Correctional/Detention Officer - “I am a Target”

Just a couple of days away from Correctional Officer Week and officers are being blasted by the media for mistakes, misconduct and investigations that reveal corruption and unethical conduct rampant in such places as the Baltimore jail where 13 officers have been arrested for crimes and conspiring to work an organized crime plan inside the very same jail they work in. Leaning in on the media's assault on correctional and detention officers, they blatantly slam all officers for what appeared to be “A shocking indictment of 13 Baltimore prison guards last week is an extreme example of what happens when people on the "lowest rung" of the criminal justice career ladder succumb to corruption.”

The media needs to pump their brakes on this story of corrupt officers and balance the fact that these individuals do not represent the entire profession or performance of the many that do good work. Labeling such officers as “under-qualified, underpaid and virtually invisible” is an understatement that needs to be explored. The media is often quick to crucify officers and blame them for the bad things that happen inside of prisons or large jails. It is common to do so and must stop. There is more to the story and the media needs to be more responsible to report the truth and the whole truth, not just what has been disclosed in one story or investigation. Very rarely do they pursue a story good enough to reveal the very fiber of the breakdown and accept a press release by the administration as good faith that operations will be restored when in fact, the administration might be flawed as well.

These officers are first responders. They save lives and stop many crimes from being committed once a person is incarcerated for a prolonged period of time. They are the invisible cops that hold things together when nobody else is paying attention once they are convicted and sent off to the prison systems that are out of sight and out of mind. The truth is that many officers are assaulted daily while on the job. Carrying no guns and working with inadequate tools of control, they get things done because they have the guts to face their challenges and complete their assignments. They are exposed to bio-hazards that can bring a deadly disease or illness to their families and work under the worst conditions imaginable even for a modern country such as the United States.

Their presence in the dark corridors of corrections makes them truly invisible to the public and even the media but not to those that have stood side by side through decades of professionalism and dedication to keep our communities safe and reduce violent offenders from escaping their custody while getting paid minimum wages to do so. Except for some officers in those heavy unionized states such a California, many do this because the need a job when unemployment is high and the economy is slow.

It would behoove the media to learn more about the positive things correctional and detention officers do in the line of duty. It would make a better story to report the bad and I am guessing that is why the good is rarely reported However, making correctional officers targets of mean and shameful articles is irresponsible and damaging to the profession and the individuals that work there. Writing such quotes made by experts such as Martin Horne who said "Every state and municipality in the country has cut its officer staffing," criminal justice expert Martin Horn told us. "I firmly believe that the result is officers are terrified. One way of keeping themselves safe is aligning with the inmates." is most irresponsible reporting since we are talking about less than 10 percent of the work force this may apply to.

In addition, there is no mention of how the lack of administrative support can foster such criminal behaviors as the focus is always on the officer and not the administration that is responsible for ensuring the management tools for a safe and orderly operation are in good condition and capable of detecting misconduct or neglect in security operations or other elements of the environment. One must balance the view when reporting and making officers target for publicity purposes is a cheap shot when most of them have no real idea what the profession is all about. In fact, it is for certain that their own reporting is biased and skewed to the point where many things are taken out of content or context to make the story more interesting and sell more papers regardless of the truth.

Human Life to the Highest Bidder

Since the mass incarceration of the past decades, there has been an auction going on in many state and federal prisons that resemble those days of slavery and the misery that goes along with such practices. Today's prisons are filled with masses of human beings auctioned and sold to the highest bidder on the profit margin determined by Wall Street and stockholders of private prison contractors. People must become aware that human lives have become a commodity and that not humans are equal in value or importance. It appears that many in society are either oblivious to the concept or are joining in the profitability of selling mankind.

One main reason for concern on this current trend is with stockholders there is only one priority; money and money means greed, corruption and the need for more power to make more money. Selling a human being would appear to be immoral in the past but today's stock market has placed a higher value on some and a lesser value on others. The food chain has been altered to indicate that people can be sold according to their societal value and purpose in how they fit in the economy. Greed and corruption, along with the inequalities and inequities of such goods makes it important to sort mankind out according to class or ability to make money for others. You might even say that because of the commodity market, morals have been devalued in order to conduct the business at hand.

Not all goods are valuable thus not all people have value. One must sort this out and determine which have the most value and which carry the lesser value of the trade and transformation that turns people into goods. Therefore, the economists must use a political continuum of significance to determine those that are worthy to sell and worthy to buy. The trade is not new. Human trafficking is common in most foreign countries and it has finally arrived in the United States in a perfectly legal concept. Politicians have transformed the need for goods to the needs for people and the prison industrial complex has been most accommodating by selling its prisoners for less than a dollar a head.

Everything is for sale these days. It has been said if you have the means to buy you have the means to possess. The use of human trafficking in our economy has reached its peak and society has not winked an eye while it is happening. Directly or indirectly, they all profit from selling human beings on the market under the prison tag. It is fair to say that public interest has turned into private interest as public value has changed into private values. Judges, law enforcement and the criminal justice system has been accommodating to the private prison industries as they turn over their incarcerated masses to those that promise to feed them, put a roof over their heads and keep them for prolonged periods of time in order to receive maximum returns on their investments.

One must not fool themselves if they are not incarcerated as the chances of them becoming a victim of a crime and charged as a criminal has increased blindly. Prosecutors re focusing on those low on the food chain and unable to defend themselves with an attorney or worst, unable to comprehend or understand what is happening because they are severely mentally ill and taken for granted as another commodity sold to the prison industrial complex to fill a bed regardless of what their treatment needs are. Once can easily see that these type of people are expendable and deserve no second thought about placing them in jails or prisons for a long term so profits are high and acquired to the fullest extend of the law.

The irony is that there are people between the mentally ill and those that have skills and an education that makes them more valuable than others. Skilled workers and intellectuals do well in prison and are well taken care of in sense of housing, medical care and employment. They are exactly what the prison contractors are looking for as they can make money from their fruits of labor that resemble slavery wages and confined living conditions that stifle independence and freedom. They are however, more fortunate that those illiterate and physically or mentally disabled. The prison complex is much kinder to those that can walk, think, use their hands and stay of sound body and mind. It reduces their overhead and custodial costs to keep them and all they have to do is keep them longer and uses quantity as a guide to profitability.

The rest are discarded and devalued and at the same time their existence has no urgency for treatment or other expensive overhead costs thus largely neglected or ignored for their routine, chronic or acute needs of food, medical and mental health treatment, dental and other commodities now identified within the proper definition of the environment. One can be proud of supporting those politicians that have managed to guide state and federal laws to accommodate such a prison industrial complex and ensure their growth has been successful and profitable for everybody that is a stockholders in the business of selling human beings to the highest bidder.