Correctional Officers and Labor Day

Labor Day, the first Monday in the month of September, is a creation of the labor movement and is dedicated to the social and economic feats and successful attributes of the American workers. It constitutes a yearly celebration as well as a national tribute to the contributions all workers have made to the strength, prosperity, and well-being of our country and as detention or correctional officers, your contributions run deep and silent without the recognition of other law enforcement agencies or entities. In this matter, you stand alone as we recognize your contributions do matter.

Often forgotten and commonly referred to as the ‘forgotten cops’ corrections and detention officers perform their duties under very multifaceted and difficult conditions. As the statistical analysis conducted are revealing, officers are working longer hours now as well as being shorthanded in an already overcrowded and hostile workplace and charged to manage or supervise a wide array of special needs prisoners ranging from the predatory species to the seriously mentally ill offenders.

The strongest tribute we can give these officers is respect – for a job well done. Given the unique psyche of these officers, we have to respect the increasingly heavy moral and legal burdens imposed by the systems that oversee such statutory responsibilities and recognize this profession to be an area where decisions and performances require unique skills and expertise knowledge on human behaviors of those incarcerated.

The priority that prison administrators place on promoting orderly and safe institutions has generated numerous stressors that correlates to the various prisoner cultural diversities, individualities or non-compliance of rules and regulations. Officers are forced to cope with countless incidents of inmate collaborative [manipulation] or confrontational characteristics, constant changes or upgrade features of facility environments and their associated technologies and of course, the upper managing practices – all relevant to an orderly and safe operation of a jail or prison. Related specifically to management practices is the fact how inmates perceive the rules designed to maintain facility order and the correctional staff who enforce them.

That is, for all practical purposes, whether inmates perceive the rules of a facility and its staff as legitimate. Whether inmates perceive the rules of a facility and its staff as legitimate could be linked to the chances of misconduct via inmate (dis)respect toward authority. In today’s trend of incarcerating younger offenders, this is a big challenge. Despite the theoretical and policy relevance, however, this particular issue has received little empirical attention in the prison industry, putting correctional officers in a continued risk of being threatened, assaulted or targeted for misplaced anger and other emotional or institutional reasons.

Not every person is suited to be a correctional or detention officer. The kind of mental and physical preparation for working inside jails and prisons are detailed and refined for handling all those complex issues that arise in these settings. This psyche deals with the penal structure ranging from the processes involved in the booking, detoxification, court hearings, convictions and incarceration and then elevated into chapters or concerns in law, human rights, ethics and organizational cultures and priorities.

Closer and further examinations reveal dealing or handling a broad array of management issues, emergencies not limited to levels of custodial care, medical and mental health care, malingering of systemic addictions and adversities and much more. Their knowledge of this unique formulary management is unquestionably deep and intense to handle their daily duties and tasks assigned.

More than just ‘prison guards’ or even street cops, they deal with repetitive critical incidents of aggression, sexual assaults or rape, extortions, hostage situations, various types of injuries or fatalities stemming from accidents, homicides and suicides, as well as other behavioral e.g. antisocial personality misconduct and behavioral challenges that is barely covered in their training. This demand or requirement forces them to deliver and perform unique situational and critical assessments as well as various treatment needs of many distinct inmate populations.

In fact, correctional officers are ardent in spirit to apply current and best practices in an environment that would cause failures if not for their individual devotion, dedication and commitment on the job. The range of tasks, responsibilities and duties covered and the high number of successful and prominent contributors applied to this profession sets them apart from other available law enforcement resources.

Officers assigned at all stages of their careers have demonstrated the willpower to gain the depth of understanding and practical information they need to approach all of the common operational and functional systems of their organizational, and ethical challenges they face. Not much has been said about the negative impacts of working inside such a negative and stressful environment.

This professional group keeps their heads above the morality of the job’s expectations with their own personal emotions close to their hearts but seldom speak out about self-inflicted damages created by the very nature of their work scope and responsibilities. Stress, sleep deprivation, physiological and psychical harm is seldom addressed until it’s too late as silence runs deep among the rank and file that keep our jails and prisons running.

