PRISONER EXPRESS

It takes a person with a certain mentality to be a corrections officer, to want to be "your brother's keeper." A good corrections officer should have professionalism and discipline. A corrections officer is depended upon by the other correction officers and prisoners. He's expected to do his required duties in order to keep things running smoothly and to back up other correction officers in times of crisis. We, as prisoners depend on correction officers for our safety and well-being. A corrections officer controls just about every facet of our lives behind bars. We depend on the correction officers to make sure we get fed and clothed, that we get our medication, our recreation time, our mail, etc.

An officer is going to meet any number of people throughout the day, each different and unique with different needs. A corrections officer must be level headed. There are bound to be tension filled moments and times of crisis and a corrections officer must keep cool. There will be times when someone will piss him/her off so bad he/she will want to go off on the prisoner and spray them or resort to verbal or physical abuse. Or a prisoner might be in a situation where the wrong word or action can exacerbate a situation rather than diffuse it.

A corrections officer must be open-minded. An officer is going to meet so many different people and encounter so many varied situations that to be otherwise, would be counter productive. There are a lot of different races, religions, ideologies and the many personal quirks or mannerisms of the various prisoners that encompass each day in the life of a prisoner or a corrections officer. It's the same in "the real world," but here we are forced to live close together whether we like it or not. A corrections officer can't be Catholic and look down on Odinists or Native Americans, Muslim vs. Christians, heterosexual vs. homosexual, country vs. city, black vs. white, etc.

A corrections officer must be courteous, respectful and fair. Treat us as he expects or wishes to be treated. A corrections officer must be morally courageous. He must be all of the above listed things and still be brave enough to keep from being intimidated or coerced by bigger, meaner, uglier prisoners or even other correction officers or supervisors.

A corrections officer must be able to keep from falling prey to some slick tongued prisoner who wants him to look the other way for something or to help with something or to smuggle in drugs or contraband. An officer must be brave enough to stand up to peer pressure from other officers or refuse to comply with an unlawful order or to take part in retaliation, harassment or abuse of prisoners. A corrections officer should be brave enough to report fairly in disciplinary hearing and not max out the punishment simply because the warden or major wrote the case.

One of the most important things a good corrections officer needs is to be able to use common sense in the various situations that he/she is bound to be in. A corrections officer might investigate six fights in one day and he'll most likely have six very different situations and twelve different stories or versions. If a prisoner makes a clothesline to dry his clothes or maybe cuts pickles or peppers (bought at the commissary) and puts them in a mayo jar with vinegar, all bought at the commissary, and not stolen from the kitchen, a corrections officer should take into consideration that the sheets are not blocking the view into the cell or the peppers aren't stolen, no harm is done, even though both acts are technically illegal. Or if a prisoner says, "damn" in a letter to a prison official, maybe it wasn't tactful but it wasn't necessarily "vulgar and offensive" language, deserving of a major case. Virtually everything you can or cannot do is covered by some type of rule or regulation and a corrections officer must exercise common sense when applying these regulations to everyday life.

A major case can ruin parole prospects or get an approved parole decision pulled, which really sucks, especially if the case could have been ruled "minor," but wasn't because a lack of common sense. There are many more attributes or characteristics that make up a good corrections officer but these that I listed should more or less serve as a blanket covering almost everything. For each positive quality, there are two or three negative qualities that correction officers should avoid. An officer should not be racist, bigoted, narrow or closed minded, emotional or excitable, unprofessional or undisciplined, weak or cowardly, mean cruel, abusive, a bully, coercive, corrupt, etc, etc.

There are good "convict bosses" or correction officers but unfortunately when an officer is good, not much is ever noted or made of it because things run smoothly and everything and everybody gets along, so there is no need for paperwork. But when a corrections officer is bad, paperwork is usually involved. I can document and have documented many instances or examples of situations covered by or involving bad corrections officers. But there would be at least 2000 words for each separate instance. I do have documentation if you'd like to read of several cases of abuse of power of authority that I personally have had directed at me.