Posted on Mon, Jan. 21, 2008
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Former jailer finds punishment unfair
Wills will serve more than 3 years
By ROBIN FITZGERALD
rfitzgerald@sunherald.com
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"If you follow the rules, you'll be all right."
Preston Wills said that advice from his father, a longtime police officer, stuck with him as he pursued a law enforcement career through a corrections job at the Harrison County Adult Detention Center.
"I followed the rules and look where it got me," said Wills, the 26-year-old father of a toddler.
He turned himself in last Monday at a federal prison in Minnesota. Wills must serve 3½ years on a guilty plea to conspiring to deprive the rights of county jail inmates. He's among 10 ex-jailers sentenced in November in a federal investigation that prosecutors have said isn't over.
Wills shared frustrations over problems at the jail in an exclusive interview as he set his affairs in order before reporting to prison. He also shared disappointment over his foiled dream of becoming a patrol officer and concerns for his safety.
The criminal case of civil rights violations began after inmate Jessie Lee Williams Jr. was fatally beaten by officers in the county jail booking room on Feb. 4, 2006.
Wills wasn't present when the beating occurred, though federal trial attorneys have said a culture of abuse existed at the jail for at least five years and no one spoke up to stop it.
Wills, a booking officer for 4½ years, worked at the jail from November 2002 through May 2006. He was accepted for academy training for patrol in September 2005, but that plan was halted after Hurricane Katrina a month earlier.
"I wanted out of there," he said. "I wanted to be on patrol. My lifelong dream was to be a hero, to put bad guys in jail and protect others."
Wills blames jail officials under former Sheriff George H. Payne Jr. for most of the problems that escalated with overcrowding and understaffing. Wills said training was inadequate and policies and procedures conflicted with the sheriff's general orders.
"Supervisors would pick and choose which orders they wanted you to follow," said Wills. "Many flat-out-wrong incidents that were supposedly investigated by Internal Affairs were said to be unfounded. It wasn't what you know but who you know that mattered.
"There's people still working out there that are 10 times worse than they've made some of us out to be."
Wills said it wasn't uncommon to have only seven to nine officers on duty to monitor 1,000 inmates or only a couple of booking officers to handle as many as 60 incoming detainees.
The warden hired after criminal accusations were made public began making changes. The restraint chair was banned. A new policy threatens termination for witnessing misconduct and failing to report it.
