PRISONER EXPRESS

Here in the dregs of society not only are the prisoners affected by life experiences, but also the guards are prone to be just as broken and battered. The broken and battered guards are the ones that seem to be extensions of the judge's gavel bent on inflicting further judgment upon the prisoners. They create problems for prisoners so that we suffer some form of disciplinary action that actually keeps us longer behind bars, securing further employment for them. The reverse of that coin is the professional corrections officer-- the man or woman who is genuinely interested in correcting criminal thinking errors. They do this in a variety of ways.

The professional correctional officer or PCO recognizes that we are human beings that made mistakes. Some larger than others. They don't consider us a number or an animal in a cage; subject us to further mistreatment by whatever means they conjure up at night at home. The PCO has a genuine interest in helping us become better people. Most will learn our names and when we ask a question they have a congenial response. If they don't know they find out and let us know. If we need something, they get it as long as it is within the rules. These people are accountable and responsible for performing the functions of their position with the utmost integrity--honest as the day is long. Honesty is hard to find in a prison.

Back in 1982, I was working in a sawmill and two of my fingers were chopped off accidentally. My PCO rushed me to the unit infirmary where a convict began to sew my fingers back together. A good job done because my supervise PCO brought my fingers with him. Both fingers work, I have full function of them. After I got well, the unit warden spoke to me and asked if I was going to sue him in court. I told him no. He looked in my profile and found a couple of places he could award me some extra good time thorough school and O.J.T (on the job training). I got it too.

Later on, I saved an officer's life. We had a substitute supervisor on the same job we had to adjust the back "dog" that held the logs on the log carriage. The supervisor was sitting below the log carriage and we had to lift the "dog" from its track. One guy lost his balance leaving me all of 350lbs of bulk iron in an awkward position tipping toward the supervisor's head and falling. I stepped over the rail, shoved the "dog" as hard as I could so it would miss the supervisor only to land on my big toe with much force and damage. For saving his life, the supervisor took me twice to the unit commissary and allowed me to spend $50.00 on whatever I wanted, both times. Those two events were rewards for good behavior.

Some guards feel because they are a prison guard it's open season to handle us rough and run all over us. Once, I had a female officer try and make me give her my semi empty breakfast tray in a manner she was not making the other inmates do. She thought she could treat me differently. I slid my tray under the door while she wanted it through the bean shoot. She slid the tray back under the door with her foot. I slid it harder and the biscuits fell off the tray. So, she kicked them into my cell and they hit my toilet. I thought we were playing so I kicked them back out. She kicked them back in. We drew the attention of a male guard so I just eased the biscuits under the door where she couldn't kick them back out. She said, "Kick it, kick it, we are going to fight for real, I've got all night." I told her "I have all week." The male guard heard that and the female guard got so mad and demanded my identification card. There had been no major violations on either part at that time. She had my ID card with no intentions of returning it. She planned on taking it home to destroy it so I couldn't make my Christmas spend at Commissary. I had to inform a sergeant and shift supervisor who promptly ordered my ID card returned (damaged by then) and the female officer received disciplinary actions. The P.C.O shift supervisor had the integrity to right a possibly explosive situation before it really got out of hand.

I am in Administrative Segregation accused of telling two inmates to go assault another inmate. A lie and the state would not file free world charges on me. I even filed a federal lawsuit trying to force a free world trial and prove my innocence. The federal judge said, "Even thought the guards of a penal institution do not follow their own rules, they can not be held accountable for their actions," dismissing the case with prejudice. Then mailed it to me with a Valentine's Day postmark. The guards lied and they were not even on the unit at the time of the incident. But for a prison official to say let's look more closely would mean that he would have to hold others responsible for the lies they make up. Had I been around some real P.C.O's I would still be on population and may already have made parole. But, the parole man told me I'd probably make it out when I turn 50 years old and discharged in 2007.

A real P.C.O is a person who does not abuse authority in any way, form or fashion. Here in my prison there are many "silly" rules. Contraband used to be defined as anything that affects the safety, security and function of the unit. Now it's determined mostly by whatever the guard says it is. Like a rubber band, a staple, a magazine without any name or a torn up book along with many other non-threatening things. A real P.C.O over looks the nuisance contraband by merely confiscating the item without the disciplinary report.

I used to tell over-zealous, over bearing, new officers, "If I'm not fighting, smoking dope, having sex with another man or tearing up the penitentiary, do your shift and go home."

Most of us come to prison already stressed to the max and many don't even know it or if they do they won't admit it. The P.C.O is the type of person who doesn't add to that stress level. I'm not saying that prison should be easy, but there are a great many threats that could be taken away from this place if there were more P.C.O's who were taught to correct and reform rather than increase the abuse many of us have grown to know as standard operating procedure. The standard operating procedure seems to be, do them as badly as you can quickly and often so they never make parole and when they do leave it's with hate and malice again. But, not so with the Professional Correctional Officers.