Federal Prisons Feel the Effects of Closure

Correctional officers, like hundreds of thousands of federal employees, have been working for four weeks without pay.

They were already among the lowest-paid federal law enforcement officials, Young said, and the union is convinced that the country's prisons are significantly under-resourced. 7,100 positions.

This means that when pay checks are stopped, the situation is particularly serious.

"We are working in an already dangerous and stressful environment where working distracted or tired can lead to serious injury or even death," Young wrote in a letter to the legislator this week.

Like other federal employees, correctional officers must make difficult decisions between buying food and gas to get to work and pay their bills, Young said.

But for the prison workers, unpaid debts can jeopardize the security clearance of a federal prison worker needed to stay at work. Correctional officers who can not pay their debts are considered at risk of corruption by inmates or gangs.

In a federal prison in the southern United States, the director and other senior executives recently gathered correctional officers to "rally the troops," said one of the two employees who described the meeting.

"It is basically that we will try to gather the troops, we will try to reassure people, which they could not do," said the worker. Both employees requested anonymity, and CNN did not name the facility to protect the identity of the workers.

The establishment has set up a food bank in the last two weeks to help employees on leave without pay. Many of his coworkers have recently had babies. So people bring basic items like baby wipes and diapers and other foods to help people who need them.

"Some people might be able to win a paycheck, which makes it two, it's a whole different story because now you're talking about thousands of dollars and not just a hit on the road, "said the worker.

For various reasons, including the inability to pay for gasoline or child care, correctional officers at this facility and other institutions have announced that They were sick for their unpaid shifts.

"We care about each other, and the only reason we come to work is because we try not to taunt other employees," said the worker.

Because federal prisons are often located in rural areas, many officers make long and expensive daily journeys expensive in gasoline.

According to Young, prison directors were forced to cancel or curtail programs – such as education, tours, and recreation – that require staff on leave or waiting. These programs occupy a central place in the lives of inmates, and members are concerned about attacks or riots when inmates' frustration spreads.

The Bureau of Prisons acknowledged in a statement that management could reduce programming in the event of staff shortages.

"Institutional managers understand the operations and problems in the prisons they manage and have many options to address the specific concerns of each institution, including the lack of staff during closure", the statement said. "Facilities may take steps to temporarily limit or cancel visits, reduce or temporarily cancel programming or implement other modified operations."

The shortage of staff and the BDP's plan to fill the gaps also make the officers vulnerable, Young said.

Front-line officers are "supplemented" by nurses, housekeepers and secretaries, who have neither the experience nor the training of their front-line colleagues, said the union president , Young,

. The training does not tell you how to be a correctional officer that does it every day of your life, "he said.The training they receive only consists of" intervening in emergencies to help correctional staff. "

With no end in sight, prison staff say they are unsure of what is going on.

A prison officer told CNN," I woke up recently, are is it worth it? "