Shit Just Got Real At The BOP
On September 25th, the Bureau of Prisons terminated the master agreement with the council of Prisons Locals 33, the union that represents correctional officers and staff members in the Bureau of Prisons.
Previously, under the master agreement, anytime a major decision was paraded through the prison system, the Director and BOP executives needed to get the agreement of the union before instituting change.
We’ve posted and written endlessly about the 45-47 institutions who are implementing the First Step Act and Second Chance Act benefits correctly. The remaining 70% or so of prisons are not.
Opinions vary from placing the blame on chronic staff shortages in the BOP, difficulty reprimanding insubordination because of the union, or some mixture of the two.
Now, president of the union Brandi White and other union officials are headed back to work at their federal prison institutions.
Speaking with former executives of the BOP are not optimistic that this still bring positive change; after all, shit rolls downhill.
Union officers will obviously be upset, and may continue to act in their own interests as they have for so many years.
According to Billy Marshall’s official statement to correctional officers in the federal prison system, officers will be just as protected as they were pursuant to Civil Service Law. The memo also seems to allude that ending the union agreement will be part of a plan to revitalize the BOP and make it a more attractive place to work.