It’s Been a While…

…but things have been busy, to say the least. Between a boy with a broken arm, a computer that took a dive, and a work schedule that’s been hectic, there hasn’t been much time for BloggingBlue. But all four of you out there who still surf on by every once in a while can rest assured I’m back.

But now onto serious business.

This story caught my eye while I was on my sabbatical, in part because I’m just amazed Scott Walker still thinks he’s qualified to serve as County Executive. According to Supervisor Richard Nyklewicz Jr., “We did not fully fund everything” included in the budget submitted. Those comments were made not long after the County Board approved the county’s new budget, leaving me to wonder what kind of mid-year budget crisis we’ll have this year, since Scott Walker’s budgets seem to always run into problems towards the middle of the fiscal year. Knowing that there’s going to be a budget “crisis” sometime next year due to Scott Walker’s fuzzy math, I can’t help but wonder what programs will get cut this time.

Anyone have any thoughts?

Another story that caught my eye is something capper over at folkbum’s rambles and rants has been reporting on, namely the myriad of problems plaguing the Milwaukee County House of Corrections (HOC) and their work release facility, the Community Correctional Center (CCC). From the shocking (an inmate who was marked as being “in” at CCC was actually out and committed a murder) to the bizarre (inmates are allowed to stay up until 3:30 a.m. on weekends at the HOC, there’s no shortage of news being made by the folks over at the HOC and CCC.

To start, let’s talk about the murder committed by Freddie Dudley, an inmate at the CCC. Mr. Dudley apparently murdered a man during a robbery, a crime that was committed while Dudley was “signed in” at CCC, which means he was supposed to be at CCC during the time he committed the murder. Wingnuts all across the blogosphere were quick to blame lax supervision at CCC as the cause of Freddie Dudley committing murder, but having spent some time working at CCC, I can attest to the horrible working conditions. Staff shortages are commonplace, resulting in officers frequently working 16 hour shifts day after day, and while that’s no excuse for those same staff taking shortcuts, I believe they were only following the example set by their supervisors.

After all, the corrections officers in question wouldn’t have been able to do what they did if not for the failings of CCC supervisors to adequately supervise the officers. It’s the job of management to manage, and in this case – and other cases involving problems at the HOC/CCC, management has been derelict in supervising the employees.

While not as serious as an inmate committing murder while on work release, this story about HOC bedtimes caught my eye, mostly because of what the HOC’s Superintendent, Ron Malone, had to say – or not say – regarding inmates being allowed to stay up until 3:30 a.m. on weekends. According to the MJS article, when asked about the late hours, Malone declined to comment, saying he wasn’t familiar with inmate hours. Now I’ve never met Ron Malone, but there’s something really wrong with his leadership if he doesn’t even know the policies and procedures of the facility he’s responsible for. His first task as Superintendent of the House of Corrections should have been to thoroughly review the facility’s policies and procedures, not only so he was familiar with them, but also so he could begin making any necessary changes to improve those policies.

The problems with the HOC/CCC run deep, and they start at the very top. I remember when Ron Malone came aboard as the HOC Superintendent, and I remember how he was being touted as someone who could come in and fix what was wrong with the HOC. Being that Malone was an outsider (he came from the Wisconsin DOC if I recall), the hope was that he’d bring new ideas on how to fix all that ailed the HOC, from the massive amounts of overtime corrections officers were working to the horrible conditions they were forced to work in and inmates were forced to live in. Ron Malone’s had a lot of time to turn the HOC around, but he hasn’t gotten the job done, and for him to say he wasn’t aware of the hours inmates were allowed to stay up shows he’s asleep at the wheel.

Those folks who are calling for the heads of the corrections officers involved in the Freddie Dudley situation should also be calling for the heads of all their supervisors, up to and including HOC Superintendent Ronald Malone, under whose “leadership” all these problems have continued to simmer without any action to correct them.

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1 thought on “It’s Been a While…

  1. Welcome back, Zach.

    Ron Malone was there when I worked there. In the three and a half years I was there, I saw him twice. Both times was to tell us of a breaking news story and berate us for someone else’s mistake.

    Never showed appreciation for our dedication or congratulated the ones that did their jobs well. Sounds a lot like the County Exec.

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