However the two prisoners’ escape from the El Dorado Correctional Facility plays out, the public will be left to wonder whether the prison’s security is all it should be. The Kansas Department of Corrections must ensure that it is, as it learns how Jesse Bell and Steven Ford were able to cut through three fences Sunday night and apparently reach the waiting car of former prison guard Amber Goff. This was not a case of small-time criminals walking off a minimum security prison farm. Bell and Ford were assigned to a long-term involuntary segregation unit, in the same part of the prison where BTK strangler Dennis Rader and Kansas’ death row inmates are confined. Kansans need to be able to trust that the El Dorado prison is secure.
Posted by Rhonda Holman
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29 Comments
One of the escapers (shouldn’t the prison be the “escape-*ee?*) was eligible for release in a month or two.
Criminals are irrational. We’re at a disadvantage when we write laws, rationally, against crime.
Lord knows what was in Amber Goff’s mind when she abetted the escape. Why did she leave “the best job she’d ever have” after a little more than a year? What persuaded her to throw her life away for a thief and a sex offender?
According to reports, guards responded to the breach of the prison’s fences within three minutes. If there’d been a third more guards (and a bump of 33% higher salaries, paid by taxpayers), would they have shown up in two minutes? Would it have made a difference?
It’s not the most pressing issue facing Americans (getting away from the corruption and incompetence of George WMD Bush is a higher priority), but we have to address the criminal justice system. The US has more people behind bars than any other country in the world. Number Two is China, which has three-times as many citizens and is considered a “repressive regime.”
If there were fewer prisoners in El Dorado, perhaps there’d be better control of them.
But there I go again… trying to be rational about irrational people.
Well newspaper, instead of editorializing this problem - why not take it step further and do what newspapers used to be known for: INVESTIGATE.
Here is a couple of hints:
1. What is the inmate to guard (they like to be called corrections officers) ratio in the prison? Inside the walls - guards - not ’staff’.
2. What is the current vacancy or shortage of guards in each state correctional facility?
3. How much overtime are guards averaging due to manpower shortages?
4. How does Kansas Correctional Officers salaries rank in comparison to: a) USA b) nearby states (where our experienced turnkeys move)?
5. What has been the average raise our correctional officers have received over the last FIVE Years? (The good Gov FROZE them)…….When you boot reporters investigate just the above questions, you should ignore your more seasoned reporters - and report the facts.
If there were fewer prisoners in El Dorado, perhaps there’d be better control of them.
Using that rationale, we should just release all the inmates and close the prisons down. That would be the monkey solution!
Wow, BTK could be on the road again? That’s scary.
And last week we had a guard smuggling contraband in. makes you wonder how they are (not) screening the guards.
Someone told me, (I know, pure heresay) that CO’s make about $8/hr to start at ElDorado. Your not going to get much for that money. I have a friend who works at a max security in Illinois who started out at $40k/year.
At that prison, they have guard towers. In those towers are expert riflemen with high powered rifles. They have line of sight to every inch of the prison property. They have orders to shoot to kill if their is ever a breech. It’s that simple! You go over the wall…YOU DIE!
Yes, I agree, these guys didn’t get into prison due to their smarts.
Years ago, my truck was stolen. We got up in the morning to find it gone.
I made sure the payments were current, insurance was paid, etc. Then I called a few relatives that had “borrowed” it, in the past.
Then, I called the police.
A day later, it showed up in Fayetteville Arkansas.
A couple of guys on work release from the Hutchinson Reformatory (If I remember correctly) did not go back on the bus, after their road construction job was over.
They went drinking, instead, then decided to go look for “Civil War Artifacts” stole my truck and headed South. (Then East, apparently.)
I had to take the truck to a car wash to spray out the INSIDE, they had been eating cheetoes and beenie weenies and such, and, well, they were drunk.
Anyway, it turns out that one of these guys was due to be released in a couple of months.
Do they LIKE being locked up?
SemperFi, a southern IL prison? That’s prison country down there.
Inspector is right. My husband is a corrections officer as many of you know, and it downright SCARES me how few officers to inmates there are, and how short staffed they can be. And this needs to be addressed before more officers get hurt.
Now that being said, inmates can be pretty charming and persuasive when they want to be. You’d be surprised at how many female officers you’ve never heard of have been let go of their jobs because of inappropriate relations with inmates. And no, I’m not advocating that women be kicked out of their jobs there. But a better prevention by screening hiring one who would be more likely to ‘fall’ for an inmate.
When my husband heard of this story, it just blew his mind that they were able to get not just out of the prison, but out of seg. You just have to know how incredibly hard that really was.
Econ, yes sometimes that is exactly why they run…in order to get more time.
Especially the older ones who don’t know how to live on the outside anymore. They’ll commit a really bad crime in order to get more time. They do it intentionally- that’s why min security getting ready to be released is one of the highest escape rates.
Semper- they have orders to shoot to kill here too if there is an escape.
And starting wage is 11 I think. It sucks. Understaffed and underpaid, as well as just some crap that goes on in there from the ‘management’. My husband gets more aggravated at some of the policies than he does at the inmates.
My youngest son (the one that recently went into the Army) use to be a guard at El Dorado. I believe he started at around $11 an hour not $8. He was fired for writing a note that stated that some of his fellow officers were not doing their jobs, not enforcing the rules and being more like buddies then correction officers. He noted the simple fact that the convicts were not there for being the shiny examples of society. And were “scum” often acting that way and allowed to get away with it.
