Too Much?

This year employees represented by AFSCME will negotiate a new contract with the State of Illinois. The new governor Mr. Rauner has expressed discontent with unions especially public employee unions like AFSCME. He has also verbalized that he feels state workers in Illinois are overpaid compared to the counterparts in neighboring states. I don't know if he is right about that or not. The past few years Illinois has allowed the ranks of state employees to shrink. The workload has not changed. It means that in the prison system there has been significant overtime worked by prison security staff. Why? There are mandatory posts that must be manned. Guards in the towers with guns. Security staff in the housing units supervising the inmates. We aren't talking a huge number of staff. When I worked at the prison which was the first step below maximum security a full housing unit held 448 men. There were 4 correctional officers assigned to that unit. There are always officers in any building occupied by inmates. If school is in session there is an officer in the building. Health Care Unit- officer. Gym- officer. When you reduce the officer head count it requires overtime to fill the mandatory posts. It raises costs. It creates stress. It exhausts staff over time. It damages morale. When the Governor thinks that state employees are paid too much and retirement benefits are too generous I want him to think about two things. Tim and Goody retired after I did. They were both security staff. They are both gone now. Gone too soon. Gone too young. The years of cumulative stress do something to you physically. You don't recognize it while you are working. It happens slowly over the course of years. Being on alert and stressed all the time eventually feels normal. It takes a while after you retire to notice the change. The picture below should be on the Governor's desk. He should think about what they do every day. Go to where they work. Tell them they get paid too much.

I have seen those weapons. Pieces of bed frames. Hunks of wire fencing. Ink pens and tooth brushes with pieces of a razor blade melted into them. This picture does not do justice to the true ugliness of these weapons.

Too much money? Think again Governor. Think real hard.