Date: Fri 09-Aug-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: ANDYG

Quick Words:

DOC-Garner-protest-staffing

Full Text:

with cuts: Correction Officers Protest Staffing Cuts

B Y A NDREW G OROSKO

About 125 Garner Correctional Institution correction officers and their

supporters took their concerns to the streets Tuesday, marching near Garner in

an informational picket line and saying they want recent correction officer

staffing cuts at the high-security prison restored.

Those staffing cuts represent decreased overtime for the correction officers.

Correction officers say the cutbacks endanger their safety. They point to a

July 29 incident in which an inmate kitchen worker assaulted a food service

supervisor.

Food service supervisor Ronnie B. Moss, 37, required emergency eye surgery

after the assault and is reportedly in danger of losing his eye. Inmate Donald

Fields assaulted Moss.

As correction officers carried signs and marched in a broad oval at the

driveway entrance to the prison at 50 Nunnawauk Road, Steve Kelsey, the chief

steward for the correction officers' union, spoke about the safety concerns.

Mr Kelsey described the July 29 incident and past incidents in which inmates

assaulted prison workers.

Garner, which contains roughly 740 inmates, houses some of the most violent

prisoners in the state prison system. Sections of Garner operate under the

state's "close custody" program in which inmates who have been identified as

gang leaders are kept under especially tight control. The close custody

program is considered a model program of incarceration.

The picketing by correction officers preceded a meeting of the Public Safety

Committee in Garner. The state formed the committee in response to community

residents' demands that they be kept apprised of activities in Garner. The

panel meets on a quarterly basis.

Several correction officer union representatives attended the committee

meeting.

Of the reduced staffing, Garner Warden Remi Acosta said "We're in the process

of `right-sizing' staffing here at Garner." The state Department of Correction

(DOC) has dropped eight correction officer posts for all of three work shifts,

he said.

Wendy Beres, a member of the Public Safety Committee, asked whether correction

officer staffing at Garner is sufficient.

Ms Beres said she worries that a string of relatively small scale prisoner

incidents could lead to a major incident. In the spring of 1993, a riot

erupted at Garner resulting in numerous injuries to correction officers and

prisoners, as well as heavy property damage.

"An assault can occur any time. We can only prepare for the norm, not for an

emergency," Warden Acosta said.

"I have right-sized the institution," he said.

Dan Benwell, a DOC regional supervisor, said he met with correction officers

Monday to discuss their concerns about the recent staffing cuts.

"I want to look at what they have to say. We're working together as a team.

We're going to try to resolve it as a team," he said.

Mr Kelsey said the correction officers' union expects the prison

administration to address the concerns raised by correction officers at the

Monday meeting which lasted 3« hours.

Of Garner's long streak of calm after the close custody started in the fall of

1993, Ms Beres said "It's been working very well. We haven't had any problems

with Garner. I don't want any problems with Garner."

The staffing cuts at Garner come in light of the DOC's desire to cut operating

costs, Mr Benwell said. The DOC has cut back on the number of items prisoners

get at their meals, he said.

Ms Beres suggested that inmates be charged for room and board while living in

the high security prison.

The DOC is developing plans to have inmates pay for recreational activities,

medical services, and utilities, such as the electricity which is consumed

when inmates watch television programs, Mr Benwell said.

Ms Beres quizzed Mr Benwell on whether the DOC has plans to build a watchtower

at Garner.

He responded he doesn't expect a tower to be built because there aren't any

plans to open up the prison's recreational fields. When all the projects

planned for the prison are implemented, then the DOC would consider prisoner

recreation issues, Mr Benwell said.