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Date Posted: 17:40:40 12/01/08 Mon Find a Local Business Search Goldbook.ca Search thespec.com Search the Web Advanced Search | Full Text Article Archive HOME NEWS SPORTS Go A & E OPINION MULTIMEDIA COLUMNS & BLOGS OBITUARIES AUTO CLASSIFIEDS RSS Have Your Say blog | Submit a Letter to the Editor TheSpec.com - Opinions - Police culture breeds harassment Police culture breeds harassment Ron Albertson, the Hamilton Spectator 1 Ron Albertson, the Hamilton Spectator Ron Albertson, the Hamilton Spectator Email story Choose text size Report typo or correction Email the author More Stories • A reason to celebrate • Editorial Cartoon • Other voices • Even without a seat, Tory is strong ... • The man who made Harvey MilkPolicing is about power - and sometimes that means power over women November 28, 2008 Krista Warnke The Hamilton Spectator (Nov 28, 2008) How does police culture contribute to the sexual harassment of women? Several stories involving Hamilton police officers and complaints of sexual harassment have made it to the pages of this newspaper over the years. Most recently, Kevin Dhinsa, a veteran police officer, was accused in 2006 of sexually harassing 12 female colleagues, but the allegations were never resolved because of a missed filing deadline. He has not been found guilty of any wrongdoing and is entitled to return to his job. Before him, there was Craig Galassi, who pleaded guilty two years ago to assaulting his live-in girlfriend. A 20-year veteran of Hamilton Police Service, he was fired in 2001 after being convicted of waving his gun at another officer and being found guilty of Police Act charges of discreditable conduct for, among other things, leaving a dead cat on the hood of another officer's vehicle and showing a female officer his pierced scrotum. He subsequently faced additional criminal charges arising from allegations by his former live-in girlfriend. Those charges were stayed in 2004 because the process took too long (eerily reminiscent of the Dhinsa case); the Crown appealed, and in 2006 Galassi pleaded guilty to the one charge. Charges of sexual assault, pointing a firearm, unlawful use of a firearm, assault causing bodily harm, assault with a weapon and breach of probation were dropped. There was also Charles Bamlett, a former Hamilton police sergeant who retired to avoid facing 26 Police Act charges of sexual harassment and drinking on the job -- only to land a new job in 2000 with the Canadian Forces as a sexual harassment investigator. These are but three cases. Given that most allegations of sexual harassment go unreported, I cannot help but wonder how many others there might be. How many female police officers have heard comments about "that time of the month," have been judged by the "sexiness" of their appearance or heard praise for their work muted by "even though you are a woman." How many have been given the "soft" assignments or been challenged on their physical strength? How many have faced initiations of condoms in their locker or pornographic images hidden in a desk drawer? How many have been told to "toughen up" and that they must "learn to take a joke"? There appears to be something about police culture, in Hamilton and elsewhere, that fosters patterns of demeaning behaviours toward women. U.S. statistics -- which may not be applicable in Canada generally or Hamilton specifically -- show that domestic abuse by American police officers is about 10 times higher than in the rest of the population. The numbers involving police are so dramatic that educational materials have been developed to bring awareness to this specific form of woman abuse. The National Center on Domestic and Sexual Violence, in Austin, Texas, has created the Police Perpetrated Domestic Violence power and control wheel to show some of the tactics used specifically by police officers. (When CBC's former Disclosure program reported that in 2002, it also reported it found Hamilton Police Service had investigated 31 cases of domestic abuse among its 717 officers in the previous three years. Five of those resulted in criminal charges.) Sexual harassment, like other acts of violence against women, is an act of domination, humiliation and control that is used to maintain power. Power can be characterized in three ways: power from within, power with others and power over. Power from within is the ability to influence and take action based on intention, confidence, conviction, clarity of vision, assertiveness or charisma. Power with others is the ability to influence and take action based on uniting with others; it's the power that comes from community, solidarity, co-operation. Power over is often how we traditionally think about power -- the ability to get someone to do something against their will; using rewards, punishments and manipulation to force someone to do something they do not choose. Policing institutions are, in fact, systems of paramilitary power over. They are socially sanctioned to exercise reasonable control over persons and property in order to protect the public's health and safety. Police officers are necessarily trained in the use of power over. Generally, what makes a good police officer can also make him a dangerous harasser. He knows how to intimidate by presence alone, using his uniform, his stance, his voice. He can use his "command" or "interrogation" voice to intimidate or to threaten more effectively. He has been trained to use his body, if necessary, as a weapon. He knows how to use arm locks and choke holds -- policing techniques of last resort -- to subdue without leaving marks or bruises. He has a gun. There seems no point in reporting harassment by a police officer. The brotherhood of fellow officers is likely to believe him over her. And a brotherhood it is. Women represent only 17 per cent of the 61,050 police officers in Canada, according to a 2006 report by the Police Sector Council. Moreover, women are relatively new to policing as 74 per cent of them have less than 15 years of experience. Police services are systems of male power. Inherent in this culture of male power over is the potential for the abuse of power, which, in the end, is what sexual harassment is about. The subject of police culture in relation to police-perpetrated sexual harassment is not new to the Hamilton Police Service. Women's advocates have been raising the issue for many years, particularly whenever a police officer was charged with sexual harassment, sexual assault or domestic violence. Changing the culture, however, is the challenge that remains. The Hamilton Police Service has taken positive steps to become more inclusive to women by increasing their recruitment efforts and hiring more women. Now they need to create a barrier-free workplace. Reaching this goal requires police services to acknowledge that sexism exists in their organization as it does in all parts of society. They must consult with the women in their organization -- listen to them, learn from them and implement a servicewide antisexism training program based on their input. Only then will the Hamilton Police Service make meaningful progress in changing their male-dominated power-over culture to one that includes female police officers who do not experience sexual harassment in the workplace. Krista Warnke is public education co-ordinator at the Sexual Assault Centre (Hamilton and Area |
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| Subject: Time to show some support.. www.coolrunningcom/major/08/barnes | |
Author: 3D [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 14:14:10 10/16/08 Thu LOWELL -- Jason Barnes went out for a run the morning of the day he died. So it's only appropriate that when his friends and co-workers wanted to hold a fundraiser to benefit the education fund established for Barnes' young son, they decided on a road race. If Barnes' unexpected death last October wasn't enough of a blow to his family and friends, he left a 4-year-old son, Dylan, who is recovering from two brain surgeries to remove brain tumors. Dylan, now 5, was 16 months when the first tumor was discovered. His parents, Jason and his girlfriend, Dana Ashton, noticed Dylan was sleeping too much and they were having a hard time waking him. The tumor was removed at Children's Hospital, but it returned and he underwent surgery again in November 2006. He has been fine since then, though his peripheral vision has been affected. "He came through it like a trouper," said Hugh Barnes', Jason's father and Dylan's grandfather. But as Dylan's health improves, he faces a future without his father. Jason Barnes, who lived in Lowell and was a corrections officer at MCI-Concord for eight years, died last Oct. 26 at the age of 29 from what his father said was ruled as acute intoxication. "He made an error in judgment," Hugh Barnes said of his son. "It was a bad decision. It's a shame because he was healthy as a bull." Jason Barnes grew up in Waltham and was a high-school football and wrestling star before he moved to Lowell after he became a corrections officer. He was a Marine who was activated in December 2001 with the reserves before being honorably discharged in 2005. Regardless of the circumstances of his death, Barnes' son is still without a father and facing a difficult financial future. That's where the road race comes in. Shaun Cremin of Lowell, a friend of Jason and a sergeant at MCI-Concord, is planning the 5-kilometer race for Sunday, Nov. 2, starting at 11 a.m., at the Lowell Elks on Old Ferry Road. Hugh Barnes said his family is overwhelmed by the generosity Jason's friends and co-workers at MCI-Concord have shown. "It's fantastic that they'd do something to help ease Dylan's pain and give him a solid chance of having a good education," he said. "It's a real show of support from the guys in Concord, and not just financially. They've really supported us in a big way, and we still consider them family." Pre-entry for the Jason Barnes Memorial 5K Road Race is $20; the fee is $25 the day of the race. Mail checks to Jason Barnes Memorial, 63 Shawmut Ave., Lowell, MA 01851. For more information on the race, go to www.coolrunningcom/major/08/barnes. |
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| Subject: TROUBLE WITH 40 CALIBER | |
Author: THE BIG GUY [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 20:02:18 01/28/09 Wed ANYONE WILLING TO TEACHTHIS CAT OF 22 YEARS TO SHOOT THAT 40 CALIBER.I'M SO USED TO SHOOTING THAT 38.GONE THREE TIMES WITH JUST MISSING THE QUALIFICATIONS. WILLING TO PAY--LEAVE YOUR E---MAIL THANKS THE BIG GUY |
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| Subject: Guess this is a new board. | |
Author: coII [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 15:54:10 08/31/06 Thu I'll keep checking in to see when it pick ups.. hope it works |
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| Subject: CARRY OR NOT | |
Author: JH [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 10:36:44 09/29/08 Mon Off-Duty Officer Survival Survival is a 24-Hour a day mission Carry enough gun. Full-sized Kimber SIS pistol in high ride strong-side holster conceals well under loose fitting shirt. Kevin Davis Author's off-duty pelvic pack contains Glock 19, spare mag, mini-flashlight and flexcuff. Whether you work eight, ten, or twelve hour shifts you're off-duty more than on. For a variety of reasons you should avoid becoming involved in incidents off-duty. Firearms and tactics trainer Massad Ayoob has pointed out that on duty you have: body armor, a full-size duty pistol with two spare magazines and possibly a back-up gun, access to a shotgun or patrol carbine, and a partner or the ability to call on the radio for assistance. Off-duty it is quite possibly just you and whatever off-duty firearm/ammunition you're carrying on your person. You probably have a cell phone but certainly not the quick response communication that a radio affords. One of my mentors in the law enforcement survival training arena is retired Detroit P.D. Sgt. Evan Marshall. I always read Evan's Street Smarts columns in the magazine Combat Handguns (going back to the early 1980s). To me, Evan, who had his share of armed encounters while working as a Motor City copper, always had a way of making tactics and survival concepts simple. Evan was always armed off-duty and it paid off for him on more than one occasion. Several incidents that I remember Sgt. Marshall relating while off-duty had nothing to do with work as a police officer but were with subjects that either attempted to assault or attack him while he was in street clothes. Evan would always caution against becoming involved in off-duty encounters whenever possible. He recommended that you be the best witness and call it in for the on duty troops to handle. That advice holds true today as well but you should be as ready off-duty as on to thwart any attempt to attack you. Mind-Set The stressors of law enforcement are huge and oftentimes the last thing you want to do is put that off-duty gun on or stay as dialed in off shift as on but you must. When Officer Ken Hammond from the Ogden Utah Police Department was at the Trolley Station Mall treating his wife to a Valentine’s Day dinner in 2007, the last thing that he wanted to do was get involved in a gunfight. But thank God Officer Hammond had his head in survival mode on that day when miscreant Sulejman Talovic entered the mall with a shotgun and a .38 as well as a backpack full of ammo. It was only Officer Hammond's dedication to duty that lead him to investigate the sound of gunfire and to exchange shots with the gunman stopping the suspect's murderous assault. Being off-duty means that sometimes the trouble comes to you - whether you are ready or not. Being armed as well as mentally prepared puts you at a huge advantage versus being un-armed and caught off-guard. What to Carry Sgt. Marshall would advise you that carrying a decent sized pistol with spare ammunition in a holster that is close to your duty mode of carry would be more tactically sound than carrying a small caliber "mouse gun" where you can't get to it. Yes, carrying a decent sized pistol means that your wardrobe is affected and carrying spare ammo is one more thing to lug around. The alternative of a five-shot revolver with no spare ammo means that if you hit with only 20% of your shots, one .38 Spl. hits your suspect (hardly a wise bet...). Quickly blast through those five shots and you're left with a short club or a bad boomerang. Identifying Yourself Remember that on-duty officers may be responding to a "man with a gun" call and cannot readily identify you as a good guy. For that reason, anticipate that on-duty coppers may point their pistols at you and give you orders to put your gun down and get face down on the deck. It might be advantageous to have your pistol holstered for this reason but regardless, be ready and follow commands so you don't get shot by the good guys. This is also another reason why you should not pursue when off-duty in plainclothes (or while on-duty in plainclothes - avoid or put out a "plainclothes officers in pursuit" to advise patrol officers). Have a Plan Talk to your family about what to expect if an armed encounter happens while you're off-duty. Work through tactics such as: moving away from you (bullets might be coming in your direction); communicating to dispatch who you are and what you're wearing (Ken Hammond's dispatcher wife had to do this); maybe come up with a code word that means trouble; get away and call help. Go over with your family or significant other that when you give instructions such as "Get down!" or "Run!" they shouldn't question you but rather respond immediately. Transitioning from Off-Duty to On-Duty When you say the magic words "You're under arrest," or "I'm a police officer" you go from off-duty status to on-duty and have all the same arrest powers that your state law allows while operating in or out of your jurisdiction You should consult with your agency legal advisor to find out specific limitations on out of jurisdiction off-duty enforcement actions. You also must follow agency policies on use of force, reporting and other procedures. This doesn't mean that when you get involved in a drunken brawl off-duty and are loosing you then try to arrest the other half. But if the action is such that you are clearly operating under color of law you have agency legal protection and workman's compensation coverage. Once again, I strongly recommend against off-duty enforcement activity but if trouble finds you or you must act to save another, you do have legal protection. I've heeded Evan Marshall's advice my entire career and it has helped save my bacon on numerous occasions on duty and off and I've thanked him in person for his contributions to my survival. The lessons were important and I pass them on to you: Avoid if possible; Carry a gun because you never know; Carry enough gun; Carry spare ammo; Talk and Plan with your family about what you'll do and what they should do before it happens and pay attention to what's going on around you. On-duty or off the mission is clear - plan and train for it and then WIN it! |
