What the Government Shutdown Looks Like Inside Federal Prisons

[mahatmakanejeeves]

David Fahrenthold Retweeted

“Because the Bureau of Prisons is operating without funding, it has furloughed up to half of its 36,000-person staff...It is asking remaining employees to keep working unpaid, focusing on maintaining security even if that’s not usually their primary job.”

Link to tweet

FILED 5:12 p.m.
01.07.2019
NEWS

What the Government Shutdown Looks Like Inside Federal Prisons
Family visits canceled, guards driving for Uber, rising tensions and more.

The partial U.S. government shutdown is now in its third week, due largely to President Trump’s insistence that Congress give him more than $5 billion for a border wall he says will keep criminals from entering the country through Mexico. ... Meanwhile, the federal employees tasked with keeping the nation safe from people convicted of crimes—prison guards—are laboring without pay.

Because the federal Bureau of Prisons is operating without funding, it has furloughed up to half of its 36,000-person staff, including many who provide therapeutic programs for prisoners and other services considered not to be “essential.” And the agency is asking its remaining employees to keep working unpaid, focusing on maintaining security even if that’s not usually their primary job. ... This could remain the state of affairs until the next pay cycle in late January at the earliest—or even for months or years to come, according to Trump, who on Sunday threatened to declare a national emergency in order to bypass Congress in the funding dispute.

“It’s an absolute disaster,” said John Kostelnik, president of the American Federation of Government Employees chapter in Victorville, California, home to one of the nation’s largest concentrations of federal prison guards. “I have staff that are resorting to getting second employment—like Uber driving.”

Kostelnik points out that many federal corrections officers had already been overwhelmed by the Trump administration’s immigration policies: Victorville, for example, took in about 1,000 immigrant detainees in June. ... “It was a mission that was just thrown on us,” Kostelnik said, adding that guards were not provided sufficient training or additional staff to handle the influx of detainees. “And oh by the way, now you’re not getting paid?”
....

[FakeNoose]

1. So the privately run prisons aren't shut down, am I right?

... it's just the federal prisons that are run by the government. Where the most dangerous life-criminals are being held. The employees who continue to work without pay are facing danger at every moment on the job, and Uncle Sam doesn't have their backs.

[dickthegrouch]

3. They'll release everyone when their check doesn't arrive.

I hope I’m wrong, but the for-profit prisons probably have a contract clause that allows them to release when they aren’t paid. Should be an interesting fight as to who’s responsible if any of the released inmates cause further trouble.

[dalton99a]

2. John Kostelnik got another job last night: