COLORADO SPRINGS — Colorado Department of Corrections (DOC) employees held a rally on Thursday to demand safer working conditions.
Members of Colorado Wins, the state employee union which represents over 4,000 DOC employees, are calling for immediate action to fill more than 800 vacancies in Colorado correctional facilities. Fact sheets provided by Madeline Griffith, the Communications Strategist of Colorado Wins, show some alarming statistics:
On average there are almost 2 assaults per day on DOC employees in correctional facilities in ColoradoThere were 1,191 assaults on inmates by other inmates in the last 12 months360+ of the employee vacancies are security positions to protect inmates and employees
DOC employees said the lack of staff is making working conditions even more unsafe, because corrections officers are overworked and there is an increased danger of violence.
“They’re burnt out,” said Eric Olsen from the Denver Reception & Diagnostic Center. “We have a high divorce rate. Low life expectancy, 15 years sooner than regular people are supposed to die. And the suicide rate is one of the highest suicide rates of any profession. And with the short staffing, that just makes the problems worse. I sometimes ask myself, am I tired or am I depressed?”
The changes employees are pushing for, according to the fact sheet, include retaining staff, stop arbitrarily mandating overtime, and paying employees from other job classes who step in to fill vacancies.
So far, the DOC has not responded to these demands.