| Subject: The Impact of Stress On Police Officers | |
Author: ll [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 10:03:44 09/28/08 Sun Policing is dangerous work, and the danger lurks not on the streets alone. The pressures of law enforcement put officers at risk for high blood pressure, insomnia, increased levels of destructive stress hormones, heart problems, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and suicide, University at Buffalo researchers have found through a decade of studies of police officers. UB researchers now are carrying out one of the first large-scale investigations on how the stress of police work affects an officer's physical and mental health, funded by a $1.75 million grant from the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH). The National Institute of Justice added $750,000 to the study to measure police officer fatigue and the impact of shift work on health and performance. John M. Violanti, Ph.D., research associate professor in UB's Department of Social and Preventive Medicine in the School of Public Health and Health Professions, is principal researcher of the study, called the Buffalo Cardio-Metabolic Occupational Police Stress (BCOPS) study. More than 400 police officers have participated in the study to date, with the researchers aiming for 500. The clinical examination involves questionnaires on lifestyle and psychological factors such as depression and PTSD, in addition to measures of bone density and body composition, ultrasounds of brachial and carotid arteries, salivary cortisol samples and blood samples. The officers also wear a small electronic device to measure the quantity and quality of sleep throughout a typical police shift cycle. Results from Violanti's pilot studies have shown, among other findings, that officers over age 40 had a higher 10-year risk of a coronary event compared to average national standards; 72 percent of female officers and 43 percent of male officers, had higher-than-recommended cholesterol levels; and police officers as a group had higher-than-average pulse rates and diastolic blood pressure. "Policing is a psychologically stressful work environment filled with danger, high demands, ambiguity in work encounters, human misery and exposure to death," said Violanti, a 23-year veteran of the New York State Police. "We anticipate that data from this research will lead to police-department-centered interventions to reduce the risk of disease in this stressful occupation." Violanti and colleagues are using measures of cortisol, known as the "stress hormone," to determine if stress is associated with physiological risk factors that can lead to serious health problems such as diabetes and cardiovascular disease. "When cortisol becomes dysregulated due to chronic stress, it opens a person to disease," said Violanti. "The body becomes physiologically unbalanced, organs are attacked, and the immune system is compromised as well. It's unfortunate, but that's what stress does to us." The investigation's two most recent studies report on the effect of shift work on stress and suicide risk in police officers, and on male/female differences in stress and possible signs of cardiovascular disease. Results of the shift work pilot study, involving 115 randomly selected officers, showed that suicidal thoughts were higher in women working the day shift, and in men working the afternoon/night shifts. The findings appear online in the October issue of the American Journal of Industrial Medicine. Data showed that 23 percent of male and 25 percent of female officers reported more suicidal thoughts than the general population (13.5 percent). In a previous study, suicide rates were three times higher in police than in other municipal workers, Violanti found. The findings, that in women officers working day shifts were more likely to be related to depression and suicide ideation, while in men working the afternoon or night shift was related to PTSD and depression, were surprising, said Violanti. "We thought both men and women officers would be negatively affected by midnight shifts." "It's possible women may feel more uneasy and stressed in a daytime shift, where there can be more opportunity for conflict and a negative environment," he said. "On the other hand, higher suicide ideation reported by males on the midnight shift may be accounted for in part by a stronger need to be part of the social cohesiveness associated with peers in the police organization. Working alone at night without the support of immediate backup can be stressful," he said. "There also is the problem of physiological disruption of circadian rhythms. Being awake all night while one should be sleeping can affect judgment and decision making. The combination of these two has a double-barreled stress effect." Violanti is planning to conduct a longitudinal study of the effects of shift work on officers, and has received additional funds from NIOSH to study the effects of shift work on cancer risk. The stress and blood vessel reactivity research found that females had higher cortisol levels upon awakening, and that levels remained high throughout the day. Normally, cortisol is highest in the morning and decreases to a low point in the evening. These constantly high cortisol levels were associated with less arterial elasticity, a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. This study is in press in Psychiatry Research. Violanti said these findings, once again, reflect the impact of police work on women officers. "Women police officers are probably under more stress than male officers. It's still basically a male occupation, and women can feel socially isolated on the job. Also, most women have more home responsibilities to worry about – family, child care." Publishing papers and conducting studies about stress may not change police departments overnight, Violanti admits, but it is one way of getting the message out that the negative effects of stress must be acknowledged, de-stigmatized and treated. "Intervention is necessary to help officers deal with this difficult and stressful occupation," he said. "We want to educate them on how to survive 25 years of police work. They need to learn how to relax, how to think differently about things they experience as a cop. There is such a thing as post-traumatic growth. People can grow in a positive way and be better cops and persons after they survive the trauma of police work. That is an important message." The University at Buffalo is a premier research-intensive public university, a flagship institution in the State University of New York system and its largest and most comprehensive campus. UB's more than 28,000 students pursue their academic interests through more than 300 undergraduate, graduate and professional degree programs. Founded in 1846, the University at Buffalo is a member of the Association of American Universities. The School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, School of Dental Medicine, School of Nursing, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and School of Public Health and Health Professions are the five schools that constitute UB's Academic Health Center. |
| Subject: Job Openings | |
Author: wdc [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 12:38:37 03/05/08 Wed WYATT DETENTION FACILITY CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS The Wyatt Detention Facility is accepting applications for its next Correctional Officer Training Academy. Applications available at The Wyatt Training Center from Monday, March 3, until Wednesday, March, 21, 2008. Between 8AM-4PM. Applicants must apply in person, be 21 years of age, motivated, be of good character with no criminal history. Wyatt Detention Facility, 950 High Street, Central Falls, RI 02863. Minorities, Females and Spanish speaking individuals are encouraged to apply. EOE |
| Subject: Symbols and Logos Used by Pedophiles to Identify Sexual Preferences | |
Author: FBI [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 09:24:35 03/04/08 Tue http://www.northcountrygazette.net/documents/FBI-CyberDivision-PedophileSymbols.pdf |
| Subject: Happy Holidays | |
Author:  board_administrator[ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 11:30:55 12/23/07 Sun A moment to say Hi! And thanks to all who do this job, and for doing what you do. Unfortunately some won’t be able to be there in the morning or at night with their families during these holidays, As we have to secure the rest of society from these convicted felons. To all out there no matter where you are be safe and have a happy, Holiday season and be thankful for what you have and what you get. Hope all look forward to a better year in 08. Bless all of you for doing such a thankless job. |
| Subject: reading | |
Author: for fun [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 03:14:57 11/20/07 Tue CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS IN A CHANGING ENVIRONMENT 21st CENTURY – USA JESS MAGHAN Professor and Director Forum for Comparative Correction 23 Old Depot Road Chester, Connecticut – 06412-1215 Phone/860-526-4324 – Email jessmaghan@snet.net 2 CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS AND STAFF Jess Maghan Delving into the past we often find striking similarities to situations in the present. In the wake of the Attica (New York) Penitentiary riot in 1971, the social structure of American prisons changed drastically around the issues of race and the prisoner rights movement. Today, the racial demographics of the American prison population once again mirror deeper social problems, problems that correctional agencies and correctional staff are increasingly being asked to address. Moreover, the massive re-emergence of contractual private- for-profit prisons raises important new questions about the purpose and scope of incarceration in the United States. Other problems suc h as overcrowding, gang activities, institutional violence, forced overtime, complexity of operational technology, and insufficient training are listed as key factors in the increasing work-related stress of Correctional Officers. In this sense, many officers and staff feel that correctional work is more stressful now than ever before. The modern correctional environment, no matter whether by choice or circumstance, confines both its employees and the inmates. Principally members of the social and economic underclass constitute the contemporary inmate population; these are often people with acute nutritional, developmental, neurological, and mental and general health problems. Primarily minorities and women, typically they have had little or no previous access to consistent health care services. Thus making them prone to a wide range of communicable diseases such as substance abuse and drug addiction, sexually transmitted disease groups (STDs), hepatitis, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and a full range of psychological health problems. Practical information has led in recent years to efforts that seek to identify bases for assisting staff in classifying and treating high-risk from low-risk offenders. In this respect, the value of policy-relevant research has become increasingly apparent to firstline officers and staff. As a major factor in American life, the corrections system can no longer survive as a closed system but instead needs to be able to anticipate change and respond rapidly to fluctuating resources, demographics and demands. The bi-polar prison of the past has been transformed into modern-day, and complex tri-polar prison consisting of inmates, officers, and administration now drawn together in the interplay of new generation custodial exigencies. Moreover, the concerns of both internal employees and external communities must also be accommodated. There is an emergent and important awareness of the organizational development of modern prisons. Specifically, the conditions-of-confinement for inmates, and thus the conditions-ofwork for Correctional Officers and staff, provide the vital framework for building a workforce that better serves the mission of modern corrections – maintaining secure, safe, and humane correctional facilities. 3 NEW DIRECTIONS The Attica uprising made it abundantly clear that the Correctional Officers and staff of the nation’s state and local correctional facilities were not being appropriately selected and trained. At that turbulent time, the prison was viewed from the perspective of society, inmates, administration, scholars, victims, or from a philosophical standpoint. Rarely, if at all, were the views of Correctional Officers and staff included in these perspectives. Nonetheless, the American civil rights movement of the 1960s and 1970s was destined to permeate the prison walls and to profoundly effect both the keeper and the kept. In the prisons, it was the Black Muslims who carried the torch of black protest behind the prison walls. The Attica uprising also added considerable impetus to the nascent prisoner rights movement. However, the new prisoner rights movement was not comprised solely of prisoners. It depended heavily on the involvement and efforts of free citizens, particularly lawyers and reinvigorated prison reform groups. Heretofore, the federal judiciary had adhered to a “hands off” attitude toward prison cases out of concern for federalism and separation of powers. The ensuing cases that served to reverse this judicial “hands off” purview have permanently altered both the legal status of inmates and Correctional Officers and staff. They serve as the primogeniture of modern penology. [See: Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539 (1974); Dothard v. Rawlison, 433 U.S. 321 (1977); Bell v. Wolfish. 