Or duck season. Or even worse... deer season. I think that is why we are so terminally short of people right now. All of those people must be out there doing something.I only know of three people they held over from day shift and one of those was supposedly #5 on the list, so I am assuming they held over at least five people. We ended up with a day shift sergeant and a day shift officer in our bubble. Not the day shift bubble officer, which would have been okay, just a day shift officer in the bubble.
Just trust me, there's a difference.
And I looked at the schedule on the way out and we are starting shift short two officers. And of course, one of them is our bubble. Nobody in their right mind wants to work down there so they will just send whoever they don't like down there.
Man! There's just nothing like being on the bottom of the food chain!
Every once in awhile someone mass emails us some letter from the governor telling us what a fine job he thinks we are doing and how he is in our corner fighting for us. We got one a few weeks ago talking about the budget problems and how he is trying to find a way to fix the problems without costing anybody their jobs. Tonight I hear a rumor that they are cutting 37 "positions" from our camp. Not that they are going to fire 37 people, but they are going to remove 37 places that we can hire people for any time in the future.
In other words, we are short staff and we are going to continue to be short staff and we're just screwed.
And in the meantime, the prisons are going to keep getting more and more crowded and the staff is going to get smaller and smaller......
Until one day there is going to be ten thousand inmates and one officer at the gate with a can of expired pepper spray saying "Y'all better be good, now! Don't make me use this!"
It seems like there are nothing but diminishing returns. Pretty soon there will be nothing between them and you at all. That thin blue line will shrink to a dot like an old picture tube and vanish away.
It's a bit disheartening, sometimes, that's all.
Its disheartening to those of us in the general public as well. California has a "Three Strikes" law passed by the voters and we want these people locked up. Sadly, our government doesn't have the spine to do it without the hammer of raising taxes.
ReplyDeleteAmy- I work in the newspaper business and trust me its not only the government who is on the "more work less people" kick.
Amy- It was in my head too. This was the only way I could think of to get it out. Sorry.
ReplyDeleteJoe- I don't have a solution to the economic problem in general, but I do know that until they quit playing Mother Theresa to these scum and go back to making prison a punishment, it's only going to get worse.