By Elizabeth Lewis
Watertown Daily Times
GOUVERNEUR, N.Y. — About 60 members of the New York State Correctional Officers & Police Benevolent Association participated in an informational picket at Community Park on Wednesday, to raise awareness of violence among officers at the hands of inmates inside of correctional facilities.
Pickets held signs saying “DOCCS policies place our lives in jeopardy” and “We protect you, who protects us?” as cars honked as they drove past.
Michael B. Powers, president of NYSCOPBA, said one of the reasons the members came together in the park was to inform the public what their job entails and how dangerous it can be.
“This is an opportunity to be able to bring our members, our front-line staff, to come out and educate not only the legislators, but the public. There’s a moniker for us, and that’s the ‘forgotten cop.’ We’re the ones that work inside the walls and the fences and some of the public gets the premise of prison from sensationalized television and it’s nothing of the sort,” Mr. Powers said. “These men and women who are standing with us today respond to the dangerous incidents of heavy gang activity and drug activity and violence.”
NYSCOPBA members are working closely with the state Department of Corrections and the governor’s office to find solutions to the issue of violence in the prisons, Mr. Powers said.
“We are working with them to try and make for better working conditions and a safer working environment,” he said. “There will always be times to agree to disagree, but in the long run, we’re making the push to have a better work environment. We’re making headway.”
The number of assaults on officers by inmates has risen nearly 53 percent since 2010, Mr. Powers said. He attributed the rise to an increase in weapons and drugs infiltrating the correctional facilities as well as changes in regulations.
“The high rise in contraband -- weapons and drugs -- plays a huge role,” he said. “And since the amendment of the Rockefeller drug laws, there aren’t as many nonviolent offenders in the system; they’re all violent.”
He also said the increase in violence against officers by inmates could be caused by repeat offenders “learning the system.”
“A jail-savvy inmate knows the system just as well as a correctional officer,” Mr. Powers said. “Once they learn the parameters of how it operates, they become more brazen and they learn what they can get away with.”
Gouverneur Mayor Ronald P. McDougall was in attendance to show his support for the correctional officers. He mentioned his concern about not only the safety of the officers, but the money in workers’ compensation having to be paid when officers are injured.
“Assaults are up, injuries are up, which means workers’ compensation is up,” Mr. McDougall said. “I find the whole thing very troubling.”
Assemblyman Kenneth D. Blankenbush, R-Black River, who showed up about an hour into the picket, offered a few solutions to the violence problems in the correctional facilities.
“We should certainly make it hard for prisoners to receive anything from the outside. They should be purchasing everything through the commissary. This way we can try and stop (the contraband) before they get into the systems,” he said. “The other thing is we have to properly staff these prisons with the right guard-to-prisoner ratio. I know we can’t 100 percent stop these drugs coming in, but we can staff the people the right way and charge the prisoners who assault our officers with stricter penalties. I think it would help us move forward.”