Q & A: Washtenaw County Sheriff Jerry Clayton

Washtenaw County Sheriff Jerry Clayton talks about recent drug busts in the county jail, the socio-economics of crime in the county and “Orange is the New Black.”

SHERIFF JERRY Clayton currently oversees a $22 million corrections budget. That budget is projected to increase to $23.8 million by 2017. The budget pays for 144 people to staff a county jail which accommodates around 400 prisoners. It costs approximately $136 per day to house a prisoner in the county jail ($50,000 per year). A 2013 audit of the Wayne County Jail showed that it cost $144 per day to house a prisoner.

For their $23.8 million taxpayers get a jail which is exceedingly clean and managed using strategies that focus on behavior management techniques that would be familiar to most parents. Prisoners who show themselves capable are allowed to manage their own pods (as the 12 separate blocks are called).

Of the 400 or so prisoners, approximately 10 percent are women, many of them white. The remaining prisoners are men, a large number of them black. Jerry Clayton’s jail population is largely comprised of 20-40 year-olds, approximately one-third of whom receive psych meds.

Addiction and mental illness used to be the purview of the state. Today, it is the responsibility of law enforcement officers such as Sheriff Clayton.

Clayton is a  savvy politician. In 2012, he amassed a good deal of money in his campaign war chest—over $45,000. He sponsors an annual golf outing and dinner at the Polo Fields Golf and County Club. In 2012, close to 90 participants attended the Sheriff’s golf outing and dinner, which cost $7,796 to put on, but which brought in $16,680. He took in thousands from union PACs which frequently give to political candidates, including the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenter’s PAC ($2,420), the local Plumbers and Pipefitters Local 190 PAC ($1,720) and the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 252 ($3,220).

In 2010, Sheriff Clayton took $500 from the Aramark PAC. Aramark is, of course, the embattled food service company whose $145 million contract with the state of Michigan was recently under review. The Detroit Free Press documented repeated problems with meal shortages, lack of cleanliness including maggots in and around food, and Aramark workers smuggling contraband, engaging in sex acts with inmates or otherwise getting too friendly with them, creating security issues.

Sheriff Clayton said an Aramark food service employee had been banned from his facility (the county jail) several weeks ago. Aramark had scheduled a 21-year-old woman to work late into the evening closing the kitchen, and Corrections Commander of the county jail, Sherry E. Woods (a former AAPD Deputy Chief) decided that the employee should be removed.

“Part of the problem was behavioral,” said Clayton. “That individual was not smuggling drugs,” added Clayton, “and was not my employee, but the employee of an outside contractor (Aramark).”

If Jerry Clayton is a whiz at bringing in campaign donations, he is equally adept at giving generously to local charitable organizations and social groups. His most recent campaign finance Annual Statement which covered the period between January and July 2014 shows Clayton donating to the Ann Arbor Branch of the National Negro Professional Women ($100), Amanda Edmonds for Mayor ($100), Brown Chapel Scholarship Dinner ($350), Ypsilanti Schools Foundation ($50), Dispute Resolution Center ($200) and the WCC Foundation Women’s Council ($65).

Jerry Clayton began his second term as Washtenaw County Sheriff in 2013. In 2008 Jerry Clayton, a former sheriff’s lieutenant, captured 16,027 votes to then Sheriff Dan Minzey’s 11,838 votes. During Minzey’s eight years in office, he faced controversy over everything from patrols to discipline in his department.

Jerry Clayton has faced his own challenges, including squabbles over the cost of the service he provides to the county’s cities and townships. Clayton also faced criticism when he hired Gregory Dill to serve as director of administrative operations at the sheriff’s department. Dill was Washtenaw County facilities director before he took a $52,000 county buyout in 2005 then signed on to became Oak Park schools chief of staff. At that school district Dill came under scrutiny after a school board member complained to local news media that Dill had built a luxurious private gym for himself in a school building.

In 2009, three Washtenaw County Sheriff’s officers were sentenced on civil rights violations. The violations occurred, however, in 2005, before Clayton took office.

Jerry Clayton spoke to The Ann Arbor Independent about contraband, the demographics of his jail population and “Orange is the New Black.”

LESKO: How many people come through the jail in a typical year?

CLAYTON: We book in 8,000-9,000 people per year. Of those I would say that half have some kind of substance abuse problem.

Note: The 2014-2017 County budget includes information about bookings. In 2012, 2013 and projected 2014 there were 3,104, 3,104 and 3,500 pre-trial screenings, respectively.

LESKO: Let’s talk about contraband, the drug busts in your jail over the past six months. There has been about one instance per month over the past several months. Is it a struggle to keep illegal drugs out of the county jail?

CLAYTON: I don’t want to say it’s a struggle, but it’s something we’re always thinking about. It’s really the nature of the beast. With drugs like heroin, people are willing to take more significant risks to smuggle drugs into the jail.

LESKO: You make it sound almost routine….

CLAYTON: It’s the price of doing business, to have people who break the rules. We put new strategies into practice and people are looking at those strategies and thinking about how to get around them.

LESKO: What kinds of strategies do you use to keep illegal drugs out of your jail?

CLAYTON:  On a random basis we do shakedowns of the housing units. We bring in the K-9 team. We’re doing searches when prisoners are brought in. Cavity searches require a warrant.

Note: Cavity searches may only be conducted by a doctor.

LESKO: Ok. You’ve talked about prisoners bringing in drugs, smuggling them in by swallowing drug-filled balloons that are secreted later….

CLAYTON: Right….

LESKO: Do you watch the HBO series “Orange is the New Black?”

CLAYTON: I’m a fan of “Orange is the New Black.”

LESKO: Then you know I have to ask about drugs being brought into the jail by guards and outside vendors. Pornstache….(a character in “Orange is the New Black,” a guard who smuggles in drugs and sells them to addict inmates.)

CLAYTON: There have never been any instances of my employees bringing narcotics into the jail. No arrests. It’s possible a contracted food service or medical worker could do it. I won’t say that’s not possible. But we have cameras installed in the kitchen that are monitored 24-7.

LESKO: One of your reports turned over in response to a Freedom of Information Act request had an inmate saying the drugs came in through the kitchen.

CLAYTON: I’m not trying to minimize it, but it just doesn’t happen that often. When it does, we look carefully and adjunct or policies from time-to-time. I’m briefed on every incident of drugs being found in the jail. Remember, a large number of the inmates do have substance abuse issues. We partner with CSTS and Dawn Farm for treatment. These are socio-economic problems and until we deal with those issues, well….

LESKO: Do you test your guards and other staff for drug use on a regular basis?

CLAYTON: In the Command Contract we’re prohibited from testing the jail staff. If we see erratic behavior, we intervene.

LESKO: So there’s no magic wand you can wave….

CLAYTON: I am thinking of getting a full body scanner ($150,000-$180,000) for the jail. It would definitely cut down on contraband.

LESKO: Among other things….

CLAYTON: (Laughing) Yes, among other things.