Thought I should jump in for an update.
Not much to tell though really. It has been pretty quiet this last week. The weather has been pretty decent. It has been nice to be able to ride the Goldwing to work all week.
Tonight is my last night for a week, I go to inservice training next week. We do 40 hours of training every year, and next week it's my turn. The only real drag is having to get up and be in at 07:30 am. Not an easy task for someone who has spent so much time working nights. I don't do mornings very well. Oh well, it makes for a nice change of pace for a week. That and I get a week of not having to deal with inmates.
Friday, April 27, 2007
Sunday, April 22, 2007
April 22nd
The guy that they had to take to the hospital last night did in fact use a shoelace around his neck with pencils to tighten it. The staff found him unconcious, but they did get him in time and he came back to the institution at about 9:00 am this morning and is expected to fully recover. He had apparently cut himself on his face and arms as well, but they were mostly superficial cuts.
We have two new inmates on death row as of Friday. About four years ago an inmate was stabbed and beaten to death in the activities section of the Penitentiary. These two had been awaiting trial for it, and finished and were apparently sentenced last Friday. They both got the death sentence. The sad part is, in Oregon, they are more likely to die of old age than being executed.
Well, I am off to do another overtime shift. The boss just called and is getting desperate, he has four posts to cover.
We have two new inmates on death row as of Friday. About four years ago an inmate was stabbed and beaten to death in the activities section of the Penitentiary. These two had been awaiting trial for it, and finished and were apparently sentenced last Friday. They both got the death sentence. The sad part is, in Oregon, they are more likely to die of old age than being executed.
Well, I am off to do another overtime shift. The boss just called and is getting desperate, he has four posts to cover.
Saturday, April 21, 2007
April 21st
Well, things got interesting again last night. Right before lights out at 10:00 pm we got a call on the radio for all floor staff to report to the ready room. They had a cell fight in DSU (Disciplinary Segregation Unit) and they pulled all of our staff to go deal with it. They left one person to cover our whole building. At least we had everything done for the night, so it didn't matter so much, as long as we didn't have anyone get stupid. Fortunatley we didn't and they got the guys out in DSU with nothing more than a good dousing of pepper spray.
Then at just after 4:00 am we get another call. While doing the 4:00 am count, an inmate had attempted to kill himself. The way I heard it was he tied some string or a shoelace around his neck and used pencils to turn it like a tourniquet. When found he was unconcious. They called an ambulance and they again pulled two of our staff to go to the hospital with him. This left us with two people to feed breakfast at 5:oo am. Two people to serve meals to 150 inmates, it was going to be a late morning for us. Fortunatley some of the dayshift guys showed up early and jumped in to help feed, so it gone done only about 10 minutes later than usual. By the time I left, I hadn't heard anything about the guy that tried to kill himself. I am going in tonight to do an extra shift, so I will post in the morning if I hear anything more.
Then at just after 4:00 am we get another call. While doing the 4:00 am count, an inmate had attempted to kill himself. The way I heard it was he tied some string or a shoelace around his neck and used pencils to turn it like a tourniquet. When found he was unconcious. They called an ambulance and they again pulled two of our staff to go to the hospital with him. This left us with two people to feed breakfast at 5:oo am. Two people to serve meals to 150 inmates, it was going to be a late morning for us. Fortunatley some of the dayshift guys showed up early and jumped in to help feed, so it gone done only about 10 minutes later than usual. By the time I left, I hadn't heard anything about the guy that tried to kill himself. I am going in tonight to do an extra shift, so I will post in the morning if I hear anything more.
Thursday, April 19, 2007
April 19th
Last night was one of those great nights where everything happens at once.
