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Cons whine: Why parties for guards?
By Ann E. Donlan and David R. Guarino
Friday, December 17, 2004
While they are now forbidden to have banquets, picnics and catered meals under a new Department of Correction edict, prisoners are stewing over guard parties at the prisons, including an annual barbecue.
``Our clients sit inside and smell steak on the grill while they are eating soy nuggets,'' said Leslie Walker, executive director of Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services.
``The prisoners are locked in cells, the library is closed, visits are canceled, the prison shuts down.''
Former MCI-Shirley prisoner Peter Kane said guards have holiday parties and an annual May blowout for Correction Officers' Appreciation Week.
``They'd be eating things like shrimp, prime rib and come back in the cell blocks with big trays of (food),'' Kane said.A Massachusetts Correction Officers' Federated Union spokesman did not return a call for comment.
``Certainly, National Correction Officers' Week is held every May and during correction officers' week, some facilities . . . will have a cookout that they host - hot dogs, hamburgers - nothing of extravagance,'' said Kelly Nantel, DOC spokeswoman. ``We're certainly not an agency of excess. They don't have parties. They have an appreciation cookout.''
Nantel said the employees pay for the cookout from their ``employee wellness and benefit accounts,'' supplied with proceeds from vending machines and other personal sources.
As for the holiday gatherings, employees arrange for potluck dining and they gather on their breaks, Nantel said. ``To suggest that there are widespread parties going on in a corrections institution is an absolute outrage and completely inaccurate,'' she said.
By Ann E. Donlan and David R. Guarino
Friday, December 17, 2004
While they are now forbidden to have banquets, picnics and catered meals under a new Department of Correction edict, prisoners are stewing over guard parties at the prisons, including an annual barbecue.
``Our clients sit inside and smell steak on the grill while they are eating soy nuggets,'' said Leslie Walker, executive director of Massachusetts Correctional Legal Services.
``The prisoners are locked in cells, the library is closed, visits are canceled, the prison shuts down.''
Former MCI-Shirley prisoner Peter Kane said guards have holiday parties and an annual May blowout for Correction Officers' Appreciation Week.
``They'd be eating things like shrimp, prime rib and come back in the cell blocks with big trays of (food),'' Kane said.A Massachusetts Correction Officers' Federated Union spokesman did not return a call for comment.
``Certainly, National Correction Officers' Week is held every May and during correction officers' week, some facilities . . . will have a cookout that they host - hot dogs, hamburgers - nothing of extravagance,'' said Kelly Nantel, DOC spokeswoman. ``We're certainly not an agency of excess. They don't have parties. They have an appreciation cookout.''
Nantel said the employees pay for the cookout from their ``employee wellness and benefit accounts,'' supplied with proceeds from vending machines and other personal sources.
As for the holiday gatherings, employees arrange for potluck dining and they gather on their breaks, Nantel said. ``To suggest that there are widespread parties going on in a corrections institution is an absolute outrage and completely inaccurate,'' she said.
