Looking unemployment in the face

[GreenEyedLady(GEL)]

Well, I am finally feeling the effects of our drowning beautiful State of Michigan's economic disaster. Governor Granholm has called for the closures of 3 state prisons and 5 state camps by the end of the fiscal year which is this coming October. Approximately 1000 officers will feel this effect whether its is mandatory lay offs, early retirements , volunteer transfers , seniority bumping rights ( which is what I will be dealing with ) and excepting a lay off of due to the inability to move or for whatever reason one might have.

Myself, I have no doubt that I will be bumped from my facility. The camp just west of us is closing and we're their bumping region. Why was a level IV ( max ) not included in the bump ? ( rumours of its closures coming 10-11 fiscal year ? ) Nevertheless, my facility is looking at the bottom 50 officers will be hit when it happens. Me being the 30th. So I'm outta there. Just a matter of when now. We have a union meeting tomorrow morning with the big wigs from Lansing. Hopefully some questions will be answered.

I've also been reading all of the news paper articles about the closures via Internet, and reading the comments as well. The are actually a lot of people who feel we are overpaid and that we are lazy, and should get real jobs anyhow. Yes our taxes go to paying our wages and such , but we are tax payers too ! Yes we get paid holidays, and uniform allowance, but at one time that meant something. I went through fucking leaps and bounds, and hoops and then a states correction academy ! I deserved my state perks. And not to mention I am an officer and I know who we protect our communities from. Hell I am all for paroles. There are a bunch of people who just need to get out and get back to work. However, they are paroling 4,000 convicts by next year. People better lock their fucking doors is all I have to say.

I'm so mad, I can't even think about anything else. Anyone who knows me knows I worry about the shit happening to us today. Government going to shit, economic crisis. Now its staring me in the face. I've been watching for so long the car industry folk losing their jobs and being so thankful for mine. And BOOM here it is. My girlfriend is stressed, and I'm not much of a talker. Don't have any answers any how. I welcome any prayers I can get.

Thanks, Lynn Anne

[csrakate]

You've got mine, Lynn Anne!

Hugs,
Kate

[TaylorMade]

For now, all I can offer is Chocolate

http://sliceofmit.files.wordpress.com/2009/04/chocolate-truffles.jpg



And a recipe for coffee cup chocolate cake. :) (http://www.ehow.com/how_4563107_coffee-cup-chocolate-cake.html)

And prayers. :)

*Taylor*

[texasman6172003]

Well Lynne,You have my best wishes hon. I have said it before and i will keep saying it. Policeman any law enforcement,Firefighters,and Teachers do not get near the Pay they deserve.!!!!! You all deserve so much more!!!! Take care Lynne and good luck..

[Sapphrodite]

Sending my love and kisses for you, gf, & the 'Weene Machine' - I know you will do amazing....

Try to remember they have to keep a certain number of different genders and qualifications, even during lean economic times. It's also a great opportunity for them to 'clean house and get rid of the dead-weight. Anyone who's been a problem will get put up by their superiors, senority or not, and people will be judged on their merit - they wont keep people with 'issues' over those who are steady reliable employees.

Try not to worry too much until then, sweetie - keep looking for work online, get letters of recommendation from your superiors, and be sure to get all the details from your union as to your rights.

Be Well!!!
Sapphy

[12voltman59]

One of my cousins is a correctional officer for the Ohio Dept of Corrections--fortunately--she has enough seniority both in the dept and at her institution that she has been free of the previous rounds of staff cuts that the ODOC have done--they are now so short of staff it has become dangerous for her and her fellow officers to work their shifts because the DOC has shut down a few correctional facilities too--so they transferred the populations of those prisons to others around the state, including hers such that --her institution is up to like 175% of capacity with little more than a skeleton crew of correctional officers to "guard the prisoners" on each shift. She says its only a matter of time till they have some major prisoner take overs of at least one if not a few of Ohio's prisons---the same thing is happening in just about every state---and of course----the number of those going out on parole is at a record level as are those now on probation who have committed violent acts---something they would never have taken place back when I was still on the job---we didn't as a rule recommend probation for anyone who had a charge involving violence----but now--unless the pending case is a very serious one or they are repeat offenders with a history of violence---they pretty get much get probation now since the number of jail cells are very limited, but--get a guy who never had so much as a ticket who gets caught dealing "x" amount of pot--he or she HAS to do a minimum-mandatory sentence of a specified period depending on the level of charge with an average such sentence running about five years!

