Jail Oversight Board to investigate why high-ranking medical administrators keep quitting

When Janet Bunts was hired in August to be the new health services administrator at the Allegheny County Jail, she came to the position with 26 years in corrections.

She only lasted three months before she quit in November.

There’s a reason no one stays, Bunts said: “A lack of leadership, a lack of orienting new staff, a lack of willingness to change their old ways.”

The departure of Bunts and other high-ranking jail health care administrators in recent weeks led the Jail Oversight Board on Thursday to conduct exit interviews in hopes of gaining insight into the exodus.

“I believe it is our duty as a Jail Oversight Board to try to understand why it is so difficult to recruit and retain medical staff at the jail,” board member Terri Klein said. “I feel like the board needs information.”

She called the recent departure of Bunts, as well as a director of nursing and director of mental health, “troubling” and “worrisome.”

Friday was the last day for Michael Barfield, the jail’s director of mental health. He had worked there for 12 years and said he was leaving to return to working with kids like he had done earlier in his career.

Amie Downs, a spokeswoman for the county, said the director of nursing who recently left was terminated by the county. She could not say why.

Board member Bethany Hallam said that for the year she has been on the board, the explanation they get for the large turnover in medical staff is that “ ‘corrections isn’t for everyone. This is a field that’s tough.’ ”

But, with Bunts’ departure, Hallam said, that can’t be the reason.

“We’re finally seeing now — with folks who have been in corrections for their entire career — even they left the Allegheny County Jail,” Hallam said. “It’s important we find out what’s happening in the ACJ, uniquely, that’s not happening in other correctional facilities.

“If it’s that bad for the employees of the jail, imagine what it’s like for the people who are incarcerated there.”

In recent months, there have been two federal lawsuits filed against the jail alleging a lack of adequate mental health care, overuse of solitary confinement and excessive use of force.

Deputy County Manager Steve Pilarski said the administration remains fully confident in the jail’s leadership team.

“All of the staff at the facility are hardworking employees who function as a team, supporting each other and the jail’s operations,” he said in a written statement. “It’s unfortunate that an employee who was only there for such a short period of time would call that into question.”

Bunts worked for the federal Bureau of Prisons and was an associate warden at the Federal Correctional Insitution-McKean near Lewis Run, Pa .

When she was hired by the county, Bunts said, “they were happy I was coming with the experience I had.

“But, really, I was not allowed to use my expertise.”

When Bunts proposed making changes that would allow medical staff to be more efficient — for example to the pill line for inmates to receive their meds — she was met with resistance.

“It’s archaic the way they’re doing things,” she said.

In addition, Bunts said there was a huge problem with staff on the custody side of the jail undercutting the medical staff — including, she said, canceling outside medical specialty appointments inmates had scheduled.

“That is a problem,” she said. “Custody there has absolutely no respect for the medical staff. That’s part of the reason the medical staff leaves.”

In the intake unit, Bunts said, she saw such abusive language toward medical staffers that they quit that day.

“What the hell is going on down there?” she asked.

Bunts said she knew pretty quickly she was not going to be able to do what she thought she was hired for.

Because of the administration, she said, she was ineffective.

“I’ve turned around programs that were failing in the Bureau of Prisons in 90 days,” she said.

Specifically, Bunts said that Chief Deputy Warden Laura Williams, who has no background in medicine, would not allow her to do her job.

“She’s very micromanaging and controlling,” she said.

Williams declined to comment through the county spokeswoman.

During her short tenure, Bunts was able, she said, to hire 40 people. Still, she continued, the medical department had 40 vacancies.

Jail Oversight Board member Klein said the medical staff gets supplemented by people from an agency.

“But it’s better for everyone if we have people who are committed to working at the jail,” she said.

Bunts conducted interviews with medical staff to listen to their concerns and did a staff survey, which she said had never been done before. She also wanted to do one for inmates.

When Bunts would try to talk to the administration about making changes, she said she was told, “ ‘Well, this is the Allegheny County Jail. You’re going to need to understand there’s a way we do business. Things are different here.’ ”

Warden Orlando Harper said in a written statement that operations in a federal correctional facility are very different than a county jail.

“There are different approvals, funding mechanisms, laws and regulations in place that must be taken into consideration,” he said. “Changes to policies and processes must be done in consultation with the professionals who handle medical at the jail. We take and consider all recommendations that are made to us, but must do so with all of those differences in mind. While there may be good ideas proposed, changing things at the county jail to mirror operations at a federal facility is not always a good fit.”

But Bunts said there was a frustrating lack of regard for her expertise.

“Correctional medicine is not for everybody,” Bunts said. “I did it for 26 years. I know what it takes to be good. I know what it takes to go in and fix a facility.

“It’s going to take effective leadership to change that place. It’s going to take people that know corrections.”