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Staff assaulted at prison on Tuesday highlights divide in negotiations between the union and prison – Daily Montanan

['Keith Schubert', 'More From Author', '- January']

Date: 2022-01-19 00:00:00

The assault of a Montana State Prison corrections sergeant on Tuesday night could have been “completely prevented” had the prison taken more appropriate steps to protect the employee from the incarcerated person allegedly responsible for the attack, the prison’s employee union president said during a Law and Justice Interim Committee meeting on Wednesday.

The union has raised concerns about dangerous working conditions, staff shortages, and non-competitive wages throughout ongoing contract negotiations. Wednesday, Prison Warden Jim Salmonsen attributed the attack to staffing shortages.

“Because we did not have adequate staffing, she was by herself,” the warden said of the guard. “We are never fully staffed in a shift.”

In a photo displayed to the committee, the guard appeared to be injured. The warden did not describe her condition but did say that he and prison union president Aaron Meaders had talked with her following the attack.

While Federation of Montana State Prison Employees Local 4700 President Meaders sympathized with the staffing difficulties DOC leaders face, he said the reasons behind the assault are more nuanced. Meaders said the offender who committed the assault had been written up by the sergeant one month earlier but only received a $21 fine.

“Sometimes these kinds of administrative decisions … don’t quite prevent stuff,” Meaders said. “If he had been given detention time or reclassified to a higher classification level of security, he wouldn’t have been able to be in there and assault her.”

At Wednesday’s meeting, DOC Director Brian Gootkin said he is looking for assistance from the Legislature next session to “get these officers paid what they need” to shore up the staffing issues. The prison, which houses 1,600 incarcerated people, lacked 59 of the 328 correctional officers it needs to be fully staffed as of Wednesday and faces 23% turnover every year, costing the prison $1.4 million annually in training, Gootkin said.

Meaders echoed Gootkin’s message and said he hopes for pay relief from the Legislature in the next session but said something needs to be done now to address the safety concerns.

“It’s a big problem. I’ve never seen correctional officers quit and tell me as the union president that it’s because they didn’t feel safe to come to work,” he said.

The current starting wage for a correctional officer at the facility is $16.46, which Gootkin said is less than the starting wages for detention officers in Silver Bow County, Deer Lodge County, Gallatin and Lewis and Clark counties. And the department said the $1.9 million allotted by the Legislature to cover overtime costs at the prison would not cover the $2.7 million it expects to need in 2022.

The prison and union have been in negotiations since June 2021. On Aug. 10, Federation of Montana State Prison Employees Local 4700 voted 60-0 to engage in “concerted activity,” bringing the union closer to a possible strike, but so far, the two parties have been able to avoid such action. The next negotiation meeting is in February, Gootkin said.

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