Under Funded Prisons Cause Dangerous Conditions

[blackjack50]

Prison riot in North Florida causes extensive damage; 300 inmates relocated | Miami Herald

Just take a look at this. I know a few people who were involved in quelling the riots. It was pretty crazy from what I hear. But anyway. As you can see...one of the worst problems that we see with law enforcement and corrections is that they don't pay enough. Maybe they pay ok, but then you have to consider that you need to keep people in the profession long enough to gain experience to be better at the job.

And of course legislators don't want want to pay the profession enough. And it sucks.

 

[radcen]

Prison riot in North Florida causes extensive damage; 300 inmates relocated | Miami Herald

Just take a look at this. I know a few people who were involved in quelling the riots. It was pretty crazy from what I hear. But anyway. As you can see...one of the worst problems that we see with law enforcement and corrections is that they don't pay enough. Maybe they pay ok, but then you have to consider that you need to keep people in the profession long enough to gain experience to be better at the job.

And of course legislators don't want want to pay the profession enough. And it sucks.

Not to discount the need, but this is actually kind of a generic issue, with this specific example being prison/LE related.

Seems that nobody gets paid enough. Teachers don't get paid enough. Nurses don't get paid enough. LE doesn't get paid enough. And the list goes on. What is enough?

The solution is multi-pronged. Based on this article there does seem to be a legitimate need and it's not just the union whining like unions are wont to do, but really the same issues are being brought up in multiple industries, especially where the government is either doing the running or has big influence. So what are the solutions? (I'm being plural on purpose, as I don't believe it's just pay people more, though that's probably part of it.) I'm thinking...

1) Increase pay,
2) Reduce administrative bureaucracy (which I believe has become way too rampant in government in general),
3) Reassess what we're putting people in prison for, in other words reduce the inmate population.

A lot of people have issue with #3, but I'm not saying that just as a crime aspect, I'm also saying it from the aspect that prison are a bureaucracy like any other government bureaucracy and those at the top within the bureaucracies reflexively want to protect their little fiefdoms. Even private contract prisons have clauses in their contracts for a minimum number of "customers", for similar selfish reasons completely unrelated to the need of what prisons do, and we need to lose that mindset.

 

[blackjack50]

Not to discount the need, but this is actually kind of a generic issue, with this specific example being prison/LE related.

Seems that nobody gets paid enough. Teachers don't get paid enough. Nurses don't get paid enough. LE doesn't get paid enough. And the list goes on. What is enough?

The solution is multi-pronged. Based on this article there does seem to be a legitimate need and it's not just the union whining like unions are wont to do, but really the same issues are being brought up in multiple industries, especially where the government is either doing the running or has big influence. So what are the solutions? (I'm being plural on purpose, as I don't believe it's just pay people more, though that's probably part of it.) I'm thinking...

1) Increase pay,
2) Reduce administrative bureaucracy (which I believe has become way too rampant in government in general),
3) Reassess what we're putting people in prison for, in other words reduce the inmate population.

A lot of people have issue with #3, but I'm not saying that just as a crime aspect, I'm also saying it from the aspect that prison are a bureaucracy like any other government bureaucracy and those at the top within the bureaucracies reflexively want to protect their little fiefdoms. Even private contract prisons have clauses in their contracts for a minimum number of "customers", for similar selfish reasons completely unrelated to the need of what prisons do, and we need to lose that mindset.

I'm not a "throw money to solve it person." And many of the prisons in my state are private already. I don't know about Franklin county though. What I can say is that the specific issue here isn't about "pay," but about 2 things: hire enough people to safely facilitate guarding prisons and pay people enough to stay to gain experience. It is a ****ty job. You are dealing with crazy unstable anti social personality disorder riddled scumbags. It isn't like being a police officer where that isn't bad 85% or more of your daily contact with people.

 

[Celebrity]

I'm not a "throw money to solve it person." And many of the prisons in my state are private already. I don't know about Franklin county though. What I can say is that the specific issue here isn't about "pay," but about 2 things: hire enough people to safely facilitate guarding prisons and pay people enough to stay to gain experience. It is a ****ty job. You are dealing with crazy unstable anti social personality disorder riddled scumbags. It isn't like being a police officer where that isn't bad 85% or more of your daily contact with people.

To wit, some of the employees in corrections work in mental facilities. I'd say it's even worse than working probation cases. The institution punishes paid employees and inmates by stark contrast with the free world outside. It's not just ****ty because of the people, the purpose of incarceration is ****ty and wouldn't exist without criminals. It's ****ty because our prison system is overloaded.

Feds probe case of inmate locked in a shower 'torture chamber' and scalded to death - Business Insider

 

[Thoreau72]

I'm not a "throw money to solve it person." And many of the prisons in my state are private already. I don't know about Franklin county though. What I can say is that the specific issue here isn't about "pay," but about 2 things: hire enough people to safely facilitate guarding prisons and pay people enough to stay to gain experience. It is a ****ty job. You are dealing with crazy unstable anti social personality disorder riddled scumbags. It isn't like being a police officer where that isn't bad 85% or more of your daily contact with people.

I don't know about you, but I still visit an old friend in the state prison system. He had a 17 year exemplary record as a police officer, but did make a terrible mistake relating to sex. Visiting him in the low security prison in which he will die most likely because of concurrent sentences, I am struck by the number of geriatric patients, many in wheelchairs.

As a taxpayer, I object to old men in wheelchairs being kept in prison on my tax dollar.

Our prison policy is utterly irrational, and incidents such as this show what comes from irrational policy.