Hard times continue for the Maryland DOC
This week’s blog is an update on the aftermath of the recent Maryland Department of Corrections Prison uprising, hostage ordeal and death of a corrections officer. Lots of back-n-forth about what or who was at fault. Horrid conditions, lack of officers, you name it. Significant increases in overtime leading to overworked employees, etc. Check out the ARTICLE write down your thoughts.
I was surprised to read that the prison is “conducting prison as usual.” You would think that after a prison riot, one would increase security measures and look to making changes to the reasons the prisoners rioted.
I am also sad to read that there are now correctional officer shortages, however, not surprised. Being such a dangerous profession, and directly following a prison riot, it makes sense people are more hesitant in following this career. I believe if the wages for correctional officers were raised, and better training was established, this shortage may be improved.
It looks like the Maryland prisons, and American prisons, in general, have a long way to go.
I am not surprised that the prison was going back to normal life after the riot because people like the status quo. This riot was the first one since 1991, so the Maryland prison probably thinks that it is an unlikely event to happen again. Therefore, why would the prison not go back to regular life. Although it is unfortunate that they are just brushing this event under the rug (especially because someone died), but not surprising.
I think it is absurd that the prisoners used President Donald Trump as one of their reasons to cause the riot. People in general need to stop fighting against what the election results were and just accept that he is now the president. Using President Trump as an excuse to cause a riot is just childish.
First of all, I found it very interesting how the article start out with the quote that the prison is operating “business as usual”. I just thought this was ironic because they are viewing the prison as a business. I also found it shocking that the reasoning behind the riot was due to the lack of rehab programs and the bad conditions the prisoners were in. The article also mentioned that our president was also mentioned as a reason why the riot happened. With the large lack of guards the prisons are dealing with a lot of problems and union president stated with these staff shortages, “something tragic is going to happen”.
First of all, I agree with everyone saying that it is interesting that the prison went right back to operating as usual. If those inmates were able to do it in the first place, what is going to stop them from doing it again, especially with such a shortage of officers. I understand it is a difficult job, not only working with criminals, but having to work long tiring hours just to make more money does not sound appealing or safe. Having this be the description of the job it will be hard to find candidates. With the conditions going on in the prison it is not surprising that this riot happened. The shortage of officers made it easier for them to riot since there were not enough eyes watching the inmates. Heartbreaking situation.
The fact that after this riot occurred, these prisons are going back to their normal organized routine is not surprising to me. Just with other organizations, they too have a quota to obtain, as well as prisoners to look after and officers keeping their jobs. This happening rises questions and concerns about the workings of the current system though in regards to the training, pay, overtime hours, and strenuous daily routines that may be involved. It is apparent that their may need to be some restructuring of the system, especially in the sense of the hours that workers are working in order to oversee these prisoners; the article highlighted the overtime that already tired and overworked employees have to partake in in order to keep order within the prisons, which I find to be unfair to both parties alike. In the wake of this occurrence, there should be thoughts about what could possibly be changed (within feasible terms) to ensure the best way possible that something like this wouldn’t occur again.
I don’t understand why “we” have this tough on crime mentality but yet we don’t properly fund prisons. We can’t just lock them up, and throw away the key! I would not be surprised if every state were having these issues of prisons being understaffed, underpaid, and overworked which leads to very dangerous situations.
In response to another persons comment, I believe prisoners rioted and cited Trump because under the Trump administration there will be further tax cuts which will result in even fewer resources for prisons.