Who are the day-to-day guards in the prison? MPs? Just regular soldiers who were posted there? Something else? It seems that the training to be a prison guard is different than anything else in the military.
Ouch. Talk about a hardship posting.
Was that a typo, or were there actually Special Operations soldiers pre-WWI?
Thank you - this is a fascinating thread.
Out in the real world every other guy I meet seems to have been a sniper or a SEAL. Do you get many who try to pretend to be what they are not? Some POG who claims to be a Green Beret for cred?
That is a complicated question Nemo. For one POW is a term used for Americans that are captured. Enemy soldiers that are captured are called EPWs. In a war such as we had in the past when we were at war with countries which signed the Geneva Convention crimes committed by EPWs were treated like crimes committed by American soldiers. The were subject to court martial. In the current conflict there are no EPWs since they are do not belong to a formal military. They are Enemy Combatants and obviously their legal status has been the subject of a lot of legal wrangling the last few years. I have more knowledge about what has happened in Iraq as opposed to Afghanistan. In Iraq almost all detainees were ultimately the responsibility of the Iraqi government. I don’t know if we tried any of them.
Two more questions for you. I know the inmates are all E-1s and the guards are NCOs. Is there a Private to NCO relationship with the inmates? Do they get charged with disobeying a NCO for the things that often happen in civilian prison?
And is it easier to deal with psychopaths and child molesters than it was to be in recruiting? 
Do you have drug and contraband issues like every other prison?
As an ex LEO, I find it ludicrous that any drugs, phones, or other contraband isn’t discovered.
I find it unconscionable that the guards or employees would actually help or facilitate the introduction of contraband.
We’ve all seen Supermax prisons on Discovery Channel or similar; are military inmates as high-maintenance as these morons? Constant weapons, constant fighting, constant cat-and-mouse games? Or do you house a slightly better class of criminal?
Why is called US Disciplinary Barracks, instead of Prison? It sounds rather…kinky.
The parole board will take into consideration whether an inmate has completed the therapy offered. The therapy is generally crime specific. Most of the therapy is conducted through groups. Some of the groups offered are assaultive offenders, anger management, Sex offender treatment, and life skills. You won’t catch any new charges for not completing the treatment programs, but it will be looked at by the parole board. One reason why someone may not choose to participate in therapy would be if he denies the charges. If the inmate is undergoing an appeal, he will not want to admit to charges if that can be used against him in court.
The corrections specialists are trained by the Army to do their job. They are highly skilled and under the supervision of Non-Commissioned Officers. The job is requested upon enlistment, so no, they are not regular Soldiers. Generally, they are much more professional than most Soldiers in the Army.
That was a typo, that I didn’t catch. I meant to type 10 years, but somehow I got an extra zero.
There are a couple that have tried to pass themselves off as something they are not. Usually, they get found out because they don’t know things that a Sniper, for instance would know (units, duty assignments, leadership). They lose a lot of credibility once it gets found out they lied.
There is a Soldier to inmate relationship between the corrections staff and the inmates. If the inmates fail to follow a direction from the staff, they can get a disciplinary report. They can also get charges for disrespecting a staff member. The things that they do in a civilian prison prior to coming to the USDB will be used in the assessment of them, but they usually don’t get extra charges for what they did in civilian custody.
Honestly, I feel it is about the same to deal with psychopaths and those with child sex offenses as it was in Recruiting. I do almost the same thing. I meet the person, gather some background information, and complete an interview. The biggest difference is that I don’t have anyone asking me when I am going to put my next applicant in prison.
SFC Schwartz
They do search the cells on occasion, but for obvious reasons, I can’t go into when or why. There are some crude weapons found. Drugs are not completely unheard of, but far from common. When new staff first arrives they have two weeks of training on how to relate to the inmates and some of the games the inmates play to get the staff to turn. We do, for the most part have a better class of inmates. Most of the inmates are not career criminals and only want to do their time and go home. That makes it a lot easier for the staff, and keeps a lot of the contraband out. There are fights, anytime you have 400 men together, some won’t get along, but it is not like you would think from watching Lockup. Fights are rare enough that we spend a good deal of talking about it when it happens.
Barracks, because it is housing for the inmates. Disciplinary because well there is a punishment associated with being there. The Military Prison thing would sound almost like calling the dining facility, the on post restaurant, or calling the latrine the bathroom. It wouldn’t sound, Military.
SFC Schwartz
Jesus.
