By KEVIN NEVERS

Seven officers of the Porter County Jail are facing discipline for the “unauthorized and non-emergency” use of the intercom system in the cell of two female inmates, Sheriff Dave Lain said.

That’s the upshot of the Jail Command Staff’s investigation of an impropriety alleged by another inmate, Lain told the Chesterton Tribune today.

During the course of that investigation, rumors had surfaced of jail officers’ possibly watching the two female inmates as they undressed, Lain said. Those rumors are absolutely false, he emphasized, and the inmate who originally reported the impropriety did not herself make that allegation.

“When we first heard of this,” Lain said, “we were concerned by allegations of inappropriate viewing, of stripping. We were unable to substantiate that. Both of the inmates and the jail staff denied it. We were unable to find any evidence of that occurring.”

What did occur is this, Lain said. For a period of around two weeks, beginning on March 26, jail officers on occasion communicated with the two inmates by means of the intercom placed in their cell. “The nature of the conversations appears to have been casual and flirtatious,” he said. Most of the conversations were of very short duration, although one may have lasted as long as 15 minutes and in a couple of cases jail officers seem to have piped music into the inmates’ cell.

The intercom system is intended only for emergencies, Lain said, so the jail officers’ use of it in these circumstances constitutes a violation of the PCJ’s Rules and Regulations. As many as seven jail officers could receive some sort of discipline—from a letter of reprimand to a suspension—for their role in the violation, either actually using the intercom without authorization or knowing of its use and not reporting it to their superiors, he said.

No jail officer was relieved of his duties during the course of the investigation, Lain said.

“We learned pretty early on that there was no physical contact, only the unauthorized use of equipment,” Lain added. “And no one has alleged that there were any promises, coercions, requests made either by the two inmates or by jail officers. This is not a case where somebody was trying to get something from somebody else, in either direction.”

Lain did chide the press a bit for scurrying after rumors. “That’s how the whole thing went down the path it did,” he said. “The more I heard about this, the more I realized that when people on the outside read about it, they’d go ‘So what?’ But obviously any inappropriate conversation is a violation of our rules and we expect our staff to abide by those rules. We look at violations very seriously. This is something we do not condone.”

“I’m glad it wasn’t more serious than it was but we take everything seriously,” Lain added. “We’re proud of the professionalism of our staff and this is not a reflection on the other jail officers.”

Posted 4/16/2008