Jail on lockdown after staff doesn’t show up
Tuesday, Jan 12, 2016 - Posted by Rich Miller
* What the heck?…
The Cook County Jail is on lockdown.
The sheriff’s office reports 18 percent of the jail’s staff did not show up for their 7 a.m. shift Tuesday.
In order to keep corrections officers safe, all inmates must remain in their cells unless they have a health issue or courtroom visit scheduled.
…Adding… Tribune…
The 142 correctional officers gave reasons ranging from illness and family issues to the weather for not showing up for the 7 a.m.-to-3 p.m. shift, according to Cara Smith, a spokeswoman for the Cook County sheriff’s office.
Smith said jail officials attempt to “avoid lockdowns at all costs,” but they are not uncommon because of understaffed shifts. “I would say it happens maybe once a month, maybe more frequently,’’ she said.
On an average Tuesday first shift, about 83 of 794 workers take the day off, Smith said.
“They have lives and kids like the rest of us do,’’ Smith said. “Our staff have very difficult jobs working at the jail. It’s a delicate balance.”
- Dance Band on the Titanic - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 10:18 am:
Didn’t something similar happen last year on Superbowl Sunday? And didn’t the Alabama-Clemson game run late last night?
- Ravenswood Right Winger - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 10:19 am:
staff revolt against Sheriff Tom Dart?
- LJ - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 10:22 am:
Time for some new employees.
- NIU Grad - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 10:23 am:
Sick days?
- yo - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 10:23 am:
happens about once a month according to Trib article
- The Captain - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 10:25 am:
Not a great weather morning with bad roads, ice, snow and very cold temperatures but not really out of the ordinary for January in Chicago.
- illinifan - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 10:26 am:
Use that one sick day a month at the beginning of the month rule kicks in
- Wake Up! - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 10:27 am:
It will happen again on Superbowl Sunday. It always does.
- Anonnin' - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 10:27 am:
‘Bama-Clemson should not have kept anyone up late
- Ahoy! - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 10:28 am:
I can see how a virus can spread quickly in a jail environment, however the timing after the national championship game is interesting, if this is a perpetual thing including the super bowl, I would normally say management should take action, of course the union (which is the real management) isn’t going to do anything.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 10:29 am:
Unbelievable.
And yes, the Alabama-Clemson game did run pretty late last night.
Heckuva job you’re doing over there, Sheriff Dart.
- Westward - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 10:44 am:
Come on people. You give benefit time, with no incentive to not take it, people will use it. Get over it, move along, nothing to see here.
- A guy - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 10:44 am:
===On an average Tuesday first shift, about 83 of 794 workers take the day off, Smith said.====
Not the first Tuesday….on an average Tuesday. Just sort of a regular thing that happens…most Tuesdays. Wow.
- Honeybear - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 10:44 am:
This sounds like a toxic work environment.
- 47th Ward - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 10:45 am:
According to the Tribune, it happens about once a month or more. Looks to me like lockdowns are preferred over paying over-time, which is fiscally prudent and doesn’t seem overly harsh to the jail’s guests.
Basically, it’s restricted movement, no gym, activities or outside time. Once or twice a month. They can still see visitors, they still go to court and meetings with attorneys.
The numbers jump out at you, but this really doesn’t look like a scandal to me. Just how a large organization manages a difficult situation with limited resources.
- El Duderino - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 10:46 am:
===Time for some new employees.===
Good luck filling those positions. What a nightmare that job seems like.
- LizPhairTax - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 10:48 am:
Anonymous,
Indulge me and play sheriff. How would you address this issue?
Westward is right. People who have the option of calling in on a day like today are going to use it.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 10:55 am:
And then the spokeswoman *defends* a situation where not enough employees show up to even run the facility the day after the national championship game…
Double unbelievable.
- wordslinger - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 11:03 am:
I’m guessing that the tough talkers here wouldn’t take an occasional, contracted day off if they were a cop, jail or prison employee.
Because all jobs are the same.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 11:10 am:
LizPhairTax,
Happy to oblige. In short, the fish rots from the head. As Honeybear so aptly points out, it sounds as though a toxic work environment has developed under Sheriff Dart’s leadership.
Solutions range from Cook County leaders pressuring Dart to resign until he does to Dart weeding out the worst apples in the bunch.
What do you suggest? The facility can’t function properly because not enough workers are showing up to do their job.
Discipline is key to maintaining order in any prison or jail. If the officers are ignoring the most basic of rules, and it is costing the inmates some of their precious few freedoms due to lockdown, how long before the inmates stop following the rules as well?
The fish rots from the head.
- Johnnie F. - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 11:11 am:
What percent of managers called in on that day?
- Can't Take It Anymore - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 11:11 am:
Maybe I’m just old school - do your job or find one you like kinda person but—-Who’s runnin the show here?
