Topic: Security Central / How many gangs are in your facility?

There are gangs in prison? Nah…

Topic: Security Central / Which cell extraction methods work best?

Someone on here had brought up using a K-9 for cell extractions. I’ve still never seen this method would love for someone to post some video somewhere. I always found it funny how some of the toughest badasses turn to screaming girls at the site of a charging dog.

Topic: Letter of The Law / Mandated overtime?

Ohio mandates, but the volunteers get first choice. After the volunteer list is exhausted, it’s on to freezing lowest in seniority. It happens almost daily at our institution. Management and the union at our institution were nice enough to put in an agreement that you can only be mandated every other day as long as your freeze was for at least an hour. It’s a much better agreement then back in the day when we just got froze everyday regardless of wether you had been mandated for an hour or eight hours the day before. And they could just do it day after day.

Topic: Letter of The Law / No lunch breaks?

Ohio gives no breaks for meals for officers either. You just find time somewhere during your day to eat and watch the convicts at the same time.

Topic: A Broader View / Ohio DRC Hiring Freeze??

Our institution is still hiring Officers and other various positions. They had a freeze on new hires for a few months, but are back at it again. Hiring new blood to put on the chopping block just in time for the next round of cuts. Word has it, unit management and sergeants are gone with the next go round. Along with librarians, some secretaries etc.

Topic: Health & Wellness / Mandated CPR On Inmates: Good Or Not So Good?

Wondered how long it would take for a medical person to pop in on this one. We DO have 24/7 medical at our institution, and they are tested all the time to have a <3 minute response time to any medical emergency. Yes we ARE at risk every day from all of the things you mentioned, as are you, but would you be jumping into any of those potentially dangerous situations without the proper protection or training? Not likely. I am not a medical professional, and have no desire to be, just like most medical has no desire to do the C/O’s job. A C/O should NOT be disciplined for not performing medical procedures on inmates, just as you will never see medical getting disciplined for not responding to a man down alarm, as they stand around while one is happening.

Topic: The Club House / New Facebook/MySpace for Corrections

Checked out the sites and joined one, both about as active as this place. S-L-O-W, not much traffic. hopefully they can expand and get a little more active soon and add some more features maybe.

Topic: The Club House / Hospitalized Inmates getting visits?

If they are not on their death bed, they should not receive a visit, plain and simple.

Topic: The Club House / What special activities occur for your staff during the holidays?

Nothing really. There is an institutional Christmas party that is held off grounds every year, but a lot of people usually can’t attend due to having to work. It used to be good, they used to have great door prizes, but then the state cracked down on the whole gift thing saying state employees were not allowed to receive gifts of more than $20 in value. So we went from having Big screen TV’s and Playstations as prizes to $20 gift cards instead.

Topic: The Club House / Concerned Christians for Inmates

Well, it’s Texas, I think most Texans approve of inmate abuse, don’t they? I mean, don’t you guys have an express lane for the death penalty?

It would be nice to put some of these Inmate advocates in CO uniforms and have them spend a week or two in here. See how it really is. Doesn’t matter if you’re nice to these bags of garbage, they hate you because you represent authority, not always because of how you act.Then they claim abuse to these naive religious nutjobs, and they just think they are all angels. NEWSFLASH, These guys know how to pull a con, and they CON you everytime you believe their crap.

Topic: The Club House / When the facility gets maxed out

Our facility was built for 750 inmates. We currently house a little over 2,000. We have 40-45 bunk beds set up in the common area of every housing unit. Average count in our larger housing units is 200 inmates per unit, 80-90 of which are not in cells, but on bunk beds on the floor directly in front of the officers desk.

Topic: A Broader View / Staff incentive ideas for quitting tobacco

As of March 2009, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections is going tobacco free across the board as well. Their incentive for us is, if you don’t bring it in or get caught doing it on state grounds, they’ll let us keep our jobs. LOL

Topic: Letter of The Law / Should parole be abolished or can it reduce our relience on prisons?

