We received another message from another staff member that works at Maryville Treatment Center. Tensions are high at this facility and staff are scared that something dangerous is going to happen. Administration just keeps telling them that it will “get better”. When? It just keeps getting worse. Here’s the message we received.
“Our little community up here has no idea about how this facility is really run. They are fooled just by the appearance as they drive by, thinking that the offenders are all drug and alcohol offenders and they do a treatment program here, then they go home. They think our facility is a “Prison” setting… locked metal doors, cages…not realizing these men walk around, roaming free 24/7, sleep in an army base set-up like camp. MTC is not secure enough to remain the kind prison-facility this administration is allowing it to be. The security level right now is haunting for most staff. The time period that administration keeps telling everyone about how it’s going get better is going to become fatal. Whether that be due to the mental stability of staff and all this stress and uncalled nonsense or due to the unsafe environment. Administration have been allowing it for this extended amount of time. What is most terrifying about the entire situation is that more offenders than administration acknowledge how much time most custody staff is putting in there, how tired they are, how wore out they look; even telling the officers they don’t deserve that and telling them how there are better jobs out there. Understaffed, mentally exhausted, stressed. This place has not been “treatment” for well into 2 years; it’s just a holding facility for people. Staff are too afraid to say anything about how it operates in fear of retaliation.”
