Thursday, July 27, 2006

A moment of silence...


Two days ago we were forced to say goodbye to one of Marylands Correctional Officers. David McGuinn, 42. He had almost two years experience. Inmates were able to jam the locking mechanism to their cells, and fatally stabbed Ofc. McGuinn on tuesday evening.

Frank Sizer, Comissioner of Corrections, says

"We have lost another family member and our hearts are heavy, but we will not be deterred," Division of Correction Commissioner Frank C. Sizer Jr. said Wednesday at a news conference. "We will continue to confront acts of violence in our prisons."

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/M/MD_OFFICER_KILLED_MDOL-?SITE=MDSAL&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

Is it just me, or shouldn't we be doing more than just confronting acts of violence in our prisons? In the past couple of years we have mostly dealt with inmates fighting/killing other inmates. But the rules of engagement are completely different when officers become targets. It's not like the Officer was responding to a fight, and got caught up, the inmates planned and executed this act with one result in mind. Last week 'plumbing problems' arose on one tier of one of our general population housing units. This plumbing problem was a distraction. Meanwhile in the tier next door an inmate was stabbed and beaten with a lock in a sock while manpower was focused elsewhere. Amazing. Not only are inmates coordinating on their own tiers, they are organizing on a much larger scale.

No longer are we dealing with old time criminals. These new inmates are straight out thugs. They don't act alone, because most of them are really just punks. They don't come at you straight on, they hide in groups because they are weak. On the street they would have shot you from afar, again because they are punks. used to be there was some 'honor among theives' but not anymore. These inmates are young, dumb, and reckless.

We need to adopt a proactive approach. Without one we will all be targets. Corrections has gotten so soft. Give Give Give. Don't dare TAKE AWAY. Somewhere along the line our institution became somewhat of a democracy. Inmates have total control of the activities through an informal, although all-determining voting process. High ups don't want any trouble, so give them some more. Let them have what they say they want. But it's like dealing with children. Give them what they need, they will make do. Give them what they want, and they want more, and more until there is no way to give any more. This causes more problems than the ones they meant to keep quiet. Things may have to get worse before they get any better with this group we have in charge (Mary Ann Saars, Frank Sizer etc) and the 'kinder gentler' approach they preach (read NOT WORKING).

Sizer stated after an inmate was strangles on one of our prison buses:
State prison officials fired three correctional officers
yesterday and two others were disciplined as a result to the Philip E. Parker Jr. murder
(strangling death) that occurred on a prison bus February 2nd. Frank Sizer stated:
"The disciplinary actions are meant to send a strong message. I think that what we're saying
is that when we have employees that work for us, we expect certain performances from them.
And when they don't comply or perform, there is a consequence."
So Officers suffer consequences of inmates actions, but inmates often do not.... Interesting.

Just some food for thought. I still believe that my nstitution is one of the safest around. And that these things would be more difficult here, although I remember an inmate in the seg unit that used to open his door, and run around the tier when noone was watching....

I'll be watching my back.

posted by Z-Man @ 7:53 AM 8 comments