Topic: The Club House / Just Hired

Definitely some comfortable boots. A must. And Irish’s suggestion of a large food-box is a good one, too. Many is the time I’ve been asked to stay for a double but had no food to cover the extra time. 16.5 hours and the last 8 are without food… not. fun.

Topic: The Club House / Yukon

Squeeze,

To answer your questions:

1) There is a big emphasis on the rights of incarcerated individuals in Canada. They are all given a book, upon entry, that explains the expectations of the facility they will be housed in, and also what their legal rights are. There are offices that manage complaints dealing with infringements of those rights, and also recommend policy changes that help further meet the rights of inmates. Since there is a unique population where I live (First Nations), there are also political and cultural factions set up to help administrate the unique aspects of the rights of indigenous peoples.

2) In general, I think the COs in the facility where I work are happy. We’re well-paid, have a lot of support to help with the occasional disruptions that can happen in our field, and have excellent support from our managerial staff.

3) I don’t really know what to say about the rate of PTSD amongst Canadian CO’s. It makes sense, however, given the nature of the work, and the fact that there is also significant psycho-physiological stressors that come with erratic scheduling, constant fight-or-flight awareness, and actual incidents of physical interventions. Working as a CO is a highly stressful job on the best of days and, even though I think my experience is somewhat padded from the experience of, say, federal COs (in the big prisons further south of me), what I do experience is enough to drive me to seek out stress releases (e.g., working out, long quiet drives alone, movies, and the occasional drink with my wife).

What are things like where you’re at?

Topic: The Club House / Yukon

Alright. I was Remaxx, but for whatever reason could not login again after my initial post. Not sure what happened, so I created a new account.

Squeeze: Thank you for the welcome!

Irish Assassin: Thank you, too. :D