The prison employees who were recently suspended for sleeping during their night shift are not the only ones who go wrong at night in the prison in Roermond. Colleagues of the two say at the regional broadcaster L1 that they regularly take a nap during their work.
Favorite location is the prison’s central control room. “There are no cameras there,” said one of the employees. “If you work at night with a nice team, with guys who don’t click with the leadership, then you just go to sleep. Sit back and close your eyes.”
Not tolerated
Tuesday It became known that two security guards from the Roermond prison have been suspended. They had fallen asleep during their work on September 23. Both employees were on night shifts in the prison’s central control room, where all camera images come in.
The prison says it always takes a hard line against sleeping on the night shift. “That is not tolerated by the management and leads to dismissal. This is known to staff,” says prison spokesman Robert Meijer. “If you go to sleep during the night shift, you may endanger colleagues and almost 300 detainees for whom you are responsible and you absolutely do not belong at PI Roermond.”
King Sleep
Nevertheless, several employees and former prison guards say that sleeping during the night has been a common occurrence in Roermond for years. L1 not only spoke to a number of employees, but also saw messages in which sleep behavior is discussed. For example, someone who normally closes his eyes during the night shift is called ‘King Sleep’.
In the past, people slept not only in the central control room but also in other places in the prison during night shifts. That changed when extra cameras were installed in the facility between 2017 and 2018. They were there because of the high security level in the Roermond prison.
Among other things, cameras were installed in recreation rooms for prisoners. Promptly a number of people were caught taking a nap. “These employees were sanctioned for this by the then director”, spokesperson Meijer acknowledges. “Since June 2018, until September 2021, no other employees have been caught or sanctioned for falling asleep on the night shift.”
Linked by colleagues
That is according to the employees who spoke to L1 because there are no cameras in the central control room. “You can only be caught if your colleagues ‘poop’ at the management,” says one of them. “Or something must already go wrong while you are sleeping. That a prisoner gets sick and you have not responded to his emergency call, for example.”
The two, who appeared on Tuesday to be suspended, have been linked, according to the employees. They hadn’t been employed long and would not have suited a group of experienced colleagues. Spokesperson Meijer confirms that employees have gone to management. “After a report from colleagues, an investigation was conducted.”
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