Correctional officers at the Eastern Correctional Institution have handed Warden Earl D. Beshears a vote of no confidence because of problems that they say have turned the prison near Salisbury into a "powder keg waiting to blow."
Carl McVeigh, staff representative of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, Council 92, said the unanimous no-confidence vote was taken at a union meeting Thursday night in Salisbury.
About 100 of the union's 250 ECI correctional officers represented by the union were at the meeting and voted, he said.
"The warden likes to say this prison is the largest community in Somerset County. Well if this is the largest community, that community's police force just said he can't handle it," McVeigh said.
But prison officials say the union -- which is negotiating with state officials for new correctional officer employee contracts -- is "giving out false information," needlessly scaring the community and putting inmates and officers at risk.
Pub Date: 8/10/97