Shortly after we got on shift, the lieutenant had to go to SMU. Smu is the Special Management Unit, our psych unit. We had just got our orderlies out to clean their respective units, when she called me and said she needed some staff up in SMU to assist with an inmate that was out of control. They were going to need a team to place the inmate in a restraint chair. The restraint chair is a chair that is low to the ground and on wheels that has straps for the arms, legs and chest to restrain an inmate that may cause self harm. So two of our staff left the building in a hurry to go help. We had to lock our orderlies back up, since we were now working with only two floor staff in the building, not enough to respond if we were to have a problem.
The two staff that went out to help made it as far as the foot gate. Our unit is entirely fenced in within the institution. There is a gate that we go through that is right under one of the towers, and that tower has a switch to open the gate to let us in and out. So of course, the lock failed. The Lt. is freaking out wanting those staff in SMU NOW, and they are stuck behind the gate trying desperatley to get out. They are finally able to get the gate to release so they can get out, but the lock is still malfunctioning, so they start trying to get someone out to fix it.
Then about ten minutes after this mess, while still running with just two staff in the building, I get a call from our transport unit. They are on the way to our unit in about twenty minutes with six new inmates for us from an institution in eastern Oregon. Now we don't have enough staff to bring these guys in, we don't have a lieutenant that can authorize the gate to be lifted to bring them in, and the gate still isn't fixed even if we did. They ended up having to bring them in through the visiting area for our unit, and they had to help bring them in. They were ecstatic over this news, as they were already running late and several hours past what should have been the end of their shift already.
Well, eventually, we got our new admits in and settled, they got the guy in SMU in the chair and settled down and the gate got fixed. It was getting late at this point, so the orderlies didn't get out to finish cleaning so they did what inmates do best and bitched, whined and complained for a while, but things finally calmed down and the rest of the night went pretty smooth.
On a happier note, looks like the weather is going to be kind tonight so I can ride the bike to work. What a way to spoil a good ride, having to pull in to work at the end of it. Oh well, I gotta be there, might as well enjoy getting there.
Shortly after we got on shift, the lieutenant had to go to SMU. Smu is the Special Management Unit, our psych unit. We had just got our orderlies out to clean their respective units, when she called me and said she needed some staff up in SMU to assist with an inmate that was out of control. They were going to need a team to place the inmate in a restraint chair. The restraint chair is a chair that is low to the ground and on wheels that has straps for the arms, legs and chest to restrain an inmate that may cause self harm. So two of our staff left the building in a hurry to go help. We had to lock our orderlies back up, since we were now working with only two floor staff in the building, not enough to respond if we were to have a problem.
The two staff that went out to help made it as far as the foot gate. Our unit is entirely fenced in within the institution. There is a gate that we go through that is right under one of the towers, and that tower has a switch to open the gate to let us in and out. So of course, the lock failed. The Lt. is freaking out wanting those staff in SMU NOW, and they are stuck behind the gate trying desperatley to get out. They are finally able to get the gate to release so they can get out, but the lock is still malfunctioning, so they start trying to get someone out to fix it.
Then about ten minutes after this mess, while still running with just two staff in the building, I get a call from our transport unit. They are on the way to our unit in about twenty minutes with six new inmates for us from an institution in eastern Oregon. Now we don't have enough staff to bring these guys in, we don't have a lieutenant that can authorize the gate to be lifted to bring them in, and the gate still isn't fixed even if we did. They ended up having to bring them in through the visiting area for our unit, and they had to help bring them in. They were ecstatic over this news, as they were already running late and several hours past what should have been the end of their shift already.
Well, eventually, we got our new admits in and settled, they got the guy in SMU in the chair and settled down and the gate got fixed. It was getting late at this point, so the orderlies didn't get out to finish cleaning so they did what inmates do best and bitched, whined and complained for a while, but things finally calmed down and the rest of the night went pretty smooth.
On a happier note, looks like the weather is going to be kind tonight so I can ride the bike to work. What a way to spoil a good ride, having to pull in to work at the end of it. Oh well, I gotta be there, might as well enjoy getting there.
Sunday, April 15, 2007
April 15th
OK, so I am a couple days late. It has been a busy week.
