Ask a Corrections Officer

[c172]

Inmates keep suing for such things as the quality of the food. How is the food that inmates are given?

[Whateverist]

Surely organically and locally grown?

[robvalue]

Heya, welcome Mike

Looks like you have plenty of questions already!

[Napoléon]

Curious about the American Prison system? I work at a county jail in Kansas City. I also hold a bachelors degree in Crime and Delinquency Studies. I took this job three and a half years ago to get some experience I needed to pursue related fields. Fire away with your questions.

Ever seen a man eat his own head?

[Longhorn]

Why would you want to be a prison guard?

[InsomniacMike486]

Hi, by the way and welcome to the forum ....
From an Aussie who doesn't know a lot about your field, my first question would be: are they privatized?
Do "tenants" have the right to religious prayer time?

There are certainly privatized jails and prisons (which are just terrible places and businesses). The one I work at is run by a county government (which isn't much better). The county has more of a motivation to attempt rehabilitation methods on inmates so they won't be returning for us to have to waste money housing, feeding, giving medical care, paying officers to watch them, etc. Private prisons have a motivation to lobby for laws and practices to keep people in the correctional system for much longer periods of time so they can suckle on the fat teat of the American Government. Private prisons are destroying humanity.

All inmates have the right to religious freedom and are given time and materials deemed needed for the practice of said religion (bible, quran, torah, prayer mats, etc.) There are church programs available to those inmates who prove themselves to not be violent and unpredictable. We even have a ramadan program for muslim inmates where we feed them after a certain time of night and set up a feast for them at the end of it for jumma.

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Are cops really  incentivized to arrest more people?

That depends on the mentality of the department. Personally I have never seen a cop talk about any incentive programs (like giving out more tickets for a bonus or anything). Some departments have a mentality like "I arrested ten people this week, my cop dick is bigger than your cop dick." That does exist in the minds of the ones I'd rather not be cops.

If at any time a cops feels like your the one being an asshole, they are more likely to screw you with the long dick of the law and still be considered justified. That's just the amount of authority they are given. Corrections officers are a bit different (not by much though) because we have to have a continued contact with the same people on a daily basis. We have more incentive than cops to do build a better rapport with them and treat them with a consistent level of decency regardless of how crazy they act.

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Welcome aboard.

In your opinion to what extent did the female officer assist the two in NY escape?

Based on your experience how often to officer/inmate interactions cross the line?

That is an awesome question. First of all to clarify, that woman was not an officer. She was an employee paid to run a work program. Different job descriptions, but same level of access for many things for all intents and purposes.

What she did was help provide materials the inmates used to escape, which is basically just as bad as busting them out herself. I don't want to say anything to knock women in the workplace (that workplace being law enforcement) but typically speaking the inmates will go after the female officers when they want somebody to mule in stuff for them. They look for the ones who aren't as pretty or don't carry themselves as confidently. That woman was older and her marriage was on the rocks. The inmate picked up on that and used that against her to get her to do his bidding.

An inmate will use a male officer but usually that is more through blackmail. It starts off with something small "Hey CO! share some of that gum with me." then it goes to "Can i bum a smoke off ya? I'll give you five bucks for it." After that, they have you, if you don't do what they want, when they want, they will turn you in just for the fun of it. Then there goes your job.

This happens every day by the way, especially in poorly funded facilities. The county job I work now (and hopefully will be quitting for a better job soon) starts off new officers with $11.33/hr. Lines are crossed all the time solely based on that.

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Is prison rape really all that common?

We don't know, because most people do not report being raped. We had a guy we knew was raped but wouldn't talk about it because he was way too scared of the inmate who threatened to find him or his family if he talked.

We had another one who almost died bleeding out his rectum from two weeks of being raped by pretty much every guy in the module (it was a mistake to put just one white kid in a module of black gang bangers). We found him bloody and passed out in his bunk during a routine check and rushed him to the ER. He still wouldn't talk about it out of the fear and shame.

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Do the newbie inmates have to toss the Alfa inmates salad?

Depends on who you know and who you affiliate yourself with. Typically we house inmates of similar jail and prison experience together so an "Alpha" doesn't really arise in an area too often.

I'm not going to tell you that it never happens, but we try to arrange things so they don't get that way.

[InsomniacMike486]

Is it fun in prison -I always wondered- ?

Is it like in the movies, that you end becoming best friends with a few people and then escape and go live on a beach somewhere?

Some people (typically the younger inmates) find it to be a bit like summer camp with all their friends from the hood. It sounds racist I know, but that is what it looks like sometimes.

