longbough

I agree.
But then that "different state, different rules/laws" argument should then have to apply to COs from other states as well. COs would then be just as culpable.

I'm a little defensive about the issue because it's a common presumption that the medical staff in prisons are completely ignorant of responsibilities and issues related to custody. After all, the medical department can supply inmates with medications - even narcotics for common low back pain, administer medical mandates that allow everything from daily showers to special mattresses or extra privileges that put an extra burden on custody ...

Medical staff and custody in my yard have an excellent relationship - we work together to make things run smoothly. I worked hard to foster this understanding and it took us a while to get there, but this takes an appropriate attitude on both sides - custody and medical.

Generalizations about the lack of professionalism on the part of medical staff by someone from custody just demonstrates the kind of destructive mindset that fosters suspicion and distrust between the departments. What would you think if my response was that custody was the obvious culprit because they're the only ones capable of taking that photo? If I said that you'd probably tell me that I didn't know shit about custody ... and you'd be right. See where I'm coming from?



As a physician in a state prison I do recognize that security comes first and foremost. IMO a released photo is a security breach. In my experience the medical staff have a good deal of discipline in this regard. If anything a physician recognizes the importance of professionalism and protocol. Admittedly, I can't speak for the nursing staff, the LVNs or the MTAs.

I'm not saying it's the COs because it's just too stupid to walk around with a personal camera (even if you could) snapping pictures. But photos taken, for documentation, are usually digital nowadays - all it takes is one person in the chain to make a copy for themselves to take home ... then for that image to be leaked to the press somehow.

..... then again, as I give the issue more thought let us not forget psychological services ... which is a completely separate entity from medicine. Psychs (admittedly my personal predjudice) tend to "act in a vacuum" and do ridiculous breaches of protocol - including snapping photos.

I'll give you middle management - and, perhaps psych.

__________________
"I do believe that, where there is only a choice between cowardice and violence, I would advise violence. Thus when my eldest son asked me what he should have done, had he been present when I was almost fatally assaulted in 1908, whether he should have run away and seen me killed or whether he should have used his physical force which he could and wanted to use, and defended me, I told him that it was his duty to defend me even by using violence." - Mahatma Ghandi