This weekend, legislators are going to be back in their districts and are going to be holding town halls -- these are excellent opportunities for you to talk with them about issues you care about, including funding for our Department of Corrections contract.

The formats for these meetings are pretty simple - the legislators generally talk a little about what has been happening in Olympia and what their own priorities are, and then they take the rest of the time taking questions and hearing from you.

Our message this year is pretty simple: fund our Department of Corrections contract with new revenue.  Here is why:

• Department of Corrections Employees have gone since 2008 without a pay increase
• The types of jobs we do are vastly different from other state employees, as 100% of our time is spent with violent felons.
  • Correctional staff members suffer 2,000 injuries from non-fatal violent incidents on the job every year, the most of any occupation, and from 1999 to 2008 113 correctional officers lost their lives while at work.
    
  • 44% of correctional officers report symptoms of PTSD and they also report higher levels of depression, sleep difficulty, and memory impairment.
    
  • Correctional facility workers have higher rates of depression, anxiety, divorce and substance abuse than the general public and other law enforcement professionals.
  • Correctional officers commit suicide at nearly twice the rate of police officers and the general public[6], the highest rate of any occupation in public safety.

At these town hall meetings, other groups and organizations will be there to talk about their own issues, so making sure we have someone there to talk about funding our contract will ensure legislators continue to hear about it.