'Hold Their Feet to the Fire'
What’s it going to take before Texas legislators realize that their prison system is in deep trouble?
AFSCME has already lost one CO leader — murdered while on the job — in December 1999. Others could be held responsible for a prison break one year later (by inmates called the "Texas Seven"), an event that received nationwide media attention, embarrassed the Lone Star State’s justice system and had the entire country on a state of alert.
For years many Texas officials, from former Gov. George W. Bush down to state representatives, have ignored the problems plaguing the system: low pay with few benefits, low retention rates, inexperienced and untrained COs, and low morale. Bush even rejected a special session in 2000 that would have given members an opportunity to air their concerns and ask for pay and benefits commensurate with that of other large systems. Texas COs rank 46th in the United States in wages.
"We’ve been screaming at the legislature for the last two sessions, and they put us on the back burner," says Brian Olsen, assistant director for AFSCME Correctional Employees Council 7, referring to the death and escape at a maximum-security unit near Kenedy. "Now we have this. They have to take responsibility for what’s happened, and so does Bush. The prisons are not only unsafe for the inmates and the COs, they’re unsafe for the general public."
Olsen explains that COs "have many senators and representatives who are behind them," but a handful are working stealthily to circumvent the needs of officers. That doesn’t deter him: "If something else happens, I’m going to be pointing the fingers at the people who are pushing this pork-barrel politics."
An inmate stabbed and killed CO3 Daniel Nagle, president of AFSCME Local 3890, in the McConnell Unit in Beeville. His life was taken two weeks after he predicted at an Austin rally that someone would have to die before the state’s Department of Criminal Justice took action to correct manpower shortages.
Olsen says that on the day the seven felons escaped, the facility housing them — the Connally Unit — was understaffed by more than 30 COs. In general, he adds, prisons across the state are using two COs to do the work of six.
The media attention and public backlash against the prison system has increased. Other AFL-CIO unions in Texas have committed support to Council 7 by calling and writing letters to state representatives. Busloads of AFSCME COs are pouring onto the grounds of the state capitol daily to attend hearings and speak with lawmakers.
The current legislative session ends in June. COs are fighting for a measure that would reclassify them as professional workers, as well as bills that will establish a career ladder and increase hazardous duty pay.
"We’re looking for responsibility here by the legislature, and we’re looking for vision. We’re looking for these people to ensure the safety of its citizens," says Olsen. "It’s a constant fight here. If you’re not in there fighting on a day-to-day basis — behind the scenes — they’ll ignore you.
"We have to hold their feet to the fire."
