County replaces jail guards with civilian officers
RACINE—Racine County will soon staff its jail entirely with civilian personnel at an estimated $100,000 in annual savings.
The county jail was once staffed by sworn sergeants, with a beginning annual salary of about $75,000. Like other big Wisconsin counties, Racine County looked for ways to save money and began to replace the sworn officers with civilian sergeants, whose starting pay is about $37,000.
Beginning in 2013, all nine sergeants at the jail will be civilians, whose training is focused on a corrections environment. The Journal Times says two sworn lieutenants and one sworn captain will oversee the sergeants.
Dec 11, 2012 at 7:47 a.m.
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Gwendt-I don't know about that. It seeems a lot of his old staff are going to prison lately. Hard to run a campaign from prison, wouldn't ya say. :)
Dec 10, 2012 at 11:54 p.m.
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the way the governor is going -all the prisons will be filled with Democrats, so he can run unopposed again & again,
Dec 10, 2012 at 11 p.m.
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@ pastafarian: "I believe private prisons are unconstitutional in WI"
OMG! rofl... Thats rich.. that's a good one.
Dec 10, 2012 at 4:43 p.m.
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Prison privatization is a very slippery slope. Wisconsin has a history of privatizing prison services -- including prisoner transportation, prisoner healthcare, prisoner food services and custody of prisoners. The following website contains citations and excerpts from many sources that document the privatization: [ http://www.privateci.org/wisconsin.htm ]
The following is an excerpt from the link above: "As of Dec. 6 [2002], CCA [Corrections Corporation of America, a private prison corporation] had custody of 4,017 Wisconsin prisoners, of whom 3,482 were housed in Minnesota, Oklahoma and Tennessee under the company's current contract with the state. Another 535 state prisoners were being housed by CCA in federal prisons or county jails."
Dec 10, 2012 at 3:59 p.m.
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Johnnyreb6977 And your point is what? To take jobs and give them to civilians at half the wage is BS. BTW how many innocent people are in prisons and jails? http://www.ronpaulforums.com/entry.php?6.... A work program is an option as to doing work for your keep. Rock Co. has a work program that helps different areas locally.
Dec 10, 2012 at 3:44 p.m.
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Constitutional in WI is whatever 4 people in Madison wearing black robes says is constitutional.
What was constitutional yesterday could be unconstitutional today and vice versa, all depending on what 4 individuals think.
Kind of scary that it really comes down to that huh?
Dec 10, 2012 at 3:16 p.m.
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I believe private prisons are unconstitutional in WI.
Dec 10, 2012 at 3:07 p.m.
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johnnyreb, you fail to understand that privatization of prisons, and my comment, have little if anything to do with prisoners paying their way. It has everything to do with ridiculous laws and sentencing being passed to maintain an incarcerated slave labor population for the enrichment of a handful of wealthy individuals.
Dec 10, 2012 at 2:35 p.m.
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poohbah: You are missing the mark if someone does the crime they should do the time. Doing the time does not mean lifting weights, watching tv, playing basketball or just sitting around. It costs money to house criminals and criminals need to pay to house and feed themselves. If it means that they have to work on a chain gang if they are physically able to so be it!
Dec 10, 2012 at 1:31 p.m.
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All around the world prices keep going up and wages keep dropping. Glad I am an old fart and won't be around much longer. This world is crumbling.
Dec 10, 2012 at 1:31 p.m.
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All around the world prices keep going up and wages keep dropping. Glad I am an old fart and won't be around much longer. This world is crumbling.
Dec 10, 2012 at 12:39 p.m.
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I'm surprised they haven't privatized the jail and turned it into a 21st century chain gang sweatshop as is happening in many prisons throughout America.
"21st century chain gangs - The rebirth of prison labor foretells a disturbing future for America's 'free market' capitalism" [ http://www.salon.com/2012/04/19/21st_cen... ]
The war on drugs, funded by middle income taxpayers, is really just another way of incarcerating enough "slave labor" to enrich politicians and owners of private prison corporations.
Dec 10, 2012 at 12:08 p.m.
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This is actually not a big deal. Many jails have civilian corrections staff and even some of the immediate rank over them are civilian. The term civilian is simply non-sworn and have all the uniform and authority except arrest powers. However, staffing levels are consistently and dangerously low. That cost money, but unfortunately more staff are needed. If the more expensive staff are replaced with non-sworn, then hopefully it is with enough to do the job.
Dec 10, 2012 at 12:08 p.m.
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I'm sure the guards will be able to supplement their income in other ways. Just sayin...
Dec 10, 2012 at 11:43 a.m.
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The unions killed the golden goose.
I'm just sayin'...
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