The Courier-Journal from Louisville, Kentucky • Page 6

r2l From The Courier-Journal, Tuesday morning, May 27, 1980 Regional news Deaths KENIUCKl Federal investigation of U.S. marshal still stirs speculation Because Wright has ties in high places, that question is especially intriguing. And speculation among some people close to the federal Judiciary in Louisville has been rife for months. When Wright was appointed marshal in 1977 by President Carter and confirmed by the Senate, his chief sponsor was Kentucky's senior U.S. senator, Walter "Dee" Huddleston, a fellow Hardin County resident About the time of the appointment or shortly afterward, the two men were tied together by another, more personal connection the marriage of the senator's son, Steven, and Wright's daughter, Rhonda.

Last year, after Wright's troubles surfaced, the senator made an inquiry to Attorney General Benjamin Civiletti's office about the allegations. Huddleston later discussed the matter with Civiletti, asking that Wright be given a chance to explain his side. But in an Interview last week, Huddleston depicted his role as veiy limited. And he said he has no idea why Wright's case hasn't yet been disposed of in one way or another. "It seems like an unusually long time," Huddleston said.

"It seems to me it ought to be clarified." So what did happen to the Robert Wright investigation? The answer at this point is that no one claims to have an answer, not even Wright: "I just don't think anybody should be hanging this long, do you?" he asked in a telephone interview from Kentucky. Wright suggested that someone initiated the pending investigation and another in 1978 to try to "harass" him into quit- the existence of an investigation is never confirmed or denied unless and until it results in serious disciplinary such as dismissal. Each of the nation's 94 federal court districts has a marshal appointed by the president. He and his deputies are re-sponsible for courtroom security, mov-" ing prisoners and serving court papers. Although his deputies are usually ca-reer employees of the U.S.

Marshals Service, a part of the Justice Depart-' ment, it's not uncommon for the head marshal to be a political appointee. That's what Wright is. He was a state trooper in the early 1950s. He has been active in politics, and in 1976 Gov. Julian Carroll made him a member of the state' Board of Tax Appeals, a part-time posi- See PROBE PAGE 2, col.

1, this section ting a step he said he has no plans to take. So far in his three years as marshal, Wright said, no official has criticized his performance. "If I was doing something wrong, wouldn't they do something about it?" Bill Dempsey, a spokesman at the Marshals Service headquarters in Virginia, said any comment about the Wright investigation would have to come from the Office of Professional Responsibility because "it's under review at that level." A woman who answered the phone in the office of Marshals Service Director William Hall conferred with Hall about the Wright case. Asked if Wright had been cleared, she said, "We have not heard that. The investigation is still continuing." The only thing about the case that does seem certain Is that it has not been closed by the Justice Department.

Last month Wright's attorney, James Highfield of Louisville, got a letter from the office of Associate Attorney General John Shenefield upholding the refusal of the Office of Professional Responsibility to hand over material related to the Wright case. Highfield said he requested the material under the Freedom of Information Act because Wright wanted to find out who had initiated the allegations against him or, in Highfield's words, who was "harassing" him. Highfield said the April 1 letter from Shenefield's office upheld the denial on grounds that release "would Interfere with a pending law enforcement proceeding." Civiletti's office referred questions to the press office, where a spokesman said By MIKE BROWN Courier-Journal Staff Wrll.r WASHINGTON It's been almost a year since the U.S. Justice Department began investigating Marshal Robert L. Wright's conduct in office.

But Wright still holds his presidential appointment as U.S. marshal for the Western District of Kentucky, neither cleared of the cloud over his head nor disciplined by his superiors. In fact, the Justice Department won't even acknowledge, at least officially, that its Office of Professional Responsibility the arm that looks into allegations of wrongdoing by department employees ever handled the case. What happened to the Robert Wright Investigation, which centered at least in part on allegations that the marshal had given favored treatment to a federal prisoner? Harlan County is caught in a travail of two jails, one old and one too new i 7 i I 'S'i. I fir it i 1 1 llLi, Paul Douglas Crews of Valley Staff Photo by Jim Callaway Station worked on a landscape painting in his cell at the Kentucky State Penitentiary at Eddyville.

electrical wires immersed In water to create a short circuit. Inmates urinating In buckets because some toilets were not working. Feces on the floor of an area where a shower was supposed to be. One or more inmates using the floor for a bed. Inadequate lighting, substandard wiring, dilapidated plumbing and widespread filth.

