Fatigue causes flaws in good prison staff -

Many years ago somebody in a very powerful position recognized the fact that correctional officers need to be given some stress relief and support to endure and enhance their entire career efforts to do a job well and as designed. Many studies have been done to illustrate the need for support groups to deal with the fatigue, stress and anxiety that festers inside a dark place like a prison. In the old days, officers were allowed to take a break and work off stress by hitting the weights or taking the time out of the busy schedule to do some activities that would refresh their bodies and their minds.

As time passed by, these practices have been dissolved and done away with as multitasking; the use of the internet and the reduction in work forces has created new demands and more stress on its participants. Perhaps those days are gone and long forgotten but the symptomatic failures of this fatigue exists daily inside our prisons. In the meantime, the prison industry has grown to epic proportions that require more attention to detail and more prisoners to supervise.

In a 24/7 industry such as corrections, fatigue is a matter of fact in the officer’s life. Managing their work schedules to minimize fatigue is impossible as they work overtime to compensate for their low wages and poor benefits and raise families along the way to their goal of retirement and their individual pursuit of happiness rewards. The problem with fatigue is that is causes life and death situations that are handled poorly and cited as a contributing factor to system failures.

Even though the administration is aware of these stressful factors, they have done nothing to help the employee cope with the struggle to stay mentally awake. Despite studies that have shown productive means to motivate and refresh employee energy, the department has taken a no change stance that is catching up with them as more and more systemic failures occur throughout the state prisons. Recent audits revealed numerous deficiencies that were human caused and rarely corrected into a permanent state. Ignoring that fatigue impacts safety issues and other industry standards, there is no attempt or sign that they are willing to change their modes operandi and develop workable solutions acceptable to all involved to reduce stress, fatigue and anxiety. We already know that money is a factor but many of these solutions can be inherited by the re-allocation of resources already within the grasp of the administration.

Disciplinary is through the roof. The number of officers sleeping on the job and inattentive attitudes towards the need to be alert and monitor the technology that was installed to enhance their safety and that of the public are being ignored or put on “silenced” status. There is no sense of urgency developing and more cases of neglect or misconduct reveal the trend is not slowing down. Putting the hammer down and finding their selected “sacrificial lambs’ these officers are demoralized and frustrated to say the least. It is only logical that they will inflict this frustration and anger on each other, the administration or the prison population as there is no relief in sight creating further harm to the work environment.

Not staffing their front desks at the facility’s entrance and cutting back the number of supervisors assigned on their shifts, it has become a normal routine not to check for incoming contraband. Employees are bringing in their videos / movies, their Xboxes, their Iphones and their personal reading materials to pass the time and sometimes play a game of poker online during the lull of the night. They do this because they can and get away with it day after day after day and because they feel compelled to stay awake using these devices to keep them in such a stage as their workplace surroundings hypnotize them to a sleepy state of mind.

Working conditions feed into the fatigue factor as their control rooms are dimly lit and the ambience is quiet during certain hours of the evening and night. Falling asleep is one option as there is a severe shortage of supervisors to make their mandated rounds thus the risk is low that they will be caught. This leads to avoidance of essential tasks and alert observation of those officers working on the floor and making sure they are safe at all times.

The reason why this article was written is simply put that this is the exact same phenomena that is occurring within our Federal Aviation Administration areas with air controllers sleeping on the job. Ironically, there are many common denominators that illustrate a need to come up with a solution to improving prison safety and public safety.

Reading an article in the Yahoo News and written by the Associated Press, an article on FAA solutions to controllers sleeping on the job stated "The recommendations are based on advice from NASA and the military and in line with international air traffic control best practices," he said in a statement. Actions the FAA has taken recently to address the fatigue problem — adding a second controller on overnight shifts at more than two dozen airports and giving controllers an extra hour between work shifts — have "barely scratched the surface," he said. The FAA is reviewing the recommendations, said spokeswoman Laura Brown. Safety consultant John Goglia, a former NTSB board member said in the article "Everybody who works nights in aviation knows if you're not busy you're going to fall asleep because you're chronically fatigued," he said.

Perhaps its time that prison officials address this problem as well as there are more and more incidents of people failing to do their jobs because of the added stress and responsibilities placed on them with no relief in sight. When correctional officers fall asleep no airplane will crash or collide with each other in mid-air. The only thing that will happen is their derelict of duty to protect and serve the state, their peers and those inmates that have a constitutional right to be kept safe from escape, death, harm or injuries.

One might have gathered that what has been described here is a vicious cycle of events that precipitate the cause and effect theory as those who are fatigues are those who fought valiantly and courageously to keep things going as their partners fell along the way. This is not uncommon in such an environment and is becoming an epidemic until the systems that create fatigue are fixed.

An endless cycle that wears out the best of the best as time goes on based on cause and effect