Squeeze,
I personally am a jailer, and I get the same treatment. What I believe causes a lot of this is the fact that the public has no idea of what our job really entails. Prison Guard, Jailer, Zoo Keeper, none of those titles sound like much, but if they knew that we are the ones that protect them from the inmates and the inmates, and a lot of times at great risk to ourselves, maybe the title wouldn’t seem so low. I remember when I was in the military, I was the Ammo Section Chief for an MLRS battery. Whenever we had a mission, the MLRS crews seem to get all the praise for a job well done. My sections was never mentioned. I saw my guys feeling lower than scum and I called them all together and told them, we don’t get all the praise and glory, but keep this in mind, without us, not a one of those launchers could fire a rocket, all they would be able to do is ruin around and be targets. I then went to my Captain and told him how my people felt and that without the support, nothing would ever get accomplished. He told me he had nor thought about that, but he did agree, and from then on, my guys got praised also. So, to all of you Corrections Officers, Prison Guards, Jailers, and all the rest out there that go on day to day, doing a job that no one else wants to step up and do, I say to you, stand, be proud of who you are and what you do, and remember that without you doing your job every day to the best of your ability, and maintaining your high degree of professionalism the world would be a much less safe place to live in, and your job is as important as any out there.

Squeeze I might take you up on that some day and demand hot sauce. The truth is we will never change the heart and minds of people. I do not bring up my profession usually. Not that I am ashamed. I am rather proud of myself and what I do. It is because I can see the people’s disapproval and disregard for me the moment I mention my profession. They can hold me in high regard and think I am an intelligent and respectable person throughout a conversation. But after they hear I am a Corrections Officer then have to explain that means I am a prison guard I see the change be it facial expression or just in the eyes. So until there is more coverage of the media that is positive than negative people will keep regurgitating the crap they are told by the media. Joe Public cannot dirty their hands with corrupt bullies who were picked on as kids who want to have power and to beat up and rape prisoners while bringing in drugs to them. The sad truth is they fail to put two and two together. If we all did that then who is keeping the prisoners inside the prison? They forget that there are plenty of tools or vehicles inside the prison that could easily get them through that silly fence. Then let’s just forget outside help. The fence is there just to slow them down till we get there to stop them.

Congratulations to all those who have overcome their addictions, I applaud you all.I can’t say I know what it is like but as a son of an alcoholic mother,uncle,grandfather,great grandfather I do know these are very serious conditions. EAP is instituted where I work but does not apply to my addiction of workoholic, this is why I didn’t retire. For so many years we in corrections have fought the good fight about corrections being thought of by the public as “2 steps below a crooked cop”. We are professionals, officers not “guards”. Those of us that live the righteous life in corrections take offence to our own that break the rules and bring bad publicity to our profession. No mercy comes from me to those I work with that break the golden rule of our brotherhood(unisex meant). Never put my coworker in danger, I have their back 360 degrees even if I don’t personally care for them. Trafficking contraband does exactly that, it puts my brothers ans sisters in danger.I consider all of you professionals here on these forums as my brothers and sisters, if you ever get to Omaha my house is your house, I have three extra bedrooms.

I respectfully beg to differ on some of the opinions here.

I’ve fought the alcohol addiction demon myself years back for reasons I’m not going to discuss here. Nothing about it was ever “easy”. Yes, someone wanting help and wanting to quit is always the first and most important step. But to claim that all you need is a positive attitude and overcoming such problems as easy severely discredits the amount of effort and struggle it really can be to overcome such an issue.

Any staff member who brings in contraband or otherwise deals with the inmates is never “best intentioned”. Any fellow staff who do such things are nothing short of a security breach and a huge safety risk to everyone in the camp.

Well there guards who have issues but the rule of thumb is come to work sober. If they cannot do that they will be put counseling once with a last chance agreement. If they mess up again they are done. As for contraband as soon as they are caught they are done. As far as I see it everyone has an addiction. Some it’s training their bodies. For myself I love video games and spending time with my family. For others it’s TV. We all have a vice some just choose more destructive ones.

Well the drug and alcohol is a big problem in every field. But as you said there are lots of treatment options available one can easily conquer their addiction problem. My brother has fought with this condition few years back. He was in grip of severe cocaine addiction, but thanks to http://greenestone.net/treatment/treatment-approach/ rehab professionals who have completely changed his life. He is now physically and mentally strong to keep aside any trouble in his day to day life due to the positive attitude he got from the treatment. So it’s not quite difficult to deal with this problem if you literally want to quit it.

When an officer puts his/her career on the line for a small illegal gain, they are in effect giving their job away. Contraband no matter how small or insignificant is contraband, and a clever inmate will trap off an officer with psychological manipulation by holding that officer’s best intentioned favor against him/her. It is that simple. For our officers who have an addicition there are venues to get treatment. Yes it may cost money, but being free of an addicition is like getting one’s life back again. To use the phrase:“Priceless!.” Further inmates instinctively recognize someone who has an addiction and, again, will work it against the officer. Our agency has a program that understands the sensitivity of the officer’s situation and gets help for them since they asked for help.

Excellent response, Mick.

Bringing contraband into the Prison is a completely different matter. I and most of my colleagues would not have any sympathy for any Officer that brought contraband into the inmates. No matter what the reason. We view them as worse than the lowest scumbag. There are many Officers with substance abuse problems, mainly alcohol but as I said there is help available. As for the use of illegal narcotics this would mean that the Officer in question would by necessity would have to deal with criminals to get them, and this would leave those Officers vulnerable to exploitation from those same criminals. Any Officer that chooses to use illegal narcotics for what ever reason, does so in the full knowledge they are crossing the line. And as such deserve everything that comes their way.

well,to continue whit you,mick,unfortunatly, if you admit and go in thérapie,we have just 66% of our salary.a lot of people need help but cant afford it. in the past 4 years, we had 8 guards who were arrested because they enter drugs or cells inside.the price to smuggle cells is $1000 for a unit, and $2000 for on package of drugs… I know, that temptation is there…will always be. but help can save a carreer and the family behind it. we want to try to do more for our people.

hello mick… nice of you to reply.

With us if the admit they have a a problem and are willing to seek help our “Service” will give them all the assistance they need from rehab centres to psychiatric consultations. All the while being on paid sick leave.

hello, I am a female officer in a montreal jail of 1300 immates capacity ( sorry for my poor spelling english) we are more than 500 guards and officer who work there. whit reflexion, I began to notice that guard aroud me have alcool, drug and some more addiction. we establish a group ( the PAP) who is a group of fellow guard and officer and is welling to listen and help them to consult, exterior help, whit financial help from our correctionnal service. we have also a detox center only for guard and police …very helping. so I want to know what is going on in other prison and states reguarding the addiction of the staf.