Victory! Washington Prisons are Safer Thanks to You

Great news! Washington Governor Chris Gregoire just signed a law that will make correctional officers at prisons across the state safer on the job thanks to your signatures.

No one should be afraid to go to work, even when you work at a volatile place like a prison. But Jayme Beindl had expressed concerns about working alone, and without video surveillance, in the chapel at Monroe Correctional Complex where she worked as a Correctional Officer. After she was murdered in that very chapel by an inmate back in January, a number of investigations (including one by the National Institute of Corrections) showed that various safety precautions needed to be taken. Things like new safety curriculum for correctional officers, a pilot program for the use of personal panic button alarms and mace, and a study of the video monitoring at prison facilities. Jayme's tragic case also showed that Correctional Officers needed a better way of expressing their concerns to those who could make changes. The most important recommendation was the creation of a committee to review safety concerns at each prison facility. They would include correctional officers, giving them a chance to voice their concerns in a more effective way.

Thanks to nearly 3,500 supporters here on Change.org who wrote to the state's Department of Corrections and legislature, those safety reforms are now a reality. The law mandates that most of the changes have to go in to effect by November 1st, and both the house and senate proposed budgets contain $6 million to make these important changes. "I think it is a legacy much deserved to our fallen officer" said Governor Gregoir after she signed the bill in to law, "we're saying to her we are going to do everything we can to make sure what happened to her doesn't happen to anybody else." You have helped make prisons in Washington state a safer place to work.

Photo Credit: revati_me