Well put Turnkey. While I’ve only been in corrections for a fraction of the time you have, I have already witnessed a vast change in the way our institution is run. When I first started working here, we were a level 3 institution with A and B inmates. Then one day, out of nowhere, they turned all of the B levels into A. It use to be a privilege to be an A level, but that was wiped out in one day. We also use to have 4 SMU units, but then people outside the system began to cry and said that keeping inmates in ‘The Hole" for too long was not good for them. There was a reason they were there, but it no longer mattered, So now we only have 2 actual SMU’s, and the inmates can only be in there for a certain amount of time, no matter what they do. Assaults on staff are up, as well as inmate on inmate assaults. The inmates now have more rights than we do as CO’s, and people are afraid to do their job because of PREA and other idiotic programs instituted by people who have never spent a day as a CO or been in a prison. We’ve become glorified daycare centers, and we put our lives on the line everyday with no support from management or the public. This job has become tedious, and I fear we are about to lose a lot of good CO’s because of these changes.

I would like to comment on the apparent lack of integrity of the justice system, whose ideas and morals we are bound to uphold. The “system” as we know it has become weak and flawed and that, unfortunately, translates into a changing of officer’s basic abilities and behaviors. Society’s moral groups now dictate how we are to behave within the very walls we must patrol. Our management teams, whom we need to support and protect us, are powerless to maintain institutional control and disciplinary procedure in the face of public ideology and backlash. Fear of retribution on all levels has led us to become a “tolerant” system. A system where “turning your back” to avoid involvement and possible prosecution, has become the norm. Our system, to placate the social masses, is just as quick to throw people “with integrity” to the wolves as they would one without integrity. Not a system needed in the bowels of criminal institutional life where threat of violence is a daily occurrence. I for one DO believe in the integrity of the role I carry and IT IS NOT AN EASY ROLE THESE DAYS. Having to get in the face of fellow staff and management over what is “the right thing to do” has been very disturbing. I have been pounding the floors for 21 years and will, hopefully, be doing it for another 13. I don’t mean to offend any of my hard working Correctional peers; this is just how I see it. I am hopeful that the integrity of the “system” gets fixed so I can carry out all facets of my duties as a just officer. I would like to go home after every shift and feel comforted in knowing I did my job to the fullest of my abilities and that the actions of those I affect will be as just.