Free market prisons

[SamH]

Quite the opposite. Many of my friends are state corrections officers and they do terminate the employment of those who do not follow and/or violate procedure. Of course if the state seeks to terminate the employment of a unionized employee they have to prove just cause, which is reasonable. You make an accusation, you need to be able to prove it which i think is fair.

So to fire someone you need to prove beyond reasonable doubt… OOOOOkay.

And when things happen as described in the OP and no one violated procedure?

 

[Scott_Lafrance]

Quite the opposite. Many of my friends are state corrections officers and they do terminate the employment of those who do not follow and/or violate procedure. Of course if the state seeks to terminate the employment of a unionized employee they have to prove just cause, which is reasonable. You make an accusation, you need to be able to prove it which i think is fair.

Perhaps in your state, they are lax with the employees, but not in mine.

Scouring alGore’s magical interwebs for anything derogatory regarding Virginia’s Department of Corrections and all I can find is a 1999 Human Rights Watch report about problems at Red Onion Supermax. Other than that…nothing.

 

[wondrousgnat]

I am a former Federal employee. You have to be cleared by the FBI showing you have no criminal record to work for the federal government.
We figured out that 70 - 80% of our new employees did not last one month. Probationary period is 6 months. They were not “fired,” they simply didn’t make probation. After that time it should be obvious whether or not they should stay. But others did get fired after they had been there for some time.

 

[gamewell45]

So to fire someone you need to prove beyond reasonable doubt… OOOOOkay.

I think the principal of innocent until proven guilty should apply in the workplace. Sure sounds reasonable enough to me.

And when things happen as described in the OP and no one violated procedure?

The reasonable thing to do would be to mount an investigation by the state and if found out there are issues, then the state needs to deal with it in a legal, prompt and efficient manner.

 

[didymus]

Prisons are pretty much by definition money pits and in for private companies to turn a profit something has to suffer, either care of prisoners, quality of staff, lapses in security, or combinations all three.

As far as private vs public employees I think everyone has an exaggerated idea of the job security state employees enjoy. Unlike most of the private sector public employees are subjected to periodic reviews and supervisors started “building a file” on problem staff. No doubt this is done unfairly in some cases.

The biggest problem with the State is too many chiefs and not enough, um, Native Americans.