No Guns, No Glory Just Guts ~~ Correctional Officer Week May 2013

No Guns, Just Guts

Correctional Officer Week 2013

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan signed Proclamation 5187 creating “National Correctional Officers’ Week.” The first full week in May has since been recognized as National Correctional Officers’ Week to honor the work of correctional officers and correctional personnel nationwide. Corrections has become a most complex and challenging field where there exists the potential of violence daily and losing a life has become more common today than ever before. Sometimes, working with honor and pride is all the recognition correctional office rs get in their tenure as an officer working inside a jail or prison.

Since the beginning of tradition, agencies throughout the world have taken steps to recognize the value of these Spartans and most often forgotten heroes in our criminal justice system. It is with honor that we recognize our correctional officers in 2013 in a manner that is most befitting of their true character and dedication to the job. Too many times are the officers recognized or mislabeled members of a continuum of evil and allegations that transforms them into human characteristic that are reflections of power and abuse. If one should believe the summarization of the Stanford Prison Experiment where there are suggestions of “evil” transformations of their character, it is a complete mockery to those that have towed the line for over decades of doing good work and saving lives.

This project revealed a “banality of evil” that suggested that good officers, under certain conditions or circumstances such a peer pressure and other social pressures, change into criminals and commit act that are otherwise “unthinkable.” This is completely offensive and untrue in most cases. Good officers withstand more social and political pressures to stay the course than anyone can ever imagine or conduct research on under the circumstances they work and perform their jobs. One might say that this experiment is totally unreal to the facts as prolonged experience has shown that there are highs and lows on this job but the temptation to compromise does not exist as a frequent or common influence as implicated. If someone conducting such an experiment were to have a longer testing period than 14 days, it would have been revealed the opposite result because officers are resilient and rebound quickly after critical incidents and significant interventions. However, officers were condemned nevertheless.

History has linked officers with good and evil but have managed to focus more on evil than the good. There are allegations of some crossing over to the evil side because of personal agendas or being coerced or seduced by peers to join them in the cause to inflict more pain and more misery in an environment already filled with such negative elements. Correctional officers are not the typical perpetrators described by the media or in the movies. They are often just the opposite of what is portrayed to be an attempt to write a reality show.  

 Officers carry no weapons or guns but they have the guts to do the job. This notion they are armed has created tremendous amount of pressure for the officer to live up to this supernatural expectation to enforce rules and expected behaviors. Their role as a first responder requires them to act quickly and take life-saving actions making it a trap in most cases for many as they will be chastised or criticized for how they did their job. Criticized often by the public or the media, they continue to do this job that nobody else wants to do.

They are part of a system that is inundated with bad influences but do their job with good conscience and pride they overcome these barriers with honor. Just to illustrate some of the simple tasks these officers perform deserves recognition that they are first responders to multiple life and death situations. Officers are often called to confront violent behaviors if not the target or victim of such horrible misconduct. Their shift work is abusive in nature as well as their exposure to some of the worst criminals ever prosecuted for felony crimes. Some are rotated often that interrupts their personal lives at the home front but realize it is part of the job.  Working within poor sanitation and safety conditions, they risk exposures to bio-hazard infections or other communicable diseases.  The get paid a minimal wage compared to many other law enforcement positions but accept danger as their partner 8 to 16 hours a day and carry out the most difficult challenge of all; making sure a convicted felon complies with rules and regulations. They are the forgotten silent majority in our criminal justice system.

Officers sweat, bleed and shed tears on and off the job. Their combat is with inner stress as well as external moral and political anxieties that surround them daily. The line between good and bad is invisible to some but those that wear the badge with honor and pride know where that line exists 24/7. It is true some abuses occur but the majority of good deeds overcome the bad ones.

They knock themselves out with physical and mental wear and tear on their mind and body that is often neglected and ignored by themselves, their employer or the public as they fight fatigue, stress and major challenges and adversities that create hostile acts towards them and other prisoners. They break up fights and disarm violent offenders with nothing but bare hands, chemical agents or handcuffs and the latest entry in our continuum of force, the Taser.

In all actuality, the correctional officer is the silent hero in our criminal justice system. He or she stands watch within an environment that is reinforced by basic human expectations – us versus them making it a combat zone at times with bizarre rules for engagement since none are armed during the normal scope of their duties unless on an armed post such as tower duty, transports or other special posts. The second misleading fact is their refusal to act out their role as officers by being a bystander on the job. They are involved in every aspect of correctional settings and do the most difficult job under the most challenging conditions.

Correctional Officers are motivated by self-satisfaction and dedication to the job and the challenges it presents to them as law enforcement officers working that thin blue line.  Correctional officer week 2013 is dedicated to the brave men and women of corrections and the role they play in our criminal justice system with honor and pride.

 

Source: http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_banality_of_heroism

 

Hard Work & Hard hands

 

“Hard-working Americans are increasingly faced with workplace conditions in which critically important safeguards are watered down, emerging problems are ignored, and enforcement is scaled back.”

