Good Morning,

 

I was most impressed by the initial training sessions for our Character Initiative. I look forward to seeing each of you embrace this initiative and integrate it into everything that we do at SCDC. We will be better for the effort.

 

Our new mail policy is now in effect and it is already paying dividends. Basically, we now open and inspect every piece of mail. Just this week a diligent and thorough mail room at Kershaw found contraband in mail that has been marked “legal mail.”

 

For too long, our policy allowed and encouraged inmates and others to use long bogus “legal” mail and other deceptive markings and tricks to introduce contraband and to break the law.  No longer; now our policy is to open and inspect…period. We will be safer for these efforts.

 

Finally, a reminder: It is important that we continue to set and maintain high standards. One such area is romantic relationships between superiors and subordinates. From my first months here, I have made clear that such relationships were dangerous to our operations and devastating to our culture. Such relationships had been tolerated in the past, including adulterous relationships. Too often, senior officials were simply “moved” or transferred after exercising terrible judgment. And, too often the subordinate employee was treated much more harshly.

 

While I never looked to or investigated the past, I made my position clear, and it has not changed: we will not tolerate such misconduct and we will not give it a wink and a nod. We even changed our policy to ensure that all such relationships were prohibited and that termination was authorized for a first offense.

 

We are not animals. In this business, we should be able to control our emotions and we must be able to control our conduct. Employees who believe that they are “falling in love” at work must notify their chain of command before engaging in any romantic conduct. If possible and advantageous to the agency, we will transfer one of the affected employees. Providing notification after the fact is insufficient.

 

Shortly after we changed our policy, we lost a senior leader over such a relationship. I listened to the tearful explanation, but my position did not change, and the employee resigned. As leaders, we must never allow our loyalty to individuals to compromise our loyalty to our mission, our culture and our standards.

 

Have a great week,