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FBA Interviews Albany County Jail Superintendent Thomas Wigger

Q: What is the difference between a Warden and a Superintendent of a jail? "Basically it's the same thing. The term 'warden' is the older terminology. Same thing with 'guard'-'correction officer' has become much more professional. We see a much more educated CO today, and more into their job." Q: What are your responsibilities? "To oversee the daily operations of the correctional facility. To provide care, custody, and control to the inmate population. To ensure staff are following rules, regulations, and general orders. To report to the Under Sheriff and Sheriff on a regular basis as to the overall operation."

Superintendent Thomas Wigger discusses the operations of the Albany County Correctional Facility with FBA founder Ray Feliciano. (Photo - Kimberly Feliciano)

Q: Do correction officers undergo special training?
“That is correct. Within one year of employment, CO’s are required to attend a basic academy that is governed by the NY State Commission of Corrections. This is a 4-week program, and we administer it here at the facility. They are also required to go through a 6-week OJT-on the job training-where they are literally assigned to each and every position, each and every shift, to understand the overall working operation. Then they are required to complete a 48-hour fire arms training program as well.”

Q: What are the qualifications to be a CO?
“They must be at least 21 years of age, a resident of Albany County for at least one month immediately preceding exam date, must possess a valid NY State driver’s license, and have a high school diploma or GED certification.”

Q: What is the inmate capacity of the jail?
“The capacity is 1,035. Today our actual count is 726. We try to operate with an 80% of maximum capacity for classification purposes.”

Q: You can control the capacity? Isn’t it the courts?
“It is. Sometimes we have no control over that number, but other times we do. We can monitor the number of boarders that we have. Today we have about 110 ‘boarders’ (inmates from another jurisdiction where they are overcrowded), so if our count got very high where it was unmanageable, and we couldn’t stay within our classification standards, we would send some of the boarders back to their home county. Right now we have boarders from the counties of Rensselaer, Suffolk (out on Long Island), Greene, Schenectady, and we have a contract with the federal government to house federal inmates.”

Q: Do you ever bring in ‘boarders’ to meet a certain minimum occupancy?
“No, we would not do that. The only requirement we have with boarders right now is we do have a contract with the federal government. We are obligated to house 30 of their inmates on a daily basis. But typically we are over that number. Last year in our budget proposal for 2004, we budgeted $3.3 million in boarder revenue. We actually came in at $6.3 million, so we were $3 million over budget which was a benefit to the county. We try to offset our expenses through that boarder program, and that program has been instituted since Sheriff Campbell came on in 1990, and we’ve generated well over $60 million in boarder revenue, which offsets many of the expenses throughout Albany County.”

Q: Boarders help offset the cost of the facility?
“That’s correct. Our operating budget for 2005 is well over $35 million. Our boarder revenue projection this year is $4.1 million, so we’d offset our budget 12%.”

Q: What is the cost per inmate per year?
“Basically it’s about $60 a day to house a prisoner here. Our boarder per diem rates now are $100 a day from other counties and $91.53 a day from the federal government. Our cost is about $60 a day per inmate.”

Q: What is the ratio of male to female prisoners?
“Typically the population is 90% male, 10% female. Today, the number is 726 total inmates with 78 females.”

Q: Are females treated any differently?
“They are not. They are governed by the same rules and regulations. We do provide pregnant females with a separate housing area.”

Q: How many prisoners are held temporarily awaiting transfer or trial?
“Typically about 70% of our inmates are unsentenced, meaning awaiting further court action. 30% are sentenced inmates-meaning they could be sentenced for county time (one year for each charge) or state time (a year plus). So about 30% of sentenced inmates are awaiting transport or doing time in the facility.”

Q: They can have sentences over a year here?
“If you get sentenced on two separate charges, you could literally do a year back to back here.”

Q: How many are nonviolent drug offenders?
“That’s very difficult to say, but I would dare to say probably somewhere in the neighborhood of 70% are either alcohol or drug-related in some way.”

Q: What is the daily routine for a prisoner?
“At 7:00am their gate is open. Between 7:15 and 7:30 breakfast is served. If they are called to court they are booked about 8:00. Other than that, they are allowed to commingle with other inmates, unless there is a disciplinary problem. They can play cards, watch TV, go to programs. We do have about 22 programs here at the facility. We run a school here, so if they are under 21 they can attend school. We are obligated to provide school for the inmates. The South Colonie School District has a presence here. They contract out with the Albany City School District. On average, we hand out about 60 GED diplomas per year. So, they may go to programs throughout the day, and at around 11:00 lunch is served. Right after lunch they have recreation for an hour. They might go out and play basketball, volleyball, handball. They come in at 2:00 and there is a lock-down period where they are locked in their cells for a shift change. In the evening dinner is served around 4:00. After dinner they can commingle again. They are locked in at 10:00 for the night.”

Q: Is there weightlifting?
“We used to have weights here-free weights and universals. We have stopped that. The inmates used to get too bulked up, and we didn’t think it was a very good practice, so we have eliminated weights. They play basketball, volleyball, hand ball, and they have chin-up bars.”

Q: What is the routine when prisoners first arrive?
“They can be locked in for up to five business days. This period is what we call our ‘classification status’. Inmates are assigned a counselor, tested for various things, such as TB. They are basically isolated for 23-48 hours so we can do backgrounds, classification, medical testing. They are let out an hour to shower and make phone calls.”

