We patrol the toughest beat in Maine. We have to be on alert at all times against assaults, stabbings, thefts and other criminal activities.
Armed with only chemical spray, handcuffs and our wits against a shank, knife or a pipe.
We probably see more stabbings and assaults in one week then most police officers do in a year.
Who are we?
We are your corrections officers, and we walk the beats most people are too afraid to.
Some of us are expected to walk an area where, at anytime, a cup full of blood, feces or urine can be thrown at us from inside a cell. And it often is.
We do it because it’s our job, and we are professionals. Yet we work with outdated equipment, low pay, excessive hours and no respect.
We work without contracts, no raises and increases in medical dues because the state breaks our contracts.
It fires officers that are willing to go public and ask for better working conditions, better representation, better equipment to not only protect us, but also the people we guard.
The state puts accountants in charge of its correctional facilities instead of trained officers. Maybe that’s why there have been so many lawsuits lately involving age discrimination, sexual harrasment, defamation of character, sex with female inmates and others at the Maine Correctional Center.
Yep, we definitely walk the toughest beat in Maine.
Michael Goodwin, Lewiston
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