Mass Incarceration versus Education and better Social Policies

Mass Incarceration – Public Enemy # 1

I read an interesting view on the myths of ‘mass incarceration’ by Pima County Attorney Barbara LaWall, in the Arizona Star opinion page, that prompted me to write this opinion on her most eloquently and accurate statement on these ‘significantly increased incarceration rates” and the facts behind them. She articulates the situation well enough for most to understand but she left out one big portion of the national debate on ‘mass incarceration’ - the solution to the problem.
Mass incarceration was part of a policy making by a group of DC based ‘think tanks’ that favored jail, detention and prison time for those who violated the law. Shortly after the end of the Vietnam War, these think-tanks promulgated penal policies for federal and state governments to impose ‘stiff drug-sentencing laws’ that carried over to repeat and habitual offenses that carried a three strikes and you’re out kind of consequence. Unfortunately, these policies have failed us badly and has taken a large amount of funding from other important element of federal and state budgets to finance and support our expanding prison systems.
There has been a major shift in Arizona law since 2006-07 that has impacted our state’s funding for prisons in the order of competing with our educational and infra-structure systems. I don’t blame the laws for committing more people into jails or prisons, that burden falls on the people who committed these violations.
County Attorney LaWall states that “Violent and repetitive crimes are the main drivers of incarceration-rate increases in Arizona.” This is true but she failed to show what drives these violent and repetitive crimes in our state. As a prosecutor, she enforces the law and does not recommend them but she has a public obligation to be part of the solution to the problem when she can articulate the reasons for our prison growth so well and clearly understands the dynamics of the criminal justice system process.
Her referral to read and understand the “complete and accurate analysis of the offenses” listed in this report titled “Prisoners in Arizona: A Profile of the Inmate Population” (azsentencing.org) to uncover the truth” is not the answer to the problem. An analysis says nothing about those incarcerated and the incarceration business is about people, not numbers. Her defense of people not being locked up for drug offenses takes away the attention why people are being locked up in the first place.
County Attorney LaWall states those inmates serving time are basically people who have “histories of felony violence, their prior criminal records and other material factors. The report shows that relatively few prisoners are locked up for drug offenses.” She then articulates who is really in our prisons but fails to state why they are in there locked up. She identifies “murderers, rapists, armed robbers, child molesters, kidnappers, prohibited possessors, gang-bangers, drive-by-shooters, repeat career burglars, auto thieves, arsonists and narco-traffickers”
Again, an accurate statement and relevant to who is being locked up. She failed again to explain, why they are locked up and instead delves into statistics that eliminate the human factor entirely.
When discussing crime and incarceration we must remember the root causes of such failures. The fact is that since the mid-80’s our schools have failed our children badly. It has in essence become a pipeline for prisons by design and operational methodologies. Social and political policies have abandoned all of us in the rural and urban areas, as we see our children struggle with finishing their schooling and lacking in academia or vocational training; impacting graduating and finding a decent job. Most children drop out and end up being incarcerated as they barely reach an 8^th grade educational level. Although some get their GED inside prison, their abilities to find a good job has been hindered by the fact they are ex-cons looking for work.
Drugs are a problem and so is idleness due to unemployment rates. Gangs have grown over the last few decades as families suffer and endure stress and anxiety that are mentally related to the lack of care for those who need medical and mental health care. Mental hospitals have closed due to lack of funding and those who suffer serious psychotic disabilities, find themselves homeless or seek other means to cope and deal with their illnesses by self-medicating themselves with drugs. These all fit the profile given by the county attorney. Finally, if the state would have spent more money on our children’s future, our educational systems and our social and economic growth for a sustained level of consistency and dependability, our mass incarceration rates would be reduced and the money spent would be a better investment in our children and their future.

http://tucson.com/news/opinion/column/guest/barbara-lawall-myths-about-crime-and-justice-in-arizona/article_75fa2ff6-43a7-511b-92bb-fff492d032c6.html