AFSCME: Iowa prisons critically understaffed

CORALVILLE — Union leaders, joined by Iowa Department of Corrections staff, stood outside of the Iowa Medical and Classification Center late Tuesday in an effort to draw attention to a budgeting situation they say has created undue safety concerns for workers at all levels in the state’s prison system.

“This isn’t just about Oakdale,” said Danny Homan, president of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Iowa Council 61, using the common name for the IMCC. “We are outside of this facility because it was convenient for all of us to gather here today, but we could be holding this press conference outside of any of the Iowa facilities. This is adversely impacting correctional and other system workers throughout the state.”

During the past weekend, however, there was a situation at the IMCC, which union leaders like Homan believe illustrates the risks that are being taken by the state due to under-staffing at the facilities. Because no emergency responder or “circulator” was on duty at the Oakdale facility, correctional workers were forced to continue their duties while knowing they had no immediate back-up if a situation arose.

“A call was made to request overtime for a circulator to be added to the staff, and that request was denied,” Homan said. “They wouldn’t bring anybody else in on overtime when they were running at a critically low staffing for that institution. We see this as a pattern not only at IMCC, but as a pattern at all of our institutions.”

The IMCC is the state’s single entry point for all offenders, male and female, who are sentenced to serve a prison sentence in Iowa. The facility also boasts the only licensed, in-patient mental health unit within the Department of Corrections. In addition, the location opened a new building just a few years ago that provides a modern medical facility and additional celled units for special needs offenders.

Marty Hathaway, president of AFSCME Local 2985 — the union that represents workers at IMCC — said at that facility alone, staffing is 57 positions less than in 2010, and 59 fewer than in 2009.

“The same is true of our other prisons,” Hathaway said. “The last thing we want to do is attend a correctional officer’s funeral or visit them in the hospital with serious injuries because of so-called budgetary reasons. When we as a state have a billion dollars in surplus, there is no excuse.”

In June, staff members were forced to leave certain posts unmanned by security, according to Hathaway — the same posts that if previously left unattended would have met with disciplinary action.

“There isn’t enough assigned staff to allow inmates to be given the opportunity to have showers in some cases without other staff being called in, and officers are not being allowed to take short breaks some days,” he said. “The morale of our state’s corrections institutions staff is suffering, and unless we find a way to remedy this problem it will get worse.”

Of the roughly 500 members of staff at IMCC, about 350 are union members. Hathaway carried a petition signed by more than 180 of those union members thus far, which he plans to give to state officials in an effort to influence changes.

Budget Allocations

A key complaint of Homan’s and other union officials is a June memo signed by John R. Baldwin, director of the Iowa DOC, which transferred funds away from IMCC.

“The Department of Corrections came in and took between $1.3 and $1.7 million away from IMCC. If John Baldwin wouldn’t have went in and taken that money from Oakdale, we wouldn’t be having these problems [at this facility],” Homan explained. “It was taken to give to other institutions, and I guess the only part of that which really irritates me is, I believe, about $300,000 was taken and given to the central office in Des Moines.

“You know what? Not one of those people in the central office in Des Moines works a cell house. So if they were a little short on money, maybe they should have figured out how to deal with that instead of stealing money from an institution which now won’t hire overtime for staff.”

Homan says it is time for Gov. Terry Branstad and Baldwin to admit the staffing problem within Iowa prisons, and that if the problems are budgetary, for the two to admit that the prison system cannot effectively and safely operate within current budget levels.

“We’re getting one-twelfth, according to the emergency [budget] bill that was passed — my understanding is that we are getting one-twelfth of that budget. A year ago we weren’t having these problems. A year ago we weren’t having these issues. So, what’s going on? I believe it is due to poor management of the correctional system by John Baldwin,” he said.

Seventy-one percent of the state’s union correctional officers agree with Homan’s assessment of Baldwin, based on a vote of no-confidence taken weeks ago.

In a media statement, Fred Scaletta, spokesman for the Iowa Department of Corrections, noted that the latest budget, if signed by Branstad, allows funding for 40 additional correctional officer positions. Homan said that staffing levels are down between 40 and 50 officers at several Iowa facilities, not just across the state.

“The Department has and will continue to present funding requests for more adequate staffing levels across our system,” the statement said.

Operating Without Back-Up

While Homan and Hathaway spoke publicly, most of the workers gathered to listen stood silently and listened. Afterward, only a few were willing to offer their own public comments on the situation. Off-the-record, however, nearly all spoke of times when they were called to work without emergency back-up.

“You don’t want to let the population know that you are working in that situation, because you are trying to keep everything consistent. So, you do try to act in the same manner as you would if you had back-up, but I think it does change your mindset to know that you are on your own,” said one female officer who did not want to be identified.

Corrections Officer Bruce Marlowe, who works in the mental health area at IMCC, said workers always have the right to defend themselves if a situation arises.

“But if there is no emergency response, or if the people are gone or spread so thin that you know they aren’t going to be there right away, you might be faced with a life-or-death situation where otherwise you wouldn’t have been. That’s unfortunate for everyone involved,” said Marlowe. “There’s a psychology involved for the person who was put into a situation where they felt they had to react in that way, and now they’ve injured someone else — which might have been avoided.”

Often, Marlowe added, people come into the correctional field with a military background, and a sense of doing or completing their mission, but it often feels — especially for those individuals — that they’ve been ordered to complete their mission without being provided the proper foundation or all the tools needed. The situation not only endangers correctional staff, but places support staff and inmates at risk, he added.

“If our medical staff is cut so low that [offenders] aren’t receiving a basic level of care, aren’t we going to be facing lawsuits that could likely eat up all of these budgetary savings that are supposedly saving the state money?” he asked.

Renee Sneitzer, a member of support staff who had been listening to the press conference, said she would not want to be placed in the situations she sometimes sees correctional staff being placed in.

“I’m independent, but I also have to work here. I do observe what these officers do and I know that safety is paramount for them — not just for me when I walk through those doors, but for everyone in the facility,” Sneitzer said. “The job that they do is dangerous, and they handle it amazingly well. They protect themselves, yes, but they also protect all of us, including the offenders, and the general public.”