Dealing with Danger
Recruitment, assaults, mandatory overtime, stress, lack of training and support, and understaffing: these problems are common to privatized prisons — creating conditions for disaster. Predictably, for-profit jails— compared to public corrections facilities— have consistently higher rates of assault on staff and inmates.
In New Mexico, prisons operated by the GEO Group (formerly Wackenhut Corp.) have been the site of six murders, nine stabbings and several riots since 1998. Last year, four COs were beaten by an inmate. That attack occurred at Santa Rosa’s Guadalupe County Correctional Facility, where inmates rioted in August 1999, killing one CO.
“The best way to deal with this danger is to have properly trained corrections staff who are paid decent wages and benefits,” says Jason Ellis, president of Local 1888 (Council 18) in New Mexico. “But that’s not going to happen in privatized jails. And that’s why we’ve been picketing.”
STOP THE MAYOR. Stephen Perkins, Local 3022 vice president, says the picket also sent a message to Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez. According to Perkins, Chavez is looking into privatizing jails “even though that leads to cutting staff and training, and ultimately to unsafe work conditions for COs. We will oppose this move every step of the way.” Council 18 is currently leading a community-wide effort to block a proposal for a private 600-bed prison in Clayton. The facility would be operated by the GEO Group. “This anti-worker firm has already demonstrated its inability to provide good-paying jobs and ensure public safety,” Council 18 Exec. Dir. Anthony Marquez says. “Private companies simply don’t serve the interests of our members.”
Perkins has not forgotten what happened in Santa Rosa’s 1999 riot. “The danger of having improperly trained employees in a corrections setting came to light with the CO’s killing there. For-profit, private companies will always have lower staffing levels, lower salaries and inexperienced COs. We must keep the privateers away.” Meanwhile, ACU is hailing a decision by another New Mexico county, Valencia, to take over management of its adult detention center from Cornell Companies Inc. Since the county’s announcement last year, the 150-plus COs in that facility have been actively organizing to form a union with Council 18.
