Learning and Mentoring

As a correctional officer, you must learn how to recognize these methodologies as a means to communicate without saying the exact words that may trip the conversation into a stalemate or confrontation. Offenders often trick the officers into a routine pre-planned by individuals who share common ground where they are housed. Inmates scheming to do something bad and that will require extra time and detail tamper with security rounds in the pod or cellblock by keeping the officer away from the production area and by bombardment of ridiculous or useless questions just to keep the person occupied with non-relevant issues that are both drawn out and difficult but in reality not necessary. Burdened with a faux task such as going to the supervisor to see why their mail is always late, the inmates assure themselves an extra hour of illicit activity as the officer is now pre-occupied with the task delivered by inmates. Another method is to make the round through a pod or cellblock so bothersome, the officer will hesitate to conduct their rounds on the hour as required and skip the rounds in lieu of not being bothered by the masses. Such ploys work well on rookies and often result in the manufacturing of a weapon, the passing of contraband or a serious assault. The intoxicating foul smell of feet or sweat marks the making of a unit with inefficient air circulation which generally results in inmates showing poor personal hygiene and lethargic behaviors. The smell is more common in mental health or psychiatric treatment units where some inmates are unable to dress themselves properly due to being under the influence of a psychotropic drug or even to the extent of being chemically restrained to avoid dealing with their constant self destructive behaviors or suicide attempts. Officers often smell the urine on the floors and walls as they were thrown at them or others passing to or from the showers. This environment is detrimental to your sanity as you begin to feel more emotionally estranged or disconnected as your feelings towards others becomes impaired and callous. Eventually, if you let it, you begin to associate the smell with your thoughts as alienation takes over and your mind adjusts to deal with whatever comes your way.

This is an important part to remember as you go home for you cannot afford to alienate your family and friends just because the mechanism works in the workplace. Disassociating yourself leads to isolation and depression. Your habits become altered to an unplanned event and your life as you know it has been interrupted where you feel you are losing control over your thoughts, emotions and sometimes, reality. Fortunately, for many officers who have begun to endure this stressor, the re-enforcement of loved ones (spouse and children especially) other officers and counselors, have a tendency to reduce this thinking to some degree. The important things said, there are other considerations you must realize about working inside the prison walls. Everyday, as you get in your car at the end of the shift, you unknowingly track contaminants into your house on your clothes, shoes or hair. The events of the day may have been a discharge of chemical agents which you were exposed to and failed to wash out of your face or hair. Lice, or other insects impregnated into the bodies of the inmates that lay there in filth exist and thrive on making a new home somewhere else. Last but just as important, the shoe soles that track every step during the day over fecal matter and urine track onto your carpet and contaminate its layers with microorganisms or bacteria. Taking your shoes off before entering will keep you from having sick children or family members as you reduce the contamination that occurs when you travel from work to your house. Stocking up on alcohol based hand soap or liquid sanitary soap in the bathrooms both at work and home, also reduces illness as the confinement of a prison breeds meningitis, flu symptoms and other viral bacteria conditions transferred by hand or skin unknowingly. Your clothing should be washed separate from your non-work clothes as the cross contamination of chemicals and blood or body fluids exists and can, if conditions are perfect, inflict a sickness of the most severe degree. Hepatitis* C is believed to be carried by over forty per cent of the prison population and is considered to be the deadliest of them all. It can be treated but inmates are not always tested to validate their illness as the tests are extremely expensive and money is hard to come by for medical treatment. It is projected that soon, this disease will kill as many people as AIDS does today. Handling drug users daily, Hepatitis C is already the most common disease of its sort in the United States. Described as a “silent killer”, this is a chronic, life-threatening, blood-borne infection most commonly linked to infected needles used for drugs, though prison tattoos with non-sterile * http://www.msnbc.msn.com equipment are also risky. As you recognize additional stressors in your life, you become paranoid to some degree to ensure your phobias are not interfering with the rest of your life away from the joint. Taking the proper protective procedures as you come home will reduce the majority of chance you will transmit a disease into your home and inflict harm on anyone of your loved ones.

