CCA lobbying

[Crosstimbers Okie]

Originally Posted by BigBear1993

CCA pays quite a bit more (if you're at a Fed. contract facility), but the benefits are sooo much better (you just don't realize it until you go elsewhere).

Well, don't keep the specifics a secret. How much do they pay, and what are the benefits?

[Gaoler]

I doubt CCA comes even close to what the starting pay as a CO is in Vermont ($15.16/hr), nevermind what I'll be making as a GS-6 (Rest of US Scale) for the BOP (~$18.59/hr).

[BigBear1993]

Originally Posted by Crosstimbers Okie

Well, don't keep the specifics a secret. How much do they pay, and what are the benefits?

======> CCA in Eloy, AZ (4 facilities) pays $16.50/hr. I was at one of the two Federal Contract facilities in Florence, AZ. We were making $20.872/hr. Supposed to have gotten a raise just after I left; guessing about .60 more for all. Insurance (PPO): $21/single - $91(2 people). No retirement, although you could join a 401K after a year.

Just for comparison, they are making about $12/hr. at CCA in Florida (which is a bit less than the Florida State DOC rate of about $14/hr.) So, it depends on where you are working with CCA as to how much you make.

Compare that to VT where I was making $16.54 (with shift diff.) as a COII after 2 years (the 2nd time I worked for them - 5 years the 1st time).

[Crosstimbers Okie]

Not bad. Those Florence, AZ prisons pay about what CCA Leavenworth does.

What else do you have to tell about CCA? Do they support their staff? Hug thugs? Last week a thug in USP Leavenworth who recently came from CCA Leavenworth told me that the food at CCA Leavenworth was worse even than the food at USP Leavenworth--which is bad and getting worse.

[BigBear1993]

Originally Posted by Crosstimbers Okie

Not bad. Those Florence, AZ prisons pay about what CCA Leavenworth does.

What else do you have to tell about CCA? Do they support their staff? Hug thugs? Last week a thug in USP Leavenworth who recently came from CCA Leavenworth told me that the food at CCA Leavenworth was worse even than the food at USP Leavenworth--which is bad and getting worse.

====> The inmates (and staff) will always complain about the food (98%). The marshal inmates were mostly waiting to go to ICE after their time. They were largely small, South Americans, who'd hoard their food saying "It was too much."
Now, compare that with North Americans: "This aint enough for a grown man!". The Californians we got just before I left varied. Some said it was better than what they got in Cali. Most said worse. All said that the quantity was less.

In all the places I've worked, it's all the same. Some is OK; some is bad. That "holey, turkey ham" is the same everywhere. A one cup scoop of some elbow macaroni dish fits in one tray slot, and that seems to be the standard. I have an apron that says "Skinny cooks can't be trusted." I'd like to change it to read "Skinny Food Service Managers can't be trusted." If they're thin, everyone will be hungry. Fatter managers seem to feed a little better. :-)

CCA was a little "huggy", but no more so than Vermont. They espouse the "talk down, not takedown" approach, as did VT. At both places, we'd spend a while "convincing" someone to do what they were supposed to, rather than "I told you three times, now I'll just spray you."

A few supervisors had that "magic touch" where they could get an inmate to what they needed to do, and still support staff. By and large, our facility was not very supportive of staff. A few of our supervisors were really good about it, but ran into management. What surprised me was that a lot of our management came from AZ DOC, where they would have been hard-asses. Retired and came to CCA, and became "softies". I left more because every day they threw some new dumb thing on us to do, with out the staff necessary to do it, and then wondered why nothing got done. Also, they wanted to save money (obviously), so they never fixed what was broken, which lead to more problems down the road. They also tended to throw the changes on us and the inmates at our morning roll call, with no prior notice. "Today were going to start X", and totally screw-up everyone's schedule. Starting Monday, I'll find out just how bad AZ DOC is.

[Crosstimbers Okie]

A few supervisors had that "magic touch" where they could get an inmate to what they needed to do, and still support staff. By and large, our facility was not very supportive of staff. A few of our supervisors were really good about it, but ran into management. What surprised me was that a lot of our management came from AZ DOC, where they would have been hard-asses. Retired and came to CCA, and became "softies". I left more because every day they threw some new dumb thing on us to do, with out the staff necessary to do it, and then wondered why nothing got done. Also, they wanted to save money (obviously), so they never fixed what was broken, which lead to more problems down the road. They also tended to throw the changes on us and the inmates at our morning roll call, with no prior notice. "Today were going to start X", and totally screw-up everyone's schedule.

You just described the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Keep us posted on your impressions of AZ DOC.

[coloradosgt79]

Big Bear1993 What are you takling about.I carried cuffs and oc on me as a CO. When posted at recreation I carried a mk9.Where does everybody get all of this negative stuff about CCA.I hear people that leave CCA and go somewhere else talk trash on cca. We have people that are former State and federal officers.They talk trash on the BOP and State facilities.Everyone talks trash on their former employer for some reason or another.We are like I said before more trained and ready than you. Pull up the stats since CCA opened their first facility(The Houston processing center)Take the number of prison disturbances And compare the number of incidents per capita sense CCA has less facilities and see who has problems handling their prisons.Not CCA it is you. I think I have posted this before but we had a riot at a prison in colorado. Our SORT team responded with other CCA teams. We rescued two officers out of the units and took back the prison.Then DOC came walking to help clean up the mess and tend to the poor little inmates injurys.The News paper read CCA loses control of prison DOC SORT teams called in to rescue officers. This really pissed me off.The after action report was screwed also.Thats ok I know what we went through and did while waiting on DOC to get off their a** and get here.Thats good enough for me.

[BigBear1993]

====> Sir, and how was I trashing CCA? All I said was that they changed things on us everyday. My brother also works for them, as a U/M, and can't accomplish what they want him to do because of micro-managing. It's almost the same at a lot of private AND state facilities. Having worked for both two state agencies and CCA, I've seen it happen.

As for cuffs and OC, at Florence Correctional Center ONLY Supervisors and SORT carried OC or cuffs.

Originally Posted by coloradosgt79

Big Bear1993 What are you takling about.I carried cuffs and oc on me as a CO. When posted at recreation I carried a mk9.Where does everybody get all of this negative stuff about CCA.I hear people that leave CCA and go somewhere else talk trash on cca. We have people that are former State and federal officers.They talk trash on the BOP and State facilities.Everyone talks trash on their former employer for some reason or another.We are like I said before more trained and ready than you. Pull up the stats since CCA opened their first facility(The Houston processing center)Take the number of prison disturbances And compare the number of incidents per capita sense CCA has less facilities and see who has problems handling their prisons.Not CCA it is you. I think I have posted this before but we had a riot at a prison in colorado. Our SORT team responded with other CCA teams. We rescued two officers out of the units and took back the prison.Then DOC came walking to help clean up the mess and tend to the poor little inmates injurys.The News paper read CCA loses control of prison DOC SORT teams called in to rescue officers. This really pissed me off.The after action report was screwed also.Thats ok I know what we went through and did while waiting on DOC to get off their a** and get here.Thats good enough for me.

[coloradosgt79]

I've heard of that problem with U/M. At our facility What happens in the unit the U/M takes care of.There is little Micromanagment. Who micro manages The U/M The hold the rank of Captain.