520 (1979); Ruiz v. Estelle, 503 F.Supp. 1265 (S.D. Tex. 1980); Rhodes v. Chapman, 452 U.S. 337 (1981).] In the throes of these dynamic times, the Correctional Officer became at last a legitimate subject of scholarly research and interest. David Fogel’s We are the Living Proof, Leo Carroll’s Hacks, Blacks and Cons, James B. Jacobs’ Stateville: The Penitentiary in Mass Society, Lucien Lombardo’s Guards Imprisoned: Correctional Officers at Work, Robert Johnson and Shelly Price, The Complete Correctional Officer, Human Service and the Human Environment of Prison, and Lynn Zimmer’s, Women Guarding Men are hallmarks of the early scholarly research on the Correctional officer. In fact, the very term “Correctional Officer” was adopted during the 1970s as the official occupational reference term utilized by the U.S. Department of Labor replacing the archaic denomination of “Keeper” and “Guard.” Today there is a growing and viable interest in further developing an appropriate role for Correctional Officers and staff. The job of the Correctional Officer has remained essentially the same for the past 150 years: care, custody and control. The preferred ways of performing this job, however, have undergone considerable stress and role definition in the development of modern penology. The occupation Correctional Officer is now available to both men and women, and officially established with defined by rules and regulations (Civil Rights Act, Title VII, as Amended - 1972). Formal oversight is given to the recruitment and qualifications for employment and the hiring system itself, especially as it involves civil service exams, the use of merit boards, or direct hiring by institutions. A specific hiring process has profound effect on the retention of Correctional Officers. Likewise, the matters of entry salary, increments, overtime and hazardous duty pay, pension plans, and recognition as public safety “peace officer” status by state law also shapes the process of recruitment and long-term retention. 4 CARE, CUSTODY, AND CONTROL Where do correctional officers and staff come from? What are their social and occupational aspirations? How are they selected, nurtured, and trained to perform their duties? How are they socialized into the occupation of Correctional Officer? What is the influence of the occupational culture on the individual officer? These are some of the most compelling questions guiding the research on men and women correctional staff both in the United States and globally. Correctional Officers and staff ensure the public safety by providing for the care, custody, control, and maintenance of inmates. Most institutions require that Correctional Officers be at least 18 years or 21 years of age, have a high school education or its equivalent, have no felony convictions, and be a United States citizen. As with the police, many correctional departments are placing greater emphasis on bachelor and master degree attainment in the hiring and promotional process. Institutions of higher education are developing specific correctional degree programs, especially at the master degree level. Correctional Officers are charged with overseeing individuals who have been arrested, are awaiting trial or other hearing, or who have been convicted of a crime and sentenced to serve time in a jail, reformatory, or penitentiary. They maintain security and observe inmate conduct and behavior to prevent disturbances and escapes. The more general duties of Correctional Officers and staff require them to manage and communicate with inmates, peers and supervisors, direct inmate movement, maintain key, tool, and equipment control, distribute authorized items to inmates, as well as maintain health, safety, and sanitation. Federal, State and local departments of corrections provide training for correctional officers based on standards and guidelines promulgated by the American Correctional Association, the American Jail Association, and the National Sheriffs Association. Among the numerous demands on the special training Correctional Officers have to undergo, the development of interpersonal communication skills have become the life-blood of effective Correctional Officer performance. This includes the capacity to understand the full range of inmate (verbal and nonverbal) modes of communication: the culture, the slang, the signals, the threat, and the fear that abounds. Correctional Officer and staff training programs include a wide array of instruction. Typical training topics are: constitutional law and cultural awareness, inmate behavior, contraband control, custody and security procedures; fire and safety; inmate legal rights, written and oral communication, use-of-force, first aid, including cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), and physical fitness training. 5 ECOLOGY AND PERFORMANCE The correctional facility itself serves as a tangible frame of reference for orienting new staff and maintaining standards of performance for both new and incumbent staff. The architectural design and built-environment of correctional facilities, both traditional and new generation facilities, govern the interactions of all people – inmates and staff – within the confines of prison walls. These physical plant features are often conducive to the development of the training process providing innovative resources for on-the-job training, field applications, simulation, and emergency preparedness training. Conversely, the physical plant uniquely defines the requirements of custodial regimentation, the institutional security level, the inmate classification system, and the deployment of correctional staff (officers and support personnel). The fact that Correctional Officers are locked-in and unarmed as they maintain daily custodial control is perceived only as an occupational responsibility. Moreover, the simple fact that correctional officers cannot walk away from a confrontation or crisis within the institutional setting is often overlooked. Thus, proper training and deployment of correctional officers, including the proper mix of new and seasoned officers, is of paramount importance. The deployment of the Correctional Officer workforce has also been directly affected by overcrowding. The development of custodial control mechanisms and classification systems are increasingly correlated for the containment of institutional violence. Accurate, aggressive and highly flexible inmate classification is crucial to institutional safety and inmate welfare. In this context, custodial control is not unlike the current initiatives to reinvent law enforcement through community policing programs, thus enabling both officers and inmates to perceive the mutuality of their safety concerns. The level of tension in a prison only rarely reflects the relative comfort of physical facilities or the number and extent of vocational and recreational programs; almost always it is a measure of the ability of the corrections staff to supervise and interact with inmates firmly and fairly. Correctional Officers are in a unique position because, by the nature of their job, they know the inmates and have perceptions of the inmates’ treatment needs. Historically, limitations were placed on the Correctional Officer by their inherently limited role created in the juxtaposition among professions. Correctional Officers were not encouraged to exercise discretion. Until recently, the counselors and program staff were often not interested in receiving the input of Correctional Officers. In the last decade both Correctional Officers and staff training programs have developed a core body of knowledge for inmate-contact positions. These roles are now becoming more diffused through the implementation of Unit Management and Special Housing Units within correctional facilities. Such programs require officers and staff to utilize a triage approach to care, custody and control of inmates. Topics covered in these core value curricula are: 6 ? Inmate population characteristics (including a description of sociological, ethnic and racial, cultural, psychological backgrounds, and differences) and a discussion of inmate subcultures. ? Inmate population problems, including health difficulties arising from substance abuse, HIV immune-response deficiencies, malnourishment, possible detoxification and emotional difficulties resulting in attempted suicides, severe depression and anti-social and aggressive behavior; education deficiencies. ? Basic human relations, including the development of effective communication skills (e.g., listening and non-judgmental speech) and humane methods of control and supervision. ? Methods for dealing effectively with crisis and emergency situations. When contemplating the tenets of care, custody and control, officers and staff must keep in mind that they are constantly being observed by inmates. In this context, it is critical that officers and staff understand they either represent a role model to emulate or to avoid. It is the correctional employees – custody and program staff – who must offer encouragement and help to those inmates who sincerely wish to rehabilitate their lives. NEW GENERATION TRENDS The corrections system is a residual agency. Positioned downstream from all other components of the criminal justice system, it often operates under the prey of politicians. The political nature of the correctional systems, reporting to the executive branch of government at the local, state, and federal levels, leaves it vulnerable to a host of external forces, particularly with respect to budget and operational philosophy issues. For example, during the 1990s a strong conservative political camp succeeded in achieving cutbacks in inmate educational and recreational programs and a return to more stringent custodial control, including chain gangs and forced labor. This conservative climate is also putting to the test the viability of centralized training for officers and staff. In many jurisdictions training is under the threat of cost-cutting decisions by conservative budgeteers. The traditional program staff positions of educators, chaplains, counselors, nurses, doctors, and psychologists are now fully complemented with an array of new generation staff. Many of these new positions are the direct by-products of the prisoner rights movement. These include: law librarians, inmate grievance officers, lawyers, legal aides and paralegal clerks, substance abuse counselors, AIDS counselors, parenting counselors, anger-management counselors, recreation supervisors, nutritionists, environmental health monitors, affirmative action officers, restorativejustice programmers, standards and accreditation officers, public relations officers, lobbyists, construction and contracting officers, private-prison liaison officers, US Office of Safety, Health Administration (OSHA) and collective bargaining administrators. 7 Additionally, new generation correctional facilities are also identified with corresponding institutional staffing and environmental problems. For example, many such problems are associated with the increasing incorporation of sophisticated cyber-surveillance videotechnology and the construction of super- max prisons. Veteran correctional officers and staff are now expressing concerns that these new generation facilities are becoming “incubators” ...sealed prisons... where there is little to no internal human interaction. Communication is done through microphones and wall speakers, while inmate-wristbands trigger door and gate movements and provide access to inmate programs and services. These trends portend extreme psychological deprivation on both sides of the bars. Today, most American correctional systems are also providing psychological services to Correctional Officers and staff. These programs provide expertise in the areas of job stress, selfimage, domestic-violence intervention, and alcohol abuse. In addition, Correctional Officer unions and the courts are intervening where legislatures and prison administrators are unresponsive to enlisting safe and secure working environments as a requirement for a correctional facility’s legal operation (e.g., training, retention and supervision of staff). CONTEMPORARY WORKFORCE DEMOGRAPHICS In the United States the current national (State and local) correctional workforce is approximately 617,000 officers and program staff. The Federal correctional workforce is approximately 28,500 officers and correctional staff. This does not includ e the personnel of private- for-profit prisons. At the state level, there is a higher ratio of nonwhite to white Correction Officers mostly in the southern states, with the exception of the District of Columbia (96.8%). On average, women cover 20.5% of the employees in corrections, but the rates vary from as low as 6.6% (Maine) to almost half (49.9%) in Mississippi. The situation is a bit different at the federal level according to the Federal Bureau of Prisons (U.S. Department of Justice, 1999), with only 12.5% women correctional officers and only 38.5% nonwhite employees working in the Federal correctional justice system. The impact of the new generation of mixed-gender and multi- racial staff is having a positive influence on staff- inmate interactions. Correctional Officers can understand simple fairness and reasonableness better than most people. They must work in a highly distilled environment where such factors are crucial to safety and cooperation. Correctional Officers can also understand the need to build structure to ensure justice. Measuring the inmate’s progress by their lawful behavior is as plausible to correctional officers as is measuring their own work program and upward mobility. The promulgation of the Correctional Officers’ Creed by the International Association of Correctional Officers (IACO) illustrates the spirit and elan of this new generation workforce. 8 CORRECTION OFFICERS’ CREED To speak sparingly…to act, not to argue…to be in authority through personal presence…to correct without nagging…to speak with the calm voice of certainty…to see everything, know what is significant and what not to notice…to be neither insensitive to distress nor so distracted by pity as to miss what must elsewhere be seen… To do neither that which is unkind nor self-indulgent in its misplaced charity…never to obey the impulse to tongue lash that silent insolence which in times past could receive the lash…to be both firm and fair…to know I cannot be fair simply be being firm, nor firm simply by being fair… To support the reputations of associates and confront them without anger, should they stand short of professional conduct…to reach for knowledge of the continuing mysteries of human motivation…to think; always to think…to be dependable…to be dependable first to my charges and associates, and thereafter to my duty as employee and citizen…to keep fit…to keep forever alert…to listen to what is meant as well as what is said with words and with silences… To expect respect from my charges and my superiors yet never to abuse the one for abuses from the other...for eight hours each working day to be an example of the person I could be at all times...to acquiesce in no dishonest act...to cultivate patience under boredom and calm during confusion...to understand the why of every order I take or give... To hold freedom among the highest values though I deny it to those I guard…to deny it with dignity that in my example they find no reason to lose their dignity…to be prompt…to be honest with all who practice deceit that they not find in me excuse for themselves…to privately face down my fear that I not signal it…to privately cool my anger that I not displace it on others…to hold in confidence what I see and hear, which by the telling could harm or humiliate to no good purpose…to keep my outside problems outside…to leave inside that which should stay inside…to do my duty. Bob Barrington, Correctional Officers' Creed, The Keepers’ Voice, 19(2), 1998: 8 Unlike public safety officers such as police and fire fighters who interact with the public on a daily basis, Correctional Officers and staff operate behind the walls and are, essentially, out of sight and out of mind. Their problems and concerns are rarely a matter of public interest. They find it difficult to lobby for improved salaries, benefits, and working conditions and are often viewed with the same disinterest as the inmates they supervise. Globally, the correctional occupational field is hungry for professional development and a respected and legitimate identity as a public safety occupation. As in the United States, the inherent political character of prisons in any society both compounds and enlightens these comparisons. In 1979, Foucault noted, the formidable right to punish “concretely” continues to fully influence the management of prisons in all societies. So, too, does the need to establish a principle of moderation for the power of punishment through on-going professional training and the establishment of programs for ensuring the well-being of Correctional Officers and staff. jlm/Chester, CT/September 2002 9 TABLE OF LEGAL CASES Wolff v. McDonnell, 418 U.S. 539 (1974) Dothard v. Rawlinson, 433 U.S. 321 (1977) Bell v. Wolfish, 441 U.S. 520 (1979) Ruiz v. Estelle, 503 F.Supp. 1295 (S.D. Tex. 1980) Rhodes v. Chapman, 452 U.S. 337 (1981) RECOMMENDED READINGS Bureau of Justice Statistics, Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington DC, 1999 Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Correctional Officers,” Occupational Outlook Handbook, U.S. Department of Labor, Washington DC, 1999 Carroll, Leo, Hacks, Blacks, and Cons: Race Relations in a Maximum Security Prison, Lexington, MA: D.C. Heath and Co., 1974 Conover, Ted, Newjack, Guarding Sing Sing, New York, New York: Random House, 2000 Fogel, David, We Are the Living Proof, Cincinnati, Ohio: Anderson Publishers, 1975 Foucault, Michel, Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison, New York: Vintage, 1979 Jacobs, James B., Stateville: The Penitentiary in Mass Society, Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1977 Johnson, Robert and Shelley Price, “The Complete Correctional Officer: Human Service and the Human Environment of Prison,” Criminal Justice and Behavior 8(3), (1981) Lombardo, Lucien X., Guards Imprisoned: Correctional Officers at Work, New York: Elsevier, 1986 Maghan, Jess, “Guarding in Prison,” in Justice as Fairness: Perspectives on the Justice Model, edited by Fogel David and Joe Hudson, Cincinnati, Ohio: Anderson Publishing Company, 1982 Maghan, Jess, "Common Ground: Comparative Correctional Programming," International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology 39(2), (1995) Zimmer, Lynn, Women Guarding Men, Chicago, Illinois: University of Chicago Press, 1986 |
