The Buchanan County Sheriff’s Department in northwest Missouri is submitting charges after two inmates reported being inappropriately touched. Sheriff Mike Strong said a complaint from a Buchanan County inmate was submitted June 27 in reference to an employee of Advanced Correctional Healthcare touching a woman inappropriately.
Sheriff Mike Strong (Photo courtesy of Buchanan County Sheriff’s Office)
“An investigation was initiated and was substantiated through witnesses, statement, accounts and other corroborative evidence,” says Strong. “During the course of the investigation a second victim was discovered whose account was largely similar in content.”
Strong says Advanced Correctional Healthcare has been very cooperative in the investigation. The employee was not hired by the sheriff’s department but through Advanced Correctional Healthcare, a contract company for the jail.
“The employee of course was immediately suspended and it’s my understanding he’s been terminated by Advanced Healthcare,” says Strong. “To our knowledge and their knowledge there was not anything in this gentleman’s background that would have sent up alarms on this because if there had I can assure you I would not have allowed him into the building and Advanced Correctional Healthcare would not have hired him.”
An investigation was launched right after a report was made and concluded Monday. Strong says there are safeguards in place to try to prevent situations like this from happening.
“We have a healthcare facility upstairs where we do our exams and that’s where it occurred at,” says Strong. “One of the safeguards that we had in effect actually is what brought this to light.”
Strong says the claims will help to further improve safeguards.
Nadia Thacker of KFEQ contributed to this story.