This is something--to me--prisons were made to house those who did violent acts against others--but now--with all these minimum mandatory sentences for people doing something non-violent like selling pot----a large number of expensive and limited prison slots are filled with non-violent offenders.

To me---there is one way out of that fix---legalize the use of all drugs---save all the money that we use on the law enforcement side for the police to investigate and arrest those who are doing or selling drugs, the money it costs for the courts to deal with the cases--even if the offenders on drug charges plead out and don't go to trial--the sheer number of cases the system handles each year across the nation numbers in the many millions and there are some costs for handling each and every case---and of course--the biggest expense of all--incarcerating drug offenders/sellers--no matter the nature of the incarceration--whether in a cell or on probation or parole--it is all expensive and a drain on ever more limited taxpayer funds.

To get rid of drug charges might not totally fix a really fucked up system--but it would help reduce court loads and open limited prison cells for those who really need to be there--for those who committ violent acts against their fellow man!!!

It also doesn't say much good about us as a society that we spend an exponentially greater amount of money to incarcerate people than we do on educating or training them to be productive members of society--and we also lose a great deal of productivity by being a nation that per capita has one of the highest incarceration rates in the entire world--the US in per capita terms---out paces countries like China, Russia and even North Korea in the number of people we put in prisons or jails and those places are certainly not "bastions of freedom" as we purport to be!!!

I am sorry to hear that you lost your job--I hope you do find something---it is kinda tough out there now though-especially here in places like Michigan or Ohio--we aren't having a recession--we are having a depression---and with GM and Chrysler most likely still going to go down and out for the count along with the ancilliary effects of the automotive supply chain also going down--our situation is not going to get better any time soon.

[codybear3]

Good luck, GEL... My prayers for you and all (including myself. I worked in the automotive division) that are facing or have been layed-off... :paw::paw:

[onewhocares]

Good luck, GEL... My prayers for you and all (including myself. I worked in the automotive division) that are facing or have been layed-off... :paw::paw:


GEL,

I too am sending my thoughts and prayers to you. I too am anticipating the cut back of hours at any time. Over the last year many of our benefits have been retracted and they are nickle and dimming us. I do not know of anyone who is flourishing in this economy. One thing that has helped me is knowing that I am not alone in my concern. I just try to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors.

Belle

[MarieDelta]

GEL,

I will keep you two in my thoughts and prayers, hope that you find a job twice as good with equal(or better) bennefits.

[12voltman59]

GEL,

I too am sending my thoughts and prayers to you. I too am anticipating the cut back of hours at any time. Over the last year many of our benefits have been retracted and they are nickle and dimming us. I do not know of anyone who is flourishing in this economy. One thing that has helped me is knowing that I am not alone in my concern. I just try to stay one step ahead of the bill collectors.

Belle

I am afraid to say Belle that a fair number of people are doing quite well in this economy--namely many of those who helped to get us in this situation--and by that I mean the CEOs, CFOs and other "principles" of the banks, financial institutions and other corporations that engaged in the "funny money" tactics that have played a major role in creating this "recession"---many of those guys made their companies go belly up, with all the repercussions of that--while they walked away with "bonuses" to the tune of many hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars---with some even earning those bonuses using the "TARP" money-which is of course taxpayer money----what a bunch of suckers we "little guys" are!!!!

[gfofbiguy]

Keeping you in my thoughts and prayers, Lynn Anne! {{{{{HUGSZ}}}}}

[Cherokee_Mountaincat]

Lynne Ann Honey, my prayers and best thoughts go to you and your lady. It tough all over right now love, and all of us are just trying to get by as best we can...even us old semi-retired farts.
Big big hugs goes to you and you know you can come and talk and vent to us anytime you want to/need to. :};)
Cat.

