MAINE CORRECTIONS - AS IT RELATES

Even though I had not intended the previous post to be on this blog (I'm having nothing BUT troubles with the other blog, BTW), Mainers might be interested to know the following - because it sounds a lot like the consequence of potential problems brewing right here in this state.

It seems, with all the promises our illustrious governor made re: how consolidating the State's Department of Corrections (DOC) with the numerous county jails - aka County Corrections) would save us taxpayers money in the form of our property taxes, it hasn't. Add to that, the DOC has cut back funding for training its own existing employees who are expected to work with incarcerated inmates. We have some employees who have Permanent Full-Time employee status (which means they cannot be fired because they failed to pass their initial Probationary Period, usually their first year of employment - or the first year of a new promotional grade) and have never - I repeat NEVER - received a supervisor's Evaluation review.

Of course, an Evaluation Review would require stating whether or not the employee is doing a satisfactory (or less than or better than Satisfactory performance) in various areas demonstrating he/she has grasped the concepts and procedures taught in the aforementioned Training.

But, cost-cutting within the DOC's budget, either via the Legislature or within the DOC's decision-making procedures, eliminated required training for certain employees who were hired nearly one year ago. Consequently, these employees are prohibited from working within certain confines of the prisons and are therefore unable to provide some of the very services or instruction to the inmates the employees were hired to do in the first place.

Of course the time is still ticking for the inmates. and they will be scheduled for and released into the various communities throughout the state according to the law with or without the services and instructions these employees were hired to provide. Some of these inmates are SEX OFFENDERS.

So the next time one of these paroled/on probation state inmates commits another crime following release from prison - the next time a local law enforcement agency has to deal with the consequences of one of these offenders back out on the streets, let's ask if the appropriate counselors ever had access to them while they were incarcerated. Let's ask if the correctional employees that have already been hired (not to mention any hired in the future) have actually received the training they should be getting in order to do the job we are paying them to do. Let's ask when was the last time ANY correctional employee received an evaluation review BEFORE receiving a pay increase (or demotion).

Seems to me the governor has dropped the ball again - along with DOC - and it's the citizens of Maine who are expected to just go along. Let's just hope none of those correctional employees get injured on the job because they didn't get the training they were supposed to get as part of their job. Let's just hope none of us, or our families or friends or neighbors are indirect victims of this cost-cutting action by a government that is only in power because of us - the voters.