Would you step down from security to do an inmate job?
Some of us are already facing this question and some of us will be facing it soon, as the brass has opted to let officers take out trash and pull weeds in lieu of an inmate. Remember the days when you could just pull out any inmate who wanted to get out for a while, and he would take the trash? A friend on graves tells me that the officers do it at night. Wow. I can't be that surprised, though, I've heard of brass telling officers to pull weeds in the tower spline, and from what I hear, that's happening again. Not if I go to that yard! We have pest control, why not weed control? Money is a problem, ok, so we save money by having an officer do it? No, that takes one out of the security position he or she was assigned to, not to mention it's very demoralizing, especially in front of inmates on the rec field. So it's a security issue to have an inmate in the spline? Why? If there's an officer in the tower with weapons, it's no different than any spot on the yard. If there's no officer in the tower, then keep the tower locked and have the officer (the one brass would have told to pull weeds) watching that inmate just like the yard crew. What's the cost? Fifteen cents an hour? Fifty? For a couple hours of weed pulling, I'll take a dollar out of my own pocket and put it on his books. Not that I should have to, but if money is the concern, I'll cover it. If security is the concern, I just explained that quite plain and simple. There's no reason, NONE AT ALL, for an officer to leave his post and go pull weeds. I'll be talking to my union rep about this ASAP, because I will absolutely take the 601 before I pull a single weed.