Click here to download the catalog as a PDF file. To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. CORRECTIONS BEHINd THE fENCE. BRIAN DAWE W Budget Cuts And Corrections ith the economy continuing its downward spiral everybody is complaining. Budget cuts are affecting everyone’s ability one’s abilityto to get get the the job job done. done. When When corners corners get get cut in cut in corrections the potential for disaster is huge. In most jurisdictions we’re already understaffed, under trained, ill equipped and grossly outnumbered. But chances are if you’re reading this, you already know that. The question then is not what you know, but what can you do with that knowledge? Do the folks who call the shots, make the decisions and adopt policies affecting us everyday — do they know? Having been in corrections for 27 years it saddens me to realize many people don’t know the startling truth about my profession. On average a correctional officer dies before age 59. Correctional officers lose 15–20 years off their lives doing this job. We have the second highest mortality rate of any occupation. On average we live only 18 months after we retire. We deal with a communicable disease rate that’s three times that of the general population. A correctional officer can expect to be seriously assaulted at least twice during a 20-year career. Our suicide rate is 39-percent higher than any other occupation. Every year there are over 40,000 assaults on correctional staff in the USA alone. Our turnover rates have gone from 9.6-percent in 1995 to 16.3-percent in 2005 — nearly a 70-percent increase in turnover in just ten years. Experience, training and staffing are not just numbers for us, they’re our lifeline. These alarming numbers show the rising dangers we face. J 18 j O Out Of Sight —Out Of Mind ur jobs are “behind the walls” making them un-public doesn’t come cheap. seen and grossly misunderstood. We don’t get Correctional officers should be revered — few would the headlines like our brothers and sisters in dare walk where we walk. They’re due every considother public safety disciplines. Ask an elected eration befitting someone who would put the safety of official to spend an eight-hour shift behind the walls with their fellow citizens and their fellow officers before the officers who patrol our nation’s prisons, jails and deten - their own. Respect and dignity is not given, it’s earned. tion centers and they’ll quickly realize how very extraordi We earn it every day, but we do a lousy job of letting the nary these people are. If you’ve ever toured a correctional world know it. With these very difficult times budgets facility then you know what I’m saying. Many states and are tighter than ever, so we need to make certain our counties have learned the hard way the folly of trying to do voices are heard and our needs addressed. We can’t let a corrections cheaply. With failed private prisons across the lack of understanding make our jobs even more dangernation our politicians are slowly learning a valuable les- ous than already. So get active, make those calls, write son — it takes professionals to run a prison. Protecting thethose letters and spread the word. WWW.AMERICANCOPMAGAZINE.COM • JULY/AUGUST 2009 Brian Dawe is the Executive Director for The American Correctional Officer (www.americanco.org) and the American Correctional Officers Intelligence Network (www.COIntel.net). He can be reached at ACOIN1@aol.com or by calling him at 307-883-9707. j ust hoping never produces change, and awareness rarely comes by accident. We need to educate not only ourselves, but also all our social contacts. Each of us can start by researching and gathering information. We’re not merely the gatekeepers, we’re the keepers of knowledge — the knowledge of how and what makes a prison secure — and we need to share that awareness. Light A Fire Talk to your Reaching out in the union or employee community is one way to make the public more awar e of who we are an association and d what we do. see what statistical information they have on assaults, staffing your bitchin’. Write a letlevels, funding, etc. Get your facts in order ter to the editor of your local paper or seek — then call your state representative and a meeting with their editorial board. If you ask for a meeting. Go on a letter writing have talk radio in your area give them a campaign or mass emailing. Vote, or vote call, you’ll be surprised how many people against when it’s that time — but if you’re will want to talk about corrections once not a registered voter, either register, or quit you speak up.