Anyone who worked "inside the walls?"

[Psychofish]

Going on my fifth year working inside of a county jail. Its fun, but I can already tell I'm getting burned out a bit and will be up for a change very soon. Luckily our sheriff is in charge of about six or seven facilities so I can keep the same job, but a different view for a while.

Anyone else on here who worked at a jail or prison?


I like listening to the inmates complain about the razors we give them only having one blade, "how can you expect us to shave with this!?!" and "Why don't you try to shave with a razor that only has one blade sometime!"

 

[Shavely Manden]

My mother used to work as a psychiatrist for the local county jail, but ended up switching to the city jail after finding the felons a bit much to handle. (And she's a tough lady...really puts the fear of G-d in her patients.)

 

[Psychofish]

There are some pretty crazy ones that's for sure! Sadly our society has become so PC that there is no longer any "crazy houses" or asylums and a lot of the ones who would have been in there in years past are now on the streets and due to their illness' become a problem and end up in the jails and prisons. I've dealt with plenty of guys who were pretty far out there!

 

[valleyrider]

I used to install fire alarms in a few jails and some the the stories we would here and things we would see made me more appreciative of our Co's. I remember one jail where the inmates started grouping up and were about 30 seconds away from from pushing over the lift I was on 40 feet up in the air to use a a distraction for the riot they were about to start. The guards rushed in just in time to lock everyone down and it stopped all our work there for the whole week. The next day they had one of the largest riots that jail has ever seen. One of the inmates somehow swiped one of our utility blades but I was recovered 10 mins later before before their planned attack on one of the guards. The guards at that prison definitely deserve all the pay they receive. I'm very thankful for all the work Co's do in maintaining peace in our prison systems.

 

[Psychofish]

There are some real nuts! We had one guy who was just plain freaking out! No one knew what was wrong with him, talking in touges, and he had amazing strength for a guy his size. The medical staff put him on a gurney to be taken to the hospital and put the soft tie downs on him for transport in the ambulance. He flexed his body, and when we relaxed all the straps were loose! My supervisor looked at my partner and myself and ended up sending two other officers with us out to the ER. The whole ten minutes we were driving in the ambulance he was snapping his jaw biting at the air, screaming, and rocking the vehicle from his confined movements. I called ahead to the ER to have more staff waiting when we got there. He ended up tearing a couple of the soft tie downs in two, bent the side of the gurney from pulling on it, and more pissed off than ever! The doctors sedated him as soon as we got through the door and the testing began. They tested him for everything, and everything came back perfectly clean! No hint of any drug or illness was present! His charges were later dropped by the arresting agency and hes out there somewhere!


Another guy told an officer he was hungry (we hadn't served dinner yet) and then promplty bit a chunk out of his inner wrist! Clean through veins and all like it was a steak! He just about bled out before they could get him into handcuffs and stop the bleeding, but he ended up surviving.

 

[Blix]

You should come work here: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/look-inside-world-nicest-prison-180524054.html

 

[Psychofish]

I wouldn't mind actually being a prisoner there at all!

 

[Legion]

You should come work here: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/look-inside-world-nicest-prison-180524054.html

Isn't that where they promised to send Hannibal Lector if he helped them out?

Bill Ellis (the custom knife/razor maker) has a blog about his days working as a CO. Quite an amusing read.

Hopefully he won't mind me linking it here.

http://jailstories.blogspot.com.au/

 

[Lamb Root]

And while many Sharp looking Personnas sunbathe there on the beach during the summer and the sea is full of Sharks, only unicursal and always disposable Mr. Gillette takes care of the beards.

 

[plpenn]

Are you on a SORT team or anything? Gang intel can be fun too, I always enjoy a good Q&A session and the tats are always fun to pick apart!

 

[Psychofish]

Isn't that where they promised to send Hannibal Lector if he helped them out?

Bill Ellis (the custom knife/razor maker) has a blog about his days working as a CO. Quite an amusing read.

Hopefully he won't mind me linking it here.

http://jailstories.blogspot.com.au/

Thanks for posting that! I read through it and was laughing out loud as its spot on!

Are you on a SORT team or anything? Gang intel can be fun too, I always enjoy a good Q&A session and the tats are always fun to pick apart!

