Good post!

Sounds like we should clone her and sell her for correctional and other uses…….

Sounds like my kind of lady lol

Should mention to Bridgeport that we had a female CO that must have weighed about 120 pounds and abut 5 ft 2 tall. The inmates were scared to death of her, she ran the floor like a drill Sgt so if they screwed up you could hear her screaming for two floors up. In the female unit all she had to do was tell them “ladies you need to shut up or I’m going to punish everyone” then the women would stay in their cells all day after that.

LOL. I remember that day commander. Didn’t get to see it first hand but I think all the line staff knew by the days end. One of the reasons I liked working with Big Easy, the man was a problem solver.

Observation is key. Also hold on to that fire to do your job right and be vigilant. They will try and beat that fire out of you by not rewarding a good job and hammering you to the ground when you make mistakes. Also do not get discouraged when your bosses all 10 of them are oblivious to what is really going on in the prison telling you how to run your lock. But these things will only start bothering you once the allure of the new job wares off. Then you’ll just come in do the job and collect a pay check trying to do the best job you can only to prove to yourself your own worth because no one will notice anything you do unless it is in fact negative.

We had a federal inmate one time that was huge. In fact he had to go through the sallyport sideways. I heard a fight going on in the block, when we went around the corner the two inmates who must have weighed about 150+ were picked up by their shirts and the federal inmate said, ’fight’s over." I thanked him for a job well done.

That is sweet Jamestown. Had a fellow Lt. was around 6’ 4" weighed around 290lbs. He was a power lifter. Used to push his wife’s car up the hill with a 100lbs of rocks in his back pack. He looked as strong and as mean as he was. Had an Inmate sit down by the block control booth and refused to lock up. My fellow Lt. walked up to him and said are you sure? The inmate indicated that he was and the big Lt. picked him up by the back of his neck with one hand and carried him down the range 20 cells) yelled open cell 40 and tossed him in. I thought I would laugh until I died.

Commander that reminds me of an inmate who told my partner on the floor, “get me a #*&&%%$ toothbrush now!” Just then my other CO friend came around the corner. I wish you could have seen him in person- at least 6ft 8in, weighed about 250 pounds. He went to the outside bars and told that inmate, “COME HERE.” When the inmate came close to the bars his hand (which looked to me like when King Kong put his hand into a window) pulled the inmates face right into the bars. Then my CO friend said, I’m part-time, I don’t care, now what’s your problem? The inmate in a squeaky voice said…“nothing sir”…end of problem.

I used to get feelings like a low hanging dread or dispair on certain days. Not always but usually something would happen. Can’t really explain it but kinda like the place just had a bad omen. Could of been PTSD or something acting up in my own head, but it got to be a lil creepy when I could just tell it was going to be a bad day before even hitting the time clock.

I remember an Inmate doing that and my Officer called me to the 2nd floor infirmary. The Inmate stared at me then said what if I throw some on you police…. I then calmly unholstered my MK-9 Fox Fogger and unloaded a little over 80 grams into his grill. After coughing and puking for several minutes, he began cleaning himself off. Later, while making rounds he asked why I sprayed him, I said two reasons, one you stunk to high heaven and two I wasn’t giving you a chance to carry out your threat. We got along fine after that.

I remember that yard incident commander. Could of gotten real ugly in a hurry but thankfully it didn’t. Inexperience generally makes people react slower or not at all due to confusion. Cowardice usually makes them freeze up or run the other way. Telling the difference isn’t hard to do. A coward will have the “oh shit” look, either frozen or running away. An inexperienced officer will normally have the look of mass confusion while trying to figure out what to do. In this case best thing a veteran officer can do is lead by example. If you quickly remind them what is going on and what to do then they will tend to snap back to reality and lend a hand. I.E. verbal direction such as “help me cuff him” or something of that nature. Now if someone is suffering from a wide yellow streak they won’t be any good to anyone. Once someone is in frozen or running out of fear might as well look elsewhere for help. This is unexeptable and a liability to everyone.

LOL Wait until you come across your first “Dirty Protest”. The other day we had one inmate smear himself in his own feaces as protest. You could smell the guy from 10 feet away. That is usually the straw that breaks the camels back for a lot of ppl

I can’t wait for OJT, and I did go home and hug my mattress and pillows and thanked the Lord for them after seeing what I saw.

Very well put Jamestown. I agree 100%. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist, just a good professional who has great observation skills.

