Ask the prison guard

[TroubleAgain]

[QUOTE=Little Nemo]
Like I said before, some people are just assholes by nature. I’m surprised that maintenance people are having problems with security. In my experience, even the guards who generally dislike civilian employees usually get along okay with maintenance employees. I guess they’re perceived as “regular guys like us doing real work” rather than “those suits up front who are only here to do favors for the inmates”.
[/QUOTE]

Oh, yes, I didn’t mean to imply it was always the case–just that it definitely happens. We actually had dinner last night with a CO and his wife. The CO is a member of the rapid response team (I forget their official name), and he and my husband lift weights together on their lunch breaks. There are other CO’s that we’ve met via this guy who are also friends. So certainly there are good guys on every side.

[Little_Nemo]

What happened to the inmate who killed the other inmate who’d slapped him?

He was re-arrested and tried for murder. I don’t recall what sentence he received.

How many prisoners have you seen return to a prison in which you’ve worked? In other words, what personal observations do you have about recidivism?

I honestly couldn’t guess at a specific number.

What percentage of the inmates in your facility are members of gangs, would you estimate?

As a very rough estimate, I’d guess around half. But gang membership can be tight or loose. There will be a hardcore inner group surrounded by a lot of guys who are more part-time and they’re surrounded by a bunch of guys who aren’t really gang members but hang out with them.

Does your superintendant have a policy as to dealing with/negotiating with gangs, as such, or is that not an issue?

Gang membership is illegal. We work on controlling and breaking up the gangs.

What do you hear on the grapevine (or in training) about other states’ prison systems, pro or con?

Very little. Most of what I know about other states’ systems are from reading about it in newspapers or such. There was an online message board I used to read that had prison employees from around the country but it broke up years ago.

What range of punishments are routinely imposed against misbehaving inmates? Solitary, bread and water, no TV, etc.?

At the lowest level, it’s going to be a loss of privileges like access to the yard or TV or extra work assignements. A step up is locking them in a cell for awhile, which restricts their movement and also limits their privileges. Putting them on a special diet is a very high level punishment that is rarely invoked. It’s not actually bread and water - we call it the loaf; it’s a baked vegetarian meatloaf with no salt or flavorings added.

Have you ever seen an former inmate on the outside, like at the store?

Yes. It’s not uncommon for a prisoner who’s been released to end up settling down in the same town. So most prison towns have a population of former prisoners and you’ll see them around town. And I used to live in an apartment where the guy living upstairs was a former prisoner.

I used to date a prison guard, and he said he could always tell who has been to prison. He said there’s a certain look. Can you tell?

I can’t personally.

Do you tend to want to control your household, friends, and/or family in the same manner as you maintain control at work, or are you different at home?

I’m single so it wouldn’t apply to me. I have seen guards who end up acting like guards when they’re outside of the prison. They usually end up with somebody calling them on their bullshit.

Do your prisoners have certain phrases that you never hear on the outside, such as “hey now”?

Hard for me to say. I grew up in an upstate farming community. Most prisoners come from the inner city. Plus I’m about twice as old as the average prisoner so we’re from different generations. So when I hear prisoners using unfamiliar slang, I don’t know how much of the difference comes from the prison and how much they brought in with them. The stuff I think is strange might be typical in every school in the state.

Is it true that there’s a pecking order based on what crime you’ve committed? How much does this affect behavior? If you’ve committed an unpopular kind of crime like rape or child molestation, are you pretty much guaranteed to be a pariah, or can you still earn some respect from the other prisoners? How hard is it to keep the nature of your crime from the other prisoners or the guards?

There are high and low prestige crimes. Child abuse is definitely on the low end. It’s not not like a prisoner is guaranteed to get beaten to death but he’s not going to be popular. Some prisoners lie and tell other prisoners they committed a “better” crime. It used to be easy to get away with it among other prioners but with the internet, people on the outside can look up a prisoner’s crimes and pass the information along to prisoners they know. And for some reason, many prisoners who’ve committed sex crimes seem to have a compulsion to talk about it.

[casdave]

When a prisoner has infringed the rules in some way, how do you determine wether he actually did it, does he have access to legal advice and who would pay for this legal advice ?

