PROVIDENCE – The correctional officers’ union is bringing up the 2010 arrest of Wayne Salisbury as they ramp up their fight to keep McKee’s pick to run the state Department of Corrections out of the job.

The charge – obtaining money under false pretenses – was later dismissed.

Richard Ferruccio, president of the Rhode Island Brotherhood of Correctional Officers, said: “Rhode Islanders deserve to have governmental leaders they can trust to do the job they’re appointed to do. It is disheartening that Governor McKee has chosen to appoint a leader to the Department of Corrections who was charged with a felony for stealing from his employer.”

In addition, Ferruccio:

• faulted Salisbury as “unqualified” to be the director and questioned whether he could be trusted to fulfill the duties and responsibilities as required.
• Claimed that the prisons are less safe under his leadership.

The union urged members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to reject McKee’s nomination and called for a national search “for a qualified leader who doesn’t carry the baggage of a felony arrest.” 

McKee stands by Salisbury

McKee remained solid in his support for Salisbury, who has served as the interim director for 16 months.

“As acting director with over three decades of experience in corrections, Wayne Salisbury has repeatedly demonstrated his ability to manage challenges in the field of corrections, from assembling a task force dedicated to recidivism reduction, to renewing the department’s focus on staff development and succession planning,” spokeswoman Olivia DaRocha said in a statement.

“We appreciate the Brotherhood of Correctional Officers’ concerns,” she continued. “DOC leaders have and will continue to work with their membership and the advocacy community to identify and implement best practices in areas such as officer safety and recruitment, as well as inmate discipline and education.”

Salisbury stands by his own record

Salisbury also stood by his record.

“As it has been previously reported, the 2015 unsubstantiated charge involving Interim Director Salisbury was dismissed,” corrections spokesman J.R. Ventura said in a statement. “Interim Director Salisbury remains focused on leading the Department of Corrections by advocating for its staff and positioning those in its custody for success upon reentry to the community.”

Ventura also noted that a 2012 settlement was reached without a finding of fault in another lawsuit involving the 2008 death of Chinese detainee Hiu Lui “Jason” Ng while in the custody of immigration officials at Wyatt Detention Center.

A federal judge approved a multimillion-dollar settlement on behalf of Ng’s family. Salisbury was one of over two dozen parties named a defendant in that case.

Looking back: Rocky career at Wyatt Detention Center

Salisbury began as a corrections officer at the publicly owned and privately run Donald W. Wyatt Detention Facility in 1993 and rose to the rank of warden.

He was fired as warden in 2007, but rehired later that year under new management. He was fired again in February 2010.

In April 2015, the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office dismissed a charge against Salisbury alleging that he had obtained money under false pretenses by falsifying the amount of unused vacation time he was owed at Wyatt and collecting more than $16,456 from the jail.

Prosecutors dismissed the single felony count in “the interest of justice,” a filing noted. Witnesses had provided new information that “may impact the ability of the state to sustain its burden” of proving its case beyond a reasonable doubt. The filing noted that Salisbury had been compliant with his bail terms since his arrest in 2010 and had paid restitution.

The Central Falls Detention Facility Corporation, which operates Wyatt, voted unanimously to “permanently terminate” Salisbury and his wife, Tammy L. Novo, the jail’s top financial administrator.

The correctional officers’ union noted in its statement that Novo was the CFO at the Wyatt when these payments to Salisbury were made.

Blistering Wyatt report

A 2009 report by Michael V. Fair, a former corrections commissioner in Massachusetts, was highly critical of the jail’s management team and its relationship with its board of directors.

The report detailed that Salisbury reworked the jail’s organizational chart by placing the Chief Financial Officer (CFO) of the Corporation under him instead of having Novo, his wife, report to the board “as an equal to the warden as it was originally established by the board.” 

“This one act, implemented by the warden without the benefit of discussion or approval from the board, has placed the warden in a position with much more authority and power than the board ever conferred on him,” the report said.

The report stated that the CFO previously “noted that she took a risk by withholding her responses thereby delaying the issuance of the audit report. She was aware that the audit report was to be a `Going Concern’ and that she wanted to avoid such an opinion.”