You’re now a matured enabled correctional officer who knows the job so well, you can recite policies and procedures by heart. As you have grown into a highly skilled professional craftsman, you are still not ready to make all the decisions you will be faced with in the upcoming years. It is now time to decide whether you want to move on or move out. The thrill of the joint drives your adrenalin daily and you’re hooked on the way prisons are run. To switch to another agency would take time to make another transition and you have established yourself to be good at what you do. A decision is due whether you stay or go on and apply at the nearest police academy to become a street cop or stay and go for a promotion and become a supervisor mid level where you are now in charge of a shift and hundreds of inmates at one time. Taking control or having control is a powerful pressure on your mind and soul. Selecting the right decisions in making things work out for the better of all your staff and inmates under your care, is a technique developed over time and its now time to decide your fate. You know who you are and you know what to do, your personal life is settled and you bought a house filled with nice stuff you bought earned with the check you bring home religiously as your perfect attendance has shown others your dedication and loyalty to the agency. A responsible person by every means, you have elevated yourself into a special status where you are now the role model everybody looks up to. This, with the fact of being good at what you do, may assist you into settling on your next step with the question on your mind if you want to start over somewhere else or settle in and make a career of what you are doing now.

You’ve worked hard to seek the promotions and demonstrated you wanted the extra responsibility; you aren’t content to remain where you are at and mostly, you sought to work in a place that has black and white rules which hold a high degree of structure. You enjoy a fair degree of control over others and the fact you wear a uniform shows you like the fact your job is regimented and rigid in arrangement. The mutual relationship from man to man is one of the incredible miracles in the cosmos.† The fact remains that corrections has a valid function in conforming behaviors that are either right or wrong. The officer, the administration and the system has to balance life on the inside to allow them to return to a normalcy when released from prison. The challenge to keep them from returning is not just the burden that falls on the corrections professional. It takes a team of professionals to ensure the person coming back into society is a lower risk than before he or she entered and reformed to the point where the offender can successfully sustain a life outside of prison within the culture they grew up in and exist. Social support, economic support and community support increases the chances of success and allowing an inmate to be successful and stay out of prison. A correctional officer, in the best case scenario provided can be instrumental in allowing this success to occur. His or her patience towards the latter days of serving the inmate’s time can determine good or bad outcomes and provides a support link for inmates to rely on till they walk out of the front gate with their gate money and a bus ticket home.

The organization has grown and your growth within it has made you a better, stronger person. Your looking for more challenges and ask your supervisor for a diverse change of duties to keep a sphere of qualifications at hand to be proficient at what you do and who you do it for. Your leadership ability develops as other cadets out of the academy seek your guidance and your mentorship to lead them on their individual road of development and enlargement to bigger things and opportunities. Seeking opportunities to diverse and proceed a variety of tasks will make you a subject matter expert and soon, you will be asked to travel to other institutions to help them develop better and more practical correctional practices and procedures. Your confidence has grown and you’re ready to look at the next step of becoming a supervisor. Six years of experience and your feel like you’re on top of your game. You have answers for those who seek advice and you perform with the consistency which demonstrates the “walk the walk and talk the talk” mentality. You’re looking at your role models and it inspires you to make a change in your routine.
† Wilker –

Although the roles you played at the facilities have been good to you, its time to change your work habits and join the instructor team at the Academy in Santa Fe. Your request for a transfer is approved and you become a new instructor at the most modern academy in the Southwest. A new resource center, an indoor shooting range and new classrooms makes this the focal point of law enforcement training centers in the state. The mere presence at such a unit is an elite status topped by none others in the state. Just six miles down the road from the State Police Academy, its design was to officer services to both the state law enforcement officers and corrections. Between the two agencies a dream was born where anyone wearing a badge could in fact receive professional state of the art training provided by state federal and local law enforcement officers. Task forces comprised of K9, State Police and narcotics teams were often briefed and trained out of this academy. Cadets were run through three classes at a time. The shortage for correctional officers never stopped. The turnover was immoral but the need to supply more staff kept the academy at full swing five days a week. Its time for a change and by now your home routine is pretty much settled into a sea of normalcy for you to huddle in for both comfort and tranquility. You have weekends off with a partner who tries to understand you, slowly, as you share your growth with your family; they too feel the need to belong to someone. Your kids return to the state of understanding as you renew your connection with them after pursuing such a hectic work schedule for the past several years. Slowly, the relationship begins to blossom as it once did before and you realize this was the best step you ever made to seek some sort of harmony or tranquility in your life. Being competent and being confident in how you do your job are pre-requisites to becoming a first class instructor or supervisor. The development will follow if you stay on the course for personal and professional development but if you stray, your chances of failure may cost you your reputation, credibility and position.

