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A new report by the Federal Bureau of
Prisons shows that most of the nation’s correctional facilities are
overcrowded and understaffed – a situation that U.S. Senator Charles
Schumer says is unacceptable.
The Senator was in the Essex County
town of North Elba on Thursday to visit Ray Brook’s Federal
Correctional Institute. Prison warden Deborah Schult and union
spokesman Michael Durant joined him for a tour of the facility.
Citing the Bureau of Prisons report,
Schumer explained that Ray Brook’s average daily capacity is 1,227.
That’s 480 more inmates than federal officials recommend.
“We need more staff,” Schumer said.
“If you’re going to have 500 more inmates than you should, you’d
think you’d have more staff than the desired, actual number. And
here at Ray Brook, we’re understaffed by 10.6 percent, even if you
have the 747. There should still be 20 or 30 more people on staff.
And now that it’s 1200, there should be many more people on staff.
So do the math.”
FCI Ray Brook is a medium-security
facility that houses adult male offenders in cell-type housing and
offers both work and treatment programs. It hosts a minimum-security
“satellite prison camp” and is equipped with a strengthened
perimeter and double-fenced electronic detection systems.
Schumer notes that the staff-to-inmate
ratio at FCI is less than most lower-security federal institutions.
“Budget cuts and increased
responsibilities have created a situation where Ray Brook doesn’t
have enough personnel,” he said. “When this type of overcrowding
occurs, our prisons have to resort to other methods that aren’t
really as safe. For example, some prisons have been forced to use
non-correctional staff such as counselors or managers for
correctional duties. They’re trained to do correctional duties, but
it takes them off their other jobs and they’re not seasoned as
guards.”
The prison has also been forced to
house inmates in areas not originally designed as sleeping quarters.
Schumer called for a significant
increase in federal funding for staffing and operations in order to
prevent any risk of harm to inmates and corrections officers.
“That will increase the number of
people hired here at Ray Brook and it will increase the funding,” he
said. “It will improve the safety and effectiveness of law
enforcement officers, and once the funding is secured Ray Brook and
prisons like it will be able to hire more prison guards so there
will be more jobs in the area. This is one of the largest employers
in the North Country, and we have to make sure that it gets the
funding it needs from Washington.”
Ray Brook currently has 14 authorized
correctional services positions vacant. Last year, 15 corrections
officers were injured during inmate-on-staff assaults at Ray Brook.
And although those incidents were
described as “less serious” in nature, Schumer said any assault on a
hard-working prison guard is one assault too many.
-Chris
Morris, 8-28-09
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