Marquel, TPVs NYTimes One Big Dysfunctional Family Section correspondent, was counting the containers of frozen sperm he had saved, when he thought about some well deserved distraction and read Warning Signs Overlooked in Hiring for New York City Jails.
More than one-third of people that the city’s Correction Department recently hired had problems that should have disqualified them or needed further scrutiny, the Department of Investigation found. The article, as Marquel read it, found that many were psychologically disqualified from the police department as well as corrections, and more than half had friends and relatives who were inmates.
Marquel wondered if that were good or bad. It sounded like some sort of AT&T cell phone special.
The director of hiring confessed that he had “no idea” how hiring evaluations were to be done. He said,
“if you’re friends with the corrections union president, that’s a high qualifying factor. Other than that, I don’t know who I’d hire.”
Marquel asked, “but don’t you have some sort of procedure?”
“Of course, we have a scale from one to five.” He said.
“The trouble is, nobody can remember which is higher, one or five.”
“Not really” he said.
“Everybody is a three.” He explained.
“If you have friends and family as inmates, you’re automatically hired.”
“We like to think of it as a family business. If you’re one of the family, you kind of hit the ground running.”
“What do you expect?” He queried, “it’s a jail.”
“Sure. A few. If you are a member of an active gang, you’re in. If you know the handshake of more than one gang, you’re in. If you’ve been incarcerated here within the last six ninth, you’re in. That’s good for rehabilitation, you know.” He explained.
“If you can spell his name, Norman Seabrook, you’re in.” He said.
“Well you don’t have to spell it correctly. Just so it’s clear who you mean. An N and an S, or even an M and an F, cause it rhymes, would get you the job.”
“I might ask you what would the quality of a jailer be if you could choose? You want Einsteins?”
“Shoot you’re not going to get anybody who can pronounce those words let alone understand them!” He said.
“Yeah, until we get a better class of prisoner….”
“Well if they lock up some of these cops, we might start improving things.”
“I guess.” He mused.
Amazing
Unbelievable situation, and great story for Marquel to tell
Splendid. Who cares what’s the highest or the lowest score. They are all in the middle. Great catch, M
Marquel, admit it, this is better than anything you made up
loved the story.
splendid
bravo
This time the Times made up something better than me, I admit it.