Union Wants Better Conditions for Maryland’s Public Safety Workers

(TNS) — The union representing state employees on Tuesday demanded better conditions and higher staff counts for Gov. Wes Moore’s executive agencies — particularly the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services, DPSCS.

Members of the Maryland chapter of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFSCME, are holding the Moore administration’s feet to the fire, alleging that assaults among correctional officers are on the rise and inadequate changes have been implemented since the on-duty homicide of a parole and probation agent in May.

“We demand and must have a comprehensive staffing plan with a timeline, a commitment to recruit, hire and retain qualified staff for each and every agency, but, in particular, [the Department of Public Safety and Correctional Services],” Patrick Moran, the president of AFSCME Maryland, said at a news conference in Cumberland.

“We’ve gotten so much talk and words. It’s time for that to end. Our folks are not using words and talking — they’re coming in and doing the damn job every single day, every single shift, every single week.”

Tony Sines, a corrections officer who represents his fellow officers at the North Branch and Western correctional institutions, said assaults against staff have more than doubled from 2023.

DPSCS did not respond to requests regarding the number of correctional officers assaulted in 2023 and 2024.

Moran said the state doesn’t keep an accurate account of assaults on the job because it only records when injuries are severe enough for workers to go to the hospital.

Sines said six months ago the union negotiated an agreement with DPSCS regarding the number of staff necessary to safely run its correctional facilities. In spite of those negotiations, he said that union members have yet to see a staffing plan.

“We have asked for change. We have asked for a safe work environment. But instead we have been ignored for far too long,” Sines said. “The department DPSCS secretary and Governor Moore have failed us every time.”

Joshua Mills has been a correctional officer for 12 years and currently works at North Branch Correctional Institute. His grandfather was also a correctional officer, so he was proud to follow in his footsteps.

But he said Thursday that he has “come to despise the badge” because understaffing is putting officers and incarcerated people at risk. According to Mills, 10 to 15 officers at his facility are asked to work overtime each day, and morale is low.

“Leaders are just reactive instead of proactive,” he said.

Mills said that, because of low staffing levels, officers have to cancel trips to medical appointments and the gym for the incarcerated people they oversee. There aren’t enough people to run chow lines, their radios malfunction daily, and control panels for doors often freeze and shut down.

According to the governor’s office, the vacancy rate at DPSCS saw a 30.7% decrease from January 2023 to August 2024.

“Since day one, Governor Moore has worked day and night to fix the overwhelming staffing shortages left by the previous administration while working within the budgetary constraints created by a lack of economic momentum in the eight years prior to Governor Moore’s inauguration,” Moore spokesman Carter Elliott IV told The Baltimore Sun in an email. “In just a little over a year the Moore-Miller Administration has been able to significantly reduce vacancies across the state, including at DPSCS.”

Moore, a Democrat, has publicly committed to rebuilding state government, which was thinned-out under Republican Gov. Larry Hogan, by hiring more employees — a feat that may prove difficult as Maryland enters the 2025 budget season with a $3 billion deficit.

Vacancies aren’t the only problem plaguing DPSCS.

Earlier this year, parole and probation agent Davis Martinez, 33, was killed while performing a home visit. Lawmakers grew frustrated with DPSCS Secretary Carolyn J. Scruggs during an October oversight hearing regarding updates on safety policy in the Division of Parole and Probation.

“What is it going to finally take to do something about this? Another death? Another airlift to a hospital?” Moran asked. “Our members have earned and they deserve the right to go home in the same condition they came to work each morning.”

House and Senate lawmakers received updates from the Division of Parole and Probation during a follow-up hearing with agency officials, including Scruggs, Thursday afternoon.

Since the last oversight meeting, Scruggs said agency officials have met with members of AFSCME to discuss protective gear for on-duty agents. They came to an agreement that multi-threat vests, or vests that protect against guns as well as blades and spikes, would be most appropriate for agents to wear.

The agency began fitting the vests to its approximately 640 agents on Dec. 3. Scruggs said the goal is to have the vests distributed by early March.

Addressing staffing concerns, Scruggs said 15 new agents at the division of parole and probation will start in January, and 21 are undergoing background checks.

The current vacancy rate for the Division of Parole and Probation is 8%. For lower-level agents, the vacancy rate is above 40%.

When asked if she had requested more positions to add additional agents, Scruggs cited executive privilege. She said she is focused on filling current vacancies in the division and will discuss adding new ones during the upcoming budget season.

Tracking applications have been added to agents’ work phones. The director of the Division of Parole and Probation is working with AFSCME to clarify guidance regarding how it is used.

The union is also reviewing updated safety policies that the department plans to put into practice.

“We continue to work with our union partners to collaborate in every area,” Scruggs said.

AFSCME member and parole and probation agent Rayneika Robinson called the changes made “progress in the form of baby steps.”

But frustration was still felt among lawmakers.

Home visits, for the most part, still have not resumed since Martinez was killed.

Sen. William Folden, a Frederick County Republican, said the lack of home visits is “inexcusable.”

“Part of the directions that this committee gave you and your team was to look at partnering up agents, was to look at other safety measures to keep them safe. Not to just abscond with your responsibility to keep, in your capacity, the community safe,” said Folden. “And you failed, because we are not checking up on sex offenders, the biggest predators — as a matter of fact, it was a sex offender that took agent Martinez’s life.”

Scruggs said agents have been performing virtual and telephone check-ins.

Though Scruggs and officials in the Division of Parole and Probation have made some changes, lawmakers were largely disappointed in their progress since the last hearing.

“Madam Secretary, last time you were here I think I called your agency’s response to this tragedy ‘woefully inadequate,’ and your response at this hearing is woefully inadequate, and unfortunately, I don’t think we’ve moved the ball forward today,” said House Appropriations Committee Chair Ben Barnes, a Prince George’s County Democrat.

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