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Does rise in TDCJ discipline for absences and poor job performance stem from chronic understaffing?

By Gritsforbreakfast

Research about disciplinary actions against Texas correctional officers, generated by The Back Gate, a prison guards' blog, made its way into the Huntsville Item recently. TBG republished the piece, and since they have no permalinks on their otherwise excellent site, I'll just reproduce it here:Statistics from the Texas Department of Criminal Justice reported nearly 8,000 disciplinary actions against employees of the system over a 12-month period, mostly for failing to perform their duties and unexcused absences.Of the 7,786 recorded disciplinary actions taken by the agency, at least 1,574 of those were for substandard performance. The agency also reprimanded 1,719 employees for unexcused absence of an hour or more.Michelle Lyons, a spokesperson for TDCJ, said the most common infractions included "unexcused absenteeism, substandard duty performance and failure to obey a proper order from an authority...continue to full post

Full post as published by Grits for Breakfast on March 14, 2008 (boomark / email).