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BY RUTHANN ROBINSON
rrobinson@nwitimes.com
219.662.5331 | Monday, November 27, 2006 | (No comments posted.)
CROWN POINT | She's the first female, black corrections officer to become warden of the Lake County Jail -- and she survived the transition from Sheriff John Buncich to Sheriff Rogelio "Roy" Dominguez.
But she said she also has been an out-of-work, single mother of four who fed her family on $10 a week.
That could be why Caren Jones takes her promise to the community so seriously.
"The sheriff's department is all about 'to protect and serve,'" Jones said. "Trouble is, everyone wants to forget the last line. I think protecting is easier when you do serve. I've been blessed, and I believe to whom much is given, much is required."
Jones counts her parents as her heroes. They came from Arkansas with five children so her dad could work in the steel mills.
"You know the saying, 'We were poor but we didn't know it?' That was us," she said. "I had a good foundation. I learned right from wrong. I learned never to miss school. I learned to share. And I learned it was OK because momma said it was OK."
Her parents made sure all their children graduated from high school because they never did. Jones said she benefitted from being one of 10 children.
"Having that many brothers and sisters, you see every personality known to man," she said.
Jones married at 21. In two years, she had three children -- twin girls then a boy 13 months later. The marriage proved rocky, and Jones said she divorced her husband when the girls were 4 and her son was 3.
"I figured, why should you suffer when others are being healed? But it was one of the hardest things I ever went through," she said.
While working as a computer operator, Jones fell in love and became pregnant at 32.
Having a child out of wedlock was no picnic, Jones said.
"They (hospital personnel) talked to me horribly," Jones said.
Months later, she was laid off from her job.
"I do know how to feed a family of five on $10 a week," Jones said, rattling off her purchases and the prices of each.
Her former sister-in-law told Jones about the police cadet program in which she could get a certificate while working part time at the East Chicago Police Department. When she developed a medical condition, though, she needed benefits. Jones heard they were hiring corrections officers, and though it wasn't her dream job, she decided to apply.
"The first day I came here I thought, 'This is an insane asylum,'" Jones said.
Jones joined the department in 1988, working midnights while going to school. She remembers trying to leave the house one night and having to remove her 2-year-old daughter, who was blocking the door, screaming "Mommy. Don't leave."
Between the conditions at the jail and her children, she almost quit, thinking, "You don't have to work at nothing like this. But then I heard a voice that said. 'Somebody needs to change it and that somebody is you,' " Jones said.
So she continued -- working full time, going to school and taking care of four children on three to four hours of sleep at night for three years.
Figuring the only way to change something was from the inside out, Jones said she joined the union, and within five years was the president. When Buncich came to talk to the union about his campaign to be sheriff, she insisted he put his promises in writing. One of them was to allow a corrections officer to become assistant warden.
She remembers being in Buncich's office one day when he said it was time to hire a minority to be a deputy warden.
Jones got the job.
When Warden Robert Piskoty stepped down, Jones moved into her present role as warden.
And when Dominguez won the election, like everyone else, Jones had to be interviewed for her own job. He decided to keep her on.
Jones admits it was strenuous getting used to someone else, but eventually everyone was on the same page.
And her successes have transcended those of a professional nature.
Her twin daughters are doctors. Her son earned a degree in sociology, and her youngest daughter is ready to enter law school.
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