Monday, January 31, 2011

Whining Screws


If there is one of the many whines that perpetually emanate from the Prison Officers Association that get my goat, it's the one about how dangerous their job is. It's a Big Fat Lie. There are dozens of jobs which are more dangerous.
And should I ever get the chance to nail one of the POA leaders in public, one of the first questions I'd ask is this: How many screws have ever been killed by cons? And how many cons have been killed by screws..?
And here's a thing. The Ministry collect the stats on how many cons assault staff. They know how many cons assault other cons. But they don't collect the figures for how many staff assault cons.

8 comments:

  1. The answer to the question (in England) is one since 1900.

    Nicki J

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  2. Sadly Ben, I think there are too many who have bought in to our CJS to care how you are treated. The idea of a prisoner's life being as important as an officer's? Denying your liberty is not enough, denying your humanity allows them to live with what is happening.

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  3. I agree with queenie, nothing is ever right or fair in this world, and it goes beyond the CJS to just about every walk of life.

    Its a formidable thing to do; to try and right the wrongs in life. Many of us do and continue to because we feel we have no choice, but don't be too optimistic about achieving anything like true justice in any of our lifetimes, because life's a bitch and then you die as the saying goes

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  4. The answer in New Zealand is one death of a Corrections Officer in the last year alone.

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  5. I'm not sure that's correct. In the prison where I work a prison officer punched a prisoner in the face and was suspended immediately and then sacked after an inquiry. Rightly so of course. I have a feeling these sorts of incidents - with an absolute mountain of attendant paperwork - are on the files somewhere. I'm sure too that there are many incidents that don't go recorded, but that definitely goes both ways in my experience.

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  6. Alex, sorry to be a cynic but was he or she a member of the POA?

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  7. Honest answer is I don't know- I'm a teacher so wouldn't know the ins and outs. But if he were a member of the POA I would have expected that he'd be protected to the hilt. Have you read GateLock recently?!!

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  8. If you don't mind me saying this: it occurs to me to be an unwise strategy to be warring against the POA, they do not call the shots in the prison service, management does and your post above on the subject of management illuminates how useless and rubbish they are at organising anything (how does one implement an 'attitude revolution' if resources are being cut and obliterated?).

    The POA might annoy you but surely they are not your main target, if you fire at anything and everything, how will you get anywhere? You might be right that there are many other dangerous jobs out there, but the way management organises prisons probably enhances antagonism between the two groups in most contact with one another i.e prisoners and PO's and makes the PO's jobs harder, which they might well resent.

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