Photo by Joseph Bell

Elk County Prison warden Greg Gebauer has served as warden of the county jail since July of 2007.

By Joseph Bell

Record Staff Writer

As Elk County Prison warden, paramedic and volunteer firefighter, Greg Gebauer chooses to bear a heavier cross than most.
"I could sit here and say that doing these jobs do not take a toll on me, but I'd be lying," Gebauer said while sitting in a conference room in the Elk County Prison. "It does take a toll on you. There are always times when you're taking care of somebody after the fact and when you have time by yourself, you might be thinking about it.
"I catch myself thinking about what other people are going through, that poor person and why did it happen? I always seem to have a problem with the 'here today, gone tomorrow,' and seeing someone one day only to find out that they're dead the next day from an accident or something. That's always tough to try to swallow. You just deal with it and move on. If every paramedic, warden or police officer, or every firefighter gave up after they saw a tragedy, where would the world be without those people?"

Born Oct. 14, 1965, to Gerhard and Pauline Gebauer, the current county prison warden is a native of Emporium having graduated from Cameron County High School in 1983.
Gebauer said he initially always had an interest in law enforcement, especially during his days in high school.
"When I was 16 years old, I entered into the local fire company as a volunteer firefighter," Gebauer said. "I had several contacts with the local police department through the firefighting end of it and I pretty much always had an interest in it.
"I just didn't know at the time whether it would be police, probation and parole, but I definitely knew it was something in law enforcement."
With aspirations for a law enforcement career still fresh in his mind, Gebauer graduated from high school in 1983 and took a job at a gas/service station to save money.
"I figured I'd enter into the workforce at first to try to save up some money and at the same time, think about what I wanted to do, be it entering in the Act 120 program for municipal police officers, or go on to probation and parole," Gebauer said. "I was working on cars and such, and the local sheriff at the time in Cameron County, Jeff Fragale, would bring his vehicle into the service station that I was working at.
"So I got to pump gas for him and do some minor repairs on his car."
Through conversing with Fragale, a picture was painted showing Gebauer a glimpse of what a law enforcement career could offer.
"We'd talk a little bit and I was young at the time, 18 years old and trying to figure out my future, but we'd talk back and forth, and he'd tell me about his job," Gebauer said. "As the sheriff, he also ran the county's jail, and with a small county, it was a small jail. He kept on coming in and I eventually heard that he was possibly looking for somebody, and I had asked him about it, and put my name in.
"I was probably 19 or 20 years old by then, and I started working for the Cameron County sheriff's office. A lot of their duties at the time were taking care of the county jail and back then, it only held five inmates maximum."

Working part-time as a corrections officer in Cameron County, Gebauer said he quickly realized this line of work was something he'd feel content doing for a lifetime. Roughly six months later, Gebauer was on full-time.
"I eventually heard about a job opening up in Elk County under the former sheriff, Raymond Krasinski," Gebauer said. "I contacted him about it and I was hired."
At this time, Gebauer was 21 years old with a full-time deputy sheriff's position and was hired July 2, 1987.
"In Elk County at that time, the sheriff's office ran the county prison and our primary duty at that time was taking care of the inmates along with prisoner transportation, and some other duties as a deputy," Gebauer said.
Other responsibilities at that time included serving papers and warrants.
"At that time, the sheriff's office consisted of only three people with the sheriff, the chief deputy and then myself, the deputy underneath them," Gebauer said. "The jail at that time had four or five corrections officers, guards.
"Their primary duties were to take care of the jail on second and third shifts. My primary duty was to take care of the jail on the day shift."

In 1992, Krasinski, who served as county sheriff since 1964, announced that he would be retiring as Elk County sheriff.
"I guess through my years of employment here, I'd say the person that really inspired me the most would be Raymond Krasinski," Gebauer said. "He gave me the shot when I was young and I worked for him until he retired.
"He's the one that pretty much got me going to where I am today."
Soon thereafter, the county commissioners at the time collectively decided to separate the sheriff's office from the county jail.
"This was about the beginning of 1993 and the people working in the sheriff's office at the time had the option of either remaining in the sheriff's office or working with the jail," Gebauer said. "At the time, I opted to stay with the jail.
"At that point, I pretty much had to resign as being a full-time deputy sheriff and stay on as a full-time corrections officer at the jail. That's officially when the sheriff gave up control of running the county jail."
Between 1993 and 1994, the county saw two prison wardens come and go as the prison board worked to determine how the management of the jail would be structured.
"Our first warden wanted a helper and approached me, and asked if I'd be interested in a sergeant's position," Gebauer said. "I was appointed as, at the time, the only sergeant in the prison.
"Later on down the road, it was structured so that there would be two or three more sergeant's positions to try to have one on every shift. At that point, I was considered the senior sergeant."
In 1994, Dan Shannon was hired by the prison board to take over as warden after the facility operated for several months without one.
"Shortly after he took over, he more or less told the prison board that he would need assistance in managing the prison, and requested a deputy warden's position," Gebauer said. "In 1996, I was appointed as deputy warden."

