Associated Press
RAWLINS, Wyo. (AP) - Employee morale remains low at the Wyoming State Penitentiary despite Department of Corrections assertions that it would get a boost from a new management style and the amenities of the prison’s new South Facility, according to union officials.
Some 115 workers, or more than half of the staff, are represented by the International Union of Police Associations. “I find the general morale of officers, caseworkers and staff the lowest since I got there in 1993,” said Bob Taylor, the local union’s treasurer.
Taylor believes a hostile atmosphere makes it difficult for some corrections officers to communicate with management about difficult issues.
“I don’t feel that they (administrators) are supporting me,” he said. “I feel they would scapegoat me rather than deal with my concerns.”
A Legislative Service Office study in 2000 interviewed former and current prison employees and concluded that communication, management support, professionalism and staffing issues contributed to correctional officers’ dissatisfaction.
Dissatisfaction over working conditions could be as significant a contributor to turnover as dissatisfaction over wages, the report said.
Union officials say little has changed since the report and worker dissatisfaction continues to be one of the main reasons the turnover rate remains over 30 percent.
Department of Corrections Director Judy Uphoff said prison jobs are inherently difficult and that many factors contribute to turnover, including pay and dissatisfaction with Rawlins’ rural lifestyle.
High turnover, she said, is a problem at prisons across the nation.
The department took issue with the 2000 study, according to a recent Legislative Service Office memorandum that was written as a follow-up to the report.
“At the time, Corrections objected strongly to our assertion that working conditions could be a cause of the high turnover,” the memo said.
The memo said the department did make a strong case that safety has been improved since the South Facility opened last year.
Recently, Corrections Department officials said morale will be improved by unit management, which organizes teams of officers and other personnel to oversee groups of inmates. The same officers and other employees will deal with the same prisoners every day.
Such a system enables officers to develop professional relationships with the prisoners and with each other, helping officer-inmate relationships and the sharing of information, according to the department.
“They say this should, in time, help to decrease turnover,” the memo said.
Union officials acknowledge the new facility has improved safety. As for unit management, they say they like it but feel it is not being used.
“We’re not doing anything different than we did in the North Facility,” Taylor said.
Uphoff said unit management is a concept that needs continual work. She pointed out that the South Facility has been in operation for less than a year.
“Is it rooted, solid like an oak? Again, it’s still growing,” she said. “Keep in mind, we’re just eight months in there. It’s time to look at all those things and we are.”