Let’s put that on recruiting posters.
I did mean it as people are people, regardless of the circumstance, but I could get behind your opinion as well sometimes.
SFC Schwartz
Is the specific therapy offered rigidly based on the crime for which the person is convicted? (e.g. "You were convicted of Assault, your therapy is “Anger Management”), or are there allowances for determining the best therapy for the person at that stage in their life? E.g. “You were convicted of Rape. Let’s sit down and see if you did it primarily out of anger, out of sexaholism, because of low impulse control, because you are a pervert. This will help us route you to the therapy that you will get the most out of.” E.g. say Sgt. Robinson is convicted of Assault, but in prison it comes out that the crime occurred primarily out of romantic jealousy, not out of a general anger problem. Could he be transferred to family, relationship, or sexual counseling because general anger management isn’t really what he needs?
Do lifers with no possibility of parole or people on death row get the same therapy that others do, or is it tailored with the assumption that they won’t need any therapy with respect to getting along outside of prison, meaning that the therapy is restricted to issues that affect prison life? E.g. “No family dynamics therapy for you, you’ll never be back home with them anyway because you are on death row.”
Do I look angry?
You’re g-ddamn right I’m angry!
I can see that.
Not to get into specifics for any individual, but what’s the longest time you might see somebody already served? Any inmates serving for crimes committed in Vietnam, for example?
Or, to give another example and perhaps be more specific as to what I was asking about:
Inmate Jones: “I wanted to talk about my therapy group.”
Therapy Coordinator: “Oh?”
IJ: “Yes. I know I was sent here for sexually assaulting my daughter, but it seems that I have very little in common with the other people in the Sex Offender group. They all seem to have deep-seated sexual problems. I don’t. It looks like what happened was that I committed the crime mostly because I was high on speed, and that attacking the drug problem is really what I need to be doing right now.”
TC: “What does the sex offender therapist say?”
IJ: “He pretty much agrees. He told me that I’m not a match for the therapy he offers because I don’t have deep-seated sexual issues when I’m sober and my offense was so atypical for me. The rest of the guys have sexual issues going back to childhood.”
TC: “Your conviction record doesn’t indicate any drug convictions.”
IJ: “I had a good attorney and he got the drug evidence ruled inadmissible.”
TC: “Interesting. I’ll see what I can do.”
Would Inmate Jones be likely to get transferred into drug therapy and out of sex therapy? Or does the fact that he’s in prison for a sex crime mean that he’s stuck with sex therapy?
I refuse to believe that someone can sexually assault his daughter just because he was high on speed. I don’t think there’s any drug in the world that can make an otherwise-normal man do something like that.
Well, it was just an example. I don’t really know whether it could happen in real life. But, my point is that a person’s “issues” may not necessarily correspond 1 to 1 with the crime that they are in jail for. A person in jail for Arson might have an anger problem (and they ended up torching someone’s property because they were mad), or they might just be in it for the insurance money because they have a gambling problem (and thus might need counseling from that direction).
I had that situation come up several times when I was working - prisoners would claim that we weren’t addressing what they felt was their real problem. And in some cases, they were right. I recall one guy in an AA program tell me that he hadn’t assaulted his victim because he had been drinking - he said he had assaulted him because the guy wasn’t paying him the $1500 he owed and the fact that he had been drinking at the time was coincidental.
Our standard response was that a person can have more than one issue that needs to be addressed. If you sexually assaulted your daughter while you were high on speed, you need to address your sexual problem and your drug problem.
Many thanks for this fascinating thread, and for your service to the people of the United States!
Could you give us a rough-percentage breakdown of your 400 prisoners, by race, ethnicity and age?
Are any of your prisoners “political” in the sense that they disobeyed orders with which they philosophically disagreed? Any birthers, for instance?
Any of your prisoners convicted of torture or maltreatment of EPWs or ECs overseas?
What was your former lieutenant colonel’s crime or crimes?
Are all of your prisoners technically still on active duty so that they’re subject to the UCMJ? What percentage of them get a dishonorable discharge upon completing their time?
What are the gradations of discipline or punishment for misbehavior within the USDB? Might it include a guard giving you a talking-to, all the way up to solitary confinement or additional time added to your sentence? Is hard labor or limited diet used as a punishment? If prosecuted, would they get a court-martial?
Are prisoners often working on legal appeals?
Do prisoners often fake sickness or malinger so as not to have to work?