"Many of the conditions set out above are of longstanding duration, and you have previously been notified of their existence," division Director Irving Bell wrote to the county on April 23. "If the violations cannot be corrected and the facility brought into substantial compliance with requirements within 30 days of this notice, then the jail should be closed for the protection of the health and safety of the inmates and the inmates should be transferred to other facilities in the area." The division plans to relnspect the jail tomorrow and will decide then whether legal action is warranted. Another potential order to close the jail will loom before the county on July 1, the deadline set in January by the state fire marshal's office for several corrective actions. A Jan. 3 Inspection of the jail by the fire marshal turned up a dozen violations, including bad wiring, the need for an additional entrance and exit on the upper floors, and the absence of a fire door, exit signs and emergency lighting.

"These are not Insignificant things," said Assistant State Fire Marshal Nick Castanis. "It doesn't look like the jail is in that great shape, and it could be a bad situation there." County Judge-Executive Baker and Jailer Helton claim the county is trying to avert a shutdown of the jail and has sought to improve conditions by ordering new mattresses, toilets and showers. But Baker also contends that there is no way to bring the jail up to state standards, even if the county wanted to pour money into a structure that will likely be abandoned in the next few years. "We've been told we can't accomplish anything even if we try," he said. State officials aren't sure that's the case, and they say they won't know what the county can reasonably do until reinspections are made later this month and this year.

In the interim, Helton has agreed to ask incoming inmates whether they want to be housed in the local jail or at Pineville, 32 miles away. Helton said virtually all have opted to stay in Harlan, preferring to be closer to home, family and friends. If another order to close the jail is issued, this time by the state, Baker said he would be inclined to treat it like the first one. "It would be up to Fiscal Court," he said, "but I would take the same approach as before. "We don't think there's anything else that can be done in the jail, and the prisoners are willing to stay there." Brush with the law Eddyville art program lifts inmates' self-respect By R.

G. DUNLOP Courier-Journal Staff Wrltor HARLAN, Ky. In one corner, mired in litigation and only about half-finished more than a year after its projected date of occupancy, stands Harlan County's new jail. In the other corner, mired in obsolescence, ravaged by old age and the target of several state and local agencies' efforts to upgrade or close it, stands Harlan County's old jail. And in the middle, caught between a 57-year-old jail that doesn't work and a half-finished new jail that it can't finish, stands Harlan County government.

"We're really up against it," says County Judge-Executive Tipton Baker. "There's nowhere to turn." The county's existing jail, situated atop the courthouse, has been in bad shape for years, and nobody disputes that its current condition is deplorable. A recent paint Job by Harlan Jailer Howard Helton and his wife can't obscure the fact that the jail has just one shower, that the plumbing, lighting, wiring and ventilation are bad, and that some sections are foul-smelling. Baker characterizes the jail as pathetic. And Helton, while maintaining that he has tried to make things better, concedes that it is in poor condition.

Harlan County recognized the problem some time ago and began building a new jail, adjacent to the courthouse, in December 1977. But last August, after a dispute with the contractor, the county quit paying the bills and the contractor stopped work at the site. The contractor's performance bondsman then sued the county for breach of contract. The county government countered with a suit against the contractor and the bondsman, charging that the county's termination of the contract was proper because of shoddy work. No work has been done on the new jail for more than nine months, and none will be done until after a hearing in July to determine whether the county's or the contractor's legal arguments prevail.

If the county wins, it will probably try to -find another contractor to finish the job. If it loses, it may be saddled with an incomplete jail and not enough money to finish it. But it almost surely will be months before construction resumes, if indeed it ever does. Coupled with that unhappy prospect is the displeasure that various state and local agencies have voiced over conditions at the existing jail. After a visit there last December, the Harlan County Health Department ordered the jail closed.

Harlan Fiscal Court ignored the department's directive, and the health department appealed to the state Department for Human Resources. That precipitated an inspection of the jail on March 10 by the state department's Division for Consumer Health Protection, which found a host of violations. They included: Coffee-making with the aid of bare Start Photo by Bill Luttor Edward F. Prichard Jr. Head of education commission to take up just as little space as possible and make sure your buddy isn't being bothered by late-night work." The prison artists could paint outside, but most prefer privacy and a shield from the wind that sometimes roars across the prison yard.

The art program is sponsored by the City-County Art Council of Padu-cah and is not a part of the educational system at the maximum-security prison. However, it has the strong support of prison Superintendent Dewey Sowders and his staff. They are now trying to make room in the crowded prison for a room that the men can use as a studio. The inmates attend classes taught by Paducah artist Van Stewart Bevil, who was selected from a list of 40 who offered to take the job without pay. Bevil, 34, holds two two-hour classes each Saturday morning a period that would normally be spare time for the inmates.

