OF ALL CITY and county jobs, that of corrections officer must rank as among the most physically and emotionally demanding, the most stressful — and the most unappreciated.

“We face some scary stuff,” says Bruce Minker, a Pierce County corrections officer and member of Local 3752.

“We have to deal with violent criminals, face the possibilities of contracting diseases like tuberculosis, hepatitis and everything shy of ebola, and an administration that forgets who you are.

“You never know what each day will bring. One day recently I received a telephone call to say a co-worker had committed suicide. On another, a co-worker was taken hostage and stabbed with a pencil.”

Andy Jennings, a 13-year veteran of the Spokane County Sheriffs department and president of Local 492, says, “Criminals are starting to become more violent. In the past 10 years, violent crimes have gone up by quite a bit.”

As officers meet these daily challenges they also complain about understaffing, overcrowding, deteriorating facilities and mismanagement. Yet most people, they add, do not give them a second thought because they are largely out of the public eye.

“Corrections officers are truly unsung heroes,” says Council 2 Staff Representative Brock Logan, who represents corrections officers in Pierce and Thurston counties.

“No matter what’s going on — problems with the county budget, staff shortages, weather closures — whatever the case, they show up and get the job done.”

“They can expect to be disciplined if they do something wrong, but never get thanked for what they do right,” says Council 2 Staff Representative Mike Smith, who represents corrections deputies in Spokane County. “It seems to them as if nobody really cares. They feel the need to stand together. It is a really tough job. You get a lot of bad people in jail.”

Early retirement is a major issue for the corrections officers, who now have to wait until they are at least 63 to retire. Yet they have to deal with 15- to 21-year-olds who are becoming increasingly violent.

Here is a closer look at two of the largest jails in the state.

• In Pierce County a major issue raised by corrections officers is mismanagement. Training, for example in CPR, is always given only at the last minute, just before cards need to be updated, officers say. The administration is always reactive, never proactive, they add.

Although overcrowding is not an issue in the Pierce County jail, Minker says, the lack of efficient administration means that empty beds go unused when they could be rented out to other facilities.

“We moved into a new building in 2003 and about 250 empty beds became available each day,” Minker says.

“Between Thanksgiving and Christmas I counted 515 vacant beds. My thought is that we should be renting out those beds and getting money in that way. We could use that money to expand our training, buy more equipment and hire more officers.

“To perform at 100 percent of my ability, I need to be trained and equipped and I need to be respected.”

• In Spokane County, two facilities recently came under one roof, the Spokane County Jail, at which members of local 492 work, and the Geiger facility, at which members of local 492-G work.

“Our officers’ dedication is what pulls us through,” says Jennings. “On the one hand, Spokane County has one of the better initial training programs in the state, which includes a 13-week in-house program, 12 weeks with the field training office and a month in the state academy.

“But, on the other hand, we face understaffing and an extremely outdated facility.

“I know the county commissioners are working hard to get a new facility up and running, but with the economy the way it is I don’t know how they will fare.”

Council 2 Spokane Staff Representative Gordon Smith says the jail houses more inmates than the facilities can handle without the number of staff they need to run it as efficiently as possible.

“That increases safety issues,” he says. “This has been the case for years, but in spite of that they somehow manage to keep things more than just afloat,” Smith adds.

“They do a top-notch job despite those challenges.”
The good news is that, so far, most of the state’s corrections officers have not had to face layoffs, in spite of tough budgets
But the officers realize that the economic malaise is likely to delay much-needed improvements for much longer than would otherwise have been the case.

In the meantime, they stand together, dedicated and determined to do their jobs to the best of their ability — even when no one stops to say “thank you.”