| Subject: Say no to private | |
Author: co [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 16:11:12 09/30/07 Sun -----------KEEP FREE MEDIA FREE----------- Private Prisons: Profits of Crime By Phil Smith from the Fall 1993 issue of Covert Action Quarterly Private prisons are a symptom, a response by private capital to the "opportunities" created by society's temper tantrum approach to the problem of criminality. At Leavenworth, Kansas, within a perimeter of razor wire, armed prison guards in uniform supervise hundreds of medium- and maximum-security federal prisoners. Welcome to one of America's growth industries- private sector, for-profit prisons. Here in the shadow of the federally-run Fort Leavenworth Disciplinary Barracks and the Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary, the Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) runs a short-term detention facility for medium- and maximum-security prisoners. Under contract to the U.S. Marshal's Service and the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), the CCA Leavenworth facility is not an anomaly but part of a trend. In the last decade, from juvenile detention centers to county jails and work farms to state prison units to INS holding camps for undocumented aliens, private interests have entered the incarceration business in a big way. Where there are people detained, there are profits to be made. Imprisonment is an ugly business under any regime, but the prospect of a privatized prison system raises difficult and disturbing questions beyond those associated with a solely state-operated prison system. It has been, after all, a common assumption that the criminalization and punishment of certain behaviors-the deprivation of physical liberty and even of life itself-are not amenable to private sector usurpation. Some of the arguments that inform this assumption are ethi cal, some legal, and others practical, but all are being chal lenged by a growing group of special interests. Illustration by Eric Drooker Prisons for Profit Surprisingly, private prisons are nothing new in U.S. history. In the mid-1800s, penny-pinching state legislatures awarded contracts to private entrepreneurs to operate and manage Louisiana's first state prison, New York's Auburn and Sing Sing penitentiaries, and others. These institutions became models for entire sections of the nation where privatized prisons were the norm later in the century. These prisons were supposed to turn a profit for the state, or at least pay for themselves. Typically, privatization was limited: The state leased or contracted convict labor to private companies. In some cases, such as Texas, however, the corrections function was turned over wholesale to private interests which prom ised to control delinquents at no cost to the state. As the system spread, labor and businesses complained that using unpaid convict labor constituted "unfair" competition. Of equal concern to reformers-but of less weight to politicians-was the issue of prisoner abuse under the private corrections regime. Anecdotal evidence from across the country painted a grim picture: While state officials remained indifferent or were bought off by private interests, prisoners suffered malnourishment, frequent whippings, overwork and overcrowding. A series of investigations of state prisons confirmed the tales of horror and produced public outrage. l As with anti-trust legislation and the progressive reforms which followed, public pressure impelled government regulation of private sector abuse. By the turn of the century, concerted opposition from labor, business, and reformers forced the state to take direct responsibility for prisons, thus bringing the first era of private prisons to an end. Three Trends Converge But as the twentieth century stumbles to an end, the hard lessons of a hundred years ago have been drowned out by the clamor of free market ideologues. Again, privatization is encroaching ever further on what had been state responsibilities, and prison systems are the target of private interests. The shift to privatization coalesced in the mid-1980s when three trends converged: The ideological imperatives of the free market; the huge increase in the number of prisoners; and the concomitant increase in imprisonment costs. In the giddy atmosphere of the Reagan years, the argument for the superiority of free enterprise resonated profoundly. Only the fire departments seemed safe, as everything from municipal garbage services to Third World state enterprises went on sale. Proponents of privatized prisons put forward a simple case: The private sector can do it cheaper and more efficiently. This assortment of entrepreneurs, free market ideologues, cash-strapped public officials, and academics promised design and management innovations without re- ducing costs or sacrificing "quality of service." In any case, they noted correctly, public sector corrections systems are in a state of chronic failure by any measure, and no other politically or economically feasible solution is on the table. More Prisoners, More Money This contemporary push to privatize corrections takes place against a socioeconomic background of severe and seemingly intractable crisis. Under the impetus of Reaganite social Darwinism, with its "toughness" on criminal offenders, pris on populations soared through the 1980s and into the 1990s, making the U.S. the unquestioned world leader in jailing its own populace. By 1990, 421 Americans out of every 100,000 were behind bars, easily outdistancing our closest competitors, South Africa and the then USSR. By 1992, the U.S. rate had climbed to 455. In human terms, the number of people in jails and prisons on any given day tops 1.2 million, up from fewer than 400,000 at the start of the Reagan era. While incarceration statistics have skyrocketed, crime rates have increased much more slowly. In fact, from 1975 to 1985, the serious crime rate actually decreased by 1.42 per cent while the number of state and federal prisoners nearly doubled. The number of people sent to prison is actually determined by policy decisions and political expediency. Politicians of all stripes have sought cheap political points by being "tough on crime." They throw oil on the fire of public panic by portraying the urban underclass (read: young, black males) as predator. Ignoring the broad context of economic policies that have effectively abandoned large segments of the population, they have instituted mandatory minimum sentences, tighter or no parole schedules, and tougher "good time" regulations. Adding to the overpopulation these putative measures wrought, the War on Drugs-which aimed its frenzy at the inner city-stuffed the nation's already over crowded prisons with a large crop of mostly African-American and Latino nonviolent offenders. In state after state, budgets have been stretched to the breaking point by the cost of maintaining and expanding this massive correctional archipelago. In California, the nation's largest state prison system, the corrections budget increased seven-fold during the 1980s to $2.1 billion annually at the end of the decade-and the system was still operating at 180 percent of capacity. The huge costs associated with the choice to deal with social problems by mass imprisonment are a fundamental part of the drift toward private prisons. The converging trends (rampant free-marketism, higher prison population, and escalating costs) are part of a larger trend-the sharpening of Reaganite class war and the social meanness that accompanied it. The last time the U.S. faced such an influx of prisoners was after the Civil War when freed blacks, who were previously punished and controlled within the slave system, were sent to formerly all-white prisons. The present situation is not perfectly analogous, but once again, policy-makers faced with burgeoning and unruly minority resistance of their own making seem to have chosen a similar course: "Lock 'em up and throw away the key." The Buslnes of Punishment Punishment is not only a crucial and ever-larger state function, it is also big business. Private ownership and/or operation of prisons, while an increasingly significant part of the corrections system, represents only a fraction of the "prison-industrial complex." The cost of corrections-in cluding state, local, and federal corrections budgets-ran to more than $20 billion a year in the early 1990s. The cost of constructing enough cells just to keep up with the constant increase in prisoners is estimated at $6 billion a year. This figure does not address existing overcrowding, which is pandemic from city jails to federal prisons. The public sector imprisonment industry employs more than 50,000 guards, as well as additional tens of thousands of administrators, and health, education, and food service providers. Especially in rural communities where other employment is scarce, corrections assumes huge economic im portance as a growth industry which provides stable jobs. The punishment juggernaut of the Reagan-Bush years also spawned an array of private enterprises locked in a parasitic embrace with the state. From architectural firms and construction companies, to drug treatment and food service contractors, to prison industries, to the whole gamut of equipment and hardware suppliers-steel doors, razor wire, communications systems, uniforms, etc.-the business of imprisonment boasts a powerful assortment of well-or ganized and well-represented vested interests. Privatized prisons, then, are not a quantum leap toward dismantling the state but simply an extension of the already significant private sector involvement in corrections. The public-private symbiotic relationship was well-established long before 1984, when CCA first contracted with the INS to operate detention centers for illegal aliens. With private firms already providing everything from health care to drug treatment, the private management of entire prisons was a natural progression, especially given the tenor of the times. Prison Prlvateers The growing private prisons industry-several dozen companies contracting with state entities to provide and/or operate jails or prisons-is oligopolistic in structure. CCA and Wackenhut Corrections Corporation dominate the upper tier, control more than half the industry's operations, and run 29 minimum- and medium-security facilities with more than 10,000 beds. Beneath the big two is a tier of lesser players: a cluster of smaller regional companies, such as Kentucky-based U.S. Corrections Corporation and Nashville-based Pricor; and small corrections divisions of international concerns, including construction giant Bechtel Corporation. The boom has created a shadier realm of speculators ready to turn a quick profit from the traffic in convicts. Compared to the big three, these smaller companies are undercapitalized, inexperienced, understaffed, and are more likely to fail eventually. Run by hucksters, fast-talking developers, and snake-oil salesmen, they sell for-profit prisons-disguised as economic development-to depressed rural communities desperate to bolster their budgets and local economies. The pitch is simple: Prisons are overcrowded! Build a prison and the prisoners will come to you! You'll reap the benefits in terms of jobs and increased tax revenues! Reality is a bit more complex. Quirks in the federal tax codes remove exemptions for prison bonds if more than ten percent of prisoners are out-of-state, if state prison officials are reluctant to have their prisoners housed out-of-state, or if large cities with severe overcrowding are unwilling or unable to pay to transport local prisoners hundreds of miles. In short in the trade in convict bodies, supply and demand don't always match. Prisons built on a speculative basis are a risky venture-at least for the towns or counties involved; the speculators take their money off the top. Wackenhut Historically, this bottom tier has been the locus of most of the publicized problems and abuses. But although these bottom feeders attract "60 Minutes"-style scandal of banal corruption, it is in the top tiers that the most serious potential for abuse exists. Wackenhut, founded by former FBI of ficial George Wackenhut in 1954, is the largest and best known, as well as the oldest and most diversified. From its beginnings as a small, well-connected private security firm, Wackenhut has grown to a global security conglomerate with earnings of $630.3 million in 1992. Prison management is only the latest addition to its panoply of security and related services. When the Coral Gables, Florida-based firm first entered the prison business in 1987, it had one 250-bed INS detention center. It now operates 11 facilities in five states housing nearly 5,500 prisoners. Wackenhut maintains two medium security prisons in Australia and boasts of "prospects for additional facilities in the U.S., South America, Europe, and the Pacific Rim.'' While some of its competitors in the private repression industry have specialized-Pinkerton and Burns, for example, lead the "rent-a-cop" field-Wackenhut tries to cover all the bases. Its 1991 revenues reflect its corporate diversity: The private security division contributed 43 per cent; the international division, 22 percent; airport security services, 15 percent; contracts to guard nuclear installations and Department of Energy facilities, 10 percent; and, last but not least, private corrections contributed 10 percent. Given the high rate of return in its corrections division-10 percent compared to 1.8 percent overall-Wackenhut has indicated that it wants to see that area grow. Corrections Corporation of America Its closest rival is CCA, which despite its youth and small size compared to the Wackenhut empire, has emerged as the pioneer and the industry leader. But unlike Wackenhut, CCA -like the second tier