15, 2018, Carlsbad police responded to a call from a woman who said her boyfriend, a correctional officer, punched her in the face and severed her thumb by slamming a truck door on her hand, according to the report and court documents. Inewsource is not naming the corrections officer because the criminal charges against him were eventually dropped. The corrections department refused to provide inewsource with his internal personnel record. The accused officer still works at Donovan today. Donovan state prison in Otay Mesa is shown on Dec.
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The decision not to discipline the officer “ignores the dynamics of domestic violence, revictimizes the girlfriend who suffered through a traumatic event and is permanently disfigured, and allows the officer to remain discipline free and maintain his position of authority,” the OIG wrote. The report from the OIG, an independent state prison oversight agency, accused Pollard and other officials of faulty decision-making and criticized the state corrections department’s tendency to give “undue credence” to its officers. However, inewsource confirmed through court records and through the Inspector General’s public information officer, Shaun Spillane, that the report concerns Donovan and former-warden Pollard. The OIG published the report without naming the prison, warden or corrections officer involved. Inewsource is first to report that the OIG was writing about Donovan and Pollard. Pollard withdrew the previous warden’s disciplinary action against the officer, in agreement with a Skelly officer, who presided over the disciplinary proceedings, and high level department officials who said there were inconsistencies in the girlfriend’s story and a lack of evidence pointing to the officer’s guilt.Ī report from the Office of Inspector General published in June 2020 concluded that the corrections officer should nevertheless have been disciplined. Pollard’s tenure leading Donovan started with a decision the state’s watchdog for prisons thought was so questionable it prompted a review and a public report.Ī Donovan correctional officer was criminally charged after a fight with his girlfriend left her with six stitches and a severed thumb. Processing… Disciplinary decision under fire He has not responded to those requests for comment. Inewsource reached out to Pollard multiple times for this story. “I would also like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to retiring Warden Marcus Pollard for 27 years of exemplary service to the Department,” she wrote. In the notice of resignation, Connie Gibson, director of California Department Corrections and Rehabilitation’s Division of Adult Institutions, heaped praise on Pollard. “I have served the State for over 27 years and it is time to enjoy my family,” Pollard wrote. Donovan has been extremely challenging to me as the Warden, but it has also been rewarding,” Pollard wrote in a brief notice of resignation. Pollard was appointed to the post in November 2020 after serving as acting warden before that.
The warden before him served seven years at Donovan. Patrick Covello, Pollard’s predecessor, left Donovan in 2019 to take the reins at a prison near Sacramento. Pollard’s exit marks the third time in a little over three years that the prison has changed leadership. Donovan Correctional Facility is responsible for the custody, care and rehabilitation of more than 3,000 incarcerated people – about a fourth of them with disabilities – and the management of more than 1,500 prison employees. Court records have pointed to a culture of retaliation among corrections staff. On top of that, Pollard’s departure comes while the prison and the state corrections department grapple with a recent court order mandating sweeping reforms at Donovan resulting from ongoing litigation beginning in the 1990s. Staff were overwhelmed during an explosive rise in cases, despite Pollard’s assurances months before the outbreak that the prison was prepared. inewsource reported that at least three men were found dead or dying in their cells from COVID-19 during a deadly winter outbreak. Donovan Correctional Facility in August 2019, he declined to discipline an officer accused of punching his girlfriend and severing her thumb when he slammed it in a truck door – a decision a state watchdog disagreed with.ĭuring the pandemic, Donovan tallied among the highest COVID-19 death tolls in California prisons. Just weeks after Marcus Pollard was named acting warden at Richard J. The warden of San Diego County’s state prison retired this month after holding the job for two years, during which he faced questions about his disciplinary and pandemic-related decisions and the prison’s commitment to making court-ordered reforms.
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