Blog Number 20

The longest hostage situation of all time was sadly in our own backyard 5 years ago. With that, it’s something that has paved the way of quite an overhaul of our prison system. However, what happens when you have women as the prison director then a good ol’ cowboy or more commonly referred to John Wayne? Well you get additional scrutiny from the media, and the additional in-depth wasted tax payer funds that many people think occurred since they had one major goal. That goal was to get the hostage out of there alive. Usually in the past there were times when we would just go for the barge in shoot to kill type scenario, or the sniper shot from many feet away. Either way, the director of Department of Corrections was not going to go that way. With that, no one was hurt and all came out alive.
Britton’s study shows that there are a lot of issues in our prison system with the proactive approach to these sorts of things if they were to occur. This particular situation is a very good example of that statement being something that prisons need to take into consideration. Why is that you say? Well, once the hostage took control, the director, and those involved did not have any maps, layouts, or documents available in regards to the layout of this tower. Because of that, it made things a lot more difficult in regards to trying to save this prison guard. Either way, they did learn from the situation and have already taken measures needed to make sure they have them now.
Now we all know the definition of Affirmative Action, and that with that sort of thing, we have to make sure we do not gender discriminate when it comes to placing guards into different towers, housing units, just based on their gender. If there are female officers that want to work the max security unit if they are properly trained then under A.A. we must give them the same opportunity as any other officer in this unit. However, a lot of times some female officers feel a bit of resentment when it comes to trying to prove that they can perform jobs in these areas. Either way, the officers can work this sort of thing very easily.
With the hostage situation of 2004 it showed the higher up’s that there were a lot of training gaps that were not met in the prison system of DOC. Once this whole situation was over there were test administered to the DOC officers who in turn discovered that there were many officers who were not passing proficiency standards for the department. Instead of firing these individuals additional training was administered and in turn after the program completed all officers are now passing on the proficiency levels needed and required for federal funding of the prisons. Training for the prisons of DOC have also been overhauled and are now looked at being more important than it may have been in the past and looked to more often for making sure officers are prepared and trained for anything.
Britton’s opinion of the correctional officer being a danged position is something that can be portrayed often as something that is very dangerous position. However, what occurs when you have these officers not trained correctly? They become a very big risk not only to other officers, to the department, inmates, and most importantly themselves. With that, they have to make sure get the proper training that is needed to make sure that they can be protected. Being in this position is something that is very dangerous, and with that they are an endangerment to those around them if they do not keep the risk of their job in the back of their mind.
` Overall the hostage takeover of 2004 was something that everyone learned from. With that, you have to take the lessons learned from the longest standoff in the history of the United States, and make the improvements necessary to make sure that you do not have this sort of thing ever happen in your jail again. You also have to think about the preventative maintenance needed to make sure that your jail does not have any other sort of criminal problems. Now, if DOC would have taken some of the recommendations that were described from Britton, it makes me wonder if this hostage situation would have occurred in the first place. However, its something that did in fact happen, so like I said earlier. Take the unfortunate situation, and make sure you do not have something like that happen again in your jail.

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