consistent level,” Palmer said. “Shon and Marty brought consistency to the table. Consistency has helped bring down levels of anxiety among the inmates. When you calm down inmates on a personal level and treat them like human beings, you lessen the fights, attacks on officers and all the other trouble.
“It doesn’t stop it all. People are still going to get frustrated, break sprinkler heads or flush bedsheets, but I have noticed that those types of things happen a lot less since Shon and Marty took over. It’s not that they’re non-existent, but those occurrences have gone way down because inmates are not as anxious and upset as they were before.”