JAIL OFFICIALS ARGUE that things have improved and will continue to get better at the juvenile facility. Steve Thompson, the county's Director of Adult and Juvenile Detention, says the system has responded to concerns of unfair discipline by creating a dual review process, with all investigations, findings, and disciplinary decisions screened both by an attorney from the prosecutor's office and by department officials. "It's a nice check and balance on a renegade manager," he says.
But the facility's troubles have proven resistant to management fixes. Arthur Wallenstein, Thompson's predecessor as director of the adult jail, says he thought Caldwell was a great choice to run the "troubled" juvenile facility. However, some jail employees were unimpressed by their new manager's criminal past—as a teenage gang member, Caldwell had been convicted of manslaughter and served five years in jail. Likewise, workers have noted that the charges against Caldwell, that he and other detention officials conspired to use an escape investigation to target employees unrelated to the incident, sound eerily familiar.
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They've also noted that former union president Winger (who is white) has risen quickly in the ranks despite the civil discrimination verdict (the county also paid the four workers a $390,000 settlement). Sims argues that Winger wasn't held personally responsible for the discrimination claim but took the blame as a member of the union's executive board. But court documents contradict the county executive's memory of the case: Winger was never removed as a party from the case and was held personally responsible for 10 percent of the damage award.
Winger was also personally implicated in the incident that triggered the suit: A female detention worker testified that Winger refused to accept her well-documented sexual harassment complaint against her supervisor. She said that Winger at first turned her away, then denied her union representation in pursuing the charges—while at the same time personally taking charge of the supervisor's defense.
Sims isn't the only reformer at work: Employees recently split from Local 2084 and created a new, independent juvenile detention workers union. Employees say the old union was too closely tied with management and they resented paying higher dues to pay off the discrimination judgment against Winger.
"What I want out of this is a healthy environment," says one longtime employee. "I don't want any gain out of this for myself.
"I just want to see the corruption done away with."
jbush@seattleweekly.com
