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| Officers Ask to Oust Prison Officials |
| By The Capital Times |
| Published: 09/26/2005 |
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About 1,700 Wisconsin state correctional workers have signed petitions calling for the ouster of the two top officials in the Department of Corrections. The "no confidence" petitions submitted to Gov. Jim Doyle last week asked him to remove corrections secretary Matt Frank and Deputy Secretary Rick Raemisch. Gerry O'Rourke, a correctional officer at the Wisconsin Secure Program Facility in Boscobel, leads a coalition of officers calling for the removal of the two officials. He said in an interview that front-line correctional officers have no faith in them. There are 5,400 correctional officers statewide. Frank did not respond directly to the petitions because he said he had not seen them, but he sent a written statement to The Capital Times. Melanie Fonder, a spokeswoman for Doyle, said the governor is quite satisfied with the leadership of the department. O'Rourke cited several complaints, however, including a contention that Frank and Raemisch had no experience in statewide corrections. Frank formerly served as the administrator of the Division of Legal Services in the state Department of Justice when Doyle was attorney general. Frank worked for the department 22 years as an assistant attorney general. Raemisch was the Dane County sheriff from 1990 to 1997. O'Rourke also criticized what he called a "top-down style of management" in which Frank and Raemisch allegedly refuse to listen to front-line workers who have serious concerns about safety and ideas about improving department operations. In the past, the presidents of the union locals have met with the secretary on a quarterly basis, he said. The last meeting was in October, according to O'Rourke, but Frank said he meets with union leadership at different facilities when he visits them. O'Rourke alleged that there were instances "where the secretary is bowing to public perception or political pressure as opposed to listening to his staff that deals with the situation." Another issue that raised the ire of corrections officers was a policy that if an officer received three moving violations on his or her driving record in two years, that person would not be able to drive a state vehicle. A state union leader also previously objected to new Department of Corrections rules that all allegations of sexual misconduct by staff members be automatically referred to outside law enforcement. Marty Beil of the Wisconsin State Employees Union said that would occur regardless of the facts of the situation or the credibility of the inmate making the claim. |
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