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| Prison safety not just about guards |
| By thegazette.com - Des Moines Register |
| Published: 10/20/2011 |
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In June 2009, there were 8,454 inmates in Iowa prisons and 3,064 people worked in the institutions. Two years later, there are 333 more offenders and 336 fewer employees. The numbers alone raise red flags. But the stories being told by prison staff are cause for alarm. The union representing those workers says the understaffing puts employees, prisoners and the public at risk. In recent weeks, Danny Homan, state president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, has shared with The Des Moines Register some of the serious problems being reported to him by workers. The stories include one about a young inmate who beat a 67-year-old inmate so bad the older man had to be hospitalized, and another about a nurse who was choked and physically assaulted by an inmate. She had to drive herself to the hospital because there was no staff to transport her. There was a report of a fight in the yard at Anamosa State Penitentiary where guards arrived only to be surrounded by inmates. The officers said inmates could have “taken the yard” if they wanted to. Homan says conditions are “horrendous” and workers “believe that we are either going to have a riot in one of our prisons or someone is going to be killed.” Recently, some staff rallied in front of the Iowa State Penitentiary in Fort Madison, demanding help to quell what they say is escalating violence. The Iowa Department of Corrections tells a different story. The department provided the newspaper with information showing assaults in prisons this summer were only “slightly higher” than last summer. Read More. |
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