Topic: The Club House / carry

Kansas has a bill up for vote that would allow anyone to carry a concealed weapon without a permit. I have kind of mixed feeling about it, but Montana, Wyoming, and a few other states have had this law in effect for a while and so far, their crime rates have not gone up. It might be a good thing, maybe not. I work in a county jail, and I don’t carry a firearm. I suppose our way of thinking is a little different. I do not feel insecure about not carrying a weapon, but on the other hand, I can also understand those that do.

Topic: A Broader View / should my daughter visit her mother in jail? is there a benefit to visiting?

If it were me, and understand I have not been in this position, so it is just my opinion, but I would take her, it is possible that she might see why it is not a good thing to break the law. Also, I don’t know about your wife, but the female inmates we have had usually feel a lot better after seeing their kids. I think that can be very hard on a mother doing time to not be able to see their kids. As far as guards and staff, sometimes they do present an imposing figure, but most of them are actually very nice people. Explain to your kids that the reason they are there is to protect the people inside. Without them, their mother could well be at risk. They are there for her benefit. Maybe they will see the staff in a different light.

Topic: Letter of The Law / Need help finding some info!

I don’t know how far you have gotten, but you might look at the Department of Motor Vehicles for your state. Check the Commercial driver’s areas. Another possibility is your state Department of Corrections. I hope this helps.

Topic: Health & Wellness / Mandated CPR On Inmates: Good Or Not So Good?

We have one mask in our med closet with a one way valve. If I have to do CPR, I will grab it first and then I have no issue at all with doing CPR.

Topic: A Broader View / opinions on self defense in corrections

I agree with igoturback, when it is all said and done, I plan to be the one going home and not in a bag. I try to talk first, but if I am attacked, then I will kick, bite, pull, rip, gouge, and hit anything I can find. I work in a jail and for most shifts, if a fight starts, I will have deputies with Tasers behind me, but if the occasion should arise where I am trapped, then it is all out fight until one of us can’t get up. There is a move in Kung Fu called Monkey grabs the peach, and once it is started, it works very well and will usually take the fight right out of a man.

Topic: Security Central / Inmates and disposable razors

We check out the razors and then sign when we get them back. We also check the razors to be sure they have not been tampered with. we did have an inmate that could hide a razor blade in his mouth. He had actually cut a pocket in his cheek, so we watch pretty closely.

Topic: A Broader View / prison-sanctioned tatoo program for inmates? Good or bad?

I have to agree with some of the responses. It is a bad idea. As far as disease goes, yes, they can transmit it to other inmates, but you are giving them something that can be used as a weapon, and you know the tattoos are going to related. Now they can get gang tattoos with ink that only shows up under a black light. If you don’t know what you are looking for, it just looks like a red area on the skin, but put under a black light, you can clearly see the tattoo. I can see Crips and Bloods and MS-13s coming in and getting these tattoos and people putting them in the same cells. There is enough crap going on that we do not need sanctioned tattoos. BAD IDEA.

Topic: Letter of The Law / Hiring Males for Female Facilities

I know I saw an article about Ohio private run prisons, and from what I have seen, they need to tighten up considerably on their rules and on their staff. Apparently, whey have male guards with female prisoners and they watch them in the showers and toilets. The inmates are complaining and I can see why. I am no expert on prison facilities, but it seems to me they need only female guards in the showers and toilets. I work in a jail and we have both male and female inmates. We have cameras in each cell and we can see the cells, but if an inmate goes to the rest room, we cannot see them and when they take a shower, they have shower curtains. I know this is probably not feasible for a prison environment where they have showers and toilets that accommodate several people at a time, but I sure the system can be improved. The excuse given is that they are short staffed and if they increase their staff, their profit margin decreases. I spent many years in the military and everyone showered in a large shower, and everyone went to the restroom where there were no dividers. We were an all male unit, but even then, when I first got in, it was very hard to go to the bathroom with a guy standing or sitting right next to you. I can understand these women’s complaint, and the complain further states that the guards will not just walk on by, but stand and watch these inmates got to the restroom. Some of them making rude and suggestive comments. Come on folks! I work in a small jail, but I am a professional as I believe most of us on here are. We take pride in our professionalism. If these allegations are true, they demean all of us and give all guards a bad rep. This is the only case I have heard of where there are privately own prisons, but if there are more, and they are like this one, it is time to do away with them.

Topic: A Broader View / Homelessness….a problem for released offenders?

Cindy,
I can’t speak for all, but here in Kansas, it is generally used to refer to the prisons. I do believe however, that jails also fall under the DOC, we just use DOC to differentiate between jail and prison.

Topic: A Broader View / Correctional staff - alcohol and/or drug addiction?

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.

Topic: Letter of The Law / Lethal injection… cruel and unusual?

