Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Monday, May 12, 2008
Questions about prison sick days
A recent story about correctional officer sick leave as it relates to overtime created more questions than answers. First, the readers should be aware that prisons are 24/7 operations. Officers’ schedules are either on the state or federal format. This means that the majority of officers work six to seven days straight before getting two days off and having a weekend off is every five weeks.
Another item that is not addressed was what created the overtime? The state is quick to write off overtime as being created by sick leave.
Sick leave does create overtime, but so do construction projects, inmate transports, inmate programs, supervisor errors and etc.
The story also fails to mention how overtime positions are filled. The overtime need is first offered to officers in seniority. If no officer volunteers for the post, the lowest senior officer is forced to fill the eight-hour shift. This does happen frequently and the officer works 16 hours and is then required to be back eight hours later for their regular shift with the possibility that they could be forced to do another 16-hour shift that day.
While reading the article, I wondered what was the reason for the of sick leave. Were the mentioned officers covered under the Federal Medical Leave Act? Did they have an illness? Was one of their family members ill, was there a death in the family, or were they forced to use sick leave because the supervisors did not think they were fit for duty because of fatigue from working many forced 16-hour shifts?
As an officer, I will be the first to admit we have a fine benefit package. I will also make the public aware that working in a state prison is hard both mentally and physically exhausting. These are not excuses, just facts.
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