Are there any daily or regular military ceremonies such as raising the colors, inspections, etc.? Do you have to salute superior officers just as you would on other Army posts?
Thanks again!
Yes, and one of the things that I do, under supervision of a credentialed psychotherapist, is recommend what therapy an inmate needs. For the most part, all inmates attend anger management. If the inmate used a weapon or violence he will attend assaultive offenders group. We don’t always look to the cause of the crime when deciding what treatment groups the inmate needs. Generally, we look to assist the inmate in getting any and all treatment groups will be best for the inmate. So if an inmate physically assaulted someone to commit a rape, he would get therapy for both the sex crime and the violent crime.
Death row inmates can’t get to the therapy groups. It really is a logistical nightmare to move them to doctors appointments and the like, so we will come out to their cells and do for them what we can. It is not as you suggest that we discard them because they are on death row, because there is always the chance that the sentence will be reduced and they may be given a number (release date). The death row inmate will not do therapy until that happens, but his mental health needs will be taken care of.
No, nobody in for crimes in VietNam. I have met inmates who have been in for over 10 years. I know there are some who have been confined for longer, but I have not met them.
SFC Schwartz
I am going to take this debate all at one time. The simple answer is that the inmate will receive substance abuse therapy as well as sexual offender therapy. The long answer (as the counselors who work with the sex offenders will tell you) is that the offender has generally violated many people before the confining offense. So if he said he only violated his daughter because he was high on speed, he may have assaulted his neighbor because he was drunk, he may have had sex with his girlfriend because he was bigger than her. I don’t know exactly what the statistics show, because I am not a sex offender therapist, but very few (none) are convicted on their first offense.
SFC Schwartz
Bolded responses will be mine. Questions will be as posted by Elendil’s Heir
Many thanks for this fascinating thread, and for your service to the people of the United States! Thank you
Could you give us a rough-percentage breakdown of your 400 prisoners, by race, ethnicity and age?Even if I had that information, I don’t think I would feel comfortable sharing the demographics of the average USDB inmate.
Are any of your prisoners “political” in the sense that they disobeyed orders with which they philosophically disagreed? Any birthers, for instance?**No. In order to be sentenced to the USDB the inmate must be convicted in open court of a felony. **
Any of your prisoners convicted of torture or maltreatment of EPWs or ECs overseas?**We do have some that have murdered non-combatants. We have some that have killed prisoners or detainees. This is one of the things I can’t go into specifics on. **
What was your former lieutenant colonel’s crime or crimes?
**Nope, can’t answer that. As Command directed. **
Are all of your prisoners technically still on active duty so that they’re subject to the UCMJ? What percentage of them get a dishonorable discharge upon completing their time?
**Almost all of the inmates I work with have been dishonorably discharged. The UCMJ, as you are suggesting, applies to non-judicial punishment. I have a few, that when they get out they will be subject to non-judicial punishment, but I have very few to return to Active Duty **
What are the gradations of discipline or punishment for misbehavior within the USDB? Might it include a guard giving you a talking-to, all the way up to solitary confinement or additional time added to your sentence? Is hard labor or limited diet used as a punishment? If prosecuted, would they get a court-martial?
**A severe enough offense will get an inmate another court martial. If an inmate kills another person, he will be tried as would anyone else. The penalties for other offenses range from loss of good time to recreation restriction. Sometimes the inmate will be moved to a higher security cell.
There are no hard labor or bread and water sentences handed out. I really was surprised when I arrived and no one was breaking rocks. (Too many convict films, I guess.**
Are prisoners often working on legal appeals?
Some are. Some pled guilty and don’t really have any grounds to appeal.
Do prisoners often fake sickness or malinger so as not to have to work?
Not many. There are not a lot of ways to get some of the needed comforts, such as snacks, shoes, phone calls, unless someone puts money in your account. The best way to get money in your account is to work and earn it. I have more trouble getting inmates to miss work when I need to see them, than I do with them missing work for un-needed reasons.
Are there any daily or regular military ceremonies such as raising the colors, inspections, etc.? Do you have to salute superior officers just as you would on other Army posts?
The colors are raised every morning, before most staff arrive, and lowered every every evening after most staff have left. I do have to salute the Officers, and I expect the curtsey afforded my rank from those junior to me. The inmates do not get the same curtsey. They cannot salute, they cannot call attention.
Thanks for the questions. Sorry for the delay in response. I have been on call.
SFC Schwartz
Thanks again