I don't like talking about my work here. Again, fun and cookies are allowed here. But I've been pushed to it again. Second time in a year. This time, due to the ever shrinking budget for the state of Washington. They want the Department of Corrections to cut either 5% or 10% of their already shrunk to the bones budget. This means that there will be a huge risk to public safety.
So, I had to organize my thoughts and send them to my representatives. Because I'm tired of my facility being picked on, and more so I am tired of my fellow staff members being cut without the upper ranks being cut. What happens more often than not is they cut line staff and increase management. So...here is what I wrote.
The Department of Corrections doesn't care about the Washington State Penitentiary.
It is the oldest facility in the state. This year marks 125 years in operation.
It houses death row, the Green River killer Gary Ridgway and the Hillside Strangler Kenneth Bianchi.
It houses the worst offenders in the state. When there is a riot, if it doesn't happen at the facility, the offenders who caused it are sent here. It is expected to house the worst of the worst, yet the department loves to hack out staff left at right when a budget problem arises, making it even more dangerous. Out of the 7 staff murdered on the job in washington state, 5 of them have come out of the penitentiary through brutal assaults and bombings.
But when it comes to cuts, they take them out of WSP first. And they take it out of line staff at WSP, never the management. Management has grown since I started there 5 years ago. Positions that are no longer needed are still filled. Administrative positions, which due to cuts aren't supported by the inmate population, remain consistently filled while counselor positions, people who actually deal with offenders on their programming and release planning, are vacant and have been for months. It is a chronic disease that upper management suffers from. They treat their disease by trying to cut off what they see as the diseased limbs, which is line staff and people who actually deal with the offenders.
The argument was given that "Why don't they cut out of Monroe as well?" The response from former Prisons Director Morgan was:
"inmates and their families are scared to death of Walla Walla and they like Monroe." Their other objection is that they are closer to hospitals in Seattle. WSP had a brand new hospital built and opened a year ago, and it is consistently getting inmate patients from other facilities for post surgery recuperation. Seattle isn't the only city in the state with a hospital. And Monroe isn't the only close facility to a major hospital.
On the west side of the state, where there is more population and more job opportunities, there are 8 prisons. There are only 4 other prisons in the state beyond that, WSP, CRCC, LCC and AHCC. All of them are relatively close to a major hospital. And as far as Walla Walla being dangerous, I'm sorry but this is the prison system that we are talking about. There is violence in prison, regardless of what you try. These are, for the most part, violent offenders who are in for violent crimes. Thy have problems with authority, following rules and acting like a productive member of society. And when you send the most violent and hard to control offenders to one place by policy and practice, it will be a difficult place to live. So again, it isn't summer camp, it is prison and this is the reality that they need to face.
Many staff members have been moved back into positions related to training, which are also considered management positions. When they make the cuts, those people will go back to their old positions and they will get to say that they cut management positions. But we will still be overly management top-heavy.
So let me rephrase my beginning statement of the Department of Corrections doesn't care about the Washington State Penitentiary. They don't care about line staff and actual staff members working with the offenders. They do care about the upper management who have nothing to do with the offenders beyond having pointless meetings to delegate out work that they think should be done, instead of the actual work of running a prison facility.
It disgusts me to no end. And the upper management always circles the wagons around their own. Belinda Stewart, who was found to of committed serious ethics violations by the state ethics board, wasn't fired. Instead she was reassigned to "special initiatives as designated by the Prisons Director". That is agency speak for "We will keep you out of trouble till this blows over".
By the way, Belinda Stewart made $100,062 last year. Over 3 times what I made.
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