Reality Check
I know I've been talking a lot about work, but I feel the need to let people know what happens in prisons. It's a misunderstood profession being a Correctional Officer. It's seen as an easy job, like all we do is watch people in a cell then go home. The community is apathetic to the corrections system in general, citing it as the reason for recidivism while simultaneously making harsher laws and cutting the budget.
Yay, we balanced the budget and got even tougher on crime. Now we have XX,XXX more people in prison and half the budget to work with.
Make no mistake, this has a lot to do with what happens behind the walls (or fences). More inmates, less money to spend keeping them but they have rights that must be maintained. What suffers in that equation is the staff. Less equipment, less benefits, less pay (no raises, rather), experienced staff leaving and all of this with the need to supervise MORE people. Then the inmates suffer. Disgruntled employees and rookies are bad to mix. Bad. It gets to the point where Higher Ups tell people to deal with it, break policy, and just get the job done. No one can make the legislature give more money and the inmates MUST have their rights.
I'm not mocking the rights of people in prison. What happens is that eventually security gets pushed aside in order to get results. This is bad for everyone.
Monday, June 11th 2007 is the four year anniversary of Darla Lathrem's murder. She was killed with a sledge hammer in A-Dorm and locked in a utility closet in 3-Quad. I walk by her memorial every workday. I also do security checks in the dorm and quad she was murdered. It is her tomb. 3 inmates killed her in an escape attempt. They also killed another inmate who refused to be apart of the escape plan. Darla was supervising 5 inmates with tools (including the hammer) alone at night. She was not wearing a body alarm. She was not the one who violated policy. She was told to do this and she complied. She followed orders from Higher Ups who refused to defy the insane, money obsessed Higher Higher Ups and fight for the safety of their officers. The DOC helped kill Darla.
I didn't work for the DOC when Darla was killed, but I cry almost every time I think of her. I cry because I see myself where she is, I imagine that she could have been here to help train me when I was hired. I work for these people as a stepping stone to a better place, and I do not want to die. I do not want to die like that. Hopefully I will be able to do something to help the DOC work toward a better future, one that doesn't always consider money as the end-all-be-all. I've seen what the real end-all is.
It's that mop closet.
Yay, we balanced the budget and got even tougher on crime. Now we have XX,XXX more people in prison and half the budget to work with.
Make no mistake, this has a lot to do with what happens behind the walls (or fences). More inmates, less money to spend keeping them but they have rights that must be maintained. What suffers in that equation is the staff. Less equipment, less benefits, less pay (no raises, rather), experienced staff leaving and all of this with the need to supervise MORE people. Then the inmates suffer. Disgruntled employees and rookies are bad to mix. Bad. It gets to the point where Higher Ups tell people to deal with it, break policy, and just get the job done. No one can make the legislature give more money and the inmates MUST have their rights.
I'm not mocking the rights of people in prison. What happens is that eventually security gets pushed aside in order to get results. This is bad for everyone.
Monday, June 11th 2007 is the four year anniversary of Darla Lathrem's murder. She was killed with a sledge hammer in A-Dorm and locked in a utility closet in 3-Quad. I walk by her memorial every workday. I also do security checks in the dorm and quad she was murdered. It is her tomb. 3 inmates killed her in an escape attempt. They also killed another inmate who refused to be apart of the escape plan. Darla was supervising 5 inmates with tools (including the hammer) alone at night. She was not wearing a body alarm. She was not the one who violated policy. She was told to do this and she complied. She followed orders from Higher Ups who refused to defy the insane, money obsessed Higher Higher Ups and fight for the safety of their officers. The DOC helped kill Darla.
I didn't work for the DOC when Darla was killed, but I cry almost every time I think of her. I cry because I see myself where she is, I imagine that she could have been here to help train me when I was hired. I work for these people as a stepping stone to a better place, and I do not want to die. I do not want to die like that. Hopefully I will be able to do something to help the DOC work toward a better future, one that doesn't always consider money as the end-all-be-all. I've seen what the real end-all is.
It's that mop closet.