Lancaster County Prison received a perfect score during a recent inspection of the facility and its operations by the state Department of Corrections.

This is the third consecutive inspection, dating to 2008, for which the prison at 625 E. King St. received a 100 percent compliance rating.

"To get 100 percent in anything can be very difficult, especially with the population you're dealing with and the wear and tear that can occur in dealing with a difficult population," said Scott Martin, chairman of both the Lancaster County Board of Commissioners and the county's Prison Board.

The county has not yet received a copy of the state's inspection report, according to Martin. It only received word of the prison's score, which was based on a three-day inspection conducted July 5-7.

Flanked by some of his fellow Prison Board members — Judge Dennis Reinaker, District Attorney Craig Stedman and Commissioner Dennis Stuckey — as well as by prison Warden Vincent Guarini and a host of prison staff, Martin announced the perfect score Wednesday morning before lashing out at recent media reports that he said accuse the prison of fostering a culture of inmate abuse.

"My personal belief is it's nothing more than a smear of the good men and women that happen to work at that facility in what happens to be one of the most dangerous jobs that people can do," Martin said. "There seems to be an infatuation with writing … an insinuation that abuse of inmates at the prison is tolerated, when that's exactly not the case."

The Sunday News on July 10 ran a series of articles tracking an increase in violent incidents at the prison, and reporting accusations of abuse lodged by two former guards and by inmate advocacy groups.

According to the county prison's 2009 inspection report, which Guarini expects covered similar ground as this year's review, Department of Corrections staff sifted through prison records and interviewed inmates and staff as part of their evaluation to determine if the facility meets the requirements of Pennsylvania's Title 37.

That's the state law governing the operation of prisons.

Among other things, inmates were asked to rate their relationship with prison staff and officers, their level of safety, conditions of their confinement and the quality of the services and programs.

In 2009, a majority of surveyed inmates gave ratings of "satisfactory" or better in all areas.

Prison staff members were asked to rate morale, facility operations and communication among themselves and with superiors.

Also, inspectors reviewed the prison's records for accuracy.

Guarini and Martin both said the 100-percent rating is not a rubber-stamp of county prison operations from the Department of Corrections.

"Other county prisons don't get that score," Martin said.

Lancaster County, in fact, received scores ranging from 95 to 99 on inspections from 2004-07.

A Department of Corrections spokeswoman on Wednesday was unable to produce any data on inspections conducted in other counties.

Martin said Lancaster County Prison's latest inspection report flies in the face of accusations that inmate abuse and/or mistreatment is condoned there.

"My concern is that if we continue to portray our correctional officers in the Lancaster County Prison as abusive, it not only is just horrible for morale, it's far from the truth and it also makes it harder to recruit good people," he said.

Martin added, "I just really believe this mentality of trying to portray the inmates as the victims and the correctional officers as the bad guys absolutely has to come to a stop."

Stedman pointed to an incident in which a prison guard used excessive force on an inmate as evidence that the prison actively works against any alleged culture of abuse.

The inmate in 2008 reported former guard Silvestre Villarreal Jr. beat him while the inmate was shackled to a bed at Lancaster General Hospital.

Villarreal eventually was fired and prosecuted for the assault.

"Before he committed any criminal act, (Villarreal) actually called a supervisor at the prison and said, 'Am I permitted to use a certain amount of physical force?' " Stedman said. "The supervisor told him, 'No.' So, quite the contrary to any culture of violence, the supervisors did what they were supposed to do. They told him not to do it. He did it anyway, which is why he was charged with a crime and is no longer employed by the county."

Like Martin, Stedman said the "Prison Board and everybody at the prison is concerned with the health, welfare and safety of the inmates.

"But I just remind everybody, it is hard to go to prison. To get to prison, you've got to do something really bad, or repeatedly ignore simple instructions, like showing up to your probation officer. Not hard to do."

He added, "The victims are not in Lancaster County Prison. They're out in our community. They are our neighbors, family members, what have you, who have been assaulted, whether it's physically, sexually, their house has been broken into — whatever. Those are the victims."

preilly@lnpnews.com