The Economy

I'm sure with the title of this post, many people aren't going to want to read this. I personally, have been hearing so much about the economy lately that I would rather just forget about it. But forgetting about it won't change it. Although living on a college campus can often be like living in a bubble I felt like I was still hearing about the effects of the economy while still in school such as hearing about less money for classes in the future or having to work shifts at my job by myself. When I got home from college I heard my parents (both state employees) talk about the paycheck cuts and the mandatory furlough days.
Since I've began my internship I've learned a lot more about how the state budget issues are having effects on individuals and the Department of Corrections. I attended a volunteer reception for the Department of Corrections a couple of weeks ago and nearly every person that spoke used the phrase "difficult economic times" while they were speaking. They also emphasized the importance of volunteers in these difficult economic times. The Secretary of the Department, Mr. Keller, and the Department's Chief Operating Officer, Ms. Lancaster also attended the reception. Both said that things do not look good but they will be trying their best to voice the concerns of the Department to the Governor and State Legislature.
Lately, I've seen and heard how these "not good things" have manifested themselves throughout the Department of Corrections. Currently, it is proposed (I believe it's just been proposed, I'm not sure if a final decision has been made) that eight prisons will be shut down. This means that the prisoners will be transported to new prisons, but because the state is not currently hiring people, the staff at the 8 closed prisons will be out of jobs. So the state will be dealing with lots of new prisoners with a lot less staff. This poses a very big security problem and could keep the Division of Prisons from reaching its primary goal, which is to protect the public. I heard two staff members in the prison discussing how, unfortunately, people may not realize the severity of the staff shortage problem until something very bad happens such as an inmates doing something to officers. I pray that doesn't happen in order for more staff to be hired. However, I was told today that the new DOC policy is to only hire a new staff member if the prison is 27 staff members short. That seems like a lot of staff to lose. And from what I can see, at my short time at the prison, there are not many unnecessary staff members at prison so if a prison was 27 staff members short the prison would be in a very very dire situation, almost un-functional. (I would think.)
I pray for our state leaders as they decide on this budget and I pray that God would be with all the people throughout the state, specifically, the state employees, who feel that they may be taking most of the punishment for fixing these "difficult economic times."