BRIK McDILL: A shout-out to correctional officers
They are the wall that separates the wolves from free society and permits every one of us to sleep soundly at night and go throughout the day without much worry. They are the ones who put themselves directly in harm's way so that we aren't. They are the ones who run and watch over our prisons so that we can live free to do pretty much everything we want to do that brings us -- and ours -- joy and happiness. They are the ones who confront threats to their lives every single day while they make sure that inmates get the care the courts say is prisoners' due. They are the ones getting gassed and stabbed, sworn at and derided. They are the ones who face assault with calm control, who manage masses of inmates who would rather see them bleeding or dead.
It's rather a sad commentary on us that many cannot see and appreciate this. Our correctional officers are an academy- trained, professional class of civil defenders whose only job it is to vouchsafe the safety of the rest of us who aren't walking their beat. It's also a sad commentary that many can't see beyond the misinformation spread about pay levels and benefits paid to those without whom we'd all be in deep trouble.
When our former governor decided to cut state spending by issuing furlough orders (first two days per month, then three) he either clearly foresaw the costly mess he was creating, or he didn't; but it really doesn't matter, now. He could and should have exempted 24/7 operations with mandated staffing levels and posts from his furlough program. And we are dearly paying the piper now for that mistake.
Let's not blame the officers for the mess that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger created. All correctional staff in mandated posts and positions were forced to work their furloughs and then overtime days. Their unused leave days as well as their unused furlough days piled up to be used at some point in the indefinite future (remember, the officers couldn't use them as they were being accumulated; they weren't allowed to). The mess Schwarzenegger created (and left us) included the order that unused furlough time had to be burned up within two years of the ending of the furlough program, meaning that there would be a giant whooshing sound as officers used their banked up time in two years, creating enormous staffing vacuums that had to be backfilled by officers ordered in to work time-and-a-half overtime. How's that for huge back-end costs to an ill-conceived money-saving scheme? Fortunately that order has been recently rescinded, so unused furlough days can be parceled out at a more moderated rate.
So here we are. Correctional staff scheduled to retire anyway are doing so with sizable blocks of hard-earned, unused leave time still on the books (through no fault or design of their own). Schwarzenegger mandated that one's untapped furlough time was to be tapped and drained first before any leave time would be granted for vacations. What are correctional retirees supposed to do, give back their unused vacation time? Would you?
As to the uproar about physicians receiving huge payouts when they leave state service, physicians are on a 24/7 on-call schedule (not to mention furlough restrictions). When they are called back after working their regular day, they either receive end-of-month pay for the extra time worked, or they can elect comp time reimbursement. Those who select comp time have earned it, and can be comped for it by burning it up at the end of their career, adding it to their time in service for retirement purposes, or cashing it out. All three options are well-used, but we hear only about those who opt to cash out. And virtually all of the larger payouts are to those who've worked decades for the state and either have not, or could not, take the comp time as it was earned. If you had to work a 16-hour on-call hitch besides your usual duty day, and had done so for decades, wouldn't you want just compensation in some form or another for unpaid services rendered?
The vast majority of correctional officers, administrators and other staff use their leave time as it accumulates, with a small unused account -- if any -- saved at the end for a rainy day or some fun. After all, those retiring now entered state service long before pay levels came close to matching private-sector rates (especially for medical staff). Can we really begrudge anyone a hard-earned treat at the end of a lengthy, arduous, often perilous career?
Let's all think long and hard about the many benefits our correctional staff members continually confer upon us before we set out to criticize. They are the reason we can all raise families and sleep soundly at night, comforted by the fact the crime rate is steadily falling. They are a big part of the reason why.
Brik McDill, Ph.D., is a senior supervising psychologist at the California Correctional Institution in Tehachapi.