- A guy - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 11:26 am:
===On an average Thursday first shift, about 20 of 177 Legislators take the day off, Smith said.===
Total Snark.
- Shanks - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 11:26 am:
The ja is on lockdown?! Yeah, I don’t care, put them lockdown to save tax payers money instead of having to pay overtime, that actually makes sense, but I am guessing they just ran out of officers to hire for overtime.
- Shanks - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 11:27 am:
Jail**
- Any Mouse - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 11:32 am:
It’s not about one day, its the larger pattern that’s maddening.
Where else but in a government union can you miss more than 10% of your shifts and still have a job?
Yes individuals can have medical leave and the like, but this is an average for the whole workforce.
This is the kind of story that drives a wedge between AFSCME and the rest of the middle class. (Yes I know this is not likely an AFSCME shop, but I’m using shorthand.)
See also the FOP’s position on investigation and discipline of officer’s use of force.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 11:40 am:
This is not an occasional day off. This is reportedly a recurring institutional problem to the point that the facility cannot function normally because not enough employees show up.
That’s a different situation than employees taking the occasional day off.
- Blue dog dem - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 11:44 am:
This gives credence to the RAUN Mans’ AFSCME proposal. Just wondering what the overtime ramifications were for this unfortunate coincidence. Is anyone out their capable of finding this out?
- LizPhairTax - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 11:49 am:
Anonymous,
Thanks for your reply. I don’t know how much of what you suggest is under the sheriff’s control. The sheriff’s budget isn’t determined by him, his “guests” aren’t determined by him, and the off days are contracted.
Even if Dart resigned today and your dream sheriff took over tomorrow I don’t think they could fix the issue.
Maybe offer a work from home option. Calling in? That’s cool. 3 inmates are coming to your house for the day. Fire up the Wii.
- Responsa - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 11:51 am:
well done, LizPhairTax.
- Armchair lobby - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 11:58 am:
== Indulge me and play sheriff. How would you address this issue? ==
Leak to the press I’m understaffed, underfunded, and it is causing a safety issue for personnel and inmates. Work with the union to lobby Cook / Springfield for a budget increase. If we don’t get the budget increase, the probability of liability lawsuits and legal action by the courts goes up dramatically. Finally, close with “you can pay less now, or more later, but you will pay”
Textbook stuff, why is this even an issue???
- LizPhairTax - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:04 pm:
Armchair Lobby,
I don’t think it’s a lack of information or a matter of leaking. Dart is pretty outfront. I just googled “tom dart staffing issues” and a bunch of articles and interviews come up.
Here’s a quote from the sheriff on mental health:
Q:Isn’t that just going to end up being more expensive in the long run, when these people are coming back to the jail — when more people need treatment here?
A:I can’t tell you how many times I sit there and say, am I talking calculus to folks?
It’s not a matter of him not saying it, it’s a matter of nobody listening.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:05 pm:
LizPhairTax,
Likewise, I appreciate your reply. What are your suggestions? Or are you comfortable with this?
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:09 pm:
LizPhairTax,
Or do you just feel the answer is more staff (which it may be)?
I don’t believe this toxic environment developed in a void, and there is only so much any one can do. But this is not an acceptable situation.
- titan - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:15 pm:
The 10% plus typical absentee rate is somewhat alarming.
- Responsa - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:16 pm:
Just curious–does anybody here possibly see this lockdown forcing “call-in” to be a result of a badly negotiated and ill-thought out and impossible to adequately manage contract feature? I know. It’s always simpler to say “we need more money in the budget to hire more people.”
- Elo Kiddies - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:22 pm:
Any mouse moves awfully quickly from absences at the Cook County Jail to an issue that wull separate the middle class from AFSCME. Shorthand or not, maybe the facts should come first and the political battles later.
- Independent retired lawyer, journalist - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:23 pm:
If I remember correctly, Cook County Sheriff employees are Teamsters, not AFSCME. And aren’t Teamsters’ state employees among the small minority of unionized state employees who have caved in to Rauner?
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:24 pm:
For all of you private sector dog-in-the-mangers especially those with the option of working from home, I’m sure you can fill out an application so you too can spend all of your work days in the pleasant, relaxing, clean and safe confines of the 26th Street jail complex with the comforting thought that you will ultimately be rewarded with a below-Social-Security Tier 2 pension in retirement.
- Chicago taxpayer - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:25 pm:
The first cold day of the year and already skyrocketing absenteeism. I can’t imagine what it will be when there’s a serious snowstorm. May have to release the inmates!
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:26 pm:
And not to mention that your cushy new job will entail shift work around the clock and mandatory work on weekends and holidays.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:27 pm:
If you look around Cook County government, I think you will find this is typical. On any given day, 20-25% of Cook County Hospital’s nurses are not on duty - vacation, leave, sick, etc.
- Almost the Weekend - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:39 pm:
The front lines of state government unless it’s too cold. I wonder how ppl would feel if 18% of garbage collectors didn’t show up. Or comed employees not show up. With this and Supreme Court case, public unions can’t get out of their own way.