Campi, The military used to use prisoners for things like cleaning up highways. Ft. Riley had a place called a Retrain Brigade. This was like the last chance before Leavenworth prison. I have seen them out picking up trash along the highways and there was always an MP car there and an MP or 2 usually with shotguns. Sadly, I guess part of the new Army, they closed it down several years ago. I cannot say how effective it was, but I do know those boys weren’t molly coddled. Someone told me they were only allowed to go out 5 miles from post, but I saw them a lot farther out than that. Once they were dropped off, they went out and cleaned the highways of trash and when they were done, a truck came and got them and took them back.

Topic: Letter of The Law / Lethal injection… cruel and unusual?

Campi,
Damned good response! I agree entirely. As a friend of mine once said, the death penalty is a necessary evil. I agree that as long as humans are in control of something like this, there will always be unjustness and corruptibility. The debate will always go on. I think the issue is when feelings are involved. We are taught it is wrong to take a life, yet we will do it in the name of war or justice. I too believe in the death penalty. I also am sure there have been people put to death innocently, however, the alternative is just as true. I am also sure there are people out there that have committed murder and have gotten away with it. The system is not without it’s flaws, but I have not seen anything or heard anyone come up with anything better. The anti death penalty people will say it is up to God to determine if these persons are guilty or not, however, how many of them would be willing to say that if it was their child or loved one that was horribly murdered? Yet, we have those hardliners that would have no problem with hanging a person without worrying about getting all the facts in first. I think this is an unwinnable argument, and until someone can come up with a better idea, then we will just have to deal with it. I also agree that there is no real way to kill someone humanely. I have heard horror stories about all the different ways to execute people. The needle infiltrates during lethal injection, the gas takes to long to work in the gas chamber, the person caught fire in the electric chair or the first jolt didn’t kill the person and several jolts had to be administered, or the head was torn off during the hanging. The fact is, there is no good way to execute someone. There is always the potential for problems. We try to be civilized, but mankind is still, inside, and animal. we always will be. Contrary to what some believe, killing is in our nature and always has been. We try to become more civilized and do things better, but being human, we are still fallible and we do make mistakes. That doesn’t mean we need to just give up. It means we need to realize that there are some things we are just not real good at, and killing another human being is one if them. It goes against our religion (however, as you stated, we have killed millions in the name of religion and are still doing it) as well as against our upbringing. I think this is also a major reason we have so many vets out there with PTSD and many psychological issues. They have done something that they have been taught is fundamentally wrong on all levels. In cases where we take another person’s life, we are putting ourselves in the place of God, and we do not do so good trying to fill his shoes, but again, it is something that I strongly feel is a necessary evil. Without it, our society would decay into complete chaos and anarchy. What happens when there is not more room to put a person in prison for murder? Where do we put them? People say build more prisons, but don’t build it where live. So it is indeed a major dilemma. The prisons are over crowded now and it isn’t getting any better. Who do we release? Which criminal is safer to put on the streets? We can put the local dope dealer out there and he will happily sell drugs to your kids, we can put the sexual offender out there, and he may rape your wife or child, It goes on and on. We can put the old alcoholic out there since he is not violent, but what happens when he gets drunk and has a wreck and kills an entire family? This issue gets bigger all the time. Some politicians are trying to fix it, and for that, I do truly thank them, but it is not an easy fix by any means. As you stated, putting a man or woman in jail for the rest of their lives is killing them, but doing it very slowly and yes, the cost to the tax payer is enormous. Like it or not, they still have certain rights. I do not begrudge them their rights, they are still human beings, but the tax payer pays for these rights. Now we also have the mentally ill people in jails and prisons to worry about. I read someplace that to be considered mentally retarded, a person’s IQ has to be 70 or less. There are many people in prison or jail with IQs of 70 or below. You do not find an up and coming Albert Einstein in jail. So this adds to the strain. The plain truth is, the legal system in this country is not well and we are struggling with it daily. Maybe one day the perfect solution will come along, but I highly doubt it. if it were me on death row, I would think it was cruel and inhuman also. That is just the survivor instinct coming out, but reality is, what else do we do with them? I damned sure don’t want a Jeffrey Dahlmer or Ted Bundy in my neighborhood. from what I have seen, compared to some of the other methods of execution, I do feel that we have come a long way in trying to make the execution as painless as possible, and that is better than some of those being executed did for their victims.

Topic: A Broader View / The use of trustees

Mick, Thank you also for your input. So far we haven’t had anything like shivs or weapons come in, it is mostly tobacco and things like that, but I feel it is only a matter of time before drugs and weapons can start.

Topic: Letter of The Law / Lethal injection… cruel and unusual?

Campi, not a bad idea! I see you are one of those people who puts a lot of thought into things!

Topic: A Broader View / The use of trustees

Good ideas Campi! Thanks for the advice!

Topic: Letter of The Law / Lethal injection… cruel and unusual?