companies such as Pricor, U.S. Corrections, Concepts, Inc., and Correction Management Af filiates-is almost completely dependent on private imprisonment for its revenues. Founded in 1983 by the investors behind Kentucky Fried Chicken, CCA used the sales skills of Nashville banker/ financier Doctor R. Crants and the political connections of former Tennessee Republican Party chair Tom Beasley- co-founders of the company-to win early contracts. The next year, CCA cut its first big deals: to operate INS detention centers in Houston and Laredo, and to run the Silverdale Workhouse (Hamilton County prison farm) in its home state, Tennessee. In the next nine years, CCA grew steadily to become the industry leader, with 21 detention facilities hous ing more than 6,000 prisoners in six states, the U.K., and Australia. Its profits are up by nearly 50 percent from its 1991 end-of-the-year figures. Pricor Once number three behind CCA and Wackenhut, Pricor has taken a different tack from its competitors. It carved out a specialized niche within the private prison industry by convincing underused county jails in rural Texas that they could profit by accepting inmates from overcrowded national and statewide prisons. After cutting its corporate teeth on juvenile education and detention and halfway houses, expan sion into adult prisons must have seemed a natural step. In 1986, its first year of adult prison operations, Pricor opened minimum security detention facilities totaling 170 beds in Alabama and Virginia. By 1990, the company looked west to Texas, with its seemingly unending supply of prisoners and profits. Soon, it operated or had contracts pending for six 500-bed county "jails for hire," mainly in underbudgeted and underpopulated West Texas, and also with one 190-bed pre release center operated under contract with the Texas Department of Corrections. Although Pricor, fueled by its West Texas operations, posted fiscal 1991 revenues of more than $30 million for its adult corrections division, its Texas project was in shambles by mid-1992. The Critiques ot Prison Prlvatlzatlon Since the last round of prison privatization ended a century ago, a strong ethical and practical presumption has grown up that imprisonment should be solely a function of the state. The practical challenge centers around the material self interest of the various pro-privatization constituencies. There are two broad areas of concern: efficiency, i.e., can private operators be trusted to run prisons for less without sacrificing "quality of service"; and accountability, i.e., what oversight mechanisms will assure that society's interests come before those of the managing corporations. As to efficiency-leaving aside for a moment critical questions about what "efficiency" means in prison operations-three well-designed comparative studies found that private operators did run prisons more cheaply without sacrificing ''quality.'' Typically, the studies found, Wackenhut and CCA were able to provide cost savings of five to fifteen percent while still maintaining high marks for provision of services. Even in Texas, which has one of the lowest cost per prisoner rates, both Wackenhut and CCA came in cheaper. But what about "efficiency"? If the term means nothing more than the ability to house bodies cheaply while complying with minimal standards, then industry leaders, at least, appear to be efficient. Imprisonment, however, is generally acknowledged to include, at best, deterrence and rehabilita tion, or at least, reduction of recidivism rates. While there is no definitive private-public comparative study on recidivism, the private prisons, as opposed to the state, have a direct conflict of interest. By reducing the number of repeat offenders, they are in effect reducing the supply of profit producing "customers." It is in the material interest of these companies, therefore, to produce not prisoners who have "paid their debt to society," but ones who will continue to pay and pay on the installment plan. The question of accountability is a legal sinkhole. Under U.S. Iaw, the state is subject to constitutional restraints that do not apply to private entities. With prisoners' rights already under attack from Congress and the federal courts, and with ambiguous case law on private versus public liability, some legal scholars are worried. They fear that privatized prisons place inmates in a legal limbo-caught in a grey area between the state and the private sector-unable to hold either answerable for infringements of their constitutional rights. Another accountability issue concerns monitoring. The profit-motive could cause private operations to cut corners; leading to poor or unsafe conditions. Privatization proponents argue that regulation and careful state monitoring of compliance will sufficiently protect inmates, but that contention must come as cold comfort to prisoners who have already felt the tender mercies of the state. The record so far, however, shows that compared to the murderous outbreaks in state penitentiaries, incidents of violence, riot, escape and the like have been relatively rare in the private prisons. Direct comparisons are problematic, however, as CCA's Leaven worth facility opened in 1992, is the first, and so far only, private sector institution to handle maximum-security inmates as its primary function. Doing Well Beats Dolng Good Aside from practical issues of superficially defined performance, there is the fundamental ethical question involved in farming out the repressive functions of the state to private interests: Should we, as a society, shift responsibility for the ultimate sanction by which we measure normative behavior to those whose motive is profit? The deep philosophical issue is perhaps unanswerable, but the ramifications are disturbing. Imagine a full-fledged corporate public relations campaign designed to whip up crime hysteria in order to increase profits. The most worrisome aspect of prison privatization is the inevitable emergence of a private "prison lobby" concerned not with social welfare but with increasing its dividends, not with doing good, but with doing well. Sentencing guidelines, parole rules, corrections budgets, and new criminal legislation are areas in which private prison operators have a vested interest and could influence policy decisions. They could also benefit by manipulating public fear of crime. Unlike most other public policy arenas, criminal justice policy is largely determined not by the realities of crime but by its perception. That the fear of crime is exploited by politicians and "reality television" programming is a truism; but imagine a full-fledged corporate public relations campaign designed to whip up crime hysteria in order to increase profits. "Prisons Are Built with Stones of Law..." The practical arguments of prisoncrats and academics, as well as the more abstract philosophical and humanitarian objections of liberal critics, betray a certain myopic view of the problem and thus of its solutions. To accept the current parameters of debate within the criminal justice community is to beg some questions not only about the role of private enterprise in corrections, but also and more fundamentally, about the relationship between state and citizen (or alien) and the function of imprisonment in contemporary America. By any criteria for cost-benefit analysis, crime and corrections policy in the U.S. is a dismal failure. Prisons neither deter nor rehabilitate, nor do punishment variables seem to have any impact on crime. Granted, imprisonment does incapacitate and discipline offenders, but only while they remain behind bars-and only a minuscule minority of prisoners do not one day return to society. Prisons form a very narrow platform from which to alter behavior that is shaped by myriad factors, but these institutions, and the criminal justice system as a whole, are charged with precisely that task. Given the failure of corrections to achieve its stated goals, however, it is appropriate to ask whether imprisonment serves other, latent functions and what these functions might be. One role that imprisonment clearly fulfills is that of taking symbolic action against socially defined deviants. It seems to matter less that prisons stop crime than that they give the appearance of doing so--or of doing something. In a society unable or unwilling to address the fundamental social and economic causes of criminality, this symbolic action substitutes for substantive reform. Imprisonment also serves to demonstrate the disciplinary power of the state. In Michel Foucault's view, the prison is the model, the point of origin, for the entire model of social control that characterizes industrialized societies. Incarceration is at one end of a sliding scale of socially imposed surveillance and discipline. After two centuries of wide spread acceptance, its place on the continuum is distinguished mainly by the degree of day-to-day control and the physicality of its bars. The scale of control, in less extreme and visible form, however, extends throughout the institutions of society. As for the privatization of prisons, that industry, while a deeply disturbing phenomenon, is not the fundamental problem. Private prisons are a symptom, a response by private capital to the "opportunities" created by society's temper tantrum approach to the problem of criminality in the context of free-market supremacy. Dostoevsky once remarked that he measured the quality of a society by the quality of its prisons. In the present case it may be as appropriate to judge us by their quantity, too. In either case, the judgment would be harsh indeed. Illustration by Eric Drooker -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- CAQ Contents Subscribe to CAQ MediaFilter PoMoWar |
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| Subject: Important Reminder - State Board Retirement Election | |
Author: votesteen@hotmail.com [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 22:57:02 10/07/07 Sun Attention State Workers and Retirees Do not forget to Vote Our important election for the Massachusetts State Board of Retirement is this October. Ballots will be mailed to your home on October 12, 2007. Vote Michael Steen Lieutenant – Massachusetts department of corrections Bachelors Degree – University of Massachusetts Masters Degree – Anna Maria College Feel free to contact me with any questions, comments or concerns at votesteen@hotmail.com or visit my website at votesteen.bravehost.com |
| Subject: What happened to the MCI-Shirley link? | |
Author: . [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 21:48:41 07/22/07 Sun |
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| Subject: Adding a Link | |
Author: Moderator [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 12:15:51 05/09/07 Wed If you would like a Law Enforcement link added, just post it or contact Forum Administrator and I will gladly add it. |
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Date Posted: 17:28:29 04/03/07 Tue IS VIOLENCE A GENDER TRAIT? Remember the movie Monster, for which Charlize Theron won an Oscar for her portrayal of Aileen Wuornos? It's one of those movies that you know about even if you didn't see it. That's partially because of Theron's transformation from beauty queen to monstrous serial killer for the role. But it's also partially because the subject was a real-life female serial killer. The rash of serial killer novels, TV plots, and movies since The Silence of the Lambs has given plenty of exploration to the topic of serial killers, but the killer is almost always male. This is true to the facts. Fewer than ten percent of serial killers are female. I'd promised you a newsletter that addressed that disparity, but I'll go further: According to the Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics, only about 14% of all violent offenders are female, with about 8% of convicted violent offenders being female. If only 14% of violent offenders are female, it's no surprise that a smaller percentage applies to serial killers. The real question seems to be: Why do men commit violent crimes so much more than women? There are two things to take into account before considering the questions. One: Rape is a violent crime, and women can't commit rape. Two: Social evolution since the middle of the Twentieth Century means that men's and women's roles are changing in every area, even crime. So it's useful to keep in mind that in the same way women are catching up to men in terms of representation in Congress, they are catching up in terms of representation in prison. Not to be too glib about it, but opportunity and access have their dark sides. Are Men Monsters? That was just to get your attention. But why do men commit such a great proportion of violent crime? This can get to be a controversial subject, because any time you talk about a difference between the genders you run the risk of stereotyping and implying superiority. But I think we can all acknowledge that there are differences between the sexes, and those differences can give meaning to the statistics that tell us how our behaviors break down along gender lines. First, there is the question of hormones. It has long been believed that increased testosterone levels can be linked to aggressive behavior. Testosterone is a hormone present in both men and women, though it is produced in much greater amounts in men. I just heard about an interesting university study that found that when men handle a gun their testosterone levels rise significantly, even though in the study the subjects were handling - but not aiming or shooting or pretending to shoot - the guns. There are many differing opinions on the hormone issue. The main thing to keep in mind is that even if the hormone does have an influence on behavior, it isn't something that any man couldn't overcome by choice. Second, there are society's expectations. Men are expected to be physically aggressive. Consider the jobs for which men are paid to be (or to prepare to be) physically aggressive: Professional football and other contact sports, the military, law enforcement, etc. Even as women enter some of those professions, they are traditionally male and certainly male-dominated, if not exclusively male. And men are expected to provide protection. You can argue this, but the traditional male role, and one that most men find themselves expected to fill, is that of the protector. Women nurture, men protect. Nothing is ever that black and white, but we're talking about societal expectations, not actualities. Third, like leads to like. Abuse is often passed on from generation to generation, and most abusers are male. Violent male role models pass on their behavior. Images in the media reinforce the idea. Reducing the incidence of violent acts committed by men will be a slow taper, not a sudden event. Fourth, the X-factor. This is probably the biggest element, the missing piece of the puzzle. If we really knew why men are more likely to be violent than women, we could work to prevent that violence specifically in response to the X-factor that influences it. As it is, we have the hormonal and societal and environmental factors to work with. Looking Closer What about the victims of violent crime? Are they mostly women? Actually, no. By far, men are the most common victims of violent crime. What's interesting is to look more closely at violent crime and examine both the genders of the perpetrators and their victims in more detail. Take homicide for example. Men make up nearly 75% of all murder victims. They are the victims in 82% of murders where the weapon is a gun. But if you look at poisonings, you'll find that the numbers for male and female victims approach 50/50. And the victims of murders by intimates, where the killer and victim are or were intimately involved, are about 63% female. Men are more likely