Rehabilitation does not work. In my years of experience in the system, the recidivism rate of paroled offenders seems extremely high and most of them violate their parole and end up serving their time anyway. Flat time seems to be the more economical way to go as most of these guys never seem to learn. And the parole restrictions are ridiculous anyway. Go flat time and reduce the sentencing terms for non-violent crimes and petty drug offenses that guys are getting slammed for. When you’ve got guys doing more time for drug offenses than for murder and rape, something is broken.

Maybe the 3 strikes and your out law would strike fear enough into them to straighten their act? Anyone have any statistics on how the crime rates have been affected in the states that have enacted this?

Topic: Security Central / Should OC use on juvenile offenders be restricted?

Ohio’s own Use of Force progression chart shows the use of OC before hands-on. Also, just the presence of OC on an officer is sometimes enough of a deterrant to prevent the inmate from taking action. Ohio has progressively become soft on offenders in the prison setting, as has most of the country. Yet, Police are getting new tools to use to subdue offenders on a regular basis. Now, I’m no rocket scientist or anything, but if Police get new tools to use on what is generally one-on-one situations, shouldn’t Corrections Officers who are placed in a setting with hundreds of potentially violent offenders be offered the same such tools? I’m not recommending guns in a housing unit or anything, but OC, PR-24’s and even Tasers would make offenders think twice about their behavior.

Topic: The Club House / New Career

You are referring to the other used car salesmen when you say “inmate types” right? They rob you and never have to face charges!

Topic: The Club House / If corrections had a slogan what would it be?

Seems someone has taken a liking to and is making some money off of some of our sayings.

Topic: A Broader View / Checks & Balances?

ACA is a joke. Honestly does anyone fail these inspections? They tell you a month or so ahead of time when they are coming, and then management has everyone running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to get everything ship shape for their visit.

Topic: Letter of The Law / Can we deny inmates access to newspapers, magazines as an incentive for better behavior?

Wow in seg too? and I thought Ohio was too liberal

Topic: Security Central / Transport security

At our prison we send two armed officers on any outside medical trip, 3 armed officers if the offender is considered an escape risk.

Topic: The Club House / Do you belong to a Union?

MichiganRUO, it sounds like you have that great, “no strike clause” like we do here in Ohio, it allows the State to pretty much force a contract on us, giving us nothing, because they know we have no leverage in the bargaining department.

Topic: The Club House / A Select Few.

The AB is actually one of the most serious gangs when it comes to getting business done, although they have quite a few wannabe’s in the bunch like every other gang, but for the most part they tend to shy away from the threats and such unless they are serious. They wouldn’t normally warn the person ahead of time though, so it would seem that this may be from one of the afformentioned wannabes. If they have the home address, hopefully law enforcement officials have taken care of the problem.

Topic: The Club House / Any suggestions for my prison toilet?

craigslist.com

Topic: The Club House / Where in the world are you

Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction here (LORCI)

Topic: Tech Talk / Digital TV conversions

forget the converters, just buy a collection of Disney movies and pipe them in through the jail.

Topic: The Club House / disabilty benefits in contract

In Ohio we only get 1 year. I believe you’re looking for section D in this, our contract reads like this:

35.01 – Disability Program Eligibility and administration of disability benefits shall be pursuant to current Ohio Law and the Administrative Rules of the Department of Administrative Services except for the following modifications and clarifications:

A. Any full-time permanent employee with a disabling illness, injury, or condition that will last more than fourteen (14) consecutive days AND who has completed one (1) year of continuous state service immediately prior to the date of the disability may be eligible for disability leave benefits.