For starters, it turns out the fire at OSCI and the fight were not related. There was apparently just a small electrical fire. Then there was a fight that was unrelated. I never get much details other than that.
Nothing really exciting this week. I worked an extra shift Saturday night. I decided to ride the goldwing to work, despite the dark clouds. It was clear here when I left the house, but there were some ugly looking clouds up north. As I cruised north on I-5 I managed to stay just behind the rain. It had blown past before I got to it and the road was wet, but I didn't get rained on for most of the ride.
Then I got to an area that has some high hills just south of Salem. As I approached the hills it started to rain so I slipped into the slow lane and slowed a bit. As I got further up the hill it started to rain harder, then I hit a hail storm. It was just little hail, but as it started peppering my face at 65 miles an hour I decided it sucks just a little bit. Fortunately it didn't last long, and once I cleared the hills it was clear again. Oh well, it was still a nice ride.
For starters, it turns out the fire at OSCI and the fight were not related. There was apparently just a small electrical fire. Then there was a fight that was unrelated. I never get much details other than that.
Nothing really exciting this week. I worked an extra shift Saturday night. I decided to ride the goldwing to work, despite the dark clouds. It was clear here when I left the house, but there were some ugly looking clouds up north. As I cruised north on I-5 I managed to stay just behind the rain. It had blown past before I got to it and the road was wet, but I didn't get rained on for most of the ride.
Then I got to an area that has some high hills just south of Salem. As I approached the hills it started to rain so I slipped into the slow lane and slowed a bit. As I got further up the hill it started to rain harder, then I hit a hail storm. It was just little hail, but as it started peppering my face at 65 miles an hour I decided it sucks just a little bit. Fortunately it didn't last long, and once I cleared the hills it was clear again. Oh well, it was still a nice ride.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
April 12th
Sorry to those of you who actually read this rubish and look for more. It has been a while, I have been bad about keeping up.
There hasn't really been a whole lot going on lately, things have been pretty quiet, which is a good thing I suppose, all things considered.
This morning looked like it was going to be a real cluster, but it turned out not to be too bad. I was informed at 10 minutes to 5:00 am that we had an inmate we had to wake in our unit to be shipped out. I got this information from the guy working control in another unit. Thanks for passing along the info there LT. We feed breakfast at 5:05 am, so we didn't have much time to get him up, have him pack his belongings, and get him downstairs before breakfast was served.
THEN we got word that we were getting 5 new inmates from OSCI, another institution in Salem. The details are a bit fuzzy still, but there was something mentioned about a fire and some fights. I have no idea at this point if the inmates started a fire, or what exactly happened. I will find out tonight and post what details I can tomorrow.
We were afraid we would get these guys in just as breakfast got to the building. This has happened before, and can really throw a monkey wrench in the morning routine. The biggest being, we all get to go home late because everything gets delayed. Fortunately, they didn't get to us, so we were able to get breakfast served and split before they got there.
There hasn't really been a whole lot going on lately, things have been pretty quiet, which is a good thing I suppose, all things considered.
This morning looked like it was going to be a real cluster, but it turned out not to be too bad. I was informed at 10 minutes to 5:00 am that we had an inmate we had to wake in our unit to be shipped out. I got this information from the guy working control in another unit. Thanks for passing along the info there LT. We feed breakfast at 5:05 am, so we didn't have much time to get him up, have him pack his belongings, and get him downstairs before breakfast was served.
THEN we got word that we were getting 5 new inmates from OSCI, another institution in Salem. The details are a bit fuzzy still, but there was something mentioned about a fire and some fights. I have no idea at this point if the inmates started a fire, or what exactly happened. I will find out tonight and post what details I can tomorrow.
We were afraid we would get these guys in just as breakfast got to the building. This has happened before, and can really throw a monkey wrench in the morning routine. The biggest being, we all get to go home late because everything gets delayed. Fortunately, they didn't get to us, so we were able to get breakfast served and split before they got there.
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