[GreenEyedLady(GEL)]

Thanks to everyone who replied, I appreciate it all tremendously !

We had our union meeting this afternoon. Although no deadlines were given, I'm pretty sure I'll be getting a lay off. There is some fishy stuff going on as far as the level IV prison that wasn't in my bumping region. For whatever reason a prison has been spare from the seniority bumps. We're going to have 50 or so officers bumping my facility because of the camp closure. So , I'll be bumped, but won't be able to bump officers with less then a year total at this Level IV. Basically my own union is bending us over and stickin. I don't even know how my union president agreed to it. Early retirement hasn't even been implemented yet and their laying off 750 officers. Just doesn't make sense to me.

BTW volty I agree mostly with everything you said until you got to your " legalize all drugs " idea. Maybe the ganja, but why would anyone legalize narcotics ? So we can have an overload of crackheads, heroin dragon chasers, and meth heads ? Can't see the logic on that one.

[kitten]

sending hugs and best wishes! Tough times make for tough(er) people. You will make it through this.

[GreenEyedLady(GEL)]

"Unofficially " I have heard, and hopefully he wasn't blowing smoke up my ass, but the day shift Captain told me the other morning that he thinks I might be safe from a lay off. I don't take stock in anything anyone says, but I will admit this does make me smile. Everyone had to turn their Volunteer Transfers in by the 18th. After carrying mine around in my pocket for a week I had decided not to turn mine in , take the lay off and move back to Texas. There was just to many people ahead of me to think there was even a chance for hope to even transfer with only 89 vacancies throughout the DOC. We were told initially that the camp that is closing that has direct bumping right to my facility had about 50 people coming. I guess those numbers have changed drastically. Its an hours drive ( double that during winter ) from Grayling where the camp is to my facility so i think that was a big issue for those officers. My facility is also taking on another 144 convicts by next week, so we are allotted another 10 officers, again helping my situation. The real thing that sucks are the officers I work with that did put in for a transfer have more seniority than I do , absolutely have to honor the transfer. Our union, working tight with the DOC only gave us 8 days to decide what we wanted to do. I feel bad in that I might get to stay because they are leaving. I know in the end it might have saved my job, but no matter how you look at it, it all sucks.

My back up plan, which is the lay off, and the No Worker Left Behind program is a total farce. People from last year are still waiting to participate because there is no money to fund it lol. Should have known it seemed to good to be true ( you know how that old saying goes ) So in the event of a lay off we'll just be moving to Texas sooner than expected which will please my family.

Thanks again for all of your support. :)

[MarieDelta]

Still keeping my fingers crossed for ya.

(currently un-employed and looking for work myself)

[GreenEyedLady(GEL)]

Still keeping my fingers crossed for ya.

(currently un-employed and looking for work myself)

Oh my goodness, I had no idea. So Sorry ! You made such a huge move to Colorado too. Wishing you well honey !

[MissyMissy]

i pray for you GEL. some people just have no clue hun.
i envy anyone who has a job. they are very fortunate and if they have no worries about being laid off they are even more fortunate.
i so badly want a job myself hun. at this time i am too sick but i dream of the day i can return to work at least part time. not all of us americans are lazy and i know that. many of us work our asses off. and if people understood why some people seem to not want to work well they should think about what places like walmart and k mart have done. low wages, lil insurance, only parttime dont want to put any effort into thier employees but expect you to kill yourself. then if you work to make it worse if you are on TANF they cut you off from your insurance then if you get sick the cycle starts over.
many of us love to work and take pride in our jobs hun when we have them. i dont want convicts who are seriously dangerous out on the streets. they were put in prison for a reason. this breakdown of our government is a very scary thing to me GEL.
melissa

[Lienda]

Now I know it's happening to everybody, everywhere. :( I got laid off recently to. Booth cashier. You're job was more needed than mine. Weren't those prisons over loaded?! wow.

