CORRECTIONS
2019: Issues and actions
for the year ahead
Criminal Justice Reform Bill. This new legisla-
tion may have a tremendous impact on our profes-
sion. Do you know what this legislation aims to do,
and how it may impact us? Did you know that there
are proposals to reduce sentencing guidelines and
eliminate segregation? Although this bill will im-
pact the federal prison system, we can anticipate
the usual trickle-down effect and should expect
state legislators to mimic their federal counter-
parts.
BRIAN
Officer Joseph Gomes Bill. In Minnesota, legis-
DAWE
lation is being proposed to fill correctional officer
vacancies after the death of Officer Joseph Gomes. It would
have been nice if those positions had been filled before this
young officer was murdered. What can we do now to make cer-
tain our prisons and jails are properly staffed? What can be done
to make our legislators aware of the dangers and consequences
of understaffing?
PTSD and correctional officer suicide. Each year, 156 correc-
tional officers commit suicide. On average, approximately 11
are killed in the line of duty. Front-line custody staff have a 34.1
percent PTSD rate — that’s more than one third of all custody
staff! The cumulative effects of the job are incredibly damaging,
and those 156 suicides are only the ones we know about. The
above figures do not include officers who have retired and then
taken their lives, or officers who kill themselves slowly through
alcohol or substance abuse. Our suicide rate is six times higher
than the general population. Why? How do we address correc-
tional PTSD and suicide, strive for mental health awareness and
still maintain our career paths? What can we do to educate the
decision makers?
Media onslaught. A recent Google search of “correctional
officers” had 10 stories on the lead search page. Seven of the
results were of officer wrongdoing, one was about the Gomes
staffing legislation, one about an attempted sexual assault of an
officer in Maryland and the last was about a juvenile being de-
tained for the murder of an off-duty CO in Missouri. Even in this
small sampling, 70 percent of the front-page news on correc-
tional officers was negative. There was not a single story about
officers saving lives, stopping escapes, finding deadly contra-
band or just assisting inmates adjusting to life behind the walls
— not one — and these are the tasks that we do every day. What
can we do to change our image and the perception people have
of us? What can we do to counteract these negative images of
our profession?
Consolidation and privatization. Criminal justice legisla-
tion, sentence reduction, bail reform, GPS tracking, declining
inmate populations, increases in parole and probation, jail and
prison consolidation, regionalization of county jails and a re-
invigorated private prison industry are signs of difficult times
ahead for our profession. These initiatives all seek to minimize
the need for officers; it’s well known that the biggest budget
buster in corrections has always been staffing costs. Despite
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NEW JERSEY COPS
■ JANUARY 2019
increased assaults and violence behind the walls, staffing lev-
els remain under attack as many departments seek to downsize
staff and consolidate, or regionalize, facilities.
False reporting and data collection. When Departments of
Correction erroneously report staffing ratios as 5:1, the public
and legislators are led to believe that this means there is one
officer on duty for every five inmates. This allows them to ma-
nipulate and fool the public into a false sense that our prisons
and jails are adequately staffed and therefore relatively safe. The
legislators are left thinking it’s therefore acceptable to cut those
numbers and increase that ratio. This is why accurate data is
critical, and also why DOC and jail administrators nationwide
rarely give the data necessary to provide an accurate reflection
of what’s really going on behind those walls. If only the public
knew the real numbers: 40,000 assaults yearly, 80-1 staffing ra-
tios (or worse), a 34 percent PTSD rate, 156 suicides, the spread
of communicable diseases, double and triple bunking, manda-
tory overtime forcing staff to work 60 hours or more per week,
failed radios and antiquated equipment, officers having to
perform multiple jobs at the same time, deteriorating physical
structures — the list of what the politicians and public do not
know is endless.
This is a short summary of what we must combat in 2019. The
question is this: what are we going to do about it? From Maine
to Alaska, these are universal issues that we all face. Shouldn’t
we seek solutions together?
ACOIN and ONE VOICE are working with our union affili-
ates and individual officers from non-union states across the
nation. We have already begun meeting and strategizing on
how to address these issues, and we are determined to make
sure our concerns get heard. If you’re already doing all you can
to keep your head above water and don’t have time to attend
meetings or strategy sessions, your support of our efforts gives
your concerns a voice. It also helps thousands of officers who
work without any union or association by providing them with
information, strategies and intel that they would otherwise nev-
er have. If you are not a member, please join (contact acoin1@
aol.com). If you are, thank you for your support and for helping
to increase our impact and strengthen our voice.
In our business, the more we know and share, the safer we
all are.
Brian Dawe spent 16 years as a state correctional officer in Mas-
sachusetts, beginning May 31, 1982. He is a co-founder of the
Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union, administra-
tor for the Corrections and Criminal Justice Coalition and execu-
tive director for Corrections USA and the American Correctional
Officer. He is the originator and owner of the American Correc-
tional Officer Intelligence Network.