DV Journal

(This article first appeared in Broad + Liberty)

A prison employee at the Delaware County prison is currently under investigation for smuggling contraband into the facility, but the same employee also served time in the county in the 1990s for felony charges for the manufacture or possession of controlled substances.

When asked about the incident, the county says it now has a “second chance” policy where it will hire felons to work at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility provided the person’s criminal behavior is far enough in the past.

Broad + Liberty obtained a copy of a “serious incident report” showing that prison officials stopped Roger Prattis “based on intelligence suggesting he was introducing contraband into the facility.”

The incident report notes that investigators claim to have found a “Ziplock bag containing loose cigarettes,” and a search of Prattis’s car yielded other items that investigators are still researching. For example, the report said it found a “heavily stained sheet of paper found in a folder the employee brought into the facility[.]” Drugs can sometimes be smuggled into a prison by soaking the substance into paper where it can later be smoked or ingested orally.

A court document indicates law enforcement officials charged Prattis for the possession or manufacture of drugs in 1993. He entered a guilty plea and was sentenced in January of 1994 to a minimum of three months or a maximum of 23 months.

The county will soon be marking the third anniversary of the government taking back management of the GWHCF after the prison was run by private contractors for almost three decades.

In a statement from a spokesperson, the county said it is open to hiring persons with criminal records, even when that person is applying to work at the prison.

“Mr. Prattis, who was hired as a laundry technician on July 25, 2024, disclosed his prior conviction from the 1990s during our comprehensive hiring process. His employment was granted based on a thorough evaluation of his rehabilitation and the absence of continued criminal behavior over the last three decades,” the spokesperson said. “Delaware County does not have a policy of categorically excluding individuals with past felony convictions from employment because we believe in rehabilitation and providing second chances, which aligns with our broader commitment to support reintegration of formerly incarcerated individuals into the community.

“The incident on December 19, 2024, in which contraband was allegedly introduced into GWH, is currently under rigorous investigation. We take such incidents seriously and are dedicated to maintaining the security and safety of all facilities under our jurisdiction. Mr. Prattis’s hiring reflects our belief that individuals can positively transform their lives and contribute to society if given the opportunity.

“As we move forward, Delaware County will continue to assess and refine our employment practices to ensure they are both fair and effective in fostering a safe and rehabilitative environment. This commitment includes ongoing training for all staff to uphold our policies and procedures. We remain dedicated to transparency and accountability in all aspects of our operations and will provide updates on the matter as they become available.

“We thank you for bringing this matter to our attention and assure you that we are taking every step necessary to address it appropriately,” the spokesperson concluded.

It’s not currently clear whether the last prison operator before the county — in this case, the GEO group — had any policy about hiring persons with criminal backgrounds.

The investigation of a prison employee who is also a felon is yet another attention grabbing incident since the county took over management of the facility in March of 2022.

Last January, two other employees were arrested for allegedly smuggling fentanyl into the prison. On two different occasions since the government-management takeover, the prison allowed the wrong person to be released.

More serious incidents also have not only shaken the prison but also threaten to force the county into serious liability payouts.

For example, the prison is facing a lawsuit by the estate of a man who is widely believed to have been murdered by his cellmate just weeks after the county took over the facility. In another case, the mother of an inmate who took his own life in June of 2022 is also suing the county.

Meanwhile, the prison budget has grown dramatically since the county takeover.

In the last complete year in which a private operator ran the facility, the county’s outlays for the prison were $47.3 million. In the upcoming 2025 budget, the county plans to spend $59.3 million running the facility, according to the 2025 proposed budget.

(This article first appeared in Broad + Liberty.)

Two correctional officers at the Delaware County prison were arrested Thursday and have been charged with smuggling into the prison a substance that tested positive for fentanyl , court filings and affidavits show.

Adham Diab, 43, and Lina Tarrad, 35, were both arrested by the Delaware County Criminal Investigations Division (CID). Both face three charges: drug possession, possession of contraband, and conspiracy to commit a crime with contraband and/or a possession of a drug. The arrest affidavits say Diab and Tarrad are married.

Magisterial District Judge Wendy B. Roberts set bail at $300,000 for both, requiring a ten percent deposit for release. The court docket says neither was able to post bail.

According to Diab’s arrest affidavit, a prison investigator went into a bathroom that is off limits to the incarcerated population. Diab had been in that bathroom moments before.

The investigator noticed a baggy of a substance that looked like a drug that had apparently been left behind. Investigators then sequestered both Diab and Tarrad and began to question them.

“Diab was then searched and in his pants pockets were one small baggie containing a white substance, stamped ‘waverunner,’” and a similar bag was found on Tarrad, according to the affidavits.

“The narcotics was field tested…and tested positive for Fentanyl,” the CID detective said in the affidavit.

A spokeswoman for the county declined to comment, citing an ongoing investigation.

The website vinelink.com, which tracks inmates all across the country, indicated that both suspects had been transferred to a different prison, most likely so the two would not be residents among the same prison population they had been policing just days before.

Fentanyl acts similar to opioids like heroin, but is “a synthetic opioid that is up to 50 times stronger than heroin and 100 times stronger than morphine,” according to the Centers for Disease Control. The CDC also estimates that “[o]ver 150 people die every day from overdoses related to synthetic opioids like fentanyl.”

