I work in a military prison. Ask me anything.

Is it possible for a psychopath lie on the Hare test and fake out the test to “pass”? (I’m unfamiliar with the test, also.)

They can try. The test is over a hundred questions, and the answers to the questions are compared to the background information from the inmate’s file. If the information provided by the inmate doesn’t match then there is an indication he is lying. Pathological lying is one of the points that indicates psychopathy.

One of the other advantages we have is that we, the mental health staff, know what characteristics we are looking for to determine psychopathy. The inmate doesn’t unless someone has told him that he is a psychopath. Finally, the rule of thumb that we use is if you find yourself liking the inmate, he may be a psychopath.

SFC Schwartz

In my state prison system (for which I help manage health care delivery), about 70% of our inmates have a history of significant alcohol/drug abuse, and over 30% have mental illness diagnoses, with over 10% with severe mental illness. 13% have hepatitis C, and 0.6% have HIV. Between 10-20% are psychopaths.

Have any statistics on your military population?

I’d be curious to hear your thoughts about the treatment of Bradley Manning. If that qualifies as information on a specific inmate or if you just don’t want to touch that potential firestorm, I completely understand!

Thanks for doing this thread, it’s fascinating. And thanks for your service.

Are there any convicted former officers that finish their sentence with a service obligation as an enlisted person? From my recollection, after an officer has fulfilled their minimum obligated time (to repay Academy or ROTC scholarships), they can resign at any time. How does this work with an officer who has been demoted to E-1 but not discharged?

This thread is very fascinating.

The entire TV remote control thing would make my kids heads asplode.

(and we only have one TV in the house.)

I use this rule in everyday life. I am free of psychopaths, but have no friends. :smiley:

Not to dodge your question, and I won’t ignore it, but I’m not gonna touch that!!!:smiley:

SFC Schwartz

How do the inmates know what service another inmate was? How would they know if they were special forces, etc?

I don’t have hard and fast numbers, but we have one with MRSA, one with HIV, and out of 400+ inmates only two psychopaths. Alcohol abuse is involved in over half of the inmates offenses. We have less than 10% with severe mental health issues. The reason that the numbers are so low, is that psychopaths generally are not drawn to the structure and organization of the military. Most of the Soldiers with severe alcohol or drug issues get put out. The same goes for those with mental illness. Another thing is that if the needs of an inmate exceed our abilities, the inmate may be transferred to a federal prison, where they can get the care they need.

I haven’t seen an officer at our facility get reduced in rank and not get a dishonorable discharge. Being an Officer in the Military requires a high level of professionalism, so I would think that the former officer would resign his commission and request an early separation. That is another one that I will have to go over to our other facility on Tuesday and ask.

Yeah, I make sure I share the remote with my wife a lot more. I don’t want her to think she is my bi…:smack:

After working with some of the inmates, I am fine without friends.

SFC Schwartz

When the inmates first arrive, they are in a reception pod. There is not a lot to do when in reception at night, other than talk to the other inmates in reception. So the common questions are what did you do? What was your rank? Branch? etc. That is how some of the information gets shared. When the inmates leave reception, they go to their regular housing pod. Again they will be asked what they did, any special skills, rank, etc. The inmates can lie, and say they were officers in special forces, but generally, there is no good reason to lie. It will be found out.

SFC Schwartz

LOL or by those married to them. Though properly he is a retired bubblehead =)

Do you ever, or could you in theory, get civilian inmates?

E.g. Sgt. Joe commits a crime while in the service, isn’t caught, then finishes his service and receives an honorable discharge. Later on (say, later that year), evidence linking Joe to the crime surfaces. This might tie in to whether or not ex-military can still be tried under military jurisdiction for events occurring when they were military.

Or, alternately, can civilians be sentenced to military prison if they committed a crime on a base, or if they were a civilian employee or contractor to the military?

Civilians, those without any military experience will not be sentenced to the USDB. If a civilian contractor shot someone over in Iraq, he would be tried in a federal court, and sentenced to a federal prison.

In your other example, I remember reading about a case several years ago in which a Soldier had killed his family. He was acquitted in the Court Martial, but the state of North Carolina had some charges to present. He was convicted by the state of North Carolina and sentenced. The military found some new evidence for another charge that had not been tried, so they restored the inmate to Active Duty for the period of the Court Martial.

If the inmate got out, and several years later was charged with a crime under the UCMJ, I would imagine the military would do the same thing and restore the accused to Active Duty, just like he was called up on Stop Loss. He would have pay and benefits restored until the Court Martial was over. I have not seen anyone that falls into that case, so I would think the federal prisons would take that inmate as well.

SFC Schwartz

Does the Army Corrections Command also control POW’s or is that a separate system?

Does sick call work the same way it does in the rest of the Army? How would they handle an inmate put on quarters?

The Corrections Specialists that I work with generally do rotations to Iraq, Afghanistan, and Cuba. They deal with the detainees the same as they do the inmates at the USDB.

Yes, good question. The inmates report to sick call first thing in the morning. If you are too sick to go to work, you go back to your cell. There are still corrections staff during the day, as not everyone works dayshift, and not every one has a full time job, so it wouldn’t be like he is alone back there.

SFC Schwartz

What happens is a POW commits a serious crime? Let’s say for example that one POW assaulted another one.

I’m assuming that the Army would take disciplinary action in response to something like this. Is the disciplinary system for POW-on-POW crimes run solely by the Army or do the POW’s have a voice in the outcome?

What happens if a POW is sentenced to ten years imprisonment for a serious crime and the war ends before his sentence does? Is he sent back with the other POW’s being released or does he have to stay behind to complete his sentence?

So what do YOU do on your time off duty? My aunt and uncle live in Leavenworth (uncle’s retired Army and still works for TRADOC), and there doesn’t seem to be squat to do in that town. Pretty place, and pretty post, but deathly dull.

Do you go to Lawrence, Kansas City, or just hang around Leavenworth?

This is probably verging on the “stuff you can’t talk about” category, but…do you get a lot of Special Forces guys as inmates? I mean, is it especially rare, or are you as likely to get one sent to you as you are someone from any other random branch of the service?