US prisons use cooks, teachers, nurses to guard inmates
Prisons in the United States are using cooks, teachers, nurses and other workers to guard inmates as they are struggling to maintain control, according to a report.
Fights, homicides, and suicides are on the rise in some of the most understaffed prisons, according to an Associated Press report.
Prisoners are locked in their cells on weekends at a federal penitentiary in Texas because there are not enough guards to watch them. Several inmates have escaped in recent months and, in Illinois, at one of the most understaffed prisons in the country. Fights often break out, and a number of inmates have died in homicides or suicides there since March 2020.
For years, US prisons have been plagued by systematic failures, from chronic violence to high-profile deaths, but the staffing crisis is reaching a breaking point, and the pandemic has worsened the crisis.
About 7,000 prison employees contracted Covid-19. Officers were sent to hospitals to guard inmates being treated for the virus. Four staff members and 235 inmates died.
Violent encounters are being reported on a near-daily basis as overworked employees are burning out quickly.
The Bureau of Prisons is failing to carry out its required duties to ensure the safety of prisoners and staff members while also putting in place programs and classes such as those under the First Step Act, a criminal justice overhaul that received wide bipartisan support in Congress.
“You can’t do programming, you can’t have safety, you can’t have a lot of things that make prisons operate without proper staffing,” said Kevin Ring, the president of the advocacy group Families Against Mandatory Minimums.
The bureau claims everyone working at its prisons is a trained, sworn correctional worker, regardless of position or job title.
The agency said all 35,000 employees are told when they are hired that they should perform law enforcement functions, even if they are signing on as counselors or teachers.
But employees are being pulled away from other duties up to twice a week which means they have less time to do their regular jobs such as teaching classes, and providing vital inmate services.
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