Over here, when a prisoner has infringed the rules, we write out a charge sheet.
The person writing this out becomes the ‘reporting officer’ and from that moment on is classed as a witness to the events.

The prisoner is brought before a summary review in front of a governor and if the infringement draws a low enough sanction, the presiding governor can deal with it, but first must decide if the evidence presented supports the charge.

If the infringement is more serious, such as one which might attract a loss of remission - ie extra days in prison - the hearing is held over until a judicially trained person, usually a retired judge, can be brought in and the evidence is again reviewed.
The Reporting Officer can be questioned only through the presiding judge, and cannot be questioned directly by the prisoner, or his witnesses or advisors - this is to prevent intimidation.

At these more serious hearings the prisoner can require the presence of a qualified legal advisor, and the money for this almost always comes out of the public purse.

I have known prisoners lose up to 49 days for these kinds of infringements, but it really has to be pretty bad.

The kicker is that if a prisoner applies for early release, one condition is that they must be free of prison rule infringements for 3 to 6 months, and in the case of a person on a life parole sentance, it can delay their parole hearing by up to three years, so you can imagine that plenty of prisoners have every reason to want legal advice, and some will also appeal if the charge is found proved.

If the infringement is more serious, it could be a criminal offence, such as trying to escape over the fence and will be sent for a full public trial where the relevant jail term can be awarded.

[Little_Nemo]

When a prisoner has infringed the rules in some way, how do you determine wether he actually did it, does he have access to legal advice and who would pay for this legal advice ?

If it’s a violation of the penal code, we call the police in to re-arrest the prisoner and he goes through the regular court system in which case he has all of the normal legal rights any accused person would have. Otherwise, all of our disciplinary hearings are conducted in house by employees of the prison.

We have a standard rulebook which applies to all facilities in the state. If a prisoner breaks on of these rules, he receives a misbehavior report - any employee can issue such a report. Each facility has a review officer who reads all the reports and determines that a valid charge is described (but doesn’t review the evidence to determine if it’s actually true) and determines what level the offense was.

Tier I’s are the lowest level. These hearings are conducted by sergeants (the rank above correction officers). Prisoners cannot be given cell confinement at a Tier I. These hearings have a pretty low standard on due process. Punishments at this level are loss of privileges like recreation or commissary purchases or extra work assignements for a period of up to thirteen days. The record of any Tier I hearing are automatically expunged after a month.

Tier II’s are the next level. These hearings are usually conducted by a lieutenant. These hearings have more due process; the hearing is recorded and the prisoner can call for witnesses. The punishment can run up to thirty days of cell confinement. Tier II proceedings stay on a prisoner’s record (assuming he’s found guilty).

Tier III’s are the highest level. In theory, they are conducted by the superintendant but in practice they are conducted by somebody he designates. The procedure is pretty much the same as a Tier II. The punishment can really be as high as the hearing officer wants it - the only limit is that it must be a specified period of time (I can give a guy twenty years’ of cell confinement but I can’t say something like he’s confined forever or until I let him out). Also at Tier III’s I can put a prisoner on a special diet (the loaf I mentioned above) for up to seven days. Or I can recommend he lose Good Time (which is what prisoners earn towards an early release to parole).

All of the decisions at hearings are subject to appeal. The superintendant reviews Tier I’s and II’s and the commissioner of the department reviews Tier III’s.

Court decisions in New York are that prisoners have adequate legal access as loneg as they have access to a legal library and access via phone of mail to outside lawyers. The state does not provide any prisoners with legal advisors.

The standard of evidence required at a prison disciplinary hearing is that we must have some degree of evidence that the misbehavior occurred in order to find guilt. We are not required to have proof beyond a reasonable doubt or even a preponderance of evidence.

[casdave]

The evidence we use is classed as ‘balance of probability’, which is quire a way lower than ‘beyond reasonable doubt’

The changes to sentencing rules mean that a prisoner has more to lose if charges are ‘found proved’.

The rules for release and parole have been tightened up considerably, and the average time served has increased, although the average sentence length is only slightly increased.

