PAY RAISES
And Other Interesting Stuff
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Hopefully with the new pay raise that's going into effect, we'll start to attract a better class of officer. Our biggest problem is the fact that 19 and 20 year olds just don't have the maturity to consistently enforce rules and regulations on men twice their age. I personally take a lot of interest in trying to shape the newer recruits into something more than what they were on the day they were hired. Some respond positively, some treat this job as if it were comparable to McDonalds. As long as humans do this job, there will unfortunately always be that type of guard, the best we can do is quickly weed them out and send them back to McDonalds.
As I understand it, the pay raise is to be 3.5% effective August 1, 2005. The better the pay, the higher calibre people we will attract. No One wants the crap we get for barely 28K a year take-home (31K gross). If pay for 5 year veteran officers was 35K, we'd have to beat (haha) people away.
There was talk of a two-fold raise of 2.5 percent across the board, and an additional 2 to 3% for people with over 5 years, and another 2 or 3% for people with 10 or more years. This was to be an attempt to keep some of the experienced officers. The majority of securities problem is the fact that experienced officers keep leaving (or getting promoted to SGT). Apparently PBA dropped the ball (again), like they did when we got suckered out of 2.5% of a 5% raise in favor of badges.
The average CO1 has 3 to 5 years of experience, as opposed to about 10 years ago when the average was closer to 8. Since the CO1 is the face an inmate sees the most, having 2 officers in a post lacking work experience makes for a tense environment. most of the newer officers feel they have something to prove, and
turn 'bad-ass'.
Rumor-mill has it that Crosby isn't long for Warden (hope he doesnt run for governor), and due to the bad taste his cronies have given most of the career officers, they wont last long after he goes.
If we could get rid of Aramark, reduce fake DR's, and maybe implement a few programs like arts and crafts or maybe some sort of a musical program, things would get A LOT better. Hopefully with joint efforts by alot of officers at alot of institutions we can bleed Aramark dry slowly. Most of us now have a policy of 'bad tray? throw it out and get another'....alot of bad trays, encourage alot of grievances straight to Tallahassee (since Aramark routinely throws any out that they recieve)'. If they short us of food (especially in confinement), we write paperwork and force them to send more. usually we order '5 over' just so we have a margin of error. This week alone over 30 incident reports were initiated by various officers, sergeants, and captains against Aramark. Aramark does have unholy protection, his heinous, Lord Bush.
Morale is extremely low for officers right now, and a few of us have said to inmates (and convicts), that if they dont riot, we will. Its said somewhat jokingly right now, but if the trends continue....who knows.
And yes, we have something similar to the guard/officer thing for inmate/convict. Convicts understand that alot of us are stuck enforcing rules we dont necessarily like, and try to work with us so everyone stays as happy as possible. An inmate just sees brown and hates us, or decides we're to be played with (ie. the sudafed/tylenol game, or lets visit medical).I'm thinking the pay raise may be a good thing even from my standpoint. Higher pay, better qualified officers, perhaps less tolerance of the bad guards. It could cause an improvement in the prison despite Tallahassee.
What's the the sudafed/tylenol game about?The Tylenol/Sudafed game is usually played by younger inmates against newer officers. Theres probably a couple reasons its done.
Basically about 10 or 20 inmates will get together and wait for something to get the officers attention (like feeding chow, running recreation out, calling for work squads etc.). they will then, one or two at a time come to the officer station and ask for sudafed and tylenol, knowing we arent allowed to refuse them (normally). Older officers know how to beat the game, but the newer ones end up getting mad and either refusing to give ANY medication out, or they just yell at the 5th or 6th unlucky one to ask.
Older officers just tell the first inmate to ask while something important is going on to 'wait, I'll be with you in a minute', or keep track of inmates that ask alot (we're supposed to anyway, via check-out logs for the meds). Rules say that after 3 or 5 straight days of asking for the meds at every opportunity, we can refuse them the meds and offer to send them to medical for an evaluation.
Theres variations of the game, such as the toothpaste/toiletpaper game (both are given out on the evening shift twice a week, along with soap and razors) which they know we either give out on an exchange basis or only on the prescribed day.
For every game that inmates say we play on them, they have one to play on us. Not to say some guards dont need to be bothered based on how THEY act.
Usually you can tell who needs medical help, OTC medication, or supplies if you've done this job for awhile. The 25 year old that was just jumping up and down yelling at the football game is likely to not really need Tylenol. The 25 year old that's been sniffling a bit, and moping around probably needs tylenol, sudafed, throat lozenges and if he ate in the chow-hall, an alamag (or 5).
The medical emergency game is more annoying by far: An inmate comes to the officer station claiming his chest hurts and he wants to declare a medical emergency. We find out if he can walk, needs a wheelchair or stretcher, we arrange escort, alert medical to pull his records and get ready, then get him to medical ASAP. When we get him there the duty-nurse asks him whats wrong again (since officers arent doctors, our initial call is disregarded if the inmate is concious). The inmate says...My foot hurts, I hurt it playing basketball.
They do this for a reason, even though it wont work. They do it thinking they will get out of the $4 co-pay, since anything of an emergency nature is free. This doesn't work, because the nurse 90% of the time looks at the inmate like he's an idiot, charges him $4, gives him 3 or 4 packets of Ibuprofin and advises him to come back during sick-call the next morning...for another $4. They used to treat people that did this, but after a statewide flood of non-emergency visits after hours, they decided on this method to hopefully stop the abuse and keep the hospital open for those in genuine need.
As an officer, anytime the phrase 'medical emergency' is used, most of us treat it like its a life/death emergency. When an inmate plays this game, it makes alot of officers REALLY mad, because they've effectively tied up 2 to 3 staff members and medical for a bogus reason.
Sincerely,
Has An Xbox For Games :P
P.S. I havent heard anything about Clark, other than the fact that he likes softball (understatement, I know).