Court records also show the pair were involved in a landlord-tenant dispute last year in which the plaintiff, NOPG Owner LLC, was awarded over $9,000 in damages of unpaid rent.

The arrests come just weeks after the president of the prison employees union, Frank Kwaning, publicly went before the Delaware County Council to tell the five-member board that employee morale at the George W. Hill Correctional Facility was dangerously low.

“The [union] members are as frustrated as they could be. So through the members, I am told to let you know that the council should step in,” Kwaning said on Dec. 13. “Go to the facility. Talk to the members. The morale is at its lowest level. One may have thought that with this interim agreement that we have with the $3 raise that we have gotten — and we thank the council for agreeing with the union for the $3 raise — we were of the view that with the $3 raise, the morale was going to be up. But because of the treatment that has been meted out to the members, the morale is at its lowest, at best.”

Councilmember Richard Womack told Kwaning the county “would likely try and see if we could fix that in some kind of way.” Councilman Brian Madden, who heads the county Jail Oversight board refuted Kwaning’s notion that the council had been hands-off in its management style.

“Mr. Kwaning, I recognize your position as head of the union. Given the fact there is an open negotiation over an agreement, I will, as always, refrain from engaging in a back-and-forth about such things,” Madden said. “But I will certainly remind you and others that I am regularly at the facility and I am regularly interacting with the workforce. So, you know, any suggestion that council is not involved regularly with our facility would be inaccurate.”

The GWHCF was the last privately managed prison in Pennsylvania until 2022. In February of that year, the county installed its own handpicked warden. In April, the facility shifted back to government control.

Since then, the annual budget of the prison has gone up, recidivism has not been reduced, deaths per year at the facility are up, even though the daily population has been down by about nineteen percent.

Update: This article has been modified from its original version to include information about the 2023 landlord-tenant dispute involving Tarrad and Diab.

A convicted killer becomes an advisor to a prison system. It sounds like the beginning of a bad joke.

But it’s no laughing matter in Montgomery County.

In 1985, Vernon Steed shot and killed Serena Gibson, an innocent bystander who was with her family nearby when he fired at a fellow criminal in a drug dispute.

In 2022, Montgomery County Commissioners made Steed a member of the Prison Board of Inspectors, a citizen oversight committee.

Now Steed, 55, is back behind bars, accused of stealing some $95,000 in public-assistance funds by filing phony paperwork using the names of his friends and relatives.

Concerned citizens are asking why elected county officials would appoint a criminal like Steed to a county board. But nobody is willing to say just how he came to the position in the first place, even after his arrest last month.

Joseph Gale, the lone Republican on the county Board of Commissioners, strongly opposed Steed’s appointment. When asked how Steed ended up on the board in the first place—whether he sought out the position or was actively recruited by the county’s Democratic commissioners—Gale said he didn’t know.

“You would have to ask the commissioners who voted for him if they encouraged him to apply,” he told DVJournal. “I certainly didn’t ask him to seek the position; I voted against his appointment.”

County commissioner and board chair Kenneth E. Lawrence, Jr. did not respond to questions about the circumstances surrounding Steed’s appointment. Nor did former commissioner Valerie Arkoosh, who was on the county board at the time of Steed’s appointment and who is now the acting secretary of the state human services department.

At the time, Arkoosh made her support of Steed’s appointment clear.

“I just want to comment that I do intend to support Mr. Steed’s appointment. That he will bring an individual to the Prison Board of Inspectors with lived experience. And I think that will be an extremely important perspective to have as part of our county Prison Board of Inspectors.”

Today?

“DHS has no comment,” spokeswoman Ali Fogarty told DVJournal.

Asked about Steed’s appointment, county spokeswoman Kelly Cofrancisco said the system worked as designed. “The commissioners review all applicants for volunteer board positions and make appointments through official action during their board meetings,” she said.

She previously told DVJournal last month the county “continues to support applicants from all backgrounds to apply to serve on Montgomery County boards and commissions in a volunteer capacity.”

“The county remains committed to appointing residents with lived experience and diverse perspectives to serve in these positions,” she added.

The county invites interested applicants to apply for the prison inspector board on its website.

The board is “unique in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania,” the county says, calling it “a citizens’ oversight board for the humane treatment of Montgomery County incarcerated individuals” and one that “maintains oversight of Prison operations.”

Board inspections “provide a sounding board for incarcerated individuals,” the county’s website says, while board members “are there to notice any particular patterns or needs such as upgrading the telephone system or implementing tablets with access to the internet.”

Board members also perform “administrative duties, oversight of personnel, expenditures, and other budgetary items.”

Steed’s criminal history at the time of his appointment last year had been touted as a bona fide supporting his candidacy. He was expected to bring “lived experience” to the board, Arkoosh said during deliberations. She called it “an extremely important perspective to have as part of our county Prison Board of Inspectors.”

Gale retorted, “The lived experience that this individual brings is 32 years in state prison for murder.” Following Steed’s recent arrest, he called the scandal “unacceptable and embarrassing.”

“It was an absolute disgrace for the Democrat County Commissioners to appoint a convicted murderer to the Prison Board of Inspectors in the first place,” he said.

“Now, less than a year later, their decision to override my opposition has proven to be a grave error in judgment, which jeopardized the safety and welfare of many,” Gale added.

Steed is accused of stealing nearly $100,000 in COVID-19 emergency funds by using other people’s names to apply for the money.

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