The early to mid 1990s were critical for the county prison with renovations and an addition being added to the facility.
"We had a lot of tasks and had to handle a great deal," Gebauer said. "I maintained the deputy warden's position until July of 2007 when I was appointed as warden."
The move proved to a successful one as the facility was upgraded with Gebauer now in the midst of his third year as warden.
"We're here today with a bigger jail that can hold approximately 78 inmates with roughly 41 staff members total," Gebauer said. "We went from a facility that housed a maximum of 22 inmates when I first started.
"There was a time when we had more housed out-of-county than we had in here. That's why the county took on the task of trying to build a new prison. At that time, it was $40 to $50 a day to house an inmate out of Elk County."

As the biggest department in the county as far as personnel and the largest budget, challenges are abundant.
"The biggest challenge is the continuous drug problem in the county which in turn increases the crime rate, the repeat offenders coming back," Gebauer said. "Another major problem, comparing to when I started 20 some years ago, maybe the nature of the inmates and the crimes are getting worse.
"We're seeing more violent offenders now and we house people that are in on burglary charges, assault charges, sex crimes, and those are all felonies. We see criminal homicide offenders and we're really seeing a lot of violent offenders that we have to deal with day in and day out on a regular basis."
With many inmates dependent on drugs and alcohol, that in itself presents a daunting challenge to prison employees.
"We spend the time giving them the tools while they're incarcerated to try to rehabilitate themselves so that they may get out on the outside and be a productive person," Gebauer said. "The old story holds true as you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink.
"Usually, the ones who want to partake in all the programs that we have to offer here will, and most of them probably have a good intent when they get out to be a productive person and citizen, and it just falls through and starts the whole repeat process over again."

For Gebauer, it can be difficult to call his job 'rewarding' based on the number of repeat offenders and a distressing cycle.
"But there are some that we do see make it and those are the ones that do give you the reward," Gebauer said. "We see a different side of the offender when they come in as they might be dependent on alcohol or drugs, and we'll pretty much see them at their lowest, rock bottom.
"Depending on how long they're actually with us, we'll actually see them start to clean themselves up and care about how they look, act and talk. A lot of them actually become almost a completely different person and that in itself is rewarding."
Despite a job that has its ups and downs, Gebauer said he feels the prison is being operated in an effective manner.
"I feel that administrators are only as good as the people underneath them," Gebauer said. "I have an excellent staff here and I have an excellent deputy warden in Ed Warmbrodt, and it'd be difficult to run this place without him."

Gebauer has remained active in firefighting and is currently serving the community in St. Marys as a volunteer firefighter.
A rescue captain for 12 years, Gebauer has held various elected positions within the fire department and recently successfully ran for another position within the company.
Gebauer also works part-time as a paramedic for the St. Marys Area Ambulance Service having started in 1990.
"I was actually an emergency medical technician (EMT), I took that course in 1984," Gebauer said. "I was one of few EMTs in Cameron County at that time. I maintained that and when I moved to Elk County for my job in 1988, I applied two years later in St. Marys and was hired as an EMT.
"In 1999 or 2000, I took the paramedic program and successfully passed it. Sometimes I take care of the inmates inside and I take care of the inmates on the outside too, sometimes with any mishap that they may have."
As a paramedic, Gebauer sees the job as a rewarding experience.
"You see the difference that you can make for somebody and serving the community, and the people," Gebauer said. "It can be a very depressing job because you pretty much see people at their worst, just like as the prison warden.
"Out there in the community, I'm faced with people everyday who maybe lost a loved one or are dying themselves, and those issues alone for anybody to deal with is just rough."