Regarding the current severe staff shortage of adult correctional officers (ACOs) at Maui Community Correctional Center (MCCC), I would like to recognize our dedicated public servants who work in the jail and prison system statewide.
The ACOs are under intense psychological pressure to be hypervigilant at all times, protecting the inmates, other staff and themselves from physical and emotional harm. In some cases, ACOs work anywhere from 72-80 hours or more per week, while also being called on their days off to return to work. These ACOs are highly encouraged to continue working the long hours due to the staff shortage.
Consequently, staffers are short-tempered and exhausted while their immune system slowly crumbles and physical disease contributes to the mental anguish of developing a coping survival defense mechanism mentality while working in a very difficult situation, which fosters despair.
Furthermore, someone at MCCC thought it would be a funny joke to display a “Hurt Feelings Report “ form for whiners (referring to ACOs) who express concerns about their physical safety, etc. This form was displayed in front of the watch commander’s office (“Maui jail guards met with ‘Hurt Feelings’ form for ‘whiners’,” Star-Advertiser, Sept. 4). Obviously, whoever placed the “whiners form” for all to see and to complete, has a distorted sense of humor and reality.
Consequently, staff morale is low and staff attendance is poor, resulting in cancellations of family visits with inmates, and other activities such as prison ministry outreach, as I have witnessed over the years with such ministry. The societal indications are that the ACOs and inmates are both forgotten in a world that views them as “out of sight” and “out of mind,” to fend for themselves.
Unless one has actually worked in the jail and prison system, it is difficult to fathom the amount of stress that accompanies the employment in a correctional setting.
In the 1980s, I was hired as a psychiatric social worker under a court-ordered consent decree to serve the various jails and prisons on Oahu. I provided the mental health services and wrote the mental health parole evaluations for the maximum-security modules. It was a different time then. As the first Native Hawaiian psychiatric social worker working in the prison modules, I utilized our Native Hawaiian values to work with the inmates who were for the most part respectful toward me.
While I witnessed my share of inmates being beaten by other inmates who held grudges, it was the two adult correctional officers in the module whom I relied upon to get additional assistance. My positive working relationship with both the ACOs and inmates ensured my safety. For the inmates and the ACOs to co-exist in a crowded module, they both need your support, from the public and legislators, to provide more funding for recruitment to hire, train and support the ACO.
Finally, in addition to our adult correctional officers, mahalo nui loa to all staff who work in the jails and prisons. Each correctional employee fills a vital role in maintaining the integrity of our state of Hawaii correctional system.
Charmaine Bissen, of Kahului, retired from the Department of Education, Maui District Office, in 2014 as the first Native Hawaiian district school psychologist.
