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What Does It Take To Keep A Society Safe?Guest Commentary By Mary McFaddenCopyright Sacramento Police Department, 2007. Reprinted with permission. On a recent tour of Folsom Prison, I got to see the other side of the public safety equation. The work we do as a police department is front end-finding and arresting those who have committed crimes. We provide the citizens who trust us with an invaluable service - making the community safer. But what happens once they leave our responsibility? What or who is keeping the community safe then? After these arrested individuals (over 2 million nationwide) have made their way through the criminal justice system and received their sentences, there, waiting on the back end, are prisons, like Folsom, and they have the enduring responsibility of providing secure custody, sometimes for the duration of an individual's life. Folsom, and many other prisons, have gained the reputation of being the "end of the line." Hopefully, for some inmates, prisons also are able to provide rehabilitation. Those of us familiar with "old Folsom Prison" through artists like Johnny Cash usually think of the venerable stone facility that opened in 1880. This medium security facility is formally known as Folsom State Prison. Next door is the maximum security prison known as California State Prison, Sacramento, or "new Folsom," which opened in 1986. What was most impressive to me was not the over 7,000 inmates combined in both facilities. Strangely, they are hardly visible in the expansive yard and grounds. Most of them are locked up. It was the thought of over 2,500 combined staff (custodial, support, medical and education) that are also allowing themselves to be locked in with this population that impressed me. On prison grounds, there is nowhere you can go without having ID checked and gates or doors clanging behind you. After awhile, staff must get used to these sounds, which can be startling for newcomers. There are gates within gates, fenced areas within more fenced areas, and multitudes of locking doors - and these aren't even the cells. Everything in the environment is a reminder of institutional imprisonment. A hawk flying in the blue sky directly overhead is a reminder of unobtainable freedom. Much like the challenges of police work, it's evident that it takes a special kind of person to work in the prison environment day in and day out. Most people in society wouldn't tolerate the restrictive conditions and the vigilance it takes to keep themselves and the facility safe. Most people wouldn't be willing to sit in front of a cell window for a full shift keeping a suicide watch on an unstable inmate. Most people would not appreciate having their personal effects searched upon entering and exiting work each day. And most people would not be able to accept a work environment where the daily potential existed that they could be spit on, attacked, or stabbed. Just as there are hundreds of thousands of law enforcement officers nationwide, there are many more than that in prison staff. I've now seen the difference between the highly visible police who catch the criminals, and the often larger, invisible legions of correctional officers who assure the criminals' confinement. Maybe in another time, when we've solved the complex socioeconomic ills in our world, fewer people will be needed to provide law enforcement or prison services. But for now it takes thousands of individuals willing to do this kind of work, catching people and confining them, to keep a society safe, and it is through a cooperative effort from both sides that we maintain public safety. Editor's Note: Mary McFadden is a program analyst in the Sacramento Police Department's office of the chief. She is an 11-year veteran with SPD - as a civilian employee - and is editor of the SPD newsletter. Her editorial first ran on the SPD website blog (blog.sacpd.org/?p=260). I thank them for the permission to reprint it here. Thank you also to CCPOA member Steven Greer, retired, CCI, for sending a copy of McFadden's editorial to the Peacekeeper office.  Print This PageBack to Volume 24, Issue 3 Back to PEACEKeeper Main Page |
