Published: October 26, 2009 11:51 pm      

Prison tactical teams charged with bringing end to hostility

Sheriff’s Office unit trains with team from federal lockup

CUMBERLAND — “Give them a chance to get in a cell,” said the incident commander from the Federal Correctional Institution during a training exercise.

It’s the one chance they get. Otherwise, he said, “it’s on.” And chances are, the inmate, in a hostile situation inside one of the area’s federal prisons, is going to become intimate with the cement floor until officers bring an end to the danger.

Several members of the institution’s tactical team participated in a joint training exercise early Monday with their counterparts from the Allegany County Sheriff’s Office. The training took place in D block of the Allegany County Detention Center located along U.S. Route 220 a few miles south of Cumberland.

Officers from the two agencies rarely train together. Tactical team commander Cpl. Jon Serritt said in the current budget crunch, it is “a very cost-effective way to do training.”

On Monday, the teams’ drills focused on clearing a cell that had been taken over by inmates. The tactical team swept into a room and loudly announced its presence with a simple request: “Get back into your cell!”

Under the presumption that order would have little effect, a tight-knit band of officers began to clear the lower floor of the two-level cell block as other team members stood by, alert and ready to assist. With the first floor cleared, or safe, team members made their way upstairs, securing each cell they passed while working the room from left to right.

Serritt said working with the federal corrections officers offered his eight team members, half of whom are fairly new, a good opportunity for them to see how teams work in conjunction with each other.

The federal officers also have access to different tools and equipment, Serritt said, which better allow them to move methodically and safely from one area of a cell block to another as a team.

“We get to see some of the different types of apparatus, weapons (and) tactics they use,” said Lt. Daniel Lasher, director of security for the detention center. The federal officers, he said, are “extremely well-trained.”

The joint training exercise comes at a time when the staff at the detention center is continuing a transition of events inside the facility that could involve a large number of inmates.

At the old county jail, inmates were kept in groups of 12 or less. Now, open cell blocks with certain populations of the facility allow up to 60 in the same room. Under a “direction supervision” met-hod, correctional officers supervise an area without partitions or other obstacles between them and inmates.

Overall, Lasher said, “it’s a very clean operation. It’s kept a lot of problems down.”

It also has changed the nature of the officers’ training. It’s possible such an exercise could result in a professional relationship between the two agencies, Serritt said. If not, the training still proved useful as county officers were able to put hands on the better federal equipment. That information will be valuable as the county team hopes grants will allow its members to upgrade their equipment.

“They know what works and what doesn’t,” Serritt said.

Contact Kevin Spradlin at kspradlin@times-news.com.