Westmoreland County Prison guards will be required to complete an annual training program designed to deescalate potentially violent situations with inmates.

The county’s prison board approved hiring a Delmont-based trainer to a 40-hour session for prison staffers as part of an effort officials hope ultimately will result in fewer dust-ups between guards and inmates.

“We’re looking to deescalate a lot of situations, and we also don’t want taxpayers to pay for lawsuits,” said Commissioner Sean Kertes.

Michael F. Caruso will conduct an initial round of training sessions with four staffers, who then will serve as instructors for the more than 170 guards who work at the county lockup in Hempfield. Caruso, who owns a training gym in Delmont, told prison board members he provided similar training classes for police departments in Murrysville, Delmont and Plum as well as the Westmoreland County Sheriff’s Department.

The county will pay Caruso about $2,500 for the training.

“Officers definitely need these skills to handle things that happen in there,” said Warden Bryan Kline.

Deescalation tactics are taught in training sessions sponsored by the state for new guard hires, but updated courses have not been part of annual refresher programs conducted locally at the jail. Kline said a group of officers will be trained by Caruso and then conduct local courses for the remainder of the staff. Deescalation training for the full staff will be done annually, the warden said.

County officials said no specific incident prompted the initiation of training courses. The county has defended a number of lawsuits over the years in which inmates claimed they were injured during violent altercations with prison staff.

The county is defending a federal lawsuit filed last year by an inmate who claimed he was assaulted by guards in 2020. One guard was fired as result of the incident. In all, the lawsuit named nine guards at the prison and the county as defendants.

According to the lawsuit, James Mapp, 34, of Roswell, N.M., was arrested following a domestic incident in Penn Township and was beaten by guards after he refused to wear a mask in the facility. Former corrections officer James B. Lynn, 39, of Ligonier Township, pleaded guilty last year to counts of official oppression and simple assault and was sentenced to serve two years on probation.

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