I would like to welcome the members of the commission to the great state of Missouri and the City of St. Louis for what I hope will be a free exchange of ideas and issues concerning the operation of our correctional centers across the nation. As administrators of corrections departments, each of us has an awesome responsibility to protect the public through the safe and secure confinement of criminal offenders. We also have the duty to ensure that the confinement of these offenders is done in a manner that is consistent with state and federal law, and that the staff we call upon to perform this difficult and dangerous job inside our correctional institutions has all the resources they need to get the job done and stay safe.

Let me first address the issue of secure and humane confinement of our state’s inmate population. We currently house over 30,000 adult felons in our 20 facilities across Missouri. In addition, our total population is increasing by approximately two inmates per day, or about 60 per month. Being responsible for the care and custody of these individuals takes commitment, a sense of duty and professionalism. And being a true corrections professional means meeting the challenges of a demanding job 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and doing so strictly by the book. Which is why here in Missouri, we maintain a well-trained cadre of correctional professionals who follow a set of established policies, procedures and practices.

The Missouri Department of Corrections does not ever tolerate the abuse of inmates by our staff. This standard is reinforced in state law, Department policy and our employee code of conduct. Our staff is required by those statutes and policies to report any offender abuse, and failure to do so is viewed as culpability in the incident and results in disciplinary sanctions. An experienced management team closely supervises staff to ensure an orderly and secure facility, while our well-defined disciplinary policy also ensures that those not in compliance are officially sanctioned appropriately.

The abuse of inmates is a threat to the safety and security of the facility because of the inherent lack of discipline among staff and the environment of conflict that such behavior creates. Such abuse also creates dissention among staff and hostility within the inmate population that increases tension and the likelihood of increased inmate assaults on staff. Such abuse is also counterproductive in the preparation of inmates for reentry to the community and ultimately public safety.

Thus, abuse of inmates by staff is not only against the law but directly affects both public safety and the safety of those staff members themselves. Which leads me to the second issue I wish to explore, the safety of our custody staff in our facilities.

Long before I became Director of the Missouri Department of Corrections, I became well acquainted with the professionalism of our institutional custody staff during my time serving in the Missouri General Assembly. There are two prisons in the district I represented, and I had several opportunities to meet custody staff and learn about the extremely difficult job they have. Since becoming Department Director in January of this year, my feeling that these individuals are one of the most valued, though underrated, assets our state has has been reinforced countless times, and I am committed to ensuring that each of them has the resources to perform their jobs. I want to be sure that I have done everything in my power to ensure that every one of our institutional staff members is safe and that all of them go home safely at the end of each workshift.

We have met this commitment of staff safety in a number of ways since I have become Director. The most significant example came during the past Missouri legislative session, when a new law that our Department wrote and actively supported-House Bill 700-was passed by the General Assembly. For years, our Department experienced problems with inmates throwing bodily fluids on our prison employees. House Bill 700 makes this despicable act a class D felony, punishable to up to four additional years in prison. In addition, if an offender is knowingly infected with HIV, hepatitis B or hepatitis C when throwing such fluids on staff, the offender is guilty of a class C felony, which is punishable by up to seven additional years in prison. Prior to the passage of this law, which was signed into law by Governor Blunt on June 21st of this year, this act was only considered a misdemeanor. Endangering staff with bodily fluids is a premeditated and deliberate act, and by making this crime a class D felony, I am confident that offenders will be deterred from committing such acts against our staff.

Beyond the new law, we ensure that our custody staff receives the most comprehensive training possible before and after they begin working inside one of our facilities. Missouri’s correctional officers are among the most highly trained in the U.S. New officers received 328 hours of training that covers a variety of subjects, including firearms, defensive tactics and on the job training, all before they are allowed to work. After they do begin work, all staff is required to attend 40 hours of Core/Inservice training annually.

We also have a Corrections Officer Certification Commission that sets standards for training for custody staff. This body not only ensures that our staff is properly trained to do the job, but also focused on staff retention so that we are able to retain our most experienced officers. An experienced, stable workforce means fewer assaults by inmates on staff.

In the past few years as state government budgets have grown tighter, we have been in the process of conducting a staffing realignment and post analysis of every institution across our state. This process is to determine the best allocation of our resources, our custody staff, to each facility and to ensure an equitable distribution of staff on every shift at every institution throughout the Department. This process increases staff safety by ensuring that every shift at every facility is adequately staffed at all times, even as we do our jobs with less.

Another way we keep our staff safe is by utilizing our Emergency, or E-Squads. Our E-Squads are specially trained teams of correctional officers that are called out to assist in any crisis or disruptive event that occurs in one of our facilities. Each of our prisons has an E-Squad, and these teams can assist other institutions in any crisis situation. These teams are also vital to staff safety through their proactive searches of housing units and other areas, in which dangerous contraband such as weapons and drugs are confiscated before these items can prove dangerous to both our staff or other offenders.

And then there is the equipment our custody staff has access to each day in their jobs. Our officers are assigned pepper spray and hand-held radios for the all-important consideration of communication. They have broader access to computer inmate databases so they are able to obtain information on the offender’s history, conduct and risk factors to help them to safely manage the population. Our institutions are also equipped with entry scan devices and metal detectors for all visitors so that dangerous contraband is stopped before it gets inside the institution and comprises staff safety.

In summary, I would like to reinforce how seriously we take both of these issues in our state. We are open to the scrutiny of the commission and the public as a way of illustrating the professionalism and commitment of our dedicated staff and how they do their demanding jobs the right way. I am honored to serve with them and proud to be their Director.