 

To many people, hard work is another dirty word. In my own experience in the last forty years I have found hard work to be a worthy challenge and once conquered mentally, easier to overcome than many realize. The truth is many more people will go the easy route and avoid hard work these days. After all, it’s the easier of the two choices before you. Why wouldn’t you join those lazy people and do the opposite.

 

Separating yourself from the horde of people wanting to be lazy is a much tougher challenge than anticipated. Tackling hard work is tough but in the long run, it pays off. Certainly, one must be prepared to make sacrifices but in order to get the competitive edge you need to be successful; you must dedicate yourself to hard work and persistent self-satisfaction or order to feel the rewards of such self-discipline and perseverance. 

 

Strong challenges often result in strong results. Not working with luck but rather opportunities opens the door to find better ways of self improvement and self development towards your goals of being a successful worker and not a fluke. Disciplining yourself along the way is very important. Your willingness to do something that is difficult is the key to personal achievement. One of the comforts of knowing you did some hard work is the feeling that it is universal and you are not alone. There are many hard working people out there that don’t by-pass easy street and dig in for the long run and looking for long term results.

 

Whether you are working full-time or part-time the challenge is to force yourself to excel and do better every time you are faced with a challenge. Working hard with little pay is disappointing but could very well be the catalyst that takes you on a new journey where the money is commensurate with the energy and self discipline you demonstrate to your employers and ultimately reap the rewards of your hard work by getting a raise or a better position.

 

It has been demonstrated that the harder you dig in the more potential you reveal as more opportunities will come about offering you new challenges based on your past record of being a strong asset to the organization. Taking this approach of working hard pays off for those that accept the fact there are no easy ways to get success fast and easy. Hard work builds self-esteem and confidence. It is a formula for setting goals, making plans and achieving what you envision to be your ultimate challenge in life.

 

In the end hard work is about acceptance. Accepting the fact that anything less is not satisfying and doesn’t fulfill your own personal ambitions, desires and goals. Never fear hard work and you will find the key to success as you reach a whole new level in your life.

Cultural barriers or improvements?? short video on impact of helping each other

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuAoRo87Pls

Wannabe or Real? watch video on leadership

Leadership video

Zombie Parasites Invade our Bodies

Many have heard the telling tales of the Walking Dead and Zombie Apocalypse. These stories of horror makes your flesh crawl right up your body as you imagine those days of past when those you worked with told of tales where they experienced a graveyard nightmare right up to the early morning hours.

Tales that tell of relieve as darkness fades and the sun rises above the Superstition Mountains located just a few miles away from the desolate prison complex hidden in the Sonora desert.  This huge prison complex lies just about an hour away as the crow flies from the sprawling metropolis of Phoenix Arizona. 

Hearing nightly and horrifying stories of freaked out not-so-human creatures killing each other and mutilating those still human makes you want to go down to your local gun store and buy you enough guns and ammo to kill them all. Facing the twilight of day, they will walk wherever they dare. Some will enter your neighborhood located so close to the prison grounds. A fenced off perimeter where the  razor wire divides the darkness and hides the reality of horror and fright so close to home.

Working the graveyard shift makes you vulnerable to those creepers that seek out the living and eat the raw pinkish flesh like a glutton at a sushi bar. Seeking the unnatural will only bring your death and mourning as a human without a gun is no match for the supernatural being that dwell there in those hollow prison walls built to keep men in and strangers out.

Offering strangers that come into the hood a gun to protect themselves form these creatures that roam is the only sanity to the madness that surrounds you. Your instinctual level to survive supersedes the willingness to surrender and fall prey to these flesh-eating non-living things that seek to gorge on unsuspected humans for their nightly meal.

Such are the many cultural tales of the undead walking among the mortals of this Earth. Mutated beings showing up unexpectedly inside circles of society not too far away from where the death house rings a bells each time a human is executed or injected with the yellow and clear poison driven into their veins through tubes and needles designed to take away the pain forever.

Every night when the sun goes down, it is just a matter of time before the zombies show up to feed upon those unprotected and unarmed against their razor sharp teeth and bear-like claws as they mutilate they meals and stuff themselves until the sun comes up and drives them away to the darkness for another day. What are these creatures that lurk out there and what created their being as these zombie like monsters rule the very ground they walk on in a dead and mindless manner?

One must understand how zombies can be formed or created and within the prison grounds there are the exact ingredients necessary for such a mutation to begin and create the zombie population. Zombies are parasitic by nature. They are fairly common and roam many places unnoticed by those that turn out their lights inside their homes and shelters.

Zombies are turned into mindless freaks because of the conditions that exist around the prison grounds that breed toxic waste and excess feces infested materials with a variety of bugs and matter eaten by cats and dogs

Huge black crows that frequent the trash bins and small rodents and varmints that roam freely through the trash containers and storage bins waiting for the weekly haul by the Waste Management trucks to take it away and dump it nearby in another toxic waste ground only five miles out of town but a short enough distance for zombies to walk and invade the neighborhood uninvited and often undetected.

