Lackawanna County Prison Board hires internal investigator

Borys Krawczeniuk, The Times-Tribune, Scranton, Pa.
·2 min read
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Jul. 19—A former Scranton police officer will soon have a new beat: the Lackawanna County Prison.

The Prison Board voted 6-0 to hire Joseph Harris to the newly created job of internal investigator at its meeting Wednesday. His salary will be $70,000 a year, Warden Tim Betti said. Commissioner Debi Domenick was absent.

Betti said Harris will oversee "internal affairs," which means investigating allegations of wrongdoing by prison guards and other staff. He will also investigate allegations of inmate wrongdoing.

"He's going to do gang work, where he's identifying and verifying gang membership," Betti said. "And he's going to be working with various police agencies. We always have contact with police agencies, because, unfortunately, say we have two inmates get into a fight. If it raises to the level of a criminal offense of assault, we have to call in (police). Well, he's going to be our kind of point man on that situation."

The warden said he has sought to "beef up our investigatory abilities at the jail" for more than a year. Harris will not handle allegations of prison rapes or sexual assaults, he said. A staff member with specialized training will keep doing that, Betti said.

Harris is a former owner of Roll Call, a Scranton gun sales shop with a shooting range and training center.

In other business, the prison board:

—Promoted prison guard Glenn Capman to lieutenant. Board member and county Sheriff Mark McAndrew abstained, citing "my history" with Capman. In October 2019, a Pennsylvania Labor Relations Board hearing examiner found McAndrew retaliated against Capman for seeking higher pay for a temporary assignment by blocking his promotion and assigning him to midnight shifts. By the time the ruling came down, Capman had resigned to become a prison guard. In 2021, Capman ran unsuccessfully against McAndrew for sheriff. Capman's new salary was not immediately available.

—Voted to invest $874,901 in prison canteen money with the Pennsylvania Local Government Investment Trust for six months. The money will earn interest at an annual rate of 5.74%, said board member Gary DiBileo, the county controller.

Contact the writer: bkrawczeniuk@timesshamrock.com; 570-348-9147; @BorysBlogTT on Twitter.