A former Carbon County detective is concerned about the security of a number of county operations.

Jeffrey P. Aster, who served as a county detective since mid-2014, said matters need to be addressed to make sure employees are safe while in county facilities. Aster resigned from his full-time position last month.The former Pennsylvania Attorney General’s Office agent, who also served as an adviser in two deployments to Afghanistan, has seen his fair share of operations throughout his decades-long career and knows the challenges counties face.“I do realize as a class 6 county, Carbon doesn’t have the means to fund something on the scale that I wanted it to be funded,” he said.But as Aster moved through his daily duties and investigations, he said he began to have some reservations.“I take it personally because we’re all cops and law enforcement officers, whether you are sheriff’s deputy, detective, corrections officer, it doesn’t matter. It is still my extended family and I don’t want anything to happen to them.“I am not here to bash the commissioners. They have a tough job. They have to try and balance budgets, but there has not been a tax increase in a number of years,” he said.“But in a county where you are physically limited you have to take care of your own house and then look to the future.”

Work operationsComing from a large agency to a small county like Carbon, “it was culture shock,” Aster said. “I wouldn’t say there were endless resources at the attorney general’s office, but there was a lot more funding, equipment and opportunities to move around.”But he was here to do his part in the war on drugs, and he wanted to make the Carbon County District Attorney’s office a “viable investigative office where it was known to the bad guys that we’re out there. We’re looking for you and we’re going to get you.”In 2015, the department was working hand in hand to combat the growing drug epidemic gripping Carbon County.“What makes it tough for the commissioners and for everyone in Carbon County is geographically we sit in a precarious location in Pennsylvania,” he said. “We have the third-largest city right to our south, which is Allentown. Then you couple that with Bethlehem and Easton and then you’ve got Hazleton to our north. The high drug and crime areas and transients that run between the towns is growing and we are stuck right in the middle. It’s a tough position for Carbon County to be in.”But as the months ticked on, Aster said he started noticing warning signs within the departments.He spoke with various department heads, and some were vocal about feeling like their department’s needs were being ignored.“A lot of department heads are frustrated because it is constantly, no, (when they ask),” Aster said.He said that part of that is due to the county not raising taxes in recent years, meaning less money is available to support the departments’ growing needs.

Court systemAster said he also heard a number of departments voice similar concerns — the security of the buildings, safety of the employees and the overall morale.“Access to the courthouse is extremely easy,” he said, adding that it is no fault of the security guards stationed at the entry to the courthouse. “It’s just not the right layer of security.”He said he fears anyone who truly wants to do harm in the courthouse could gain entry if they were determined enough.“That courthouse would make a beautiful museum someday,” Aster said. “But as far as an efficient working environment, it’s too cramped. Departments have no space.”He used an example of one department in the courthouse that has filing boxes piled around the office because the departments have outgrown the space.Aster also said there is no security at the district judges’ offices.“Anyone can walk into a district justice’s office. They are not searched,” he said, citing a few cases that involved a district judge’s office being the transfer point of drugs where a defendant then smuggled items back into the prison.Last year, Jacqueline Homschek, who was an inmate at the Carbon County Correctional Facility at the time, smuggled drugs and drug paraphernalia into the prison following a preliminary hearing.During that hearing, she asked to use the bathroom, where her boyfriend had stashed heroin and a syringe.Because there were no female guards to accompany her, Homschek went into the bathroom by herself.Once in there, she retrieved the drugs and syringe, inserted them inside herself, and smuggled them into the prison.“Something bad is going to happen. They’re gambling, and so far their hand has been OK, but one of these days it’s not going to be OK, and someone is going to stand up and say, ‘well, you knew about it.’ Why get in that position if you can fix it now a little at a time?”

The prisonAster also spoke about what he felt were major issues at the county prison, including mini riots, understaffing, spacing and guards dispensing inmates’ medications when the registered nurse calls off.He said corrections officers are afraid to speak up, but they are also afraid of working in the current conditions.“I’m very concerned about it,” Aster said. “I don’t want to get a phone call that a corrections officer was beaten or stabbed because some nights there may be eight guards on duty for the over 200 inmates.”He said the spacing problem at the prison also has a ripple effect to the local level because police transporting a prisoner are being turned away and must now go to Monroe County to drop the inmate off.“That takes those officers away from their municipality,” Aster said. “Who is going to pay that bill for overtime? If they are the guys on the street and now they are transporting, now there is a lack of coverage in that borough.”

Fixing itAster said that there are a few things he believes the county and law enforcement can do to help fix some of the problems involving security and safety.Training staff, installing protective items such as bulletproof glass in some of the offices in the courthouse to separate employees from the public, hiring more female officers and opening up a dialogue on needs between the commissioners and departments would be a start.He also suggested hiring a part-time grant writer, a former voluntary position held by former chief adult probation officer Ron Kokinda until his retirement earlier this year, who would be dedicated to seeking out grant opportunities for any of the county’s court departments.“It is all going to come down to dollars and cents,” Aster said, noting that the biggest thing the county would need to do to make serious changes would be to raise taxes, something no one likes to do.But there is another option, he suggested: Postpone the construction of the proposed $10 million multipurpose fire training facility in Nesquehoning that is currently in the works and use some of the funding for the project to beef up security and make working environments safer.“I’m sure the commissioners inherited problems when they took office, but I don’t want to see the next board saddled with the same problems that we’re saddled with now,” he said.A commissioner speaksCommissioner Thomas J. Gerhard spoke out Thursday about Aster’s statements.“For a guy who was employed for only two years to come in here and tell us how to run the county, that’s not right,” he said.“I’m in my fifth year and I am nowhere where I need to be. We have a county administrator who has been here for 35 years. We have a wonderful solicitor. We have a new sheriff. We have the president judge sitting on the prison board right now. There are a lot of very, very knowledgeable people here right now.”Gerhard said that he believes it was a few unhappy employees who approached Aster to make comments, and he listened.“We’ve got a lot of great employees here, but if you’re unhappy, then I don’t know what to tell you,” he said.As for the claims Aster made about the prison, Gerhard said Aster “has no clue about the daily operations.”Commissioners Wayne Nothstein, chairman, and William O’Gurek; Warden Timothy Fritz; and District Attorney Jean Engler declined to comment.

County actionIn recent years, the county commissioners have completed a few projects to increase the security level at some of its facilities, including installing a secure door at the upper entrance of the courthouse annex, as well as plans for another door at the lower entrance.They also purchased a building on the east side of Jim Thorpe, which will eventually become the archives department. This move will free up space along Susquehanna Street, and the commissioners earlier this year said that the move would provide additional options close to the courthouse for county departments that need more space.At the prison, officials have worked on a re-entry strategic plan, which, once in operation, will work to provide inmates leaving incarceration with a link to services to help them rejoin society and possibly reduce the overcrowding at the prison. They also hired a full-time drug and alcohol counselor for the prison to start counseling services with some inmates who qualify for the program.