With 6 Minnesota corrections officers hurt in just 1 week, family of murdered officer fear more attacks

By JENNIFER MAYERLE

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    MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) — Nearly five years after an inmate murdered a corrections officer, safety inside Minnesota prisons remains an issue.

Between Stillwater and Oak Park Heights, three separate attacks sent officers to the hospital just last week. And an assault in January left a corrections officer blind in one eye.

WCCO’s Jennifer Mayerle heard from the family of the fallen officer and learned how the state is addressing the issue.

The pain of losing Joe Gomm is still fresh for his family.

“We don’t want anybody to go through what we’re still dealing with,” sister Audrey Gomm said.

An inmate beat Gomm with a hammer while he worked as a corrections officer at Stillwater prison in July of 2018. Sisters Audrey and Angela Wood say it’s disheartening to hear officers continue to be assaulted.

“It’s gonna happen again. They’re still short staffed. There isn’t enough officers to do their job day to day, which puts everybody at risk,” Audrey Gomm said.

“To me I feel like they’re just being more brazen and they’re pushing their limit to see exactly what they can get away with,” Angela Wood said.

Department of Corrections Commissioner Paul Schnell says safety improvements have been made since Gomm’s murder, including expanding security cameras, higher staffing in high-risk areas, and funding for more officers.

“People who do this work should be able to be safe. And we need to make sure we have adequate staff to respond to incidents, and really more importantly we need to be in a place where we can prevent it,” Schnell said.

Schnell admits they are down about 110 officers with more on leave. And there are challenges around retention. But he says the recent assaults don’t appear to be connected to staffing.

“First and foremost, we need to understand what prompted these attacks, and that’s what the investigators focus on,” Schnell said.

Last year, there were 37 assaults on officers resulting in harm across Minnesota’s prison system, and another eight causing significant harm. Roughly half were at Stillwater, with 19 causing harm and four significant harm.

“No attack, no assault on staff is ever OK. It’s never acceptable, and that’s the message that we’re delivering,” Schnell said.

Audrey feels more change needs to happen to protect officers.

“Nobody wants to go to work fearing that they’re never gonna come home,” Audrey Gomm said.

The DOC is looking to lawmakers for funding to add body cameras system-wide. Commissioner Schnell thinks it would make inmates think twice before attacking an officer.

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