Pandemic Pay and other Corrections news

 Pandemic Pay: On April 29th MN Gov. Walz signed into law a bill giving bonus checks to 'front line worker' who worked through the pandemic. This bill includes Correctional Officers. The checks should amount to about $750. This is long overdue, and but will still take weeks to get.

Anoka County Jail inmate death: An inmate was found dead in his cell in the Anoka County Jail early morning on Thursday. The Sherburne County Sheriff's Office will be heading the investigation. Full Story.

Reward for capture: The U.S. Marshall has offered a $10,000 reward for the capture of an escaped Alabama inmate for the Jail Administrator that is accused of helping him. Full Story.

National Correctional Officer Week, the struggle continues

It's National Correctional Officers Week. 

CO's bore the brunt of the Covid pandemic with the highest rate of getting the disease than all other Public Employees. They are running at lower staffing levels than Police Departments with extremely high forced overtime.

At the time of this post the Minnesota Legislature is considering the Delete Eveything Amendment to the Omnibus Bill. There's something for Police and Fire, Teachers and State Corrections, but not PERA Local Corrections or the General Plan.

The Minnesota Correctional Officer Retirement Association has gone to bat for us-see post. 

What about the Unions claiming to represent CO's? 

A check of MNPEA's website shows support for Bills benefiting CO's along with Police and Fire.

What about the rest?

There's a coalition of Unions called PEPC, Public Employees Pension Coalition which includes AFSCME, Teamsters 320 and the AFLCIO which all have corrections groups. AFSCME acting on PEPC's behalf tried to get an employee contribution reduction for the General Plan, but ignored the CO's in their plan! The MPPOA and LELS actually tried to help Dispatch raid our pension and again are silent on trying to get any the same benefits for the CO's as Police and Fire. 

Unfortunately this National Correctional Officer Week like those of the past, finds CO's out of sight and out of mind.

For those of us who know the job, Thank You!