Not just the guards. A friend of mine spent 18 months in a max secuity prison in California as an inmate. He told me that American Me was incredibly realistic.
My question: Did you ever run into an inmate that you knew from earlier in life? This actually happened to my friend.
Haj
My max security institution is smoke-free. 1600 inmates, and tobacco is contraband. It works out pretty well. The staff that smokes hates having to go to their designated smoking area, but that’s the way of it.
Why allow an unhealthy habit that drives up costs in health care and maintenance of the facility? The inmates are irritable for a few weeks, but since they’re busy adjusting to prison, they’d be irritable anyway. I see no significant downside to it.
QtM
When you tell of the female guard who accidentally dropped a loaded weapon into a yard full of inmates then asked one of them to put it in the bucket for her, I’m reminded of the same exact story that was told of another female officer in Texas (where I was a guard on Death Row) who after doing the same thing amazingly was promoted to Lieutenant too! Did you see it happen or did someone tell you about it? I’m not questioning your honesty, I just know that we female guards always seemed to have some story circulating that made us look like idiots. Some of the stories were true (unfortunately) but most were just made-up.
Yep. There was one that lived near me when we were kids. We used to shoot hoops together. Saw him again after he got out. No big deal.
Running into a former inmate who you only knew from prison is another story! It’s almost surreal. You have to acknowledge each other with a look or something, but what do you say? Congratulations?
tempest2_2,
I wouldn’t have doubted that story until I read your post. I didn’t like her and so I’m inclined to believe something so derogatory, yet the coincidence is too unlikely. My mother worked there longer than I did; I’ll have to ask her about it. Probably unfounded gossip. Wouldn’t be the first time.
Have you read Stone City by Mitchell Smith or for that matter any books about prison life that you would recommend?
I visited a local prison farm and thought that the conditions seemed better than you’d get in the army - small private rooms, a shop, farm work and rules posted up that seemed none too onerous. The prisoners often used to “escape” to the local pub and then return for dinner. How did the prisoner’s life differ in your minimum security prison from his life in maximum security?
tempest2_2,
I talked to my mother. All I got out was that it was in reference to “dumbest things a guard did” and female, and she filled in the name and story. Ha! She said she is very certain that this happened. Instructors often mentioned it in training, for example. If it was untrue, then I think it would have gotten back to the officer in question that she was being wrongly used as a bad example for training purposes.
Coincidences do happen.
** I have not read that one. I have only read one prison book: The Hot House about life in the Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary. It focuses, of course, on only the most shocking aspects, so it is misleading if you want to know what a typical inmate’s experience is.**
**
** Vastly different. First, they had much different effects pychologically - max was a 100 year old archetypical prison with stone walls, tiered cellhouses and not a tree in the place. The only grass was on the baseball field. Minimum looked like a small, quaint college campus, set on a hill overlooking scenery reminiscent of the Shire. Minimum had no cells of course. Most prisoners had factory or road maintenance jobs outside of the facility.
I think this is good. People who do a lot of time get institutionalized and the gradations between max, medium and minimum help prepare them for returning to the outside. Minimum is probably more like what we think of as a “normal” life than the lives they led before prison. Its good to expose them to that.
[fixed Bold --Gaudere]
What kind of requirements are there to become a prison guard?
Any special experience req’d?
It seems like the kind of job which might interest my brother…
I don’t really have anything to ask you, TGWATY, just dropping in to welcome a fellow Kansan the the boards!
It strikes me as rather sexist that they would make a women’s maximum-security prison the same as a men’s minimum-security prison. Wouldn’t women be just as capable as escaping as men are? From what you mentioned, the female prisoners sounded extrordinarily cunning.
Thanks for the welcome, roadkiller.
Certainly it depends on how much competition there is. Where I worked, the requirements amounted to little more than two arms and two legs. No, scratch that. I did know an officer with one leg. Well, I’m pretty certain you were required to have a pulse though.
That was a state prison. Better salaries are available in the federal system, but you probably need to have experience to get hired there. So you start off in a state prison, then go to the feds.
The funny thing is that being a half-way decent correction officer is challenging work, yet it would take the most ludicrous acts of stupidity for anyone to lose their job. That means a handful of very competent people carry most of the load while the rest are content to be monkeys. If your looking for job security, you couldn’t do much better than corrections.
