The Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Department quietly changed its employee handbook earlier this year to require corrections officers to administer CPR in serious medical emergencies — so quietly that many jail staff remain unaware of the change months later.
The sheriff’s department, which runs the jail, updated its employee handbook in January to require correctional officers to begin and continue CPR until relieved by medical staff. But only new hires have been notified of the change, meaning the vast majority of corrections officers continue to operate as if their only obligation is to call a nurse, according to Adam Chaloupka, legal counsel and president of the corrections officers’ union.
“I doubt every CO even has it, or has seen it, or has access to it,” Chaloupka said of the rule change that even he was not aware of until The Marshall Project – Cleveland showed it to him…