to be killed by someone they barely know or don't know at all. Women, on the other hand, are more likely to be killed by someone they know well or a family member. Family Murders I know we're talking about offenders, not victims. But looking at the victim rates sheds some light on the offenders. As a profiler, I can't help but look at the whole picture. Women don't commit murder as commonly as men, and there's no type of murder or weapon of choice for which women outnumber men. But there are a few for which the percentages for women killers increase significantly from the overall average. Women commit 38% of infanticides. (Of note, when it comes to the murder of children under 5, men are still the majority of the killers, but victims are about equally likely to have been killed by their mothers as by their fathers.) There are several sociological factors that come into play here. With infanticide, you're dealing with women having more access to small children, with mothers and (typically female) caregivers playing the dominant roles in those early years, because of biology, tradition, and the fact that in many cases there is no father present. You're also looking at a crime where post-partum depression and psychosis can be factors. The widely reported case of Andrea Yates, the Texas mother who drowned her five children in her bathtub in 2001, is believed to be an example of untreated post-partum psychosis, though it may have worsened existing psychosis rather than originated on its own. Her case put the spotlight on post-partum depression and psychosis, both of which go untreated most of the time because of the confusion and shame experienced by mothers who may be struggling with the conditions. (As usual with such horrible crimes, the only upside to the media coverage is increasing the public's knowledge.) Women commit 35% of murders of intimates. Crimes of passion are committed by both men and women, and murders motivated by jealousy, profit, or rage over a break-up are among these murders. But there is also the element of self-defense, often in response to prolonged abuse. The recent case of Mary Winkler, the young Tennessee preacher's wife who killed her husband with a shotgun, looks like a classic example of this kind of crime. She reportedly lived with years of physical and perhaps even sexual abuse at the hands of her husband, with whom she had three daughters, before shooting him last March. In many cases of prolonged domestic abuse, a woman has lived with the fear of and reality of violence against her and/or her children on a regular basis, and her abusive husband or boyfriend has all but cut her off from contact with family, friends, and other resources that would give her an outlet for escape. This is just part of the cycle of domination and control that abusers inflict on their victims, who are sometimes backed into what they see as a choice between dying (or allowing their children to die) and killing. The Female Serial Killer You should hardly take any of this to mean that women only kill in such instances. There are female murderers of all types, they are just much less common than men. And, as mentioned, there are female serial killers. Often operating more quietly than their male counterparts, they can be more difficult to apprehend. Their killings are often difficult to spot, as in the cases of the caregiver killers who quietly poison or suffocate or over-medicate their elderly patients, or the wives who slowly poison one husband after another in a manner that doesn't raise suspicion until the number of graves starts people talking. And there is the old legend of Madame Popova, the turn-of-the century serial killer who hired herself out as an assassin to women who were caught in oppressive or cruel relationships with husbands from whom they could only escape by death. By hiring Madame Popova, they chose the husband's immediate death, usually by poison, over their own eventual demise. (Interestingly, of all turn-of-this-century poisonings, women are 37% of the killers.) Perception is Reality Violent crime comes up in my writing and speeches all the time. But I think it's important to point out that the violent crime rate is at its lowest level since the BJS started keeping statistics. The rate has been declining since 1994. And the murder rate is at its lowest since the late 1960s. But you would never guess that from watching the news or listening to talk radio or watching any of the many forensic science shows on television. The media loves to keep us in fear. And we seem to like to be afraid, or at least we've gotten so used to it that it seems normal. Believe me, I know all the reasons we should be vigilant. I have three grown kids, two of them girls, and all my fears for them were informed by the terrible crimes and criminals I had investigated. But I also believe that if we arm ourselves with information and try to be aware of what's going on around us, most of us will do alright. If, on the other hand, we start thinking every adult male at the public library is a child molester or every kid wearing an oversized jacket is a gang-banger, we lose the ability to discern real threats from imagined ones. And that not only doesn't help, it actually hurts us. Just a thought. I hope the information I'm presenting will help you stay safe from the real bad guys (and girls). They're out there, but they're not most people. Subscribe to our Newsletter: Enter your email address above. Purchase from Amazon.com View other books by John Douglas |
| Subject: stress | |
Author: doc [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 12:08:55 01/20/07 Sat Your Stress Scale STRESS SCALE FOR ADULTS In the following table you can look up representative changes in your life and see how much stress value each of these changes is adding to your life. NOTE ANY ITEM THAT YOU MAY HAVE EXPERIENCED IN THE LAST TWELVE MONTHS. Then, total up your score. (Adapted from the "Social Readjustment Rating Scale" by Thomas Holmes and Richard Rahe. This scale was first published in the "Journal of Psychosomatic Research", Copyright 1967, vol.II p. 214. It is used by permission of Pergamon Press Ltd.) STRESS EVENT VALUE DEATH OF SPOUSE 100 DIVORCE 60 MENOPAUSE 60 SEPARATION FROM LIVING PARTNER 60 JAIL TERM OR PROBATION 60 DEATH OF CLOSE FAMILY MEMBER OTHER THAN SPOUSE 60 SERIOUS PERSONAL INJURY OR ILLNESS 45 MARRIAGE OR ESTABLISHING LIFE PARTNERSHIP 45 FIRED AT WORK 45 MARITAL OR RELATIONSHIP RECONCILIATION 40 RETIREMENT 40 CHANGE IN HEALTH OF IMMEDIATE FAMILY MEMBER 40 WORK MORE THAN 40 HOURS PER WEEK 35 PREGNANCY OR CAUSING PREGNANCY 35 SEX DIFFICULTIES 35 GAIN OF NEW FAMILY MEMBER 35 BUSINESS OR WORK ROLE CHANGE 35 CHANGE IN FINANCIAL STATE 35 DEATH OF A CLOSE FRIEND (not a family member) 30 CHANGE IN NUMBER OF ARGUMENTS WITH SPOUSE OR LIFE PARTNER 30 MORTGAGE OR LOAN FOR A MAJOR PURPOSE 25 FORECLOSURE OF MORTGAGE OR LOAN 25 SLEEP LESS THAN 8 HOURS PER NIGHT 25 CHANGE IN RESPONSIBILITIES AT WORK 25 TROUBLE WITH IN-LAWS, OR WITH CHILDREN 25 OUTSTANDING PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT 25 SPOUSE BEGINS OR STOPS WORK 20 BEGIN OR END SCHOOL 20 CHANGE IN LIVING CONDITIONS (visitors in the home, change in roommates, remodeling house) 20 CHANGE IN PERSONAL HABITS (diet, exercise, smoking, etc.) 20 CHRONIC ALLERGIES 20 TROUBLE WITH BOSS 20 CHANGE IN WORK HOURS OR CONDITIONS 15 MOVING TO NEW RESIDENCE 15 PRESENTLY IN PRE-MENSTRUAL PERIOD 15 CHANGE IN SCHOOLS 15 CHANGE IN RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES 15 CHANGE IN SOCIAL ACTIVITIES (more or less than before) 15 MINOR FINANCIAL LOAN 10 CHANGE IN FREQUENCY OF FAMILY GET-TOGETHERS 10 VACATION 10 PRESENTLY IN WINTER HOLIDAY SEASON 10 MINOR VIOLATION OF THE LAW 5 TOTAL SCORE ___________________________ STRESS SCALE FOR YOUTH STRESS EVENT VALUE DEATH OF SPOUSE, PARENT, BOYFRIEND/GIRLFRIEND 100 DIVORCE (of yourself or your parents) 65 PUBERTY 65 PREGNANCY (or causing pregnancy) 65 MARITAL SEPARATION OR BREAKUP WITH BOYFRIEND/GIRLFRIEND 60 JAIL TERM OR PROBATION 60 DEATH OF OTHER FAMILY MEMBER (other than spouse, parent or boyfriend/girlfriend) 60 BROKEN ENGAGEMENT 55 ENGAGEMENT 50 SERIOUS PERSONAL INJURY OR ILLNESS 45 MARRIAGE 45 ENTERING COLLEGE OR BEGINNING NEXT LEVEL OF SCHOOL (starting junior high or high school) 45 CHANGE IN INDEPENDENCE OR RESPONSIBILITY 45 ANY DRUG AND/OR ALCOHOL USE 45 FIRED AT WORK OR EXPELLED FROM SCHOOL 45 CHANGE IN ALCOHOL OR DRUG USE 45 RECONCILIATION WITH MATE, FAMILY OR BOYFRIEND/GIRLFRIEND (getting back together) 40 TROUBLE AT SCHOOL 40 SERIOUS HEALTH PROBLEM OF A FAMILY MEMBER 40 WORKING WHILE ATTENDING SCHOOL 35 WORKING MORE THAN 40 HOURS PER WEEK 35 CHANGING COURSE OF STUDY 35 CHANGE IN FREQUENCY OF DATING 35 SEXUAL ADJUSTMENT PROBLEMS (confusion of sexual identitity) 35 GAIN OF NEW FAMILY MEMBER (new baby born or parent remarries or adopts) 35 CHANGE IN WORK RESPONSIBILITIES 35 CHANGE IN FINANCIAL STATE 30 DEATH OF A CLOSE FRIEND (not a family member) 30 CHANGE TO A DIFFERENT KIND OF WORK 30 CHANGE IN NUMBER OF ARGUMENTS WITH MATE, FAMILY OR FRIENTS 30 SLEEP LESS THAN 8 HOURS PER NIGHT 25 TROUBLE WITH IN-LAWS OR BOYFRIEND'S OR GIRLFRIEND'S FAMILY 25 OUTSTANDING PERSONAL ACHIEVEMENT (awards, grades, etc.) 25 MATE OR PARENTS START OR STOP WORKING 20 BEGIN OR END SCHOOL 20 CHANGE IN LIVING CONDITIONS (visitors in the home, remodeling house, change in roommates) 20 CHANGE IN PERSONAL HABITS (start or stop a habit like smoking or dieting) 20 CHRONIC ALLERGIES 20 TROUBLE WITH THE BOSS 20 CHANGE IN WORK HOURS 15 CHANGE IN RESIDENCE 15 CHANGE TO A NEW SCHOOL (other than graduation) 10 PRESENTLY IN PRE-MENSTRUAL PERIOD 15 CHANGE IN RELIGIOUS ACTIVITY 15 GOING IN DEBT (you or your family) 10 CHANGE IN FREQUENCY OF FAMILY GATHERINGS 10 VACATION 10 PRESENTLY IN WINTER HOLIDAY SEASON 10 MINOR VIOLATION OF THE LAW 5 TOTAL SCORE _____________________________________ We have asked you to look at the last twelve months of changes in your life. This may surprise you. It is crucial to understand, however, that a major change in your life has effects that carry over for long periods of time. It is like dropping a rock into a pond. After the initial splash, you will experience ripples of stress. And these ripples may continue in your life for at least a year. So, if you have experienced total stress within the last twelve months of 250 or greater, even with normal stress tolerance, you may be OVERSTRESSED. Persons with Low Stress Tolerance may be OVERSTRESSED at levels as low as 150. OVERSTRESS will make you sick. Carrying too heavy a stress load is like running your car engine past the red line; or leaving your toaster stuck in the "on" position; or running a nuclear reactor past maximum permissible power. Sooner or later, something will break, burnup, or melt down. What breaks depends on where the weak links are in your physical body. And this is largely an inherited characteristic. Here are the common "weak links", and the symptoms of their malfunction Brain OVERSTRESS Fatigue, aches and pains, crying spells, depression, anxiety attacks, sleep disturbance. Gastrointestinal Tract Ulcer, cramps and diarrhea, colitis, irritable bowel. Glandular System Thyroid gland malfunction. Cardiovascular High blood pressure, heart attack, abnormal heart beat, stroke. Skin Itchy skin rashes. Immune System Decreased resistance to infections and neoplasm. We have known for a long time that OVERSTRESS could cause physical damage to the gastrointestinal tract, glandular system, skin or cardiovascular system. But only recently have we learned that OVERSTRESS actually causes physical changes in the brain. One of the most exciting medical advances of our decade has been an understanding of how OVERSTRESS physically affects your brain. We now know that the fatigue, aches and pains, crying spells, depression, anxiety attacks and sleep disturbances of OVERSTRESS are caused by brain CHEMICAL MALFUNCTION. |
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| Subject: To the moderator of this board and all CO's | |
Author: mod [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 23:44:49 01/11/07 Thu There is now a board that hopefully will help expose all the abuse going on and show the different types of discipline being handed out for the same or similar cases. But it needs your input to succeed. http://www.voy.com/209235/ |
| Subject: boards | |
Author: massmoderators [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 16:24:32 12/31/06 Sun Season's Greetings! The Union and Political message boards are now unmoderated to allow campaigning until further notice. Best of luck to all! |
| Subject: job | |
Author: co [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 16:19:34 12/09/06 Sat MASSACHUSETTS HUMAN RESOURCES DIVISION OPEN COMPETITIVE EXAMINATION ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER: 7999 CORRECTION OFFICER I DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTION $75.00 Examination application fee required. Money orders, Bank checks, MasterCard or Visa accepted. No cash or personal checks. Apply on-line with Visa or Mastercard at: https://www.csexam.hrd.state.ma.us/hrd/ Last Date to Apply: February 19, 2007 Please file early. Examination Date: March 24, 2007 This examination is being held to add names to the eligible list from which to fill vacancies in this classification in the Massachusetts Department of Correction. Applicants who pass this exam will be added to the current list, according to mark received on the exam. DUTIES: Under direct supervision of Correction Officers or other employees of higher grade: Maintains custodial care and control of inmates by escorting or transporting them under restraint, patrolling facilities, making periodic rounds, head counts and security checks of buildings, grounds and inmate quarters, monitoring inmates’ movements and whereabouts, and guarding and directing inmates during work assignments to maintain order and security in a correctional institution; observes conduct and behavior of inmates, noting significant behavioral patterns, to prevent disturbances, violence, escapes or other crises such as suicides; notes and investigates suspicious inmate activity relative to contraband by searching individuals, vehicles, packages, mail and inmate quarters for weapons or other forbidden devices/objects to maintain prison security; develops working relationships with inmates by referring individuals to appropriate supportive services (e.g., medical, psychiatric, vocational, etc.) as needed to aid in rehabilitation and foster an atmosphere of cooperation between inmates and staff; prepares reports on such occurrences as fires, disturbances, accidents, security breaches, etc, prepares monthly evaluation reports on inmates, makes entries into unit log of daily activities and reviews daily activity reports to have accurate and up-to-date information available for reference by authorized personnel; performs related operational duties such as screening visitors, operating two-way radios, carrying and operating firearms, inspecting fire extinguishers, sprinkler systems, alarms, and other safety apparatus, serving food to inmates, and assigning housing areas to inmates; and performs related work as required. WORKING CONDITIONS: Correction Officers may work in a correctional facility, alone in an isolated area; may work varied shifts, weekends, holidays, or nights and are subject to a standby (on call) work status; may be subjected to verbal and physical abuse from others; may be required to interact with people who are under physical and/or emotional stress; stand and walk for prolonged periods of time; are subject to injury from firearms; may work under exposure to adverse weather conditions; may travel for job-related purposes; and may be required to furnish private transportation for reimbursable job-related travel. SALARY: Inquiry concerning salary should be directed to the appointing authority at the time of the employment interview. ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS: AGE: This examination is open to persons who have reached the age of nineteen as of the date of the examination (Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 125, Section 4). Applicants must provide proof of birth date to satisfy this requirement prior to consideration for appointment. EDUCATION/EDUCATION SUBSTITUTE: Applicants must have graduated from high school or must possess an equivalency certificate issued by the Massachusetts Department of Education; or must have served at least three years in the armed forces of the United States and the last discharge or release from service must have been under honorable conditions. OTHER REQUIREMENTS AFTER PASSING THE WRITTEN EXAMINATION AND PRIOR TO AN APPOINTMENT: Fire Arms Permit and Special State Police Commission – Certification as a Correction Officer requires that the applicant be able to satisfy and maintain the eligibility requirements for obtaining a license to carry a firearm pursuant to Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 140. · Medical – As a condition of employment, an applicant for Correction Officer will be required to pass a psychological and medical examination that includes drug screening. · Training – Candidates must be able to complete satisfactorily the Department of Correction's training program for Correction Officers during their nine-month probationary period (Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 125, Section 9, as amended by Chapter 468, Acts of 1979). · Smoking – Chapter 27, Section 2. As the result of legislation (Chapter 697, Acts of 1987), persons appointed to Correction Officer positions as a result of this examination will be prohibited from smoking tobacco products after their appointment. Violators are subject to termination of employment. · Prior Convictions/Incarcerations – No person who has been convicted of a felony or who has been convicted of a misdemeanor and has been confined in any jail or house of correction for said conviction shall be appointed to the position of Correction Officer. (Massachusetts General Laws, Chapter 125, Section 9). · Physical Abilities Test – In accordance with Chapter 32, Section 5(3 (e)), of the Massachusetts General Laws, applicants will be required to pass a physical abilities test as part of the selection process. Information about this test will be distributed later. · A current and valid Massachusetts Class D Motor Vehicle Operator’s license or the equivalent from another state is required. EXAMINATION SUBJECTS: The written examination will be designed to test, where practicable, the following abilities which have been established as qualifications for the position: ability to gather information through examining records and documents and through observing and questioning individuals; ability to read, understand, explain and apply the laws, rules, regulations, policies, procedures, specifications, standards, guidelines, and instructions/post orders governing assigned unit activities; ability to write concisely and accurately to extract facts, express thoughts clearly, and develop ideas in logical order for incident, disciplinary, climate, and other general report writing; ability to work accurately with names, numbers, codes and/or symbols, in order to communicate via two-way radios and issue keys and equipment via chit system; ability to analyze and determine the applicability of quantitative and qualitative data such as demographic breakdowns, meal counts, and activity counts, in order to draw conclusions, identify trends or problems, and make appropriate recommendations; ability to maintain accurate records in Inmate Management System (IMS), record books, and logs to track inmates, supplies, and movement of equipment, vehicles, and inmates to ensure accountability and security. CREDIT FOR EMPLOYMENT/EXPERIENCE AS A CORRECTION OFFICER I: Pursuant to the provisions of Section 22 of Chapter 31, individuals may apply for credit for employment or experience in the position title of Correction Officer I. Information on how to apply for this credit will be mailed with your notice to appear for the examination. On the day of the examination, you will be asked to provide the details of any such employment or experience you have as a Correction Officer I as the result of service on a state-run correction officer force, including location, dates of service, and number of hours worked per week, and to submit documentation supporting these claims. PRIVATE SCHOOL OR SERVICE: The Human Resources Division does not recommend or endorse any private school or service offering preparation for examinations and is not responsible for their advertising claims. IDENTIFICATION AT THE EXAMINATION SITE: At the examination site, applicants must present current and valid photo identification with signature (e.g., motor vehicle operator's license, passport, ID from an institution of higher education). IMPORTANT NOTIFICATION INFORMATION FOR APPLICANTS: Notice to Appear Notices to appear to your assigned examination site will be mailed to applicants for this examination. You will be able to get a copy of your notice after March 9, 2007, by logging on to the Human Resources Division Standings and On-line Applicant Record Information system. You will need to register as a first-time user if you have not used the system before. Please follow the instructions provided at www.mass.gov/hrd on-line services Get a Copy of Your Notice to Appear for an Exam HOW TO APPLY You may apply for this examination, using a credit card, on-line at the Human Resources Division website: https://www.csexam.hrd.state.ma.us/hrd until midnight on February 19, 2007. A confirmation number for each transaction will be issued. You may also obtain a paper application form, and file it along with the examination-processing fee (or fee waiver form) in person or by mail with HRD. Applications and fee waiver forms may also be available at city and town clerks’ offices across the state. If you mail your application, send all correspondence by certified mail with "return receipt requested," if possible. Your application MUST be received in HRD by 5:00 p.m. on February 19, 2007 or be postmarked by midnight on February 19, 2007. CURRENT MILITARY PERSONNEL: All military personnel who, in connection with current service, CANNOT be in Massachusetts on March 24, 2007 should contact the Human Resources Division to request a make up examination. To request a make up, you must: · file an application and processing fee by the last filing date (February 19, 2007); · request such accommodation in writing, with a copy of your military orders attached; include in your letter either your daytime base phone number or name and phone number of a Massachusetts resident with whom you are in regular contact. TESTING ACCOMMODATIONS FOR PEOPLE WITH DISABILITIES: If you need special testing accommodations due to a documented impairment such as a hearing, learning, physical, mental or visual disability, fill in the circle in item #15 of your application, and include a letter detailing what type of accommodation you require at the exam site. You must also include a letter of support from a qualified professional. Without such a letter, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to grant your accommodation. This information is sought only to provide reasonable accommodation on the day of the examination and will not be used for any other purposes. EXAMINATION FEE: All paper applications must be accompanied by a money order, bank check, or by a completed fee waiver form. The examination-processing fee is $75. Payment by money order or bank check should be made payable to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Please print your name, address, social security number, and the examination announcement number 7999 on the front of the money order or bank check. Payments by Master Card and VISA are also accepted when applying via the web site or in person. NO CASH OR PERSONAL CHECKS. There will be NO REFUNDS of the examination-processing fee unless the examination is cancelled by HRD. FEE WAIVER: The examination-processing fee may be waived for applicants receiving certain forms of state or federal public assistance, unemployment insurance, or workers' compensation. If you are claiming a fee waiver, fill in item #16 on your application. Fee waiver forms are available from, and must be filed with, the Massachusetts Human Resources Division (see address below). Waiver forms must be accompanied by proof of eligibility, for the subject time period, in the form of signed and dated receipts, check stubs and/or other documentation from the agency providing the assistance. VETERANS’ PREFERENCE Definition of a Massachusetts Veteran M.G.L. Chapter 4, Section 7, Clause 43 as amended by the Acts of 2004 Effective August 30, 2004: To be a “veteran” under Massachusetts law, a person is required to have either 180 days of regular active duty service and a last discharge or release under honorable conditions OR 90 days of active duty service, one (1) day of which is during “wartime” and a last discharge or release under honorable conditions. A chart defining “wartime” service is available on-line. VETERANS’ PREFERENCE: If you are claiming veterans' preference and if your eligibility for veterans’ preference has not been approved before by HRD, you must submit a copy of the member 4 version of your DD Form 214 (Release From Active Duty) in order to receive proper credit. Your notice to appear for the examination will indicate whether or not you are already classified as a veteran. Qualifying service must have been in the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, or Air Force of the United States. Please note that active duty exclusively for training in the National Guard or Reserves does NOT qualify you for veterans' preference. National Guard Members or Reservists must have 180 days and have been activated under Title 10 of the U.S. Code - OR- if activated under Title 10 or Title 32 of the U.S. Code or Massachusetts General Laws, chapter 33, sections 38, 40, and 41, must have 90 days, at least one of which was during wartime. The Members’ last discharge or release must be under honorable conditions. Those who otherwise qualify for veterans' preference, but are still in military service may, as of July 1, 1998, claim such credit by supplying proof, on official letterhead with appropriate signature, of their military service to date, including the dates of active duty, current assignment, and estimated time of separation. The individual must provide official documentation of honorable discharge at the time of appointment. [See MGL, Chapter 31, Section 3, Clause (f)]. Minimum Service Exception: It is not necessary for an applicant to complete the minimum service for wartime or peacetime campaign if he/she served some time in the campaign and was awarded the Purple Heart, or suffered a service-connected disability. Disabled Veteran Status: Claims for status as a disabled veteran require written confirmation from the US Veterans Administration of a continuing service-connected disability rated 10% or higher. Applicants wishing to claim status as disabled veterans will get the opportunity to claim such at the test site with instructions to follow. FOR MORE INFORMATION Information about this examination can be obtained on the Internet at www.mass.gov/hrd or by contacting the Human Resources Division Monday through Friday, 1 Ashburton Place, Room 301, Boston, MA, 02108, 8:45 a.m. - 5:00 p.m., except holidays, at the following numbers: In the Boston area: (617) 727-3777 Outside the Boston area: (toll free) 1-800-392-6178 TTY Number: (617) 878-9762 FAX Number: (617) 727-0399 Exam Info Hotline: (617) 878-9895 Recorded information regarding this examination and other upcoming open competitive examinations is available at any time by calling (617) 878-9895. |
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| Subject: brotherhood | |
Author: RI Screw [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 21:45:15 09/20/06 Wed What happen to the brotherhood, you guys in Mass really need to get together. |
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| Subject: FOP link is here. | |
Author: Admin [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 22:36:07 12/16/06 Sat Any other links just ask. |
| Subject: There is no fop link | |
Author: officer [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 11:56:24 12/16/06 Sat |
| Subject: Nice links | |
Author: coIII [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 23:19:01 12/15/06 Fri Nice links here. |
| Subject: job | |
Author: co [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 13:40:16 12/09/06 Sat Reference #: Job Title: Correctional Officer Hiring Organization: Essex County Sheriff's Department Salary Range: $36,000.00 - $46,000.00 Estimated Salary: $17.32 / hr Closing Date: 05/12/2007 Job Location: Massachusetts Description: The Essex County Sheriff's Department is seeking individuals interested in joining a mulit-talented, multi-cultural and enthusiastic department of correctional professionals. Correctional Officers provide care, custody, and control for both sentenced inmates and pre-trial detainees. Required Qualifications Associates Degree or 60 credits towards a Bachelor's Degree AND/OR 2 Years Military Experience U.S. Citizen Minimum 21 Years Old Valid driver's License Applicants are subjected to physical fitness test, written examination, intensive background investigation, interview process, psychological testing, medical clearance and drug screening. ALL NEW OFFICERS ARE APPOINTED AS PART TIME RESERVE OFFICERS. FULL TIME POSITIONS ARE FILLED FROM THE RESERVE RANKS. Special Instructions: Additional Online Information: www.eccf.com Contact Information: Christine Fishken, Asst. Director of Training Essex County Sheriff's Department 20 Manning Avenue Middleton, MA 01949 Phone: (978) 774-9717 Fax: (978) 777-5070 cfishken@eccf.com http://www.eccf.com |
| Subject: http://www.badcopnodonut.fm/ | |
Author: co [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 09:29:09 12/08/06 Fri |
| Subject: old news but true | |
