PA Corrections Officers Union Calls Out Dept. of Corrections
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Harrisburg, PA (WENY)-- Corrections Officers from around Pennsylvania gathered in Harrisburg Wednesday morning to call out the PA Department of Corrections. During a scathing 15-minute speech, PA State Corrections Association (PSCOA) President Larry Blackwell said the Dept. of Corrections (DOC) needs to be held more accountable.
“The culture in the Department of Corrections, created by Secretary Jon Wetzel, has created a dangerous climate for everyone, especially our officers,” says Blackwell.
Blackwell says the DOC is doing a number of things wrong. For example, the PSCOA believes the DOC is inconsistent in their reporting of assaults on COs in prisons across the state. They believe it’s because the DOC wants the public to think violence inside its facilities is going down.
“As Corrections Officers, we accept out job is inherently dangerous, but the level of violence in the state system is increasing as the Department continues to look past violent behavior in order to reduce the prison population to save money,” says Blackwell.
The PSCOA is accusing the DOC of overlooking assaults on COs, and say punishments for such an event are not strong enough. The term “gassing” came up, which according to Blackwell, is when an inmate smears feces or bodily fluids on a CO. According to the PSCOA, this is only considered a general assault, not a major assault.
“You could argue that gassing an officer is the most serious, major assault that can be committed. Stitches heal. Concussions heal. But a disease can stay with you forever. And for some reason, the Department of Corrections doesn’t classify gassing as a major assault. So when you hear that major assaults are down, you realize that statistics are being manipulated by the agency with little or no oversight,” Blackwell says.
But during a Senate Appropriations Budget Hearing Wednesday afternoon, where top DOC leaders were testifying, they refuted that claim when Senator David Argall asked officials about “gassing.” One DOC official said it is indeed considered a major assault.
There’s been a string of recent assaults on Corrections Officers in Pennsylvania. The PSCOA says punishments aren’t strong enough. They say the Restrictive Housing Units have limited space, so inmates aren’t receiving proper punishment for their crimes.
“Inmates know they’ll be released early from the RHUs, and they still have a good shot at parole in a system that is bending over backward to let them out,” says Blackwell.
The DOC pushed back, releasing a statement late Wednesday afternoon that reads in part: “The safety of staff within our facilities is of utmost importance. No assault is acceptable. The DOC has made significant strides in reducing inmate-on-staff assaults over the past several years. The inmate-on-staff assault rate in 2019 is 20 percent lower than it was in 2015, which indicates our employees and inmates are safer now than they were just five years ago.”
THE PSCOA says the DOC is too fixated on reducing prison populations, which is resulting in letting some inmates out too early. In 2019, the DOC estimates it paroled more than 1,700 inmates who would go on to commit a violent crime. 100 of those inmates would be accused of a capital crime, including murder. 60% of all parolees return to prison within three years.
“The Department continually boasts about the prison population being reduced, yet they ignore these facts,” explains Blackwell.
During his testimony Wednesday afternoon, Secretary Wetzel addressed these statistics, pointing to a downward trend.
“We release about 19,000 people. There’s always going to be a number, but I absolutely think we can reduce that number. But also to contextualize that number, it’s trending in the right direction,” Secretary Wetzel says.
Overall, the PSCOA says there needs to be greater oversight of the Department of Corrections, and protections for COs need to be increased. Senator David Argall (R- Berks, Schuylkill), is taking action.
“I’m going to be introducing bipartisan legislation to guarantee the preservation of constitutional rights for all of our COs. The CO Bill of Rights,” says Senator Argall.
Several other pieces of legislation have also been introduced, including one to increase penalties for attacks on Corrections Officers. Lawmakers say people in this line of duty deserve to be protected as much as possible.
“We owe it to the courageous men and women to take action to ensure the safest possible work environment that we can,” says Rep. Tommy Sankey (R- Clearfield, Cambria). “When is enough going to be enough? We need to take action now,” he adds.
The full DOC response statement to the PSCOA press conference can be found below:
“The safety of staff within our facilities is of utmost importance. No assault is acceptable. Prison jobs can be challenging and dangerous, and we appreciate the work our employees do to ensure a secure and safe environment.
The DOC has made significant strides in reducing inmate-on-staff assaults over the past several years. The inmate-on-staff assault rate in 2019 is 20 percent lower than it was in 2015, which indicates our employees and inmates are safer now than they were just five years ago. The department categorizes assaults into three types: major – requires medical attention outside of the facility; throwing – involves the throwing of liquids, feces or objects, and; general – any other type of assault.
We constantly monitor the populations of our facilities and transfer inmates throughout the system to balance any population concerns. The DOC uses a variety of methods to track trends in the system, and we take necessary steps to work to reduce assaults and violence and to provide our employees with tools and skills to do the same. All of the DOC officers carry pepper spray and all staff have been trained in assault management application, interpersonal communications, de-escalation techniques, mental health first aid, crisis intervention and more. The DOC also recently made protective vests available to employees.
In addition to systemic enhancements and changes made over the past two years, the DOC implemented a violence reduction initiative (VRI) at all state prisons. This initiative clearly informs inmates of sanctions to be used in response to violence. Sanctions range from in-cell restriction, housing unit lockdown, placement in the restricted housing unit and locking down of an entire prison.
The DOC will continue ongoing efforts to protect our employees and inmates.”