Missouri Prison Reform received the following message from a resident of a Missouri prison. Some edits were made for clarity.
“I’m tired of people with badges breaking the laws we are supposed to follow! They’re supposed to be helping us better ourselves and all they do is corrupt. They make people more angry, aggressive, and worried about when the next time one of these correctional officers may abuse their power to make themselves feel better for whatever problems they may have going on at home or it may be because they enjoy making people suffer, I’ve seen that on many occasions! And it’s not just some, it’s pretty much 80 to 90% of the people they hire have some sort of power hunger or have sort of physiological issue where now they can do whatever they want to people and have a badge to safeguard their actions. Making it to them that whatever harm they may inflict is justified, because the department of corrections has given them authority over us, and removed any kind of rights we have had before and made us nothing more than a number on a piece of paper for these mentally unstable individuals to play with! I’m afraid of correctional officers more than I will ever be afraid of an inmate….”
I have witnessed this first hand – DOC staff exacerbating issues that could be handled with compassion and empathy. Three times this month I’ve watched people get locked down due to staff negligence. They forget people in prison are PEOPLE with real fears and, often times. heightened emotions. I know many COs work at DOC to intentionally provoke those incarcerated and use force on them – I hear them brag about it. I’ve met three people in an entire camp who seem to genuinely care. DOC and MO Government has no intentions to rectify the staffing problem as they’ve merely lowered the qualifications for custody staff and 90% of classification is former custody. THIS IS A PROBLEM.