Author: officer [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 08:51:39 12/05/06 Tue Future of State's Private Prisons Remains Murky Critics say the facilities have outlived their usefulness. Companies fight for survival and a bigger piece of the $5-billion-a-year industry. By Jenifer Warren Times Staff Writer December 29, 2003 SACRAMENTO — When the experiment began in the 1980s, it promised to reshape the way America housed its prisoners. The concept was simple: Shift some inmates into the hands of private industry. Critics argued that the sensitive job of imprisonment should not be shared with for-profit companies. But advocates promised lower costs, and states — faced with swelling inmate populations — needed beds, fast. Texas, Florida and the federal government signed on with gusto. In California, however, the growth of private lockups has been stifled by resistance from the powerful prison guards union. Now comes Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, a Republican said to favor privatization. With his election, private prison operators found hope of expanding their reach in the state's $5-billion-a-year penal system — the largest in the nation. So far, the prospects look bleak. Of the state's 49 prisons and community correctional facilities, only nine are private, each of them a minimum security unit. And three of them will close by month's end, their contracts terminated by former Gov. Gray Davis. Their demise will cut the number of California convicts in private cells to 2,457 — a tiny fraction of the total inmate count of 160,000. Operators of the three facilities — in Eagle Mountain in Riverside County and Bakersfield and McFarland in Kern County — have spent the waning days of December in a flurry of negotiations with the new administration, hoping to win reprieves. Eagle Mountain residents even sent a personal plea for the prison — futilely, it now seems — to Schwarzenegger, who worked there a decade ago while filming "Terminator 2: Judgment Day." "I understand we are small potatoes in the California state budget," said Al Murphy, vice president of corrections for Management & Training Corp., the Utah firm that runs the 438-bed Eagle Mountain prison. Had Schwarzenegger had more time, Murphy said, the firm believes he "would have recognized the value privatized corrections can have in this state." Officials at the Youth and Adult Correctional Agency, which oversees corrections, confirmed that the three prisons would close as scheduled. What the future holds for the six other private lockups, they said, is unclear. "These facilities were mostly opened at a time when we had severe overcrowding," said Tip Kindel, assistant secretary of the agency. "Some of those needs they've served just aren't there anymore." The private prisons' fight for survival has been complicated by two recent riots. The first, at Eagle Mountain on Oct. 25, raged for 90 minutes and left two inmates dead. The second, at a Cornell Cos. Inc. prison in Baker on Dec. 2, sent four inmates to a hospital, one with multiple stab wounds. The melees were highly unusual for California's private lockups, which have received excellent ratings from auditors in safety and other aspects of their operations. In fact, the deaths at Eagle Mountain were the first at a private facility in this state. In contrast, nine inmates were killed in California's government-run prisons in 2002 and 13 the year before. Still, the riots cast a shadow over the facilities, with some inmate advocates raising questions about security, guard training and other policies. Corrections officials, meanwhile, said the riots had grown to a serious scale in part because officers at private lockups do not carry weapons, unlike those at state-run prisons. Company officials respond that their contracts forbid their guards to use weapons — even pepper spray — unlike guards at private prisons in some other states. They also said the brawls had been triggered by unusual circumstances, for which they blamed the Department of Corrections. In the case of Eagle Mountain, operators said an unusual turnover of 50% of the inmate population ordered by the department in the weeks preceding the melee had created an unstable atmosphere and rising tensions. At Baker, officials said, a known jailhouse snitch had been transferred to the prison by the department without warning, sparking the riot. Typically, they said, such an inmate would be housed in protective custody at a state-run prison, not sent to a minimum-security private facility. A Corrections Department spokeswoman acknowledged the turnover at Eagle Mountain, but said it was a standard part of the prison's deactivation and had not contributed to the riot. The Baker brawl, she said, was still under investigation. The riots are only the latest flashpoint in an ongoing legal, fiscal and ethical debate over the role of private companies in the incarceration world. As critics see it, trouble is inevitable when the deprivation of someone's liberty is placed in the private sector's hands. "The motivation of a for-profit company is very different from the government's motivation, which is supposed to be public safety and rehabilitation," said Cara Gotch, policy director for the American Civil Liberties Union's National Prison Project. "A company has obligations to its stockholders, which often leads to a desire to cut corners and can mean unconstitutional conditions for inmates." Despite such reservations, privatization has steadily expanded its reach in corrections. For decades, entrepreneurs have supplied states and counties with a multitude of services, ranging from running work-furlough programs to operating halfway houses for parolees. In the 1980s, that role expanded as former prison wardens, social workers and others moved into the business of running entire prisons. The appeal of such ventures was obvious — particularly in states with booming inmate populations. Private companies did not have to wait for voters' approval of bonds to build their facilities, so they could bring cells on line faster. And, largely by paying lower wages, many firms could offer states a cheaper per-inmate incarceration rate. The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service — now known as U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services — was one of the first government entities to contract with private firms, hiring them to provide short-term detention of suspected illegal immigrants. Since that beginning, most states have tried private incarceration in some form or another. Proportionally, New Mexico has the most private beds of any state — with nearly half of its convicts housed by for-profit companies, the ACLU's Gotch said. Texas and Florida also have been leaders in the use of private prisons, and in New Hampshire, the governor recently expressed interest in privatizing the entire prison system. In California, the first group of private facilities — Eagle Mountain among them — opened in 1988, a time when the inmate population was mushrooming. With state-run prisons bulging, inmates had begun challenging the conditions of their confinement and judges were issuing orders that threatened to lead to widespread releases unless crowding was eased. "The hallways were filled with double bunks and the inmates used buckets to go to the bathroom," recalled Craig Brown, undersecretary of the Youth and Adult Corrections Agency at the time. "We were just desperate for space," Brown added. "Building new prisons was one answer, but that took too long. So the privates became part of the mix." Privatization appealed to the Republican governor at that time, George Deukmejian, as well as to his GOP successor, Pete Wilson. But from the start, the private facilities were bitterly opposed by the labor union representing prison guards, the California Correctional Peace Officers Assn. The union fought privatization in part because it does not represent guards at the company-run facilities. But Brown, now a lobbyist for the union, said its opposition goes beyond that: "Government's job is 100% to protect the public. With the privates, the job is to make money." Though California's private prisons have won high marks from state officials and independent auditors, some private lockups in other states have been dogged by violence, mismanagement and escapes. Over the years, the union has used such horror stories to help sway California legislators against any effort to expand private prisons, which have been limited in the state to housing small numbers of low-security inmates. The union has distributed news clippings of private prison problems elsewhere in the country, as well as a CBS television "60 Minutes" segment on troubles at a Corrections Corp. of America lockup in Ohio. Davis was sympathetic to the union arguments. Two years ago, he proposed closing five of the nine private prisons, saying that he opposed the concept of privatization in corrections and that the tumbling population of low-security inmates made them no longer necessary. Defenders of private facilities cried foul, suggesting that Davis had been motivated by politics. The prison guards union, they pointed out, was one of Davis' biggest campaign contributors — having spent $2.3 million to get him elected in 1998. In 2002, a few weeks after Davis proposed closing the five private prisons, the union gave him $250,000. A vigorous campaign succeeded in saving two of the prisons: the one in Baker and a highly praised women's facility in Live Oak, north of Sacramento, both run by Houston-based Cornell Cos. Inc. But a Department of Corrections spokeswoman said the other three were no longer needed because of a dip in the type of low-security inmates they house. Moreover, expected changes in the parole system may cut that population even more, funneling parole violators into community treatment centers rather than back to prison. "We're hoping to shave another 15,000 off our population eventually, so the need for these minimum custody beds just won't be there," spokeswoman Terry Thornton said. Private prison operators say they are aware of the trends, but believe they can find a new niche in the system. "The privates have consistently shown an ability to, while not coddling inmates, provide them programs that keep them from coming back to prison," said Mark Nobili, a lobbyist for Cornell. "Once the governor looks at us — and he will have to — it will be clear the benefits the industry provides." If you want other stories on this topic, search the Archives at latimes.com/archives. __________________ |
| Subject: whats up with contracts | |
Author: body [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 10:31:58 12/02/06 Sat |
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| Subject: contracts | |
Author: co's [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 14:12:15 11/06/06 Mon anybody know whats happening with our contracts here in mass |
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| Subject: union contracts | |
Author: sid [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 18:11:34 08/28/06 Mon Does anybody know the status of the contracts negotiations. |
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| Subject: who is MS | |
Author: me [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 23:58:34 09/10/06 Sun ? |
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| Subject: M.S. is a cunt! | |
Author: BANDIT [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 17:07:42 09/06/06 Wed |
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| Subject: Solidarity Forever | |
Author: Something real to discuss [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 12:39:10 09/08/06 Fri On America Working The war on workers - David Sirota Monday, September 4, 2006 U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige labeled one "a terrorist organization." Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay, R-Texas, called them "a clear and present danger to the security of the United States." And U.S. Rep. Charles Norwood, R-Ga., claimed they employ "tyranny that Americans are fighting and dying to defeat in Iraq and Afghanistan" and are thus "enemies of freedom and democracy," who show "why we still need the Second Amendment" to defend ourselves with firearms. Who are these supposed threats to America? No, not Osama bin Laden followers, but labor unions made up of millions of workers -- janitors, teachers,firefighters, police officers, you name it. Bashing organized labor is a Republican pathology, to the point where unions are referenced with terms reserved for military targets. In his 1996 article, headlined "GOP Readies for War With Big Labor," conservative columnist Robert Novak cheered the creation of a "GOP committee task force on the labor movement" that would pursue a "major assault" on unions. As one Republican lawmaker told Novak, GOP leaders champion an "anti-union attitude that appeals to the mentality of hillbillies at revival meetings." The hostility, while disgusting, is unsurprising. Unions wield power for workers, meaning they present an obstacle to Republican corporate donors, who want to put profit-making over other societal priorities. Think the minimum wage just happened? Think employer-paid health care and pensions have been around for as long as they have by some force of magic? Think again -- unions used collective bargaining to preserve these benefits. As the saying goes, union members are the folks that brought you the weekend. The government's numbers explain how unions have helped their members. According to an analysis of federal data by the Labor Research Association, average union members receive a quarter more in compensation than nonunion workers. Eighty-nine percent of union members have access to employer-sponsored health care, compared to just 67 percent of nonunion workers. Unionized workers receive 26 percent more vacation than nonunion workers. Unions also benefit nonunion workers. That's thanks to the "union threat effect" whereby anti-union companies meet higher standards in order to prevent workers from becoming angry and organizing. For instance, Princeton researchers found in industries that are 25 percent unionized, average nonunion workers get 7.5 percent more compensation specifically because of unionization' s presence. The flip side is obvious: The more corporations and politicians crush unions, the more all workers suffer. It is no coincidence that as union membership and power has declined under withering anti-union attacks, workers have seen their wages stagnate, pensions slashed, and share of national income hit a 60-year low. As Council on Foreign Relations scholars put it, the decline in unions "is correlated with the early and sharp widening of the U.S. wage gap." Big Business claims union membership has declined because workers do not want to join unions -- a claim debunked by public-opinion data. In 2002, Harvard University and University of Wisconsin researchers found at least 42 million workers want to be organized into a bargaining unit -- more than double the 16 million unionized workers in America. A 2005 nationwide survey by respected pollster Peter Hart found 53 percent of nonunion workers -- that's more than 50 million people -- want to join a union, if given the choice. Increasingly, however, workers have no real choice. According to Cornell University experts, 1 in 4 employers illegally fires at least one worker during a union drive, 3 in 4 hire anti-union consultants, and 8 in 10 force workers to attend anti-union meetings. When workers petition the government to enforce laws protecting organizing rights, they are forced to go before the National Labor Relations Board, which is both run by anti-union presidential appointees, and chronically understaffed so as to slow down proceedings. When Democrats have tried to expand workers' union rights by introducing the Employee Free Choice Act, the GOP has prevented a vote on the legislation. So when GOP lawmakers pledge their commitment to workers at Labor Day celebrations today, remember -- Republicans are waging a war on the very workers they purport to care about. David Sirota is the author of "Hostile Takeover" (Crown, 2006). He is the co-chair of the Progressive States Network (www.progressivestat es.org). Page B - 7 URL: http://sfgate. com/cgi-bin/ article.cgi? file=/chronicle/ archive/2006/ 09/04/EDG3BKSCQI 1.DTL |
| Subject: What the fuck | |
Author: piss [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 17:34:21 09/05/06 Tue holy shit batman another site |
| Subject: what is this site for | |
Author: benwah [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 00:15:15 09/04/06 Mon . |
| Subject: can we say | |
Author: not a goose [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 00:01:37 09/01/06 Fri can say words like shit piss fuck and cunt |
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| Subject: Nice board | |
Author: PJ [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 02:19:35 08/24/06 Thu Glad to see another board come up , I hope this will help people network info on union,admin,hearings,firings,and anything else that helps. |
| Subject: Hello to all blue | |
Author: Admin. [ Edit | View ] |
Date Posted: 17:00:23 08/23/06 Wed Welcome to the new C.O. support board, hopefully all can use this as a network to seek advice, give advice ect. Yeah you can vent too. |
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