Once hired there a couple of routes to better your position. Promotions to higher ranks like lieutenant and captain is one way. Non-uniformed admin jobs are culminating in vice-warden or even warden are another.
It is a field with a lot of opportunities for a go-getter, or for a pretty easy and secure life if you’re not one.
This is an interesting thread. I’ve learned far more about prison lately than I ever wanted to know and appreciate the other perspective.
My brother has been in prison about a year and a half… it has been frustrating to try and learn all the rules between the two states. (He had to serve one term (a year) in one state and then got transferred to another to serve another term (10 years)… his stupidity knows no bounds)
He is stuck in the “intake” because there is no room for him in Medium security. Being stuck there leaves no opportunity for him to take classes/get a job or do any other thing that might help him not end up right back in prison when he finally gets out. How bad was the overcrowding where you were?
His biggest complaints right now are boredom and his “cellie’s” lack of hygiene. He did say in a letter that he hasn’t seen the sky since his last court date a few months ago and that for his 21st birthday they stuck a match in a cupcake they got off the canteen truck.
I couldn’t handle prison but then that’s why I don’t rob convenience stores! I must say the guards I saw when I went with my mother to visit him were pleasant. I was afraid they’d treat us like scum since we were there to see prisoners after all.
It was creepy to walk down all these corridors to elevators that a guard somewhere else in the building operated. Then to talk to him on a little phone through a plastic wall.
Great thread TGWATY.
Forgive me if this question is beyond naive, but in your experience is there an overwhelming characteristic of convicts.
Is there some sort of common denominator amongst those in prison, i.e. upbringing, social status, mental disorders, lack of education, etc.
Anything you could put your finger on?
Excellent thread. Thank you for illumination on an item that I (thankfully and luckily) know nothing about.
Conventional Wisdom has it that a police office busted and placed in the prison wouldn’t last more than a few moments after the first inmate learns of his prior occupation. Is this accurate? If so, what precautions are made to keep this person (realatively) safe? Had any experience with this?
Also, a common argument against the war on drugs is it makes (fill in percent here) of the US population felons and has directly resulted in an overcrowded prison system. Are the majority of felons that you administered there due to drugs? What is your perspective of the war on drugs as a result of your experience?
Again, thanks.
This statement makes me concerned. Even if being punished, I would expect him to be let outside for awhile. Is he just choosing not to go outside? If not, I think you need to talk to a prison official about it.
Can you tell if a stranger you encounter on the outside has been in prison before just by observing them for a short while?
No there is not anything definite.
However, there are mannerisms and speech patterns that, although I can’t conciously list them, set off a little alarm whenever I encounter them now. It’s difficult to say what it is, but I sometimes encounter someone in public and am certain that he is an ex-con.
This only applies to white people. Since I am white, I am more in tune to the mannerisms of white people and can distinguish subtle differences.
It took me awhile to realize this. After I had been a guard for a while, I started to realize that I had become overly suspicious of black men in public. Just any black men in general. Upon reflection, I realized it was because although I could key in on the subtle differences in whites, I couldn’t do that with blacks and so was subconciously identifying all black men with the convicts. Years before I had a police officer acquaintance who told me that as a result of being a police officer he had become more prejudiced. I think this is the underlying reason why.
But certainly, the uneducated and poor make up a larger percentage of convicts.
I haven’t had any direct experience with it, but it is true. Prisons usually have a protective custody unit which keeps certain prisoners segregated from the general population for their own safety.
**
Statistics bear out your conclusion. A signigicantly larger proportion of the prison population today consists of drug offenders compared to 20 years ago.
Putting the “retail” drug sellers in prison is a stupid tactic and just drains our society’s resources. The drug market follows well known rules of supply and demand. If you remove suppliers from the picture, more will just take their place. Then those get arrested, etc. It’s just done because the convictions-numbers make politicians look good. Any serious war on drugs should have an economist on its team and start from there.
Here’s my two cents for what its worth:
First, I’d legalize marijuana. It’s not worth bothering with.
Second, I’d set up federally funded clinics to supply drugs like crack and heroin for next to nothing. You walk in and have to get your fix on the premises. Maybe sitting by a big window for passersby to see to make it humiliating. But the main point is that since it is essentially free, the drug lords can’t compete and are run out of business. No more crime.
Remember, back in the 30’s the mob was the biggest proponent of Prohibition. Well, duh!
May I ask how you got along with the other guards?
Thanks for this very interesting thread.
Regards,
Shodan