By Ann Crosby / Argus Observer / August 10, 2000
Snake River Correctional Institution's rapid provision of a handful of workplace safety and health enhancements won it Oregon Occupational Safety and Health Division's SHARP certification.
The Safety and Health Recognition Program certificate was presented last week by an Oregon OSHA team to prison officials and members of the SRCI safety and health committee who were involved in making the changes qualifying the prison for the award.
SRCI, a member of the Oregon OSHA panel visiting the prison said, earned the SHARP faster than any other institution in the state, demonstrating the prison safety and health team's strong sense of commitment to employee and inmate welfare.
The prison's SHARP Focus Group is composed of union leadership and other employees, representing virtually every section of the prison, including administration, in addition to the standing SRCI Safety Committee. Work toward SHARP certification began last year after Tom Lester, assistant superintendent of general services, attended the March 1999 Oregon Governor's Occupational Safety and Health Conference to learn about SHARP.
Within days of Lester's trip, the prison's policy team composed of top-level administrators approved SRCI undertaking steps to complete the process for SHARP certification.
Oregon OSHA consultants audited safety and health factors at the prison in September, after meeting in May with superintendent Robert Lampert to outline the SHARP program.
When the Oregon OSHA consulting team completed its initial on-site audit of SRCI in September 1999, the prison earned a higher rating than the statewide norm.
According to Oregon OSHA data, companies usually score between 40 and 60 points in a 100-point value system, but SRCI received an 84-point value from the team's initial assessment on the team's first visit.
Even with the high rating, the team gave SRCI's SHARP Focus Group a list of recommendations for modifications which would additional enhance safety and health conditions of the 3,000-inmate minimum- and medium-security prison which is the largest in the Oregon Department of Corrections system.
Changes made to new employee orientation to provide essential health and safety information in the form of a "survival packet" upon hiring, adoption of a new procedure preventing employees from risks involved in power failure on battery-operated radios, adoption of documentation and tracking to ensure eye wash-flushing stations are flushed weekly to maintain their cleanliness and relocation of 50-pound food containers in the kitchen storage area, to prevent employees' risks of physical strain in lifting the heavy containers, were on the list of accomplishments helping SRCI win its certification.
The modification list for SHARP certification, Lester said, is more extensive, and the SHARP Focus Group will continue to play a role in keeping the prison as safe and healthful as it is for more than 1,000 employees and the inmates.