Corrections is one profession that you don’t learn from reading a book nor in a formal classroom. You learn by doing it on the job and the best way to learn is with a seasoned officer as a FTO. Having been a FTO I know if an officer is going to make the grade or not after working with them every day on different units or tiers to observe their responses, actions, general attitude toward working. You don’t need to be pumped up every minute worrying about a fight or assault, conversely you should have some fear of events. Commander suggested you need to be using the fear to your advantage. Pre-planning does work but with that your powers of observation are the best indicators of something that isn’t right. An inmate pacing in the catwalks, an inmate who hides when you do a block check, an inmate who follows your every move….all those things you should be mentally observing. Stay safe.

Yea I got you on that commander no room for cowards in this line work. I agree with you completely commander.

That’s why I liked having interns around. Before we invest all this money and training ,let’s see what they are made of, how they react in different situations, see if they are still interested in this line of work. I believe people should be more intensely evaluated when probationary.I have seen too many times staff who talk the talk but cannot walk the walk.

Welcome to the glamorous of a correctional officer.

Yeah, I could see myself getting a bit TOO pumped. We searched a room today and it was naaastyyy! We are still training at a different facility and I asked if we could look at the dorms before we had to go back to our facility, and every single one of the outlets was black from them using them to light things, it stank to high heaven and tattoo periphanalia was EVERYWHERE. This dorm houses all of the mess hall workers so there was all kinds of stolen food and they said they found 7 bags of hooch on one floor the other day, wow!

I have told younger Officers for years, if you say you aint afraid you’re either lying or you’re crazy. Fear keeps you alert, keeps you on your toes, makes you hyper sensitive. It gives you the ability to see and hear things, notice things, the normal person can’t comprehend. I always tell them to channel their fear, use it to your advantage. When the time comes Bridgeport, you will know what to do. Don’t go overboard to impress. You take care of the situation and when the incident is over, it is over. Then you have to learn a new lesson. How to come down from that incredible adrenaline high. I have seen people get some hyped up during critical incidents that they become more of a hindrance than a help. It takes time, patience, self control and experience to learn how to react not over react.

Everyone gets worried. Soemtimes you can just feel that something is going to go wrong, but you don’t know what. Sometimes things just look wrong or you sense something out of order. It’s creepy, but most times something does happen. Sometimes you just start asking the inmates in the area what’s going on, or walk around their area, and what ever was going to happen doesn’t, but you still wonder what you just prevented.

Oh, there will be no running away or hiding, that I know. It’s just nice hearing that being worried about what to do when I get there isn’t as uncommon as I thought. I would never be able to live with myself knowing something I did (or didn’t do) got someone hurt, or worse. Hopefully next week is my last week of classroom training, still gotta get gassed and sprayed then it’s OJT time!

Running scenarios in your mind constantly does help. I remember 87 or 88 we had about 20 inmates come out of the M-2 gym with weight plates and weight bars. As we responded, a Unit Manager was running away saying, run guys they have weapons. We drew our PR-24’s and got to business. After the first couple of Inmates went down, the rest hit the floor. When it was all said and done, several of us had welts and brusies from being hit but, you really don’t notice it until after the adrenalen dies down. It took the riot in 93 to get rid of all weight lifting equipment. DT, I didn’t want you or others misunderstanding my last post, there is a big difference between inexperience and cowardice. When an alarm sounds over the radio, you run to the location. We all know that, never know what is waiting on you but, you do it anyway. This guy hid. He made no attempt to respond. The big fight on the yard a few months before I retired involved 40 to 45 inmates AB’s and BLoods. There were 12 OJT officers on 2nd shift that night. Due to the keen obervation of my rec officers, noticing the blacks and whites separating on the yard, we were ready and waiting. Myself and 2 other Lt’s along with 6 officers were the first to respond on the yard. After a few direct orders and 1000grams of FOX from a MK-9, they quickly grabbed dirt and were done. I turned to order 50 sets of restraints to be brought to the yard and saw all 12 OJT officers standing behind us. They didn’t know what to do but, they were there ready to rumble if needed. I thought that was great and did give them all a verbal and written that a boy. Yall have a good one.

Self-defense is something that every officer needs to learn and practice. I can’t count the number of times that I was by myself on a floor or Pod where a fight broke out right in front of me and the only time I had to react was to call for backup then defend myself the best way I could. One fight I recall two inmates I escorted down the hallway were both about 6 ft tall and weighed about 200 pounds each. One of them said something in Spanish and I saw a huge fist coming right at me, I ducked and it hit the other inmate, as I was falling backwards onto the floor with both of them on top of me fighting I managed to call for backup. So pre-planning helps but when a fight breaks out it needs to be all hands on deck regardless of what you are in the middle of. Stay safe.