Staff Member Attacked at Jefferson City Correctional Center As Department Ignores Safety Concerns

Jefferson City Correctional Center just experienced the latest in the continuing theme of violence and growing danger coming out of Missouri Prisons. It was reported by local news outlets that a staff member was Recovering after "Allegedly being attacked."

As usual, the DOC Spokesperson gave little information and tried to downplay the seriousness of the event. In reality, this is another example of the department not taking staff safety seriously. Fortunately the staff member was not physically harmed and the potential was far worse.

An offender who is supposed to be held under strict custody supervision due to a propensity for violence and an "alleged" murder of his cell-mate escaped from a faulty recreation cage and made it all the way to a housing unit at the other end of the camp. This was able to happen due to the lack of staff during the current shortage. As this dangerous and violent offender was roaming free, he encountered a staff member who he took hostage with a homemade weapon.

Fortunately the situation was resolved without injury or loss of life. Next time might not turn out as well, and the fact is, this situation did not have to happen. The unsafe level of custody staff makes it far too easy for things to get out of control and for people to get hurt. Furthermore, it has been reported that this particular incident was the result of a security issue the institution heads were aware of and chose to not properly address.

The recreation cages are a "secure" area for Segregation offenders to get rec time outdoors, while being secluded from other offenders and staff. We're told that the institution was aware of security problems with the rec cages for weeks. These cages reportedly were offline due to the fact that they were not able to be properly and safely secured. Prior to this attack, the decision was made to utilize these unsecure cages which the offender ultimately escaped through and carried out the attack.

What we have here is a demonstration that the wants of the inmates are taken more seriously than the lives of the staff. It was more important to the decision makers to ensure that the inmates received their recreation than it was to ensure that the institution and its staff remained safe. If we were to pick just one issue with DOC contributing to the collapse of the department, this would be top of the list. It's not the pay or the workload, it's the fact that the Missouri Department of Corrections shows time and time again that they don't care one bit about their staff.

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Comments

  1. UnknownJuly 29, 2018 at 8:40 PM

    I wonder if the state and the head of the department was to get sued over this crap going on hit them where it hurts the worst the pocket book. I've heard of staff getting assaulted and the white shirts just laugh even had a warden say that he wouldn't lock the camp down when staff get hurt but he would if it was him.

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