Its because to qualify for earlier release, prisoners have to be free of adjudications for a set period of time - it depends upon those folk who set the condition in the sentence plan department.

The other thing that is happening, and is welcome in my view, is that when a prisoner is released - after half the sentence - they are only on release licence for the remainder of their term and can be recalled to prison for any misbehaviour, or breach of licence terms such as hanging out with named individuals etc.

The licence recalls were not all that stringently enforced up to maybe two years ago, now they are - which is as it should be, so a released prisoner missing a couple appointments with their probation officer is now sent back to jail.

We now have a system of ‘strikes’ but this is not like in the US.
Here when an offender gets a strike it moves them one step closer to a ‘life sentence’

A life sentence in the UK rarely means whole life, though it can. It usually means that a prisoner will complete a term set by the judge and is then on a licence for the remaninder of their lives - they can be recalled for breaches of that licence any time after that without having committed another criminal offence - for instance being in a car alongside the driver who has stolen it.

One recalled the prisoner has to earn release again, and those adjudications can really hurt their application.

Right now the big push is to provide education and training for prisoners, and the incentive for prisoners is that successful completion of such courses can greatly enhance their possibility of earlier release.

The pressures that trainers/educators have as a result are huge, and yet in my view most of this training is not all that useful, or relevant to the real world - many of the qualifications have little value.

How is the performance of your prison monitored ? most folk probably don’t realise the prisons have to achieve certain results and that prisons are frequently inspected.

Inspections are a pain, having to deal with all the paperwork and yet try to keep your normal day to day work going at the same time.

We get education inspections, health & safety, prisoner welfare, security inpsections, various facility inspections all at various levels from local through to national, and in frequency to two or three times a day to the really big inspections about once every two years.

[poetwarlord]

Do heterosexual women in prison go through a temporary change in their choice of sexual partners in the same ratio as men in prison?

[Elendil_s_Heir]

[QUOTE=casdave]
…The prisoner is brought before a summary review in front of a governor and if the infringement draws a low enough sanction, the presiding governor can deal with it, but first must decide if the evidence presented supports the charge…
[/QUOTE]

For clarity’s sake, the warden or superintendant of a British prison is called a governor, right? Here, the governor is the elected chief executive of a state. He or she wouldn’t be that deeply involved in prison administration.

[Little_Nemo]

How is the performance of your prison monitored ? most folk probably don’t realise the prisons have to achieve certain results and that prisons are frequently inspected.

Inspections are a pain, having to deal with all the paperwork and yet try to keep your normal day to day work going at the same time.

We get education inspections, health & safety, prisoner welfare, security inpsections, various facility inspections all at various levels from local through to national, and in frequency to two or three times a day to the really big inspections about once every two years.

We have various levels of inspections. Within the department, we have a commissioner, various deputy commissioners and assistant commissioners, and regional superintendants, who will make inspection visits to facilities. There are other state agencies that will make inspections of some areas like health or building codes. There is the Commission of Corrections, which is a body independant of our department and is appointed by the legislature. And there is the American Corrections Association, a non-governmental nation-wide prison monitoring company. And there are laws saying that certain people such as legislators and judges are allowed to enter prisons at any time if they wish.

[Little_Nemo]

Do heterosexual women in prison go through a temporary change in their choice of sexual partners in the same ratio as men in prison?

I’ve never worked in a women’s prison but from what I’ve heard from coworkers who have, many of the women do seek out other women for sex.

[RunSilent]

Serious question: what if someone is a vegetarian and goes to prison? Any special eating accomodations made? What about other types of special diets?

[Little_Nemo]

Serious question: what if someone is a vegetarian and goes to prison? Any special eating accomodations made? What about other types of special diets?

Any special diet for medical reasons is allowed. We also provide some special diets for religious reasons - we’re currently serving two extra meals for those inmates who are fasting during daylight hours for Ramadan. All meals have a regular entree and an alternative entree which is generally non-meat. Although it depends on your definition of vegetarianism; some of the “non-meat” alternatives are poultry or fish.

[Autumn_Almanac]

What is the general demeanor of the inmates? Is there pressure to act tough or stoic? Is a prisoner who appears timid/frightened/weak at a disadvantage? What about positive emotional displays?