With all the crap going on about how long the guy in Oklahoma took to die, lethal injection is a hot topic. However, they issued are all screwed up. First off, it was not the drugs that didn’t work. The catheter came out of the vein and infiltrated. This is the fault of the person starting the IV, not the drug. I spent 6 years as an EMT-I/D. Secondly, I do not feel sorry for these people, how sorry did they feel for their victims? If all else fails, do like Wyoming, Utah, and a couple of other states are doing and go back to firing squad. I do agree about cruel and unusual punishment not being used, but it does not mean painless. If they suffer a little bit, who cares?

Topic: A Broader View / The use of trustees

I work in a county jail for a smaller rural county. We have had used trustees in the past and have had cases of trafficking contraband. What is your take on having trustees?

Topic: Everything Education / C.O. Combat Training.

I just finished combat training. The class was an 8 hour class, and as the instructor said, if you don’t practice, you loose it. I had a black belt in Tae Kwan Do, but that was in 90s. I was also a bit younger. So I will take my 8 hours of training and what knowledge I have, and hope it is enough until I can learn more. He was pointing out that as a prison guard, if a guard got into trouble, he might have to hold his own for up to 3 minutes. I work in a small town and at nights, many times we have one deputy on and maybe one city police officer. If they are both on calls, I could wind up holding my own for 10-15 minutes. I think combat training should be a minimum of 40 hours.

Topic: Tech Talk / Electronic Logbooks

We use a program here called Global. It is pretty easy to use. We use it for bookings and for our logs. it is a fairly decent program.

Topic: The Club House / Going from State Prison to County Jail

Squeeze, I would have to agree with you. We seem to have a problem, now all we need is a cure. Unfortunately, I do not think that most jails are set up to house the mentally ill, and as you stated, we are not trained for that task. Seems to me that we need more mental facilities to help the mentally ill. I think this would definitely help out the jails, and I am not sure, but I a thinking it might also ease the burden on some of the prisons. I am guessing, what will happen is, we will just continue doing the job the best we can and hope that someday, the government will say, “Hey! There is a problem here!” and fix it. Until then, I will look to folks like you, that have the experience and I will try to learn how to do the job to the best of my ability.
Thanks

Topic: Juvenile Jam / Taser in a juvenile correctional facility?

I personally am in favor of juvenile corrections staff carrying at least OC Spray if not tasers. I am new to working adult corrections, but I did spend a while working juvenile corrections at place that is basically a halfway house. we housed kids from ages 8 to 18. when I started we had 23 kids there and 21 of them were sexual offenders. Most of these kids were under 15. What I experienced is, these are not children anymore. They are in fact criminals. They will hit a person, regardless of who it is.
I have seen these kids given 70mg of thorazine and it didn’t even phase them. In a case like this, minors or not, staff should be equipped and trained in the use of OC spray and tasers. As it was, we were trained in the Mandt system. The only thing I ever saw this was good for was getting staff injured. Some of these jobs do not pay enough that a man, supporting a family, can afford time off, not even for an injury. The theory there was forgive and forget, but when a staff member gets seriously injured and can’t work, it is time to change things around. give the staff a chance to defend themselves, even against minors.

Topic: The Club House / Going from State Prison to County Jail

I am pretty new to this, having started this job last October. I work in a small county jail. We don’t have many inmates, but we do have a few situations that prisons don’t have. Our jail houses both male and female inmates. One of the big differences I see between us and the prison in our county is the status if the inmates. As was pointed out, in a prison, the inmates have been charged and convicted of a felony. In our jail, we have pre-trial detainees. These are people who have been arrested, but have not been to trial yet. In their case, things are a bit different. In Kansas, a pre-trial detainee can not be strip searched without just cause. We can pat them down anytime, but only if we find contraband, weapons, drugs, or something like that can we follow through with a strip search. We have to be able to justify why we decided to do a strip search. On an inmate coming from a prison to our facility, we can strip search them anytime as long as it isn’t harassment. we also get our share of psych patients in here. This also presents a problem as we are not setup to handle psych patients. We have to monitor them constantly and be very careful they do not hurt themselves or others. As for female inmates, this poses another issue for us. Our female inmates are houses in the same building as the male inmates. this can lead to issues like male inmates hollering at the females, not to mention the basic common needs of females. Many of the females we have are either in for misdemeanors or pre-trial. For these females, incarceration can be a fairly shocking incident. This means, even though they are not on suicide watch, we still have to watch them closely while they try to adjust. The same can be said for males as well, however, I think it is a bit more prevalent in females. I like my job, and although we are understaffed as is usual in any job of this type, we still contend with issues like everyone else and we make do. I did not think I would like this job when I first started, but I am actually happy here. This coming from a person that is pushing 60 years old. I do not think this type of job is for everyone, but for my personality, it seems to fit well. I treat the inmates with respect and they treat me likewise. I just joined this site and have read many of the comments that you all have been posting. This is some of my education coming from the people with experience. I know I am probably older than most of you, but you have experience where I am still gaining mine. I have found your postings very informative. even when the setting is a little different (prison vs jail) there are still similarities and I there is good information being put out. So keep on posting and further my education. Thank you very much.