Report proposes ways to prevent inmate-employee relationships

The June 1 report is the result of one of a number of task forces created in December by former Correction Commissioner Quenton White to study correction issues.

In 2003 and 2004, there were 74 cases of inappropriate relationships that led to some kind of discipline against an employee, according to the report.

And dozens of correction employees have resigned or been fired for inappropriate relationships over the past four years — though not all the relationships were romantic.

The report called for stiffer criminal penalties for employees who engage in relationships with prisoners, expanded training about the dangers of fraternization and an anonymous tip line for inmates and staff to report improper conduct.

It was released about two months before the brazen escape of George Hyatte, 34, and his wife, Jennifer Forsyth Hyatte, 31. The two went on the lam last Tuesday after, authorities said, the woman fatally shot a guard escorting her husband from the Roane County Courthouse.

The couple were captured the next day in Columbus, Ohio, and are awaiting extradition to Tennessee.

About a year before last week’s incident, Jennifer Forsyth was fired as a contractor nurse at a West Tennessee prison for having a relationship with George Hyatte, whom she later married after he was transferred to the maximum security prison in Nashville.

The Hyattes’ situation is similar to a much less volatile incident last year in which inmate Edward McDaniel escaped with help from Vicki Sanford, a correction officer who had fallen in love with him, authorities said.

“We feel that the recommendations from our report will curtail this kind of behavior quite a bit,” said Warden Reuben Hodge, head of the Mark H. Luttrell Correctional Center in West Tennessee, and chairman of the committee that produced the report.

The task force recommended that sexual contact between prison workers and inmates be made a felony instead of a misdemeanor. Similar legislation failed several years ago because of the expense to Tennessee, which is among 14 states where sexual contact between inmates and guards is not a felony, the report said.

The report also suggested that staff, volunteers and contract employees receive a three-hour training program on staff-inmate relationships. Currently, only correction officers receive such training, according to correction officials.

Interim Correction Commissioner Gayle Ray said a new training program probably would not be implemented this year because of prior training obligations.

Jim Marquart, a professor of criminology at the University of Texas, said inmate-employee relationships develop because they are around each other most of the work day and social boundaries between the two groups gradually dissolve.

Marquart said some inmates are also very manipulative, and even though employees think “they know better,” they must diligently maintain their professional distance.

“This kind of thing can happen to anybody,” he said. “There is no vaccination for this.”