TOXIC ENVIRONMENT

The consensus from people about Connecticut Juvenile Training School is that working there is hazardous to your health. I know there are incarcerated male residents at CJTS; assaults from these youth might cause injury. However the thrust of this story focuses not on assaultive youth but a toxic milieu created by bias, racism and unsupervised middle management. At CJTS a new employee enters into the work environment without realizing it is dysfunctional. Several types of bias exist at the facility ( favoritism towards liked employees, giving out milder forms of disciplinary action toward disliked employees ) and causes unbalance relations in that environment. It only takes a short time for new employees to understand that to exist at CJTS and get paid; something of value must be given up. This usually means not caring about injustices you see or hear about. As long as you get a pay check bi-weekly that is all employees need to care about.

Therefore, it is now clear the toxic milieu causes ethical people to shy away from being activists or pointing out minor issues to make the facility safer. At one point an employee sent an email to the facility Superintendent of CJTS and was told by others “ we do not send emails or write letters here.” The comment came as a shock because in other state facilities or corporations sending emails about issues is standard practice; not at CJTS plantation is this practiced. When anyone steps out of the prescribed boundaries laid down by management that employee is targeted for reprisals. Needless to say this kind of vindictive behavior by management will cause the ethical or moral employee to shrink back into the underbrush of denial or cowardice. The dominant culture at CJTS (management, school teachers, clinicians and middle management)  consists of Caucasians. This being said, the white culture imposes their worldview on the facility. There is very little sensitivity by white management at CJTS for the concerns of employees of color. In order for all employees at CJTS to endure such treatment there must be a trade off: more time off work for physical and emotional problems, less production during work time and less cooperation with peers. All of what is being discussed today leads to a toxic environment; under such working conditions nothing thrives, workers suffer burnout and white management become more repressive if they perceive employees threaten facility power structures.

Then there is the issue of upper management using middle management as instruments of daily oppression toward rank and file employees. CJTS facility Key Stone Cops leaders allow middle management to conduct business like they are feudal Japanese or Chinese warlords. By this I mean arbitrary decisions are made by middle management about who gets investigated, verbally or formally written up, and in some instances that gets terminated from the job. When such problems are brought before upper management the only response is to circle the wagons to keep out unwanted news. Only by the grace of some divine power has CJTS not become involved in more controversy than it has already. Yet white management continues to promote, encourage and maintain a toxic environment.