Leadership courses are offered for both pre-applicants and those already in the position. Only the wisdom of your inner thoughts allows you to choose the better method of self-improvement, attendance of specialized classes and self study lesson. Eventually, on line computer classes would make up a significant portion of the training required to stay with the current technology and development of staff. Seeking advice from others is also a good tool but the best lesson plan provided is the self-study courses available through training which will allow you to see clearer and better when problem solving or faced with a complex decision. Decision making especially during traumatic or serious incidents takesits toll and often shakes your confidence if “your incident” is Monday morning quarterbacked by pencil pushers and former wardens who do not hesitate to send you a list of “what if ’s” to your supervisor or senior manager regarding the manner you handled the situation. Fear not, you will be second-guessed daily even when you demonstrate or displayed both courage and wisdom. It appears others, once in similar positions as those currently held, often want to second guess a scenario and ask you to change your decision making or management style. While at the academy, supervisors were skilled into better decision makers and problem solvers. Giving them the confidence needed to execute during “table top” exercises, their minds develop with better habits and better thought processes. You have to be careful and remember what brought you to the edge of being a competent leader and supervisor. Regardless, you need to maintain your own ideals, skills and methods and mix them with new tools provided by those who offer to help and participate as a benefactor to the problem as well as the solution.

Taking the cadets to the facilities often enhances their ability to see things in a real way. For example, working along side as an OJT, you can learn many things from those who have already grasped the concept of direct supervision of the inmates on the yard. The day is calm and you are almost ready to take the cadre team back to the academy. Without warning, an officer shouts over the radio he has a fight, the voice, breaking up barely giving the location of the fight and who is involved. Immediately you recognize it’s racially related and call for a response team to meet with you there as soon as possible. Not knowing if a weapon is involved, you run to assist the other officer in need. Your arrival gives the officer a boost of as you overhear her screaming verbal commands to stop fighting. Realizing the danger at hand, you yell at the other officer to disperse gas at the combatants as you and the other officer yell at the top of your voice for them to stop fighting. Without regard of your own safety, you rush in and you actually try to break them up, separating them so they can be restrained and taken to a holding cell. Quickly you pat search both fighters and you find an elongated sharp metal piece of steel hidden inside his pants waistband. Your hand quivers with both fear and anger as you remove the “shank” and you admonish the fighters for ruining your day. Suddenly, your realize this was a mixed race fight which often means trouble is right around the corner as others began grouping according to their color of skin. Slowly growing into numbers you cannot handle, you chokingly and trembling with a broken voice pick up the walkie talkie and call for assistance as a shift supervisor arrives at the scene with more officers and relieves you from command. This time the battery was good and the radio works. How often has it been the opposite when they handed you a radio that didn’t work. The throng of the crowd is now a mob and both sides are armed with baseball bats, weights and horseshoes. Armed with nothing but a radio, you look to a supervisor for guidance and direction. A calm voice inside your head, directs you to circle with each other keeping the two combatants within the circle. Buying time, you begin to initiate eye contact with the mob and realize these aren’t the same individuals you were kidding around with just months ago before you left to go work at the academy. Their anger revealed in their red eyes, you prepare yourself for a fight.