By BILL POWELL Cowlar-Journal Staff Wrlt.r EDDYVILLE, Ky. Robin Walker occasionally works all night, cramped in a corner painting or sketching. "I go overboard promising sometimes," he said. "Then I really have to work hard to keep my word." Paul Douglas Crews loves to sketch and paint animals, but he has to work from pictures or memory. Dallas Dale Beard spends most of his spare time drawing cartoons.

His specialty now is illustrating greeting cards and writing messages for them. They are among 20 to 30 inmates who are taking part in a revival of art training at the Kentucky State Penitentiary at Eddyville. They work mostly in their 6-by-9-foot cells at the 92-year-old institution on Lake Barkley in Lyon County. All have cellmates, a situation that creates a shortage of elbow room at times. But Walker said, "The thing is tial discussions will be presented at the Shakertown meeting: State demographic trends by James Brockway of the University of Louisville's Urban Studies Center.

Economic projections by Dr. Larry Lynch of Transylvania University. Social changes by Dr. Robert Straus, chairman of the behavioral science department at the University of Kentucky's A. B.

Chandler Medical Center. Prichard said the first order of business will be to use the presentations "to make some guess as to what the overall condition of Kentucky will be in matters that reflect on the needs of higher education." The commission is then expected to deal with how demographic, economic and social issues will specifically affect higher education in the state. One topic Prichard said he expects Group asks what the future holds for education portraits of Gov. and Mrs. Brown.

astically about the program and their work. Walker, 25, who is serving a life sentence for murder in Rockcastle, County, said he was interested in art in high school. "But I dropped art after graduate' ing from Cascade High School (in Clayton, Ind.) in 1973 and then getting in trouble," he said. Walker said he has a prison job See EDDYVILLE PAGE 2, col. 1, this section council chairmen Gordon Hood of Fort Mitchell, a Cincinnati attorney, and ney Tucker of Lexington, who is in agribusiness.

Tommy Preston, a Lexington public-relations executive, press secre-' tary to former Gov. Wendell Ford and a former member of the council, will alsd serve. Others are former Gov. Bert Tj Combs; former state official Robert Bell, now an Ashland Oil vice president; Dr. John Bell, a Louisville physician; George Street Boone, an Elkton attor ney; and Raymond Burse, a Rhodes Scholar and Louisville attorney.

Also, Jesse Crenshaw of Lexington, an assistant U.S. attorney and chairman of Kentucky State Univer5i-ty's criminal-justice education program; Sid Douglas, a Harlan circuit judge; 3 Norma Fletcher, director of the Jeffer-. son County Consumer Protection De-(t partment; and Tommy Gaston of Madi-'j See GROUP PAGE 2, col. 3, this section Robin Wayne Walker showed his Ralph Evltts, assistant warden for program services at the prison, said he has been impressed by the inmates' eager spirit and Bevil's sincerity and contribution. "He has established a good relationship with the men.

He is more than an instructor. He has inspired the men and, in a way, has become a counselor for them," Evitts said in a recent interview. Walker. Crews and Beard were among the men who talked enthusi ficult task to predict the future. But someone needs to bring some of the resources of this state to bear on that task," he said.

Snyder acknowledged that planning is the council's responsibility under state law. "But we tend to focus our efforts on two-year projections for money, for people, for programs and for buildings. Those efforts tend to be specific and detailed," Snyder said. "But what may be needed to set a framework for those two-year increments is a more general 10- to 20-year snapshot of what society, what the economy and what the region may look like further down the road." Snyder added that the commission's work is the beginning of a new planning direction for his agency. "We intend for the staff planning function to be permanent and continuous long after the commission has helped us set the agenda." Commission members include former the commission to consider is enrollments at state universities.

"Do you expand non-traditional (adult and continuing) education to take up the gap in enrollments, or do you try to spread everybody Into the institutions that are declining (in enrollments)?" The commission might consider setting enrollment ceilings at UK and of he said. Prichard said that the full commission probably will meet four or five times in the next year and that its subcommittees will meet more frequently. Some of the commission's final recommendations, Prichard said, might result in proposed legislation for the 1982 General Assembly. Harry Snyder, the council's executive director, said additional members may be appointed to the commission later. He said the commission's work should give his agency a new perspective on the future needs in the state for higher education.

"What we're trying to do is a very dif By RICHARD WILSON Courlor-Journal Staff Wrltor FRANKFORT, Ky. A 28-member commission of Kentuckians is ready to begin studying the state's future to determine how it will affect higher education. The commission, headed by Frankfort attorney Edward F. Prichard will hold a series of meetings in the next year or so before making a final report to the state Council on Higher Education. The commission's first meeting is scheduled for June 8-9 at Shakertown at Pleasant Hill.

William McCann, chairman of the higher-education council, appointed the commission members last week. Prichard and three others on the commission are former council members. Papers on three topics that will form the foundation for the commission's ini.