Safety Concerns Grow as Inmates Are Guarded by Teachers and Secretaries

BIG SPRING, Tex. — On a recent rainy day, more than 400 sex offenders, gang members and other inmates at the federal prison in this West Texas town weathered the storm by crowding into a three-story building.

Safety Concerns Grow as Inmates Are Guarded by Teachers and Secretaries Merlin_137358285_95ced705-2948-45a6-aa5f-f57a64c326fe-superJumbo

Safety Concerns Grow as Inmates Are Guarded by Teachers and Secretaries Merlin_137358285_95ced705-2948-45a6-aa5f-f57a64c326fe-superJumbo

Two guards were on duty. One was a uniformed correctional officer, the other a health worker in civilian clothes pitching in because there were not enough regular officers.
Outside, along the security fences surrounding the sprawling prison campus, a worker who normally offers counseling to inmates patrolled in a vehicle, armed with three weapons. And in a unit reserved for the most dangerous inmates, a clerk from the commissary policed the corridors.
The staffing scramble at Big Spring is playing out at federal prisons across the country. As the Trump administration has curtailed hiring in its quest to reduce the size of the government, some prisons are so pressed for guards that they regularly compel teachers, nurses, secretaries and other support staff to step in.

It was not uncommon in the past for prisons to occasionally call upon support workers as substitute guards, especially in emergencies. The practice, which leaves other prison functions short-handed, came under criticism during the Obama administration, which moved in its final year to cut back.
But as the shortage of correctional officers has grown chronic under President Trump — and the practice of drawing upon other workers has become routine — many prisons have been operating in a perpetual state of staffing turmoil, leaving some workers feeling ill-equipped and unsafe on the job, according to interviews and internal documents from the Bureau of Prisons.

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/17/us/prisons-safety-substitute-guards.html

Safety Concerns Grow as Inmates Are Guarded by Teachers and Secretaries

Safety Concerns Grow as Inmates Are Guarded by Teachers and Secretaries

Anarcho-Capitalist Categorical Imperatives

Via AnCaps: Law & Enforced Unnatural Order