Inmate dead two days after Union chief warns of jail mismanagement by Sposato

                                                                                     

Mike Sposato

On Monday, Nassau's corrections officers demanded the ouster of Corrections Commissioner Mike Sposato, warning that his  alleged mismanagement of day-to-day operations at the East Meadow jail was raising safety risks for officers and inmates alike.

On Wednesday, an inmate died after a "medical episode" that County Executive Bruce Blakeman said was an apparent drug overdose, Newsday reported.

Nobody can say that Brian Sullivan, president of the Corrections Officers Benevolent Association, didn't warn them.

Brian Sullivan

Sullivan brought his executive board and entire board of delegates to the county legislative meeting Monday to say collectively that Sposato, a former Nassau Sheriff fired by Democratic County Executive Laura Curran but brought back by Republican County Executive Bruce Blakeman, has to go.

He said Sposato had implemented security cuts and redeployed officers from oversight duties to reduce costs, which led to increased incidents of workplace violence amid a continuing officer shortage and deteriorating facilities.

"As for us, with Mike Sposato, we want him out," Sullivan said.

Sposato had been a cook in the jail when he was promoted by former Democratic County Executive Tom Suozzi in 2008 as Sheriff to oversee the entire corrections department. Former Republican County Executive Ed Mangano kept him on even while corrections officers protested security lapses at the jail and Democratic legislators demanded Sposato's resignation.

Sposator's claim to fame was cutting chronic overtime in the jail.

He stayed until Curran, according to Sullivan, fired him in her county executive acceptance speech.

Sullivan said he partially blamed Curran "for the mess we're in now" because Sposato, at the time, had a year and a half to go before qualifying for his full county pension. Curran should have put him in a different position, far from the jail, to earn his time, he suggested.

When Blakeman took office in January, he brought back Sposato with the title of "undersheriff" working  out of Mineola's county administrative offices.

Then in September, when Curran's chosen sheriff James Dzurenda resigned, Sposato was named corrections commissioner in charge of daily operations at the jail.

Sposoto, Sullivan said, is "the very same person who drove this facility into the ground, who demoralized this entire workforce with his condescending mission of cutting this place to ribbons with no regard to the safety of officers and inmates."

He added, "Anybody remember the Armor Correctional Health debacle?

"13 dead inmates in five years during his tenure all in the name of saving money on medical care for inmates.… 

"With his return, came an immediate return to his old ways of cutting and slashing costs in this department."

And now there is another inmate death.

Sullivan told legislators his union was not going away, "We will be here, we will be in the streets, in the community and the courts if he is permitted to continue his reign of destruction over this department."

The Blakeman administration defended Sposato and noted the corrections union had called for the dismissal of another former sheriff.

But Presiding Officer Richard Nicolello (R-New Hyde Park) said to Sullivan, "You have with us a tremendous amount of credibility." 

Minority Leader Kevan Abrahams (D-Freeport) agreed. "You’ve always been a straight shooter," he told Sullivan..

Nicolello said the legislature will hold a public hearing on jail management.

And all this happened before the inmate died on Wednesday.