Achieving good security in a correctional environment depends on a multitude of factors, all coming together like a good orchestra under the direction of a
knowledgeable conductor (warden). You need a good physical plant, a sound
plan, and a well-organized mission. All are essential. Adequate funding is
necessary and a knowledgeable and committed executive team needs to be in place. But all of these things are totally dependent on a well-trained staff
who are present in adequate numbers. The latest equipment and technology are useless without good, committed, and experienced people to do the actual work.

Getting the best possible people is only the initial step. They must be well
trained and prepared to do this demanding job. They need to be guided and
led. What is expected of them can be mind boggling. They need to deal
effectively, fairly, and humanely with society's outcasts. Many will reject
this role. Across the nation the first two years of custodial service has a
staggering dropout rate. The cost of recruiting, testing, and training have
to be repeated unnecessarily.

Across the country the correction officer is paid less than a police officer
(whose pay is also poor). In a major system like Florida's, the entry-level
correction officer makes less than $20,000 per year. Yet we all expect and
need a well-motivated, professional, and consistent correctional officer
force. We need to retain good people, yet the pay and benefits packages in
many jurisdictions are lacking. In New York the correction officer is well
paid, proving an exception to the rule.

The correction officer's job is demanding and dangerous. We need to keep
good staff by rewarding them financially and by raising public awareness of
their important status. Correction officer unions exist to make this kind of
effort, but wardens and commissioners should also take up this cause with
their legislators and budget officials. Who better to champion the cause of
the workforce than the people who lead and depend on the workers? The
administrators that promote the financial cause of the staff are really
helping to effective run their system on many levels. Keeping good,
well-motivated staff improves the security of the prison and it saves the
enormous amount of money spent on the constant need to replace a high
turnover staff.

Finding and Keeping Good Staff

Handling staff replacement can be difficult as New York Commissioner Glenn Goord found last year when he tried to fire an officer who publicly flew the Nazi flag from his home. I will not attempt to describe the case, New York State Correctional Officers and Police Benevolent Association, Inc. v. State of New York, et al.,  www.courts.state.ny.us/ctapps/decisions/201opn.htm or its implications. But, as a former Chief Executive Officer of a number of correctional facilities, I will explain why I think Goord's decision to try to remove this individual is laudable. First and foremost a message was sent to the workforce, the inmate population, and the public.
The New York State prison system will not tolerate ethnic and racial bigotry
or the appearance of such in its staff. Secondarily, it lays out the
commissioner's belief that in a system as volatile as corrections, he has
the right to dictate to staff, a limitation on their voicing of personal
philosophy on the job.

While the court did not support the commissioner's position, the point was
made. As correctional administrators, we have a responsibility to promote a
stable, moral environment. We must not only forbid intolerance and bigotry,
but we must also take an active role in the creation of a situation where
all who work in the system know what is expected of them.

We are a country of laws and no one knows this better than the correctional
administrator. The courts have decided that personal beliefs, however
repugnant, are constitutionally guaranteed. Now that the courts have spoken,
we will do as we have always done in corrections - make adjustments and move on.

My suspicion is that Goord and his lawyers knew that they had a poor case,
but they opted for a fight because it was the right thing to do. To roll over
and allow these views and this demonstration to go unchallenged would be to
abdicate a sacred responsibility. Maybe a battle was lost, but ultimately
the war was won. Someone once said, 'It's not whether you win or lose, but
how you play the game.' I applaud Goord and the New York administration. Your staff knows where you stand on this issue. Similar outbursts by staff have been discouraged. Leadership on an issue so important, is a service to the entire correction profession.