- Independent retired lawyer, journalist - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:40 pm:
No, Anonymous, it’s not typical of Cook County government. That’s a stereotype. It may or may not reflect on Dart’s leadership. What you claim about nurses at Cook County Hospital may or may not be accurate. But it’s absurd for you to blame the whole government. Who are you, really? Trump?
- Mama - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:43 pm:
++- Honeybear - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 10:44 am:++
I agree 100%.
- Odysseus - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:46 pm:
titan@1215… “The 10% plus typical absentee rate is somewhat alarming.”
Agreed.
- Former Hoosier - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:54 pm:
===it sounds as though a toxic work environment has developed under Sheriff Dart’s leadership===
===I don’t believe this toxic environment developed in a void===
Have you ever worked in a jail or prison? I have, not as a CO, but as a psychologist. The environment in every jail and prison in this country is toxic (definition= extremely harsh, malicious, or harmful). Cook County jail houses 9,000+ inmates many of whom are violent and many who have untreated chronic mental illnesses. My own work work environment at a maximum security prison was far stable than you will find at any county jail- especially Cook County. Why? Overall, populations housed in jails are much more transient and unpredictable making the working conditions for front line staff difficult at best.
I’m not defending staff who call off with regularity but it is a huge stretch to blame this on a notion that Dart has created or allowed a toxic environment to develop. I respect Sheriff Dart and the difficult work he and his staff do utilizing limited resources.
- Cathartt Representative - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:55 pm:
Yeah, fire all the guards and sign me up as a replacement. I would love to work in that environment for those ridiculously high wages.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 12:59 pm:
Found a nice chart on paid leave in private industry from the Bureau of Labor statistics. http://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-2/paid-leave-in-private-industry-over-the-past-20-years.htm Table 3 lists vacation, sick and holidays but not other forms of leave. The average private employee with 10 years of service gets 34 days of such leave. Meaning that the total days off are about 13%. Just to put the 18% at the Jail on an aberrational day into perspective. And the public employee bashers need to look at these charts before they start making claims that Cook County employees have an unduly high number of days off.
- Cook County Commoner - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 1:11 pm:
Cook County Jail is overcrowded and many of the inmates should be in a psyche ward. I suspect most folks would require lifetime counseling after working one week in the place.
I had to spend two days in Stateville on business in the 1980s. You really don’t get it unless you go into one of these places.
Dealing day to day with people on their way to incarceration or in incarceration will strip away any optimism you may have in the human race.
I’m surprised the absentee rate isn’t higher.
- Annoyed and Peaved - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 2:06 pm:
According to the Cook County website, County employees get 4 personal days and 12 sick days. They also start with 10 vacation days. Let’s start with that as a base. Working 5 days a week for 52 weeks equals approximately 260 work days. With a minimum of 26 allowable “off days”, the typical worker would have an expected 10% absentee rate (assuming they use all of their sick days as they earn them rather than accumulate them for an emergency). Some employees may earn as many as 20 vacation days, bring them to 36 allowable “off days” and a potential of 13.8% absentee rate.
This doesn’t even take into consideration if they get holidays off or time for working holidays. if that is the case, these percentages increase accordingly. Lets assume as county employees they get 12 holidays (not too much of a stretch), then the percentages above increase to 14.6% and 18.5% respectively.
So where is the story for this 18% absentee rate today? Yes a little above the expected norm, before thinking about the weather conditions AND to think the day after some “special occasion” would only bring the expectation to a few percentage points more. But it isn’t as if it went from a normal absentee rate of 0% to 18% on this one day.
- Blue dog dem - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 3:16 pm:
Reading some of the posts above ,I am starting to see how the RAUN Man won the election. See how much sympathy an iron worker gives when he/she gets zero sick days, zero personal days, zero holidays, puts his own money into a vacation bank, works 500 feet above the pavement in the heat and cold , and does not have a constitutionally protected pension plan .
- Harry - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 3:20 pm:
If this is a regular thing, you budget and staff and manage for it… d’oh.
- X-prof - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 4:26 pm:
-Harry- Sure, provided you actually have a budget, let alone an adequate one.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 4:38 pm:
I’m pretty sure we had on of the worst snow storms a few years ago during the super bowl..however know mentions nor remembers that.
- Anonymous - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 4:41 pm:
http://wgntv.com/2015/02/02/super-bowl-blizzard-officially-chicagos-5th-largest-snowstorm/
(Dropping the mic)
- Blue dog dem - Tuesday, Jan 12, 16 @ 7:13 pm:
Trust me when I say that I am no fan of the RAUN Man, but I am telling you his anti-Union position has broad support. Take this quote just made by Local 700 pres, Becky Strzechowski, “the workers are being treated worse than the inmates!”….Really? You want sympathy?