Nope! Just lazy ole line staff! One day I wouldn't mind being on our Special Response Team, but I just blew my knee out last September, and I'm only about 70% and stuck in control a lot. As for our intel, they kind of have a bad rap with the officers. They are effective and all, but they have "claimed" some of the information as their own that we have passed on to them. Infact I know of one officer who spent the better of two years working with the New Mexican Mafia here in the jails, getting to know them, and cracked the code names of all of them. Great info, and when he submitted it to the intel unit he got his pat on the head. They later used the info as an example in a class, and claimed it as all their own work. When I called them on it in the class it was quickly side stepped and the class continued. I'm sure some of the other facilities has some pretty good intel guys, but I have to say my trust for ours was greatly reduced that day.

What about you?

 

[Vickers]

Worked? No.

 

[DaveNJ74]

I feel for you. I was in LE for 10 years and used to transport prisoners to central booking. There I would have to loge my weapon and go unarmed into the facility with the prisoner. Just the stench used to make me sick for to 30-45 mins spent in there. I couldn't imagine 8-12 hours a day in there.

 

[Phog Allen]

Do any of you know which state penitentiary was actually called The Walls? The Missouri State Penitentiary at Jefferson City. The old beast was built in 1837 and was not decommissioned till 2004! It was of course added on to and somewhat modernised over the decades but it is still an intimidating place. Tours are offered including after dark. It got its nickname from its 30-40 feet high walls. The guard/watch towers are still there and were no joke. You didn't get over those walls. I have a friend who had a distant relative from the early twentieth century who spent six years there as a prisoner. He allegedly told family he would never be back there and was good to his word. In fact, I think he told them he would never set foot in Jeff City again. We were in that city last week and drove by the old place. Foreboding is the word that came to mind.

Cheers, Todd

 

[Phog Allen]

The link I provided is to the tour site. No really great photos. They want you to come and pay up. I don't know why I didn't snap a few shots of it when we were there. Search images on the web.

Cheers, Todd

 

[rickboone1]

I worked state prisons for a year, then county jail for 3 years. Got married. Got out. Moved out of state. Got hired at new state of residence prison. Blew shins out in the academy. Never went back. I miss it at times. You reminded me a lot of what I do not miss. LOL. Yes, you can get burned out. VERY fast. Change shifts if nothing else. Ask for another responsibility. Work visitation or something. Court. Transportation. Go on the road. Test for MCO. Sgt.

I moved back to my original state and run into guys I used to work with. They're not too far from retiring. Well, less than 10 years. Here I am, basically started over for like the 5th time. THAT does bother me some. I've often toyed with going back. Probably once a month. But, I don't. Doubt I will. Have fun with it. Really cool career with lots of options.

 

[urr-lord]

I've been a CO for 25+ years.I'll be retiring soon and can hardly wait.The best thing I can say about the job is it is steady work and beats sleeping under a bridge.The inmates are getting younger and more worthless and more dangerous than in the past.If you believe in gun control,work a while in corrections.It will open your eyes to what walks around daily in our society.It will harden you and make you a pretty good judge of character.CO's are underappreciated and underpaid for the level of stress and the dangerous conditions they work in.

 

[scottish steve]

I feel you'd need to be a particularly special person to work in that environment and not become extremely cynical or to lose something valuable about yourself. I have a theory on how to stop prisons being "criminal universities", but it would never be applied as it would cost a lot of money. Somehow Joe Public seems not to connect prisons with crime. It's like people just go into a void and are supposed to come back several years later and start a flower shop or something. Everyone seems think its nothing to do with them that so many offenders become career criminals. There was a wonderful Uk drama called "Banged Up" about a guy who went to prison for doing something most of us would do. It was horrifyingly fascinating to see his slide from an ordinary guy who'd been unfortunate to get mixed up with real thugs, to the craziest inmate on the block, simply to survive.

 

[Legion]

I feel you'd need to be a particularly special person to work in that environment and not become extremely cynical or to lose something valuable about yourself. I have a theory on how to stop prisons being "criminal universities", but it would never be applied as it would cost a lot of money. Somehow Joe Public seems not to connect prisons with crime. It's like people just go into a void and are supposed to come back several years later and start a flower shop or something. Everyone seems think its nothing to do with them that so many offenders become career criminals. There was a wonderful Uk drama called "Banged Up" about a guy who went to prison for doing something most of us would do. It was horrifyingly fascinating to see his slide from an ordinary guy who'd been unfortunate to get mixed up with real thugs, to the craziest inmate on the block, simply to survive.

Sounds a bit like the HBO series OZ.

 

[Gamad]

Inmates in American jails are just too spoiled.
Now if things looked like that, they would be a little more quiet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dCzGOTj3jII