His mistake was to forget to take it with him as he intended to work it into a formal report. Or simply throw it away and start over again. He was called on the carpet for having a “poor attitude” and “ a detrimental” opinion of the convicts. Along with “anger issues” so they fired him. Turn over is high and at times one officers may have to move from pod to pod to cover their assigned areas.
Every time there is time off for the new hires they face the chance of being called in to cover for another officer who has called in. At one time there was a place close for the officers to go to whine down and let off stream after work. But was closed and you have to go home after your shift. When I was a detention officer for Sedgwick County we would often stand in the parking lot and talk (letting off stream) after our shift.
The officers at El Dorado were not allow to even do that. The stress of working in such facilities is very high, it is a society that has its own rules and norms. Ones that can not be carried into the world outside the walls, it would help and is a obvious course for the state to take. Care as much about the mental welfare of the guards as they show for the convicts.
It is easy to get a very negative view of the convicts as well in the end of the human race in general.
But in a warped sense you may find yourself “closer” to the convicts then you do to the society that you go into when you leave the facility. I still have a fawn-ness for Anthony Ray Martian, the real killer of 9th and Washington on Nov. 8th 1980. Though he killed Off. Paul Garghalo (sorry I misspelled his name) and wounded Off. Randy Mulligan. I found him personable, likeable and warm, I do one night tell him I should be choking him to death! He seemed really surprised:
“What did I do to you?”.“You killed something I want to be!”.“Look Rick it is nothing personal, I like you… I really do! In here you are not a threat to me and I am not a threat to you. (Then he looked out through the bars on the window) But out there you are, if you see me coming you either need to go to the other side of the street, or be ready!”.
It was foolish for Amber Goff (former guard) to have help them escape and unrealistic. And though it is possible for a male guard to develop feeling for a female convict. The more realistic for male guards is them to desire to have sex with them. Sadly it is more common with female guards to “fall in love” and the state and countries need to address this issue if they continue to have the opposite sex working in correction facilities.
“Do they LIKE being locked up?”Eron it is a real thing called “intuitionalized” I have seen it before that someone is close to release and does something to get more time, at the jail we actually had an inmate. That fought us as we pushed him out the door he then went into the parking lot and started attacking the cars parked there.
Faced with the reality of suddenly being out in a world where they have to think for themselves and depend on themselves for housing, food and clothes. They may have been locked up so long they just can not deal with it. Humans can become conditioned like lab animals.
writerdog
Mulliken and Garofallo did not deserve to get shot.I feel bad for the families involved, always have.However, I knew them both, and they were not, exaclty, “Community Police” type cops.
I like the “Dirty Harry” Eastwood character alot, but he treated killers like dirt.Mulliken and Garafallo?At the Frat House, they would just walk in, without knocking, and turn off the stereo if they thought it was too loud.My guess is that they showed similar “disrespect” to others who had no respect for the badge.I always wanted to know more about what really happened in that shooting.What was the grudge?
Do you know?
Why in the heck would you hire some vulnerable 23 yr old girl to guard hardened male inmates? Sounds like their staffing criteria needs to be overhauled.
MaryI agreeSounds nuts to me.
It would seem to make sense for female guards to guard the female and males to guard males.
Didn’t this same scenario happen last spring, except in some prison in northern Kansas. Some guard lady snuck an inmate in the back of a van. Or maybe this was a full year and a half ago.
I don’t necessarily believe that the age really matters so much. Of course, I was dumb enough to marry a convict at 19, but much wiser by 21!
You can’t just say that because of their age, they can’t be trusted. Look at the woman who did the Lansing one..she was older and MARRIED.
I’m curious, if working for the KS Dept of Correction sucks so badly…poor pay, poor ratio of officers to prisoners, etc…
Why would someone work there? Why not find a better job? Or are they purposely scraping the bottom of the employee barrel?
11$/hr starting pay plus benefits is better than alot of places start you out except for maybe the aircraft industry
Why in the heck would you hire some vulnerable 23 yr old girl to guard hardened male inmates? Sounds like their staffing criteria needs to be overhauled.
Posted by: Mary Caruso | October 30, 2007 at 09:19 PM
What happened to the Feminists in this country who want Equal Rights for Women?
Mary, that’s a very sexist and discriminatory statement.
If they pass the same exact tests as men for the job, why shouldn’t a woman get the same job?
Well Pat if I was not such a good person I would say it was to see if you had an attention span longer than a Gold fish! Sorry still working on get them to put pictures up for you, reading is so hard for some.
But some may want to discuss this and so I added my two cent. There is a number of odd things about this happening. Why would a former guard want to help them escape? What are the conditions working at the prison? What do the guards think of the convicts? What are the convicts really like? Of course some could not care less to know the answers to such questions. But then why would waste their time reading this blog, if they feel more comfortable being ignorant?
“I always wanted to know more about what really happened in that shooting.What was the grudge?
Do you know?”.
Yes, I met and got to talk to all the witnesses except for Johnson and Franklin. Although I did go to Jr. High with Regina Franklin.Unless others want to know the story as to what I know, it would be better to send it in an e-mail. Otherwise I will put it in an open forum?
writermy email would be fineTY
paulrosell@sbcglobal.net
Max, I don’t think ANY 23 yr old should be intrusted to guard hard core criminals…there just isn’t enough life experience there yet. These guys are called “CONS” for a reason. Antisocial personalities can be very charismatic and persuasive, they can usually outmatch anyone who is young and inexperienced.
Putting such nubile young women in proximity with male prisoners has repeatedly been shown to be a bad idea.
Actually, Ben, El dorado Correction Officers make $12.96/hr plus as much overtime as they want. Granted they are one of the lowest on the payscale, but it isn’t $8/hr. Maybe you should have researched it a little better.