Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Officers from all over Texas boosting numbers in Region IV

Connally Unit in Kenedy, Region IV
By Tonya Peters, Backgate Website


The Backgate covered a story of desperation coming out of Region IV a few weeks ago. It exposed possible short cuts and a potential safety issue for assigned staff of at least two Region IV units. The Connally and McConnell units in Region IV are seriously understaffed, and assigned Officers raised a red flag. You can read the related stories below this one. In recent developments, TDCJ has now asked other regions within the state to send staff down to Region IV to staff those two facilities on a daily rotational basis. A unit in Region I may send a van containing 7-8 Officers down to work a shift at the Connally or McConnell units to help improve staffing. Another unit in Region III may send 7-8 more to help out. Is this an effort to use a single finger to plug a much larger hole in the dike ?

TDCJ, and state Legislators need to eye alternatives to staffing these facilities long term. More monetary incentives, the addition of housing and other living facilities for staff ? These are a couple of ideas that have been mulled about. Either way, these responding staff members from all over Texas will eventually get tired of the hundreds of miles driven to bolster the Region IV numbers. The Backgate is in contact with some of the state's key criminal justice Legislators and will provide additional information as it is available.

17 comments:

  1. Maybe If they would treat their staff better and stop firing LT,SGT,& co V'S for stupid crap. and adding things to the situation that didnt happen maybe they would keep staff!!!! oh and not to mention maybe the admin need to get up off thier butts and out of thier offices when crap happens there instead of running to the flat screen tvs in thier offices to see whats going on. maybe that will show the staff that they care...... oh wait they dont thats why they cant keep staff cause they dont care what happens

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is very unsafe act, can you tell me who is going to be the driver for those officers after working over night.NEED MORE ACCOMODATION AND BETTER PAYMENT OR CLOSED THE UNIT DOWN AND REOPEN THE CENRAL UNIT YOU WILL GET ENOUNGH STAFF TO WORK WITHOUT OVERTIME

    ReplyDelete
  3. Let me see if I understand this. Van loads of 7-8 officers are commuting 100+ miles and then working a 9 or 12 hour shift and then commuting back 100+ miles? Do they have the pleasure of doing it again the next day?

    Are they volunteers? Do "Volunteers" get drafted to do it after they run out of Volunteers who volunteered? Do they get paid for the time spent during the commute?

    Is the State of Texas ran by complete imbeciles? What kind of people are going to put up this kind of BS for any extended period of time other than thugs & gang members who are looking for an opportunity to help out their fellow thugs who are incarcerated?

    ReplyDelete
  4. At some point expect to read a headline about a TDCJ van filled with CO's involved in head-on collision with semi truck during early morning hours.

    ReplyDelete
  5. It's voluntary until no one volunteers. And yes they are paid for the commute. Ans from what we hear its already gotten old.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Maybe TDCJ can use trustees to drive the vans.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I work at the Smith unit in Lamesa and officers are commuting from surrounding units because the officers at Smith are tired of it....but they say with the 34 new officers coming in overtime will stop...HA! Our staffing if 43% in High Security and 55% in GP!

    ReplyDelete
  8. What is all comes down to is money. Pay us a decent wage, so we don't have work second jobs, and then maybe, just maybe we can have a decent crew. Give the COV's some authority. It's obvious that we have some experience in this field.
    Also, let's stop hiring 18 year olds and anyone over 62. This is a dangerous job. Maturity is the key factor but so is being physically capable to extend the support required.

    ReplyDelete
  9. What do you expect with just a highschool education sounds like we need some college educated people to run this place

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. yOU CAN USE THAT DIPLOMA TO WIPE THE SHEET OFF OF YOU IN SEG.

      Delete
  10. I'll take maturity over college educated any day of the week. A degree doesnt mean a person has common sense or good judgement. I've been working for the state since 1994. I worked at the Smith unit for a year and then at the Luther unit for two years. I have now been working at what i consider a low profile unit for the past 15 years. The folks working at the harder units deserve something extra other than being asked to worked overtime.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Well its like this where else can you go and make the money that tdc offers and the benefits with just a high school education they hire you and get you hooked to that income and they know you are now stuck like chuck cause you cant quit you are not going to take a high school education and get paid like they pay you so there you go i say quit hiring high school and bump up the money and hire people out of college then you got a leg to stand on cause then they know you can afford to quit and move on to a better paying job and always remember its all game rather you want to play or not. Do you really think they care. You know how people have a high school education so why is tdc ahort oh have you seen the movie generation x.

    ReplyDelete