Special Message from the DOC Council
The DOC Council is made up of Oklahoma Public Employees Association (OPEA) members employed by the Department of Corrections. The Association has supported the agency in securing legislative approval for funding and other issues important to DOC. The more members we recruit, the more able we are to affect pending legislation.
Current Goals
OPEA DOC Council’s Organizational Goals
1. Competitive pay - We have to look at restructuring the pay for all corrections employees. Nonuniformed employee pay has not kept pace with other areas of corrections, and neither CO nor nonuniformed pay is competitive. The goal of the OPEA DOC Council will be to have salaries that are the highest in the region. OPEA will take a comprehensive look at the pay structure, and the council will recommend changes that may include improving hiring rates, additional career progressions, educational incentive pay, training/trainer pay, physical fitness incentive pay and bilingual pay.
2. Overcrowding and understaffing - Oklahoma prison staffing is dangerously low compared with that of other states. While ratios are not the best indicator of security, no one can doubt that Oklahoma's prisons are woefully short on staff. According to the MGT audit, many prisons are critically short. Our goal is to improve staffing, eliminate mandatory overtime and ease overcrowding in our facilities.
3. Stop privatization - We need to solve Oklahoma’s prison crisis by building public prisons. With Oklahoma’s continued reliance on private prisons and no public beds to turn to, private prison companies are not forced to competitively negotiate the best price. DOC is held hostage. The private prison companies continue to drain away scarce corrections resources and do nothing but bring down our entire profession. They believe anyone can be a corrections professional for minimum wage. We know that just isn’t true.
4. True 20-year retirement for all; special enhancements - Corrections employees perform one of the most difficult and demanding jobs in law enforcement. For too many years, correctional employees have not enjoyed the same benefits as their counterparts in other law enforcement capacities. The OPEA DOC Council is proposing to introduce legislation that will move all corrections employees to a 20-year retirement (after age 50) and into the Oklahoma Law Enforcement Retirement System. Further, the Council recommends a special extended service incentive be passed for employees who serve past their 20th year. The SESI would modify the retirement factor of 2.5 to 2.75 for an additional 10 years of service.
5. Healthy workplace - Our workplace is an infection factory. MRSA, TB, HIV, flu and other viruses are everywhere. OPEA is working to ensure that our members have a healthier work environment. Additionally, we are working to ensure that if you are infected, it will be assumed that you got the infection on the job.
6. Protect employee benefit allowance - OPEA fought hard for state employees to have a great health insurance benefit. This benefit allowance allows our families and children to enjoy quality medical care at affordable rates. Last year, OPEA was successful in defending our benefit allowance against HB 3108, which would have cost us between $90 and $250, depending upon your coverage. The OPEA DOC Council believes our families deserve the best health care at the lowest possible cost. Raises mean very little if they are eaten up by increased health insurance premiums.
7. Pepper spray - States such as Arizona, California, Delaware and Wyoming have transitioned to training all correctional officers in the use and retention of these nonlethal tools. Other states such as Connecticut, New Jersey and Pennsylvania allow supervisory staff to carry pepper spray. It seems to be a sensible time to again begin the discussion on whether the Oklahoma Department of Corrections should allow employees to carry and deploy pepper spray when they are attacked, threatened or managing aggressive behavior against other inmates.
8. Enhanced training - As the corrections profession evolves, so should its training programs for all staff. OPEA is recommending that DOC begin discussions about an enhanced training program which includes advanced corrections tactics, sergeant training, management development for nonsecurity and security staff, internal security threats, gang management, covert inmate communications, corrections administration and a leadership academy.
9. Establish OPEA chapters at major facilities - For OPEA to be effective in influencing legislators and policy, we must have local chapters actively engaged in strategies that move OPEA’s agenda forward and build the strength of the association by recruiting every DOC employee. Through unity of effort, OPEA has accomplished many incredible gains. Lately, through strife and division, DOC employees have divided their loyalties and lost focus. Local chapters with quality corrections leadership will allow all staff to rally around a single organization: OPEA.
10. Recruit new members - The strength of any organization is its members. OPEA has the largest membership in corrections (1,200) that it has ever had. The OPEA DOC Council seeks to grow even larger by emphasizing recruiting in order to increase OPEA’s strength and accomplish its goals. The council is committed to having 1,500 members in the near future.
11. Political action - Voting power is essential! 67 percent of OPEA members are registered to vote, which leaves 33 percent of our power untapped. The DOC Council wants all DOC employees to take three actions: join OPEA; register to vote; support OPEA's political efforts by getting involved in local campaigns.
As a strong, independent, member-run association, OPEA has always stood by its members. Keeping these goals in mind as we continue to represent corrections employees across the state helps keep us focused on what is important when other issues might present distractions. Working together and staying strong, we will succeed
Council Staff
- Larry Adams-Council Chair
- Vice Chair - Rick Allen
- Communications/Secretary - James Kroth
- Board Member - Carrie Croy, P&P
- Board Member - Mike Rogers, JCCC