Michelle Inman – 10/2/06

This page was last updated on October 2, 2006.

Don’t let scabs take jobs; Michelle Inman; Beaver County Times; October 2, 2006.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“This is in response to Dave Pyle’s letter on Wednesday (‘Scabs take county jobs’).

“My husband is also a corrections officer at the Beaver County Jail, and we agree with him 100 percent on the way he feels about this nonsense of privatizing the jail.

“Arbitrators and judges have ruled in favor of the corrections officers, yet Beaver County Commissioner Dan Donatella thinks he is above the law and can do what he wants.

“He has pushed for an additional hearing that has not even taken place yet and has already brought in scabs and has put all jail employees at risk with their safety.”

[RWC] Note Ms. Inman provides no evidence to support her assertion that new guards “put all jail employees at risk with their safety.”

“Anyone who is interested in reading more about Civigenics and its operations can go on line and read about how their employees have raped inmates and had one inmate escape and kill a woman while he was a fugitive.”

[RWC] Ms. Inman probably wrote this letter before a story broke in the Times asserting, “The Beaver County Commissioners have retained a Center Township firm to investigate allegations made by a county jail guard that other guards have abused inmates and conspired to commit insurance fraud.” Oops.

“I have written before about no jobs in Beaver County, and now Donatella wants to take away what little is left.”

[RWC] Unless CiviGenics is going to move the jail from Beaver County (It can’t.), won’t the jail jobs still be in Beaver County?

According to a PG story, “CiviGenics is required to hire at least 70 percent of [existing] jail guards who are state certified. The agreement enables the jail guards to seek union representation.”

Besides, when did it become a responsibility of government to provide jobs?

“I cannot understand how these people think we are going to save money. They are going to pay Civigenics $14.6 million over the next three years and only save the county $1.5 million. I don’t know about you, but I did the math.”

[RWC] Ms. Inman may have done the math, but she gets a failing grade for mixing time periods.

As noted in my critique of the Pyle letter, the GiviGenics deal is supposed to save Beaver County about $1.8 million per year over current operations, not the total of $1.5 million asserted by Ms. Inman. The local union was willing to give about $400,000/year in savings, but that meant the CiviGenics deal still saved the County about $1.4 million per year vs. the union, or about $4.2 million for the duration of the contract.

“I ask people of Beaver County to please stand behind the men and women who risk their lives to help keep us safe.”