[GreenEyedLady(GEL)]

Now I know it's happening to everybody, everywhere. :( I got laid off recently to. Booth cashier. You're job was more needed than mine. Weren't those prisons over loaded?! wow.

My condolences Lienda. I wouldn't dare say mine job is more needed than anyone elses. We all gotta eat !!!:) I hope you find work soon hun.

The prison I work at is getting ready to be heavily over populated. 8 guys in a very small space with no time alone. Honestly I can't imagine how that would affect a person. I clocked in friday night just before 10 pm and by 10:20 my partner and I were already calling for back up, 2 guys beating the ever living shit out of eachother. Cause of the fight --- The one disrespected Michael Jackson.

[GreenEyedLady(GEL)]

Now I know it's happening to everybody, everywhere. :( I got laid off recently to. Booth cashier. You're job was more needed than mine. Weren't those prisons over loaded?! wow.

I just realized your in Houston. If I am laid off thats where I am heading. My parents and siblings are out there. My sister just got laid off last week from a tool and dye factory.

[GreenEyedLady(GEL)]

This just more of an update of my prison taking on another 144 inmates.

While I was making my initial rounds last night, which consists of me "walking down the rock" In lay terms it means I was walking down a hall of 84 men living in an open bay setting. Soon to be 96. A-wing 94 B-wing 96 equalling 192 teenagers, 20s,30s,40, and up to the 80s. Men of all sorts ranging from felony firearms, drugs, manslaughter, sex offenders prodomitalty pedophiles.
So...I'm walking the rock checking things out seeing whats going on basically. Might stop and kick with a different one each day. Last night I stopped to kick it with "Slim" a name I gave him about 3 years ago when he road in to my housing unit.He stands about 6'7-6'8 black guy. I'm 5'2.....We see eye to eye him and I though. I wanted to find out how the population felt, how he felt about the in 48 guys coming in. He said Ms Z it aint going to be good. I said I know it........
8 grown men with a bunk, and very little, and I do mean very little space to them selves. If anything their bunk is their only real space. Its already hot as hell. If you read my previous post, the guys have already begin to fight over stupid shit.
As of last night there are only 3 officers in 2 block on 3rd shift. 2 regular housing officers 2AB and 2 CD, with a roving officer that works both sides and has slightly different duties. However were gaining another officer to have 2 on each side and I will have a regular partner. Which pleases me ;-)Its still 2/192 but its a hell of alot better than 1 and a 1/2. For the first 2 hrs were making rounds, Sgt will come and and review misconduct reports. I had one reviewed that I wrote last night. This guy is going to be on sanctions until august. He's on sanctions now which Is why I wrote the ticket to begin with because he's a dumbass.


I think the wine is making me chatty for whatever reason. Nice release tho, almost like blogging lol :wiggle2:

All I really know is things might start hopping at work because of the prison closures and budget cuts. It's only going to be worse when they lay off 750 officers and get so damn over crowded that it weakens the custody and security of the facilities. It's nuts. When I first started we had 944 inmates. About 5 years ago we went up to 1060 and now were going to be at 1304. Chow hall is to small. Not enough showers not to mention the water works or whatever you call it isn't set up for that many people.
And those are just issues with the inmates. I work for the worst F-ing A/Warden ( acting ) ever promoted. So he's no help.

I just hope the department knows what their doing. The budget cuts for the Department of Corrections will be felt.

Thanks for listening

[diB4u]

Wow.

Gel, still with the cut backs in prison services, would that mean you will keep your job?, and even then if you do keep your job would there be enought co-workers to help mantain a healthy and safe enviorrnment for you to work in?


These times are indeed difficult to live and work in.

Stay strong Gel, and remember that no matter what happens, your girlfriend and your friends here on this site are here for you!

:bigrin:

[CalanderGirl]

Girly I hope all goes very well for you... what are they doing with all the people that are in said places?! What a bunch of political BS!!!! Find other ways to cut... like CEOs!!!!!! :D


Sorry sweetheart! I know how it goes though! If you need don't hesitate to bounce some ideas off of us!!!! xoxoxo Take care dear ;)