Nearly one-third of federal correctional officer jobs in the United States are vacant, forcing prisons to use cooks, teachers, nurses and other workers to guard inmates.
Decisions to use other staff as guards are based on a facility’s needs and are made to ensure critical positions are covered, the agency said. Staff members also may be pressed into duty as correctional officers “during irregular periods such as a pandemic,” the agency told The Associated Press. The expanded use of that practice, known as augmentation, is raising questions about whether the agency can carry out its required duties to ensure the safety of prisoners and staff members while also putting in place programs and classes such as those under the First Step Act,“You can’t do programming, you can’t have safety, you can’t have a lot of things that make prisons operate without proper staffing,” said Kevin Ring, the president of the advocacy group Families Against Mandatory Minimums.
“When they augment you, you’re not doing your job that you’re hired for,” said Jonathan Zumkehr, the union president at the federal penitentiary in Thomson. “If you’re a counselor, you’re not able to counsel the inmates. If you’re a case manager, you’re not able to do the First Step Act. Those are two days that you’re not going to get back.”while in one of the most secure jails in the country, the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York.
Vacant or have been cut ?
How about just stop breaking law and you won’t go to prison
I can fix this problem overnight. Legalize marijuana nationwide, issue mass pardons, then close the private for-profit prisons because you'll no longer need the space.
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