Posted on 01/30/2018 4:38:58 PM PST by mdittmar
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 30,2018
WASHINGTON – Defying staffing mandates and the need for increased hiring to safeguard prisons, this week the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) made public it is initiating a process of eliminating jobs within the agency. The mandate will slash roughly 14 percent of positions from correctional facilities. The proposed cuts are coming at a time of severe understaffing in most of its prisons. BOP has left thousands of authorized correctional workers’ positions vacant all year, endangering inmates in its custody, control, and care.
“President Trump came into office preaching about the need for a safer America, but instead he is putting the lives of federal law enforcement officers and our communities at risk.” said American Federation of Government Employees National President J. David Cox Sr. “The men and women who risk their lives guarding our prisons deserve proper staffing levels to ensure they can do their job and make it home safe. This mandate is bad for citizens, it's bad for prison staff, and it's bad for inmates."
The announced cuts follow BOP’s decision in 2005 to begin the “Mission Critical” initiative, which cut correctional staff across the board in all departments to a minimum number of workers necessary to operate prisons safely. Unsurprisingly, the problem with the initiative came with the lack of consideration for workers on sick leave, military service leave, and other absences.
With less correctional officers in the prisons, BOP has turned to augmentation – when there aren’t enough officers employed or scheduled that day, which means other employees such as cooks, foremen, secretaries, electricians, teachers, accountants, or counselors are “augmented” to replace officers inside the prison – to fill the gaps in staffing. This results in situations where inexperienced workers are required to work in positions they are not properly trained for. This also results in less non-custody staff able to respond to emergencies in the prison in the event of violence. Augmentation can result in one correctional worker supervising hundreds of dangerous prisoners, including terrorists, gangs, and murderers inside each facility with no backup.
“Our communities know peace only because our correctional workers take great pride in the work they do for the American people, and they do it well,” said AFGE Council of Prison Locals President Eric Young. “But it’s becoming much harder to be successful when we’re understaffed for the task at hand. President Trump declared he would be the ‘law and order’ President. Currently, we see the Administration turning a blind eye to the needs of the public servants who have dedicated their careers to safeguarding our nation’s prisons. Our hope is he will fulfill his campaign promise to these law enforcement officers and will also discontinue enriching his campaign's backers, private prisons.”
"The impact of these shortages already is hitting correctional facilities hard in middle America. U.S. Penitentiary, Lee, in southwest Virginia has seen 62 positions cut from its staff," said Brian Shoemaker, president of AFGE Local 1405. "With less correctional officers to maintain order and rehabilitate inmates, Shoemaker says it’s becoming more dangerous and difficult for his members to do their job. The prison is currently in a lockdown status because of institution disturbance. Incidences of attempted escapes where inmates were caught between the fences has been previously reported.
“I feel that the administration is setting our agency up for failure,” Shoemaker said. “As violence and recidivism rises, our staff struggles to meet accreditation requirements, and we will be blamed for these failures. Then, the Administration will point to this as an excuse to contract out our law enforcement role to the private prison industry.”
The process of contracting more correctional work to private corporations is already starting. In a recently leaked memo, the administration plans to outsource more work and more inmates to private contract prisons.
The Jan. 24 memo from Assistant Director of the Correctional Programs Division Frank Lara read: “In order to alleviate the overcrowding at Bureau of Prisons’ (BOP) institutions and to maximize the effectiveness of the private contracts, effective the date of this memorandum, please submit eligible inmates for re-designation to the Designation and Sentence Computation Center for transfer consideration to private contract facilities.”
Says AFGE’s Shoemaker, “The highly trained staff that work for this agency have already proven that we provide this essential, inherently governmental function in a much more responsible and cost-effective manner than the private industry. The historical data and evidence backs that up unquestionably. But if we allow the administration to sabotage our operations with these dangerous staffing changes and policies, I’m confident that they will use the results against us, and I’m sure the shareholders in the private prison industry will profit from it.”
Exactly. No union ever agreed with layoffs, unless it was the last thing that could keep a business open. Even then...
$71,000 yearly for each US prisoner:
Why not send them to Afghanistan for confinement..?
They could BashaBazi/boy dance their way to smokes, junkfood, maybe even a little cash.
If justice is done at the FBI, DOJ and Clinton Foundation we will need additional staffing in the federal corrections system.
Damn! The exwife, myself and two kids live on less than that!!
Agree - there are some lovely countries in Africa and Asia. Contract them to place our prisoners. If they escape, oh well, they are on another continent with no passport or id. I’m sure they will have a very pleasant stay.
Now that is an outsourcing I can get behind!
“$71,000 yearly for each US prisoner:”
Make them work and clean the roads. State employees are overpaid anyway. Send them to sh*thole countries too for cheaper rates.
That sound you hear is this union crying its eyes out.
AFGE should be ended.
The government works for us, not some damned union.
Government employees should not be allowed to unionize. If they don’t like it, they can get a real job in the private sector.
Until Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, Council 31 gets heard by the Supremes. Probably the best thing that could happen to the government is that Janus prevails.
The military can guard the soon to be new demonrat inmates at GITMO.
I’d bet money that guards are not being cut but redundant pencil pushers are the target.
I’m SHOCKED! Shocked, I tell ya.’ That this federal employee union released this hours before the State of the Union address by our President. Shocked.
I get 43K and I am not even a criminal
...roughly 14 percent of positions from correctional facilities. The proposed cuts are coming at a time of severe understaffing in most of its prisons. BOP has left thousands of authorized correctional workers' positions vacant all year, endangering inmates in its custody, control, and care.
This is about a shift to outsourced private prisons. Libs hatte those. Even the TV series "Elementary" had Sherlock Holmes bitching about it with boilerplate text. Since the greedheads at CBS no longer allow streaming outside their paid model, I no longer watch the show, or anything else in the CBS lineup. Thanks mdittmar.
I find Lucy Lui strangely attractive
Awww, pwooor wittle gov workers....did Twumpy hurting your wittle feelings.....
Welcome to Private Sector!
You’re going to have to actually work now...
...Perhaps longer than 35 hours per week...
...and no Cadillac Health Insurance...
...and no early retirement (age 55)...
Bwhahahahahahahahaahahahahahahaha
Lawyers milked that cruel and unusual punishment thing a little too much.
I don’t care if it’s a little bit cruel or unusual. Don’t do the crime and you won’t do the time.
They’ll be at Camp Cupcake.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.