« Colorado Finds Anti-Immigration Law Costly | Main | State Addresses Taxi-Limo Rift »
Attorney General Gonzales to Visit Supermax
February 20, 2007 5:29 PM
WHITNEY: U.S. Attorney Alberto Gonzales will visit the Supermax prison in Florence tomorrow. Supermax came under fire last fall when federal investigations found that convicted terrorists and gang leaders were able to communicate with associates outside the bars, and even run criminal operations from inside the facility.
Part of the reason for the security breaches was understaffing. So said the union that represents correctional officers at Supermax. And last fall a federal arbitrator agreed. The result has been 30 new staffers being added to Supermax. Union representative Mike Schnobrich, who works at the facility, says thats a good start.
[ LISTEN ]
SCHNOBRICH: I think its much better than it was a few months ago. I think at this point in time were getting pretty well staffed. 07
WHITNEY: But, Schnobrich says, many of the new employees at Supermax were brought in from the federal penitentiary next door.
SCHNOBRICH: and one of the concerns the union has at this point in time is that, those facilities are now becoming quite problematic in their staffing, in terms of being able to maintain the security and safety of the institution. 12
WHITNEY: Schnobrich says he believes that problems at Supermax had a lot to do with the federal Bureau of Prisons being able to get its budget increased by half a billion dollars in Fiscal Year 2007. But he says it remains to be seen how much of that money will be allocated to adequately staffing federal prisons in Colorado and across the country.
Attorney General Gonzales is expected to spend about an hour at Supermax tomorrow. He will be joined on the tour by Colorado Senators Allard and Salazar, as well as Congressman Doug Lamborn and representatives of the federal prison workers union.
Posted by Matthias Barker on February 20, 2007 5:29 PM | Permalink
TrackBack
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.krcc.org/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/22