Dragging their dead like limbs down the road these mindless zombie like slaves to blood and flesh seek out those who body temperature is warmer than theirs. Infested with parasites they transfer the carriers from one place to another and harvest their progress during the day as when we are awake they sleep and when we are asleep, they walk.

Devoted to terrify humans they are troublesome and often unpleasantly smelly as they approach the streets under the cover of black and darkness. A two pronged attack that is often unnoticed these zombie do their harm through contamination of foods and the transfer of infections usually left untreated by unaware victims that will fall to their poison as the toxic waste breeds inside their intestines and covert their hearts and body into mindless creatures of doom. Rats and cats and dogs and birds can carry the parasite to wherever it lives whether in a home or a barn, a field or a store. It’s the beginning of the end where the venomous fluids created by these parasites invades and swims inside the blood streams of humans that will fall victim before the end of a two night stand and often less than that.

Intentionally designed to eat the brain and create the mindless status, it is filled with a green liquid that has replaced the red corpuscles in our blood. The transformation is silent and as the parasite takes over the freaking brain swells until it bursts intentionally making a splatter pattern that allows the parasites to seek new hosts as they crawl off the walls. Slowly but effectively they creep into the food and feces of these animals and small household creatures that we so lovingly stroke, pet and kiss without knowing they are infecting our systems with the poison that will kill us before too long. This parasite is programmed to kill us and we don’t even know it.

After all humans and rats, cats, dogs and crows aren’t all that much different. They each have an internal system that we can test for drugs and see how they react under different conditions. Many don’t realize these parasites invade the intestines and live there until its time to kill. One should wonder how many times we have transferred or transplanted a virus or bug infested with this parasite and realize that no matter where they go, you cannot hide from them any longer.

Leadership is not talking but doing it

Imagine that our lawmakers are our leaders of the present and the future. Imagine they are innovators and finding ways to protect us and keep us safe as well as finding ways to keep us from paying higher taxes and misspending more money on wasteful projects or government expenses. Imagine they are doers and not talkers. Every now and then you have to roll the dice in your life and go do something courageous or bold. Not only does this make your time on Earth more interesting but is demonstrates you are willing to leave the pack and lead by example.

Everybody has a dream. Some dream of becoming a fireman, a policeman, a teacher or a doctor and some, yes some dream of being a politician that can make a difference in someone’s life. Everybody deserves the chance of being a leader but only real leaders step up to fill the void when the calling is difficult or perilous. Leaders make things happen, making something happen creates action so it fair to say that action verbs are greater in value than nouns or titles.

Lawmakers are not necessarily leaders. One would expect them to be to some degree but many fail the role elected for by their constituents. By the end of the day or session, nothing was accomplished and their identity is of those that do nothing. Leaders create opportunities for improvements, savings or wellness whether social, economic or wellness and safety.

To become a better leader you have to become an innovator and finding productive ways about experiencing as many creative thinking cycles of actually doing something as long as you can. When faced with challenges you must act; you must learn and you must follow through to finalize your solution. The sooner you learn the sooner you get it done.  In doing something about the challenges facing us you become a learner. You begin to know more about the resolution at hand and the matter in general.

The more you do, the more you learn. Making mistakes is part of the process but not making the same mistake is progress you can count on. Taking action helps you think. The more you think the more gets done. The more gets done the better you become at solving the problems for those that depend on you as an elected official. Innovative leadership is about doing, not talking.

Are You Boring the Bored?

Have you evaluated yourself lately and determined maybe you need to change your way in having conversations with someone lately? Let’s look at these signs and determine the facts if you are bored or the cause of the boredom – either way there is a need for change if you want to make your conversations more exciting.

Sign #1 – do you repeat your responses with – Oh really? That’s interesting? That’s funny? Or maybe hmmm is that so? – It means your conversation is disengaged and not interesting.

Sign #2 – do you ask simple questions like “where or when did that happen? Where is it? How do you get there? – It means they are trying to be polite not curious at all of your topic.

Sign #3 – are there any interruptions to your words? If there are that’s a good sign but if there aren’t any interruptions, you are being boring.

Sign #4 – Do people paraphrase you or ask for clarification on your words? If they are sincerely interested, they will ask you to elaborate on your words and ask questions.

Sign #5 – Talk time out of balance – who talks more? You or the other persons? For the sake of balancing the conversation, allow interaction equally to share the information being discussed.

Sign # 6 – Observe the body position – are you face to face with the other person? Are they looking away? Are they trying or pretending to be interested in your conversation? Check their attention span and follow their eyes going into space, rolling or gazing elsewhere.

Sign # 7 – Observe the posture – are they slouched or leaning against something as you are speaking? Are they vertical and attentive? Are they fidgeting and looking away or laying down? They are giving you clues you are being boring.

 

Source: Gretchen Rubin - writer