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.

[Guidothesemipsuedocaptitalistpig]

All of the union hacks on here should know that's not how it works. Everything whether right or wrong is either approved by the union or is against the rules and subject to much angst by the union hacks...

I find it pathetic when it was the unions who were asked about vests and most of those folks did not want them to now use that as a whipping boy for the guy they don't like. And now to come out and say it shouldn't be a union issues?? how stupid can you be?

[AQUAMAN]

Ron, another newbie just joined I would guess again, I'm going to go out on a big branch, that of safety and common sense, that vests should be required equipment, in proper application and wants. Trouble is, I haven't seen an officer on duty in way over 15 years that didn't have the vests, in the field that is. Along with a "utility belt" that would have Batman blushing for lack of new gadgets for awesome offensive actions if required.  If you're talking about the jail facility, don't those that actually work there have any choice but the unions choice and sanctions? The MDOC policies should be the ones that oversee and police this imho, not every Sheriff that comes along next. You put the blame at the wrong door sir, and if you're going to the tires next, try another thread where tens of thousands were already spent of recent to correct any deficiencies.

[Angela]

dont you al lfind it funny that they put a bullet proof vest on an inmate when they take them to court (Phelps) but the C/O's that escort the inmate there DO NOT have vests?? hummmmmmm NOW who does the SHERIFF really care about???? I supplied my own vests when Knowles was on trial for murder because Laude wouldn't provide me one - and I WAS PREGGO!!!! thankfully GEO let me borrow one :)

[Lisa O'Brien]

if it's as dangerous as you suggest ( and personally I do believe it's a dangerous job) and the officer's and their families are concerned for their personal safety - why don't they purchase the vest out of their own pocket? personally if I had a high risk job and I felt a vest would protect me and my employers didn't/wouldn't provide me with one - I would purchase it with my own money. 

[XLFD]

As long as vests are optional, the people who need to wear them should be listened to, and that seems to be what happened here, according to Sheriff Fiers, and until the other side shows he's lying about that, I respect the Fiers position. 

As regards the tires, there was no policy on buying tires according to the reply I got back from the FOIA request.  I think Sergeant Cole did a service in that he brought this issue up, so that from now on there will be attention to speed-rated tires, and if Fiers does win, he better adopt a written standard operating procedure for replacement auto parts that address safety and economic issues, and regularly review it.  That's an administrative job he and his two 'lieutenants' should be doing. 

Guido does have a lock on most issues, I agree.

[AQUAMAN]

Getting back to the thread issues, the guys that need vests the most have them, many more are either in existence, or on back-order, so there is no real safety deficiencies, just another Union Ploy to distract and undermine the present administration imho. That in itself is not positive nor prudent, bring this to the table of negotiations, and when the iron is hot, not this late desperate scheme that tends to distort and confuse voters is all I say.

[Angela]

why do u people keep saying or thinking the union had anything to do with the vests?? LIKE i said before, that a C/O told me - the vests were ALREADY in the budget, it had nothing to do with being part of the new contract!!! Jeff is lying about this

[AQUAMAN]

Angela, it's the uniformed union members and Cole that are drawing all this attention to vests and deficiencies, not Fiers nor the MC Commissioners, now is it? The distortions and inuendo is coming from the union, no one else, and for political gain, nothing else.

[Angela]

yes i do not work there any more - so I have no reason to be worried about losing my job if I were to speak out about that place - if i worked there now I wouldn't be saying any of this under my own name or anything that could be traced back to me for fear of losing my job - in this crappy economy who the hell would risk losing their job, sorry but not me.  SO since I don't work there anymore I have no fear of any backlash from that place

[TorchStalker]

What I find hilarious is that someone on here think Fiers cares AT ALL about his deputies, both corrections and road deputies.

 

Two deputies were involved in a shooting in Ludington.  Has Jeff Fiers had ANY contact with them since to see if they were okay?  NO.  Nothing.  Not a phone call, not a text, not an e-mail.  What kind of leader does that?  Your deputies watched a fellow officer get shot, go down, returned fire and hit the suspect, and you can't take 5 minutes to call them and see if everything is okay?  What kind of leader is that?  And in fact, Jeff tried to take credit for arranging debriefing for his deputies when he actually had NOTHING to do with it.  It was arranged for the Ludington Police Department by Chief Mark Barnett and he invited the deputies to attend because he cared enough to make sure they were taken care of. 

 

So try to convince me again the Jeff Fiers cares about anything but the money and trying to make himself look good.  He doesn't care about us or his deputies. 

[TorchStalker]

And thank you Angela for trying to shed some light on how things really run.  The ignorance around here is staggering.

[TorchStalker]

Oh Phil, I like you more with every post! LOL