Understaffed During COVID-19, Missouri Prison Is a Danger, Union Says

Staffing shortages have gotten so severe at the Eastern Reception Diagnostic & Corrections Center in Bonne Terre that earlier this month a secretary had to operate a control room that oversees one of the prison’s housing units, says Sherry Fish, who is a board member for the Missouri Corrections Officers Association and a former guard at the ERDCC.

Fish says the control room (which is supposed to be monitored by a corrections officer, not a secretary) has a bird’s eye view of the housing unit and is in control of all the locks on the unit doors.

The staffing shortages at ERDCC are in large part due to COVID-19. As of the end of August, the prison had 66 active staff cases, more than three times any other prison in the state.

Fish says she estimates that under normal circumstances the prison would have about 400 corrections officers on staff, but due to the pandemic, as well as longer-term, department-wide retention issues, the facility is running about 150 officers short.

Read more: https://www.riverfronttimes.com/newsblog/2020/09/01/understaffed-during-covid-19-missouri-prison-is-a-danger-union-says