Q: Is that correct that this five-day period is shorter than the required standard?
“Well, the NY State Commission of Corrections, our watchdog agency, calls for an inmate to get a physical examination from a medical doctor or physician assistant within 14 days. We do it within 5 days, and that is a standard that we think is very, very appropriate and necessary.”

Q: What is the procedure for reporting medical issues?
“When they first arrive, right after the booking process, they are immediately screened by the medical dept. If they have any medical concern and drugs to be made aware, that is where this is discussed. If during the course of an inmate’s stay, he or she feels the need to see a doctor they fill out a doctor’s request. Nurses are on the tiers at least three times a day, so they hand the slip to a nurse, and the slips are triaged by the medical dept for the most serious. Inmates are seen within 24 hours of presenting a medical slip.”

Q: What is the procedure for receiving visitors?
“Inmates are permitted two contact visits per week, Thursday through Sunday, and we vary the schedule. In other words, we would not make an inmate have a visitor on a Thursday and Friday because possibly family members could not get out here. A Thursday and Saturday or Friday and Sunday is typical. This way, inmates and their family have much more of an opportunity to visit.”

Q: How do you screen before/after the visitation period?
“When the inmate is called down for the visit, he/she enters the visit area and is pat-searched by correction officers, then granted the visit. Upon leaving, the inmate is stripped search by correction officers.” During the tour we were told they do not perform cavity searches for visits.

Q: Do you think programs like ‘Scared Straight’ would be effective if implemented?
“Yes. We ran a program called “Just Another Inmate’s Life”. We’d bring people in, and we’d actually go to schools. It was like a DARE program, but we’d bring the program to schools-contraband issues, and what jail life was all about. It did seem very successful.”

Q: Sheriff Campbell told us in an interview that it was stopped due to liability danger to the students. Do you believe it could be handled responsibly?
“Well, liability issues are very important to us. Depending on the age, we’d definitely want parent intervention. The other part that we were concentrating so much on was our staff needs. It became difficult to fit these programs in. There is so much mandated training here on an ongoing regular basis, and it was interfering with a lot of mandates, so we had to put it aside.”

Q: Has anyone ever escaped the jail?
“Sad to say, yes. I don’t like talking about that. I’m not sure of the year, I think the gentleman’s name was Hodge. He was out about six days until captured.”

Q: How closely do you work with Albany County Sheriff James Campbell?
“Very, very close. I deal with the Sheriff on a daily basis, in person or via telephone. I would say that he and I have conversation at least three or four times a day. If there are some issues that need his attention right away I speak to him as necessary.”

Q: How often does the jail hire?
“It depends on our needs. Right now we are going to hire additional staff members on March 4th. But typically, 2-3 times a year we put a good bit of correction officers on. It depends if there is an eligibility list at the Albany County Civil Service. Our total staff right now is 420, and of that there are 300 correction officers, 40 correctional supervisors, and the remainder are support staff-including medical, business office, food service, and maintenance. They are all very important to the operation. One would not survive without the other. If there was an issue with our food service staff, the rest of our facility would be in trouble. As we like to say here, ‘As long as the inmates have their food, their mail, and their visits, we have a pretty good day.’”

Q: Is there rehabilitation job training for inmates?
“We had explored that, but because the average stay of inmate is about 40 days, it’s very difficult to get programs where you get people involved and situated.”

Q: Do you work with the juvenile facility next door?
“We really have no contact with that facility. To be committed here you have to be at least 16.”

Q: Are those who go to school for their GED in here longer than 40 days?
“Typically they are, but a lot of times they will start the program here and finish it on the outside. Or, they had started it and will continue it here. We can pick up throughout the course as well.”

Q: Is there anything you think the public should know about the jail or your job?
“It’s a very interesting and rewarding job. I’m very proud of the staff here. In 2004 we received accreditation from the NY State Sheriff’s Association, which is a very big honor. Also, a well-received accreditation from the National Commission of Correctional Healthcare. Most facilities that go through that for the first time are not granted it. We were granted that, so again, I’m just very, very proud of the staff and what they do here. It is not an easy job to come in day and night and supervise. It’s very stressful. Our staff do a very fine job. I recognize that.”

Q: You’ve been here since 1979?
“I’ve been with the department since 1979. I got quite a track record. I started as a Deputy Sheriff in ’79, came out here as a Correction Officer in 1980, went downtown in Personnel in the Sheriff’s department in 1986, came back here in ’91 as the Assistant Superintendent, in 2000 I was the First Assistant Superintendent, and then in October of 2000 I became Superintendent. I’ve seen a lot of different aspects of the department, but this is where I’m most comfortable, right here.”

Additional Facts for Albany County Jail

• This past year, the Office of Professional Standards has found the prison in compliance with all 36 standards to be met.
• In January of 2000, the prison outsourced its medical services to Prison Health Services, which was recently cited for providing substandard healthcare. However, in 2003, PHS wanted to increase their fees by 50%, so the prison switched to Correctional Medical Services, with which they are very happy.
• Prisoners are not tested for HIV/AIDS unless the prisoner or court requests it.
• CO Sgt. Robert Griffin Jr. recently awarded the Purple Heart while fighting in Iraq.

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