Tag: Haynesville Correctional Center

Understaffing’s Effect on Recreation

Understaffing is a huge problem in corrections that affects not just the inmates, but their families and correctional officers. The impact, however, upon inmates is by far the one most felt, and most ignored.

I have seen understaffing prevent inmates from getting recreation. For long periods of time, I have seen inmate populations forced to stay indoors simply because a facility doesn’t have enough officers to supervise inmates on the rec yard. This, of course, denies inmates the opportunity to properly exercise. It denies them the opportunity to get clean, fresh air and sunshine. These denials, then, help lead to an unhealthy inmate population. Sedentary inmates develop a plethora of physical ailments. They have high blood pressure, heart problems, prostate issues, hemorrhoids, and many other diseases. They also develop many psychological issues. Depression is a huge problem amongst inmates. These psychological issues, then, lead to suicide, drug abuse, and assaults on other inmates, correctional officers, and staff members. Oh, and don’t forget, taxpayers are the ones who ultimately fit the bill for all of this. Their tax money goes to pay for correctional officers who transport inmates to and from doctor visits. Their tax money goes to pay for the gas needed to transport inmates. And their tax money goes to pay for the medical staff that is necessary to care for an unhealthy inmate population.

I have seen understaffing cause other inmates to have to provide emergency medical care for other inmates. On two separate occasions, I have seen an inmate suffer a grand mal seizure and other inmates have had to provide emergency medical care until staff could be summoned to help. On one occasion, the inmate suffering the seizure had actually stopped breathing and was in serious danger of death. I have also seen inmates denied medical care from the Medical Department because of understaffing. Recently, I saw an inmate denied an EKG because there wasn’t enough medical staff to administer it. However, I have also seen inmates denied sick call and other services due to understaffing as well.

I have seen understaffing lead to a lack of supervision in housing units. Due to the lack of sufficient staffing, I have seen inmates locked in cells where they have no way to contact staff for hours at a time. During these times, quite often, no staff members have been able to make security rounds to check on the safety and security of inmates. This leaves inmates in serious jeopardy should an emergency occur. It also leaves inmates to fend for themselves in the event of an attack from another inmate. Now I know most of the time, if not all, security rounds are logged in the logbook at facilities. However, a simple check of the camera footage will clearly show that security rounds are not made the way policy dictates.

Finally, I have seen how understaffing affects the overall condition of a prison. There are some very good staff members at most facilities. These are men and women who truly seek to do their jobs well. However, most of these people find themselves being overworked and burnout in time. At that point, they simply quit and make the understaffing problem worse, or they give up and start behaving like most of the other staff members who could care less about the inmate population.

I understand understaffing is a major problem for many institutions. I also understand that certain steps must be taken when dealing with understaffing. However, placing your inmate population at risk or punishing your inmate population should never be acceptable. What rehabilitative message do you send your inmate population when you punish them for something that is not their fault? What rehabilitative message do you send your inmate population when you fail to provide for their overall safety and security due to your failure to properly man your institution?

Travis Sorrells, #1095956
Haynesville Correctional Center

An Idea for MORE Earned Credits

For a decade, I have been incarcerated. During that time I have greatly sought to become a better person. I have led church services and ministered to other inmates. I have taken college classes through International Christian College and Seminary. I have worked the various jobs I have been given and maintained employment during this time. I have taken rehabilitation classes as they have been made available to me. In fact, I have even taken “Thinking For A Change” multiple times because I volunteered to retake the class so the class would have enough people in it. I have taken no drugs or drank any mash. I have received no institutional infractions and have sought to be polite to staff, officers, administrators, and other inmates. And I have written a book that is in the process of being published. I do not write all of this to toot my own horn. I write this as a matter of fact, to prove my point.

Despite my being an example of a model inmate, I am in no way rewarded by the Commonwealth of Virginia for my good behavior and rehabilitative endeavors. I, like every other inmate in Virginia convicted of what the Commonwealth calls a violent crime, must spend 85% of my sentence in prison. So the question that has to be asked is, why should any inmate in a Virginia prison try to do things to better themselves? I mean, what is the point of doing something that has no reward associated with it? Think of it this way. If your boss told you tomorrow that he wanted you to start staying after work for an hour each day for a year so you could take a class to be a better employee, would you do it? And what if your boss told you there is no extra pay for taking the class or guarantee of a promotion? In addition, how would you feel about the class if you found out that other employees who aren’t taking the class aren’t suffering any consequences for not taking the class? Would you take the class to become a better employee for your employer if there was no reward for doing so? I seriously doubt it.

Anyone who has ever raised a child or a pet knows that punishment for wrongdoing and rewards for doing right must be doled out in appropriate proportion to one another. Let’s say you have a young dog that you want to train to be a good dog. And let’s say you begin by shocking the dog every time the dog does something wrong. You may cause the dog to stop some bad behaviors, but you will struggle to get the dog to behave correctly if you don’t reward the dog. So what do you do? You reward the dog for doing right and shock the dog for doing wrong. By doing this you show the dog that there are good consequences for acting appropriately and bad consequences for acting inappropriately. This seems like common sense, right? Then why don’t our state officials get it? Despite all of the right things I have done, I have to spend the same amount of time in prison as most violent offenders. And no matter how many right things I do, this fact won’t change. It is this fact that accounts for a great deal of the violence, chaos, drug use, and wrongdoing that is so prevalent in Virginia jails and prisons today. Why should inmates even seek to act in appropriate ways when they receive the same treatment as those who act inappropriately? Now someone may counter that by saying that inmates who act inappropriately won’t be released after doing only 85% of their time. That may sound good, but I see firsthand that it isn’t true. Everyday inmates who act inappropriately are released after doing 85% of their sentence. The Commonwealth’s system is severely flawed and in desperate need of an overhaul. Men and women who are incarcerated desperately need to be rewarded and punished proportionately in accordance to their behavior.

I have a suggestion that I believe, if made legislation, could greatly benefit inmates, the Department of Corrections, the Commonwealth, and all of society. I have suggested this to a couple of our legislators, but apparently it fell on deaf ears. Anyway, my suggestion is simple and provides incentives for inmates in Virginia to better themselves during their incarceration. It also holds Virginia inmates accountable for their right or wrong behaviors. Following the current sentencing guidelines, my suggestion is as follows: Inmates who obtain a degree, diploma, or vocational certification during their incarceration receive a 10% enhanced good time credit for each degree, diploma, or vocational certification they obtain. Nonviolent inmates may receive these enhanced good time credits up to the point of receiving 50% enhanced earned sentencing credits. Violent inmates may receive these enhanced good time credits up to the point of receiving 70% enhanced earned sentencing credits. However, these enhanced earned good time credits will only be made available to those inmates who remain free of institutional infractions, pass random drug tests, maintain employment, complete all required rehabilitative programs, and conduct themselves as model inmates. In this way inmates will be rewarded for appropriate conduct and disciplined for inappropriate conduct. Also inmates who work exceptionally hard to better themselves will be rewarded significantly for their hard work. In addition, the Department of Corrections will have fewer problems and the Commonwealth and society will reap the benefits of having men and women who leave prison smarter and better. These men and women will be more employable, more ready to start their own businesses, better equipped to integrate back into society, better equipped to become good parents, and much better equipped to become productive members of society. Isn’t that what we all want? Shouldn’t that be the goal of our criminal justice system, from start to finish? And shouldn’t our laws regarding sentencing reflect that?

Travis Sorrells, #1095956
Haynesville Correctional Center