Realizing your situation is doomed (at least that’s what your thinking), you glance out of the corner of your infuriated eyes to see a welcomed relief of a six man DART‡ team assembling on the rear of the backlot armed with shotguns and gas launchers. Needless to say, your heart is pounding and the sweat burns your eyes as the heat got hotter. Re-enforcements trickle in and commands are given for all inmates to sit down and cross they legs. Identification cards are picked up by investigative staff and interviews are set up to divulge the reasons for the fight and the tension it created. Your first real taste of personal trauma which may have resulted in serious body injuries or even death, your hands are shaking as you hold on to the tiny piece of real estate you temporarily conquered hoping the fear you feel does not show to those standing in front of you, not a mere twenty yards away. Maintaining eye contact and secretly trembling inside your boots, you take names and faces for your report that will be due after this situation is over. Now seated and calming down, the mob transforms into a large peaceful group as their voices returns to chatter among themselves as escort officers arrive to secure their housing elsewhere until interviewed. Your team is re-assembled and taught how to write information reports that will support the main report filed by the shift supervisor. As you receive the official word your cadres of trainees are released, you make arrangements to head back to the academy. It was a good day for the team to show up on the yard for the extra officers on hand surely made a difference on the outcome of the situation. Regardless, they all felt satisfaction as they walked away. Slowly walking off in a semi-unyielding formation, you glance over your shoulder and take your last view of was almost a melee from hell with many possible injuries if it had gone bad from the first moment. Leaving their armory of bats and recreation gear behind, inmates return to the assigned areas as order is restored. The weapon, still in your hand, is quickly given to another officer who offers to do the evidence bag and maintain a chain of custody on the evidence of the inmate possessing a weapon, an act not readily acceptable on any yard or custody level. The fact you faced the possibility of death plays a game with your mind as you adjust your thinking to stay calm and connected. For some, it is the beginning of having strong startle reactions and being edgy while on the job; for others, it instills unnecessary worries about coping with these every day situations and works on destroying their own personal confidence or in this case a lack of confidence with possible difficulties leading up to being unable to focus on the job.

Strangely, when asked to remember the events as they took place, your temporarily suffer from memory loss as you can’t bring yourself to focus on the events as they actually occurred. Most certainly a traumatic event you’re never experienced before, you begin to self doubt your ability to recall the facts as they occurred and someone offers you a cold drink of bottled water to allow you to re-compose yourself. Slowly the events were remembered and your report is submitted to your supervisor at the end of the day. The end of the shift comes to mind and its time to go home and relax for awhile. Today’s events are just a beginning in the journey of deciding whether to use this position as a stepping stone or to endure the entire task of retirement from this job. One thing was for sure, your stay at the academy was suddenly shortened by your distinct will to return to the unit where your presence felt needed. Not only for the thrill of the yard activities but he fact that if felt better knowing where you belong in this business. Purposely, you avoid talking about the trauma and you go through the day not talking to anyone about how you feel or how it affected your health. Spending the last two and a half years at the academy makes your heart long for the action of the line. Your heart, asking to be satisfied, tells you to come back to the madness. At the same time, while purposely avoiding the subject, you withdraw from others to avoid conversations which may reveal your true feelings about the traumatic day’s events. Not feeling so sure of yourself some of the times, you begin to question every decision, or tactic you did during the incident and become your own worst critic on how to handle yourself in a critical situation such as what happened that day. Regardless how well it turns out, you will always think of the other “what if ” to see whether or not the outcome would have been different. Not everyone executes well under pressure, and there are no certain rules which say who will and who wont. Even those with years of experience, slowly wither away some of their effectiveness and are having difficulty maintaining their professional standards as they begin to take shortcuts to make it easier for him or her at the end of the day.

Mandated hourly checks are often neglected if the officer thinks their supervisor will not check on them. The supervisor, dedicated but overworked and tied to a desk to conduct journal checks and other shift paperwork, has also engaged in taking shortcuts as he or she often finds it convenient to accept things as they are and not push the issue with someone higher in their chain of command. Somewhere in between the good and the bad are the officers who diligently performs their duties as required and when given a chance, often criticize their peers for doing a careless job while on the job thus causing a rift often irreparable as it is a choice between ethical conduct and non conformity to the job duties and responsibilities. You as a supervisor know the advantage of the open yard and how it gives you an advantage as inmates will often remain silent about your incompetence or misconduct. In fact, they’ will praise you in the beginning as a person who has common sense and no need to worry as they “got your back” when it comes to making sure the dorm or yard is in order. Trusting them would be a fatal flaw in your career as it will come back to haunt your reputation someday.

Without consultation, it was time to put in a transfer request to go back to the line. The academy was a good experience but being on the line was more important than the specialized positions gained at the most elite unit in the state, the academy. Being a captain and well versed in the field, you take your new assignment in stride and look forward to the shift camaraderie that often molds individuals into teams.

