k here is some more for you........posted on FB the wife on one of the C/O's

[Angela]

Aebok Osborne Morton

2 hours ago ·

To all my local FB friends. Please read the article below written by Kim Cole concerning the corrections officers. As a wife of a current corrections officer, I am deeply concerned that the current sheriff has not given any thoughts or concerns about his officers inside the jail. My husband, along with everyone else in this facility, puts their lives in harms way to keep us safe. Many fights and assults have occurred that they have to physically break up and the thought of none of them being protected properly makes me very ill. Especially knowing it is preventable.

Talking Points: Protective Vest
by Kim Cole

Here’s a short lesson on what your corrections officers do:

Firstly, they are the front-line protection for you from incarcerated inmates. They are responsible for the security at the county jail, including cell checks, head counts of inmates, the welfare of those inmates, conducting perimeter checks of the Mason County Jail, among other responsibilities.
Correction deputies transport county inmates back-and-forth between the jail and to court, and for inmates receiving sentences of greater than one year, to prison. They pickup wanted persons who commit crimes in our area but flee to other parts of the state once those bad guys are found. Of the 57 police officers killed in the line of duty in 2012, 5 were corrections officers. Thus far in 2012, 4 make shift weapons have been recovered inside our jail, contraband seized and a cell phone found in a cell, which had been smuggled inside

These men and women put on a Sheriff’s Deputy uniform, strap on a gun, hop into a marked Sheriff’s Patrol vehicle and head out when they go on those transports. When working inside, they deal with criminals, some bad, some not so much. They have no protective vest wear, something that used to be provided. In fairness to the current sheriff, he did get the approval from the county board of commissioners to purchase six vests for transports, citing “they will just have to share a little sweat” as to why he did not seek approval for all Correctional Deputies.

Recently the sheriff mentioned in a public meeting that he had saved “over 400,000 dollars”. This money was budgeted money, allocated to him to do his job (part of which is protecting his people), but he returned it to the county’s general fund. I, nor did any of you who pay taxes, ever received a reimbursement check nor did we get our taxes reduced to reflect this savings and I’m okay with that. The Sheriff also said the costs of providing Correction Deputies with protective vests would be “around 22,000 dollars”. I think this is a little high, but okay. There are matching federal funds out there which would cover about half the costs it’s simply a matter of filling out the paperwork and looking into the availability of those federal funds.

These men and women, moms and dads, husbands and wives, sons and daughters will continue to come to work every day and do their jobs with or without protective vests. Some of them were assaulted last year and a couple so far this year by inmates. You don’t hear them complain because we are all professional who have taken an oath to protect you.

Look at the numbers and you decide.

[XLFD]

 "Some of them were assaulted last year and a couple so far this year by inmates. You don’t hear them complain because we are all professional who have taken an oath to protect you."

 

If our Corrections Officers are professionals, why doesn't Sgt. Cole produce the incident reports where these COs were assaulted?  Surely, if they are professionals they would put these attacks in writing, and put the assaulter's name out there so that Sheriff Fiers could read about how dangerous the job is.  If there are no incident reports, we just have hearsay attacks being used for political advantage, and seriously non-professional COs who should know better.
 

[XLFD]

Kim Cole wrote the article; he's a guy, just like Jody Hartley is.  I know someone who gets confused about that, but I think he's kidding, so I won't say his name. 

The wife in the thread just reports what she has heard, Kim can read the reports or talk directly to the COs.  If those attacks happen and reports aren't drawn up, as Angela seems to indicate doesn't happen very often, then how is Sheriff Fiers supposed to know about it if he only contacts the Sergeants for his info?  Which is an acceptable management style. 

Again, I see a lot of problems with the current mid-level management positions rather than with the top on this.  If Sheriff Fiers is being apprised of the urgency of this by his sergeants, I believe he would take action, but according to him, they told him it was no big deal. 

And I think it is a bit of a red herring, because if I was an inmate with a shiv and had the intention to use it on a CO, there is plenty of unprotected vital areas above the vest. 

[XLFD]

Not at all.  I'm saying that Kim Cole needs to back up his words on his election site, instead of throwing out anecdotes at the last moment when they can't even be verified.

[Angela]

OK XLFD - was this in the LDN?  did you hear about this one??? call Trenner and ask is charges were pressed or a report filed!! I know this is from late 2011 but still 0 here you go - what happens to the C/O's never get reported to the local media

http://www.corspecops.com/corrections-officers-assaulted-saturday/

[XLFD]

The Sheriff's department is a public office, and can choose what to release to the media, and the media have the option to consider the newsworthiness of it. 

Those incident reports are accessible by FOIA if they are made; if they are not reported, they become forgotten or anecdotes that differ on the retelling. 

I would love to see a new openness on reports like the one you showed, but neither candidate is calling for openness. 

[XLFD]

Phil,

Tonight I went out with family and friends to Pizza Hut, and when I got there Kim Cole was seated with three other officers from the sheriff's department talking about stuff, all were in their work clothes.  I couldn't tell you who picked up the tab 45 minutes later. 

If I wanted to verify this fact, I could ask any of the people I dined with, the wait staff, even any of the guys in the pow-wow.  I could further show our bill, with enough finesse or a court order I could get their bill, and maybe even some footage from a Pizza Hut surveillance camera pointed at the entrances/ cash register.

We hear of these incidents on Cole's website but we don't hear any details to confirm it.  I could say Kim Cole came over to my table tonight and grinded a slice of meat-lovers pan pizza in my face.  But it never happened, and at least a dozen eyewitnesses could verify that it never did.   

But because I put that down in a paragraph, someone who glances over it might say that Cole grinded some pizza in XLFD's face, and relate that elesewhere.  And so it has a life of its own.  That's what hearsay can breed.  The wife accepts it without proof; I want some.

[Angela]

come look at my arm and I will show you proof I was assaulted by an inmate!! I have the hosptial reports and the court reports!!!! WTF XLFD!!!  how many times have you seen 3-4 patrol cars at mancinos?  so what??? PEOPLE are allowed to have a lunch when they work a 12 hour shift!!! OMG!!!

[Angela]

thansk Ronald, but I don't work there anymore but I will pass it on to those who still do - they will appreaciate it!! :)

[Brian Carlson]

Can't a group of guys go to lunch? Talk about blowing things out of proportion. Your talking about this like some crime took place. Forget about the video. It was some guys having lunch. That was not against the law last I knew. Even cops have to eat.

[XLFD]

BC,

I think you mistake the point I was trying to make.  People come on here with secondhand and thirdhand information about all the assaults going on in the County Jail, but (other than Angela) they relate these without any specificity. 

The fact that last Thursday night, I went out to dine and saw Cole and crew on their lunchbreak was to point out that even though no incident happened and no records were kept other than receipts, there are plenty of ways to prove, via eyewitnesses and camera footage, that our two parties were both there. 

Stating  "Some of them were assaulted last year and a couple so far this year by inmates. You don’t hear them complain because we are all professional who have taken an oath to protect you."  is disingenuous and wrong.  They have taken an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the USA and the State of Michigan which is even more important.  They have a duty to report any incident, and most of these records can be made public, and should.

If there is no policy mandating protective vests, and the COs have went on record saying they don't need them  or want to use them, then why get a bunch of vests that won't ever get used and get thrown out in four years?

[Brian Carlson]

Okay point taken. Did the COs really say they do not want the vests? I really do not know.

[XLFD]

Fiers has stated the union was offered these vests with no stipulations at discussions, before the rank-and-file decision not to get them were made, at both live forums.  A point the challenger didn't dispute.  Phil, you were at both the fora, and heard the same, and that's what authority I state this on.