Prison Guards Injured on the Job Lawyers

On The Job Injury

Prisons, like any workplace, can be the location of serious injuries. When these injuries occur to prison employees during the course of their employment, Pennsylvania's workers' compensation laws come into play. By law, all places of employment in Pennsylvania must carry workers' compensation insurance. This insurance allows individuals to recover benefits due to their injuries, including medical costs and lost wages. Prison employees in particular, along with correctional officers, police and firemen, are protected under a government statute called The Heart and Lung Act. This Act takes into account the very special circumstances and heightened risk that correctional officers and prison staff take everyday in the course of their duties and offers them special protection under the law.

All workplaces have a duty to provide a safe and hazard-free working environment for their employees. Prisons are not exempt from this law; in fact, in some ways, they are held to a very particular standard because of the inherent danger of prison staff work. Slip and falls due to hazardous work areas and injuries due to the handling and use of weapons that prison guards must use are two examples of prison injuries that can occur.

The most obvious and common form of on the job prison injury for prison guards is injury at the hands of prison inmates. The criminals that are housed in the walls of prisons are among the most dangerous individuals in society. Many of them are career felons whose main skills in life deal in the art of assaulting other individuals. These inmates are constantly seeking an opportunity to enforce their will or inflict injury on prison guard staff.

Some of the most common injuries that can occur to prison guards while on the job, include:

• Injury due to prisoner attack
• Being stabbed by homemade weaponry
• Injuries during escape attempts
• Injury during prison riots or unrest
• "Friendly fire" injuries at the hands of other prison guards
• Becoming ill as a result of exposure to diseased inmates

No matter what the injury, prison guards in Pennsylvania have a right, under the law, to recover monies as compensation for their injuries. The prison guard injury attorneys at Anapol Schwartz have a track record of success when it comes to Pennsylvania Workers' Compensation claims, including those claims that are governed under the Heart and Lung Act (known as the Enforcement Officer Disability Benefits Law).

If you are a prison guard or corrections officer who has been injured on the job, contact our experienced on the job injury attorneys today for a consultation of your case. We can help defend your rights and insure that if you qualify, you receive the compensation you deserve.

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