The assignment was Investigation Captain at the Main Facility. This job was to investigate staff misconduct and inmate complaints of unlawful use of forces and misconduct. Not actually believing every inmate that lodges a complaint, you have to take the information with a bit of salt to ensure a fair and balanced report to the Warden. Being assigned to Internal Affairs is not the most popular position to be in. Most of the time, you sit alone, eat alone and work alone due to the nature of your business. Many friends of the past shun you as you walk down the corridors of the prison seeking out information not so readily available as anyone, staff or inmate who talks can be considered a rat. It is not unusual to find a piece of cheese in your locker when you talk to IA. This assignment didn’t last very long as most cases were being choreographed by the deputy warden who used this position to “get even” with staff he personally disliked. After failing to meet one of his personal vendettas, I was removed from this assignment and placed on graveyard shift at a max custody unit out of his span of control.

Your work, when done right, is more enjoyable as you reap the benefits of the fruits of your labor which are often measured with positive impact on behaviors and the reduction of negative events on your shift or in your area of responsibilities Strangely, your position as a leader is secured based on your own actions, your own decisions and your own conduct. Perhaps, after assessing your successes and accomplishments, its time to turn the silver badge in for a gold badge and become a supervisor at this point of your career. Time is a true indicator whether you are ready or not. Often you feel your alone in the mist of your problems but as your about to find out, you successes have been noticed by those who can promote you into a more structured and more complex position of management which will launch you to a new destination in your career. True intrusive thoughts will enter your mind as you become accustomed to worry about everyday activities and as you begin to associate your thoughts with the sounds of the workplace, your coping skills begin to understand the world you chose as a career better and with clear insight of the daily events as they occur around you and your co-workers. You’re developing those skills everyone was talking about when you were in the academy and without warning your ability to assess a situation by observation, making an analysis of what you see and responding accordingly, your assessment will be clear and concise which have a direct impact on your effectiveness and collect my experience. Unfortunately these skill development lessons do not come without a side effect. Police stressors, regardless whether you are on the inside of a prison or out on the street in a patrol car, can play a significant part of your life.

The first and most common stressor is the pressure of mid level supervisors and administrators micro managing and interfering in what you perceive to be your area of responsibility. Dealing with such factors as excessive absenteeism, pressure from co-workers and supervisors, sexual harassment at the work place all play into the fact this type of work is not easy to deal with and many find alcohol as a reliever to reduce their stress. Every now and then you will work with an employee who demonstrates poor hygiene, tardiness, low self-esteem and wonder what in the world is wrong with them. Truly, you begin to suspect the person is under the influence of alcohol and your first instinct is to help them get through this crisis. Wanting to be a friend, you must realize this person is in dire need for professional counseling and a referral may be in order to preserve their career, life or someone else’s. Their uniform array and wrinkled, you witness them redirected by the supervisors to “shape up” or face disciplinary action. On another note, I have seen significant changes in staff who were held hostage at one time and who never fully recovered from the trauma and eventually get divorced, move away or drown themselves in self pity or sorrow. Your world is becoming more universal as you grow with the organization and reveal your true identity as a professional correctional officer ready to take the next step to become a supervisor.

Stress on the job has high ramifications as a correctional officer. It can impede your decision making and can lead to organic diseases or difficulties. Besides alcoholism, broken marriages or personal relationships, emotional instability and suicides, it is often the beginning of the end of someone who does not manage it in a constructive and agency established manner. Although frowned upon by both cops and correctional staff, the employee assistant programs allow you to recover from such stressors and return back to work without penalty or loss of the job as long as you follow the rules established by your agency or employer. There is no shame in asking for help when you have exhausted all means to handle it yourself. Not everyone is strong enough to individually or with family or church support. There have been many great men and women who endured the stressors of the job to become role models and leaders in their own fields. Perseverance, courage, strength and wisdom will allow you the tools to make the right decision for you and being a correctional officer inside a world where felons prey on others. There is no way you can be flawed in taking care of business and seeking help to remain focused in the mission assigned as trained and depended on as a law enforcement officer of an agency within the criminal justice system which hardly gets the respect it deserves and is always in the cross hairs of the media as they paint corrections an evil animal that was created to keep the streets safe by locking away the predators, thieves and killers.