The problem I have seen with security is new officers who are “gung-ho” on going into the block by themselves without waiting for backup, being macho man and finding themselves in a mess if they do that. Anytime you have a hang-up or an inmate fight or an inmate having a seizure you call for backup and WAIT. How would you explain to your Superintendent that you caused an escape or riot because you ran into a block by yourself and the inmates ran out and locked you in? One time I responded to a floor on a backup call for medical. When we got there the inmate was on his back in his cell by himself and appeared to be having a grand mal seizure. At the time I was and EMT and I knew from looking at him he was faking. So I took an ammonia caplet put it under his nose and he stood right up screaming at us. A person who really has a grand mal seizure doesn’t react to verbal or any other kind of stimuli (like ammonia) when they are convulsing and they have no memory of what happened. The officers on the floor did the proper thing, called for backup before opening his cell, otherwise it could have been a real problem.

I agree totally with jamestown. Security takes precedence over everything in a jail or prison. One of the issues we are taught is if an Inmate is stabbed, we do not render aid or the nurses for that matter, until every Inmate is locked up and the weapon is secured. If an Inmate is having a Heart attack, until other Inmates are removed from the area, CPR is not started due to safety and security concerns.

Very simply stated….safety and security take precedence over everything in any facility.

I work at a County facility in Wa state. Our line staff and half the classification team are constantly at odds with the head of Classification, he/she also heads our programs. Our agency runs several programs like domestic violence, chemical dependency and mental health to assist inmates with issues and supposedly reduce recidivism.

We currently have a situation which is particularly trooubling as follows:

We have Inmate Doe in custody who is known to have strong gang ties as well as violence problems in and out of jail for a long time. During this current incarceration, he was deemed eligible for the Domestic Violence program by the court. He was given an opportunity and moved along in the classification system until he was placed as an inmate worker in the kitchen (which is common in our facility and part of the program). It didn’t take long and before we knew it, he was involved in a fight in the kitchen where he attempted to pull a knife on another inmate. The incident was handled avoiding serious injury to anyone.

Its been several weeks and the head of our Classification team is pushing for this inmate to be moved out of our maximum security to medium in order for him to be able to participate in his Domestic Violence program. Half the Classification team under her and most of our line staff do not feel it is safe or appropriate to move him. Most of us feel he should remain in max for the remainder of this incarceration.

My question is should programs overide calssification?
Does made eligible by the courts mean that we disregard safety and security?

At this point I feel that this Head of Classification is so far removed from line staff and our safety concerns that he/she has completeley lost perpesctive on a primary mission!