Q&A
Council Member Stevens questions DOC about Intro 735-A
1:53:18
·
109 sec
Council Member Althea Stevens expresses confusion and concern about the Department of Correction's (DOC) stance on Intro 735-A, a bill regarding reporting of sexual assault/harassment against correctional staff. She highlights that the bill was requested by correction officers themselves and questions the apparent disconnect between the DOC's current statement and the officers' previous requests.
- Stevens emphasizes that she took the development of this bill seriously, meeting with correction officers and their union.
- She expresses surprise at DOC's claim that they are already doing the work proposed in the bill.
- Stevens seeks clarification on the disconnect between what DOC is saying and what the officers have communicated to her.
Althea Stevens
1:53:18
Hello.
1:53:18
Good afternoon.
1:53:19
Well, yeah, this afternoon.
1:53:20
Yeah.
1:53:23
Well, I just have a question specifically pertaining to my bill, which is 735 a.
1:53:28
And I'm a little bit concerned and confused because this wasn't a bill that I took lightly, and, also, this is a bill that correction officer just came to us with and pursued us to have.
1:53:39
And so I'm really confused.
1:53:40
I understand you're saying this is the tint.
1:53:42
But you're you're already doing this work.
1:53:44
And so I'm trying to understand then what's the disconnect between your officers and what you're saying now?
1:53:52
Because, again, I did not take this lightly.
1:53:54
I've met corruption officers.
1:53:56
I met with the union.
1:53:57
Like, this is something that they brought to me and was really adamant about had feedback in.
1:54:02
And so now to be like, oh, we're already doing this.
1:54:05
I I'm I'm very confused.
1:54:06
And what's the disconnect between what you're saying, and what your officers are saying.
Sherrieann Rembert
1:54:15
Good morning.
1:54:16
Sherry, I'm Robert, the chief chief of staff.
1:54:19
So we support the bill.
1:54:21
We just would like to work with counsel to do some modifications.
1:54:24
As stated in the testimony, the department has 0 tolerance policy towards all forms of sexual harassment or assault against any person who works all visits or is combined in our in our facilities.
1:54:37
It's credibly important to me and the department that we create a safe environment for our staff.
1:54:44
There are very different path ways that we use our investigation.
Althea Stevens
1:54:48
Saying you support the bill.
1:54:49
Could you talk about the modifications?
1:54:50
Because I know you guys have some, like, remittance stuff there, but I'm just I'm just trying to get to it because, like, even here, it's saying you guys are already doing that.
1:54:57
So what's you said you're already reporting it, it says this process of investigation has already been done.
1:55:04
So what is the process that you're already currently doing?
