VIA FLICKR / MISS MILLIONS
A week of bad headlines highlights the need for better corrections funding in the state and city.
The corrections systems at the city and state level are in chaos.
Just this week, three people were stabbed in three days at a prison in Bonne Terre, four teens escaped from a juvenile detention facility in St. Louis, and some nut mailed the director of Missouri prisons an envelope full of white powder, leading to the evacuation of the Missouri Department of Corrections' headquarters in Jefferson City. (The only good news is that white powder was just crushed up Acetaminophen.)
"Throwing money at a problem" is almost always too easy of an answer, but this is one situation where more money being tossed around could do a lot of good. Countless MODOC staff members have said inadequate staffing is to blame for attacks on inmates and on staff at state prisons. The quickest way to fix state prisons' severe staff shortages would be for those jobs to pay more than an Amazon fulfillment center.
Same goes at the city level. The city's Juvenile Detention Center cited low staffing and out-of-date facilities as the reasons behind the more than a dozen escapes in the last six months. Better pay for corrections officers at the state level and for youth leaders at the JDC won't be a panacea, but it will make things better for everyone in those institutions. Even "tough on crime" lawmakers should be able to get behind a pay increase for staff.
However, as for the guy sending pulverized Tylenol through the mail — he may need more help than just a raise.
