Corrections Expertise
Over three decades of high-level corrections experience poised to help others navigate the many challenges of the American corrections system.
Expert witness services, Prison Rape Elimination Act auditing, policy development, population control efforts, candidate assessment, preparing service proposals, etc. - there is no challenge too big or too small.
Sweeney Corrections Consulting, LLC is owned and operated by Edward Sweeney, CJM, CCHP.
After three decades, Corrections Director calls it a career
By Laurie Mason Schroeder
Of The Morning Call
Jan. 3, 2017
It was his first day at work at the Lehigh County Jail, and 22-year-old Edward Sweeney wanted to make a good impression. He showed up 15 minutes early in a freshly pressed uniform, ready to learn the ropes of being a corrections officer.
An older corrections officer led him into the jail's dining hall and pointed to a row of metal tables and benches. Seat the inmates six to a side, he told Sweeney, then left him alone in the room.
"Soon, 60 inmates came in for breakfast. They looked pretty threatening to me," Sweeney said. "Needless to say, I let them sit wherever they wanted."
As he rose through the ranks to become the jail's warden, and then Lehigh County's director of corrections, Sweeney never forgot that feeling of being unprepared on his first day. Better training was one of the many innovations he spearheaded during his 32-year career — corrections officers now complete a five-week academy before supervising prisoners on their own.
As he prepares to step down this month, Sweeney said every challenge he faced on the job helped him improve.
"The profession of corrections and our facilities in Lehigh have vastly changed over the past 30 years," Sweeney said. "I learned from my own mistakes as well as the mistakes of others. And we made a lot of them along the way."
Sweeney, 55, of Whitehall Township, said he's not leaving for another job but hopes to start a career as a consultant. His post will be filled by Mary Sabol, warden of the York County Prison. She was hired Dec. 14.
Lehigh County Executive Tom Muller said Sweeney will be missed.
"What Ed has done over his 32 years is remarkable from multiple vantage points," Muller said. "The bottom line for me is that Lehigh County is losing a corrections leader who stands way above his peers."
After two years as a corrections officer, Sweeney became a supervisor and then deputy warden of the jail's work release center. In 1989, he was made warden of what was then called the Interim Correctional Facility, a temporary prison in a former metal fabricating building along the Lehigh River in Salisbury Township.
Prisoners were housed there until the current jail in Allentown opened in April 1992, replacing the old county prison, which was built in 1867. Sweeney was named warden at the new facility in February 1993, then director of corrections in 1999, overseeing around 300 employees and a $30 million budget.
His tenure coincided with many changes in the criminal justice system, including an influx of mentally ill inmates as state mental hospitals were shuttered in the 1990s. Sweeney said Lehigh was better prepared for the change than other jails, since lines of communication with social service organizations were already open due a push to decrease the inmate population following a 1987 lawsuit spurred by crowding.
Sweeney also was at the helm when Lehigh joined numerous other Pennsylvania counties in privatizing correctional medical services. While the change prompted several high-profile lawsuits over inmate deaths, Sweeney said it was the right call.
"It raised the bar for inmate care. Putting it in the hands of professional medical folk meant that inmates got the same care as they would in the community," he said.
Part of Sweeney's job as director was overseeing the detention of juvenile offenders. He was among the proponents of the construction of a $6.5 million juvenile detention center in 2005, to address years of crowding at the previous center.
The 48-bed facility in South Whitehall Township began to empty though, as juvenile justice reforms swept the nation following the so-called Kids for Cash scandal in 2008, in which two Luzerne County judges were found to have accepted kickbacks for jailing teens for minor offenses.
Sweeney advocated for closing the facility in 2014, a move that saved the county $750,000 a year but cost about two dozen people their jobs.
"It was a tough call, but those are the decisions I'm proud of. The ones that were not easy," he said.
Chief Juvenile Probation Officer Elizabeth Fritz said she appreciates the way Sweeney takes the time to fully evaluate a problem, such as the juvenile detention center closing, before making a decision.
"Ed will be remembered for his leadership and his accomplishments, but I will also remember him for his genuine dedication and commitment to doing things with integrity and passion," Fritz said.
Sweeney is a founding member of the Pennsylvania County Corrections Association and served on the Pennsylvania Prison Wardens Association board for nine years. As a member of those organizations, Sweeney worked on legislative reform and testified at public hearings on criminal justice issues.
State Secretary of Corrections John Wetzel said Sweeney was an asset to his profession.
"Ed has been a leader in county corrections in both Pennsylvania and nationally for years. On a personal level he's been a colleague, friend and adviser for 15 years. Corrections will miss his ingenuity and leadership," Wetzel said.
Sweeney said he will miss working in corrections, but thinks now is the time to "get off the hamster wheel" and try something new.
"I'll miss this work, but I'm excited to see what the future holds," he said.