THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 8, 1996 TAG: 9609050014
SECTION: COMMENTARY PAGE: J4 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: 28 lines
Laura Lafay's article ``What's going on in Virginia's prisons?'' (Sept. 3) has not even broken the ice. I continue to ask myself: What will it take for state government to sit down with the 6,700 professional correction officers to talk about the problems and the solutions?
Legislation was passed to regrade only newly hired Virginia correctional officers; the dedicated career veteran officer was forgotten.
It's like a revolving door - here today, gone tomorrow, a concern of many career officers. The starting salary for a new correction officer is $19,188. How could David Botkins, communication director for the Department of Corrections, make the statement, ``Turnover may be high, but morale is unbelievably high''? Wrong! Morale continues to take a steady nose-dive downward due to poor working conditions.
The correction officers' only hope are reporters like Billy Coleburn of The Courier Record in Blackstone, Va., and Laura LaFay of The Virginian-Pilot, who take risks to get the true story for the people of Virginia. As a correction officer for 16 years, my Stetson hat goes off to them. I hope Virginia will wake up before my fellow officers are carried out in body bags, as was the case for my brothers and sisters in Lucasville, Ohio.
STEVEN K. BAINES
Corapeake, N.C. Sept. 3, 1996 by CNB