B. To be eligible for disability leave benefits, an employee must be: (1) in active pay status on approved sick leave, (2) on approved disability leave, (3) on approved leave of absence without pay for personal medical reasons or (4) disability separated. Employees alleging conditions precluded by OAC 123:1-33-14 are not eligible for disability benefits, unless the exceptions of the section are met. An application for disability benefits based on a diagnosis of a mental disorder, including but not limited to, psychosis, mood disorders, and anxiety, must be confirmed by a licensed mental health provider authorized by the Employer’s Mental Health Administrator. Where the initial application is accompanied by the opinion of such provider, it shall be processed accordingly. However, where the diagnosis is submitted by any other medical professional, the Employer shall make expeditious arrangements for the required examination by the licensed mental health provider. Approval of the application will be contingent upon receipt of substantiation from such provider. In the event the examination is outside the parameters of the employee’s mental healthcare plan, the cost of the examination shall be borne by the Employer.

C. Part-time or established term regular and established term irregular employees who have worked fifteen hundred (1500) or more hours within the twelve (12) calendar months preceding disability shall be entitled to disability benefits based upon the average regular weekly earnings for weeks worked over that twelve (12) month period.

D. Effective for all claims filed on or after March 1, 2006, disability benefits will be paid at seventy percent (70%) of the employees base rate of pay for the first three (3) months, and fifty percent (50%) for the next nine (9) months, and shall be entitled to receive disability leave benefits up to a lifetime maximum of twelve (12) months. All employees receiving payments under Article 35 prior to March 1, 2006 shall be paid according to the terms of Article 35 contained in the Collective Bargaining Agreement which expired on February 28, 2006. The utilization of disability leave prior to March 1, 2006 and the continuation of any disability leave past March 1, 2006 shall not be counted against the above one (1) year maximum. Employees who are grandfathered under the previous provisions of Article 35 shall continue to only receive benefits under such provisions until their instant disability leave is terminated, either by recovery and ability to return to work, expiration of the time period allocated to that disability claim, the lifetime maximum limits or termination of employment. Thereafter any claim filed shall be administered in accordance with the new provisions of this Article, effective March 1, 2006.

E. The Employer agrees that transitional work programs will not violate the provisions of the Family and Medical Leave Act.

F. Pursuant to OAC 123:1-33-14, employees who have been denied Workers’ Compensation lost time benefits for an initial claim, may file an application for disability leave benefits twenty (20) days from the notification by the Bureau of Workers’ Compensation of the denial of an initial claim.

G. Disability separations shall be made pursuant to OAC 123:1-33. The Employer’s decision to disability separate an employee or to deny reinstatement from an involuntary disability separation shall not be grieveable but shall be exclusively subject to appeal through the State Personnel Board of Review (SPBR).

H. In the event an employee submits an application for disability leave after either (1) the employee has received notice that he/she is under investigation for possible disciplinary action or (2) where an investigation regarding the employee is actively underway, disability payments may be held in abeyance subject to the following procedure: The Agency shall promptly notify DAS that (1) an investigation is underway, (2) the date that the investigation was initiated, (3) the basis of the investigation and (4) why access to the employee is necessary for completion of the investigation. A copy of the disability leave application and all accompanying documentation shall be forwarded with the notification. In the event that DAS concurs that the disability payments should be held in abeyance, DAS shall notify the employee, by regular and certified mail, that the disability payments shall not be processed until the completion of the investigation. An investigatory interview pursuant to Article 24, Section 24.04 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement shall be scheduled no more than thirty (30) days after the Agency files the investigation for possible discipline with DAS. The matter shall then be subject to the constraints of Article 24 of the Collective Bargaining Agreement. Upon completion of the investigatory interview, or the thirty (30) day period, payments may be made, providing the application qualifies for eligibility. However, if the investigation cannot be completed as a result of the employee’s absence, the investigatory interview shall be cancelled and the application shall be denied. Said denial shall not prevent the submission of a new application, subject to the above same requirements. This section shall not be applicable where the absence, and subsequent disability, is the result of hospitalization for more than five (5) days for a serious medical condition. If an application for disability benefits is pending and/or has been approved prior to the initiation of the investigation, this section shall not be applicable.