Many of these guys know each other from the street and just hang out all day in between court and rack down times. It just depends on the inmates personal situation and what kinds of skills they have, who they know.

Prison isn't fun, but for people who have nothing to lose, they will find a way to live it up. We had a guy who loved striping naked, jumping up on a table in the dayspace area of a module and covering himself and everything around him in baby oil (that we no longer sell to them for this reason) and tell us to "Come get me". He called it recreation.

[brewer]

All excellent answers. Thank you.

[InsomniacMike486]

What are the worst things about how the current system works, and how can those things be fixed?

What are the best things about how the current system works?

Oh sweet scientific method...I'll try not to write a book here.

The best and worst thing about the current (American) system is that it keeps people off the streets. I say this in the sense that they are now in jail where they can't hurt anyone but themselves, each other, and us (the officers who keep them in custody). So that is a good thing, for the violent offenders. 

It is also the worst thing you can do for non-violent offenders. People who have drug problems need more rehab programs and facilities that are not jails. These will save us money in the long run by helping them get back on track and out of the system. We need more integration back into the community, not treating those people like lepers. Most inmates will find themselves back in jail within three years of being released, and most just learn how to be better criminals (or at least more violent and less trusting of society).

I hate the practice of privatized prisons, I talked a bit on that already in a previous response to somebodies question so look that up.

Another terrible thing about jails is that everybody sees it as a drain on taxpayer dollars. They will attempt to fund any given facility at a bare minimum. This leads to under payed staff and ineffective treatment programs that will lead to contraband smuggling, escapes, staff corruption, lawsuits, etc.

To fix it, we need to change how we view offenders (most of them) as people who need help. That girl shooting up junk in her veins and selling herself needs rehab and therapy, not a prison cell where she will blow guards for smokes until she can get back out on the street.

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What do you think of the Riker's Island scandal?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/06/22...40896.html

NEW YORK, June 22 (Reuters) - New York City has agreed to carry out reforms at its Rikers Island jail complex to resolve U.S. Justice Department claims that guards regularly used unnecessary force against inmates, U.S. officials said on Monday.

I think its great that they are taking steps to change how their facility is run. In the short term, this is going to lead to a lot of staff disgruntlement over feeling like they are losing control of the facility to the inmates. In the long run, after they hire new people and train them the way they should be trained, it will lead to a de-escalation of how inmates will react towards officers. If the inmate feels threatened, then he will strike first (law of the streets). If staff are trained to avoid such situations then they will see a drop in incidents, therefore a drop in lawsuits. It will lead to a drop in how changed inmates leave the facility too.

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Are cops really  incentivized to arrest more people?

And is there a bonus if they're black .. provided you brutalize them first?







Sorry if that was rude, no personal attack intended.  And welcome.

No there is not institutionalized policy on "Bonus points for black people." It might seem like it with all that is going on in America right now, but I believe that there is an element working in there that is not being talked about.

Personally I've noticed people (and admittedly myself) deal with different inmates differently while at the same time not exactly being racist. Personally I don't hate anyone for any genetic disposition. However there is a mechanic at work when you deal with a white officer who grew up from the suburbs and a Black guy whose had some run ins with the law who grew up on the streets. Those two grew up in way different worlds and have little to relate to each other on. Both of them are going to have some pre-conceived notions about one another and are less likely to view the other as "A guy like me". When you don't have that empathy present in a situation, anything can happen, and typically it can go bad for both of them in a hurry if they are not mindful.

We need cross cultural empathy taught to law enforcement to have them be more comfortable with any type of person they encounter. I learned this through work experience (and I screwed some stuff up while learning it. Not proud of it, but it happened). I believe if we can get this taught, before people go out patrolling our streets strapped up and freshly paranoid from that academy video where they officer was shot to death, then we will start to see a change in how things are handled.

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Inmates keep suing for such things as the quality of the food. How is the food that inmates are given?

I eat it sometimes when there is left overs. Think about public school cafeteria food. Its somewhere in that ballpark most of the time. I've never had a problem with it. Kinda bland most of the time.

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Curious about the American Prison system? I work at a county jail in Kansas City. I also hold a bachelors degree in Crime and Delinquency Studies. I took this job three and a half years ago to get some experience I needed to pursue related fields. Fire away with your questions.

Ever seen a man eat his own head?

actually yes. We had a schizo inmate cut chucks of his scalp off and put it in his mouth before we took the razor away from him and got him stitched up. Mental healthcare in jail is not the best...It needs reform.

[Minimalist]

Well-reasoned answer.  You're being wasted where you are.  You should be running a prison system.