May 20th

Pretty quiet week at work this week.
The other night the inmates in section two of the unit kept making a bunch of noise, and yelling to inmates in section three, which they aren't supposed to do. The inmates in my unit have small radios that they get to listen to. I have a switch box that can cut power to them, so I did. They ALL started yelling and banging doors and generally acting like inmates. The floor staff went in and told them if they want them back on they had to settle down and be quiet for 15 minutes. They all talked a bunch of smack, but guess what?! Ten minutes later it was nice and quiet again. I love those radios. They are such a great tool. Oh yeah, the inmates were quiet the rest of the night.

Nothing else going on. It has been pretty mellow for a while. We just enjoy it while we can knowing that eventually someone is gonna nut up again and things get hectic for a while.

May 13th - Mothers Day

Just wanted to jump in to wish my Mom and my wonderful Wife a HAPPY MOTHERS DAY. For all the things you have done, and continue to do I thank you for being there for me.

To all you other moms out there, I hope today is special for you and those that you have made a tremendous impact on their lives offer you a great big hug.

May 11th

Back to the same old grind this week.
Wednesday night, nothing out of the ordinary.
There was a change made while I was gone to training last week though.
They moved 24 inmates from DSU into section 3 of my unit. Eventually the unit I currently work in, and the one below mine that now houses death row, will all be used for DSU inmates. DSU is the Disciplinary Segregation Unit. The other 2 units in the building will remain IMU.
The old DSU building will become SHU (Special Housing Unit) and will be used for death row and administrative segregation, also known as protective custody.

When I got on shift last night I was informed an inmate in the DSU section had spit on the unit corporal when he was picking up the dinner meal trays. This inmate was in one of the bottom tier cells that is a 2 man cell. An inmate was moved out of a top tier cell, which are single cells, so this inmate could be placed up top. Shortly after 0700 pm the inmates in that section started yelling man down. This is what inmates call out if someone is having a medical problem or something. The inmate that had spit on the Corporal was attempting to hang himself.
Now this is where you tell the difference between a veteran staff and someone fairly new. I grabbed my radio, but just held it for a minute as the floor officer came to the front of that section to see what was going on. He saw what was happening and immediately grabbed his radio and called for all staff to respond to a suicide attempt. He was the one who called it, so guess who does the paperwork! THAT is a learned skill folks. Just to clarify, the inmate was really only making a half-assed attempt of hanging himself to get attention and get moved to the psych unit, so there was no real immediate threat that he was going to actually hurt himself.
All staff in the building were in the unit in about 60 seconds, and within two more minutes the inmate backed up for restraints and was taken down to the medical room. The nurse came to the building to talk to him, and he WAS moved to the psych unit for further evaluation this morning.

Then just as everyone is winding down from this bit of excitement, at about 0735 the B unit corporal calls man down in his unit. An inmate with a bad ticker (he has a pacemakerunit in him) dropped while in the shower. So all staff once again come running up and they get this guy out of the unit to the corridor between B and D unit. I stood up and was watching from down the hall. I saw the inmates legs jerk, and staff leaned over him. I thought, Oh shit, they are doing CPR. This is not good. Well, it turns out they were not doing CPR, but the guys pacemaker was zapping him trying to keep his heart working. His legs jerked every time it hit him. Those things must really pack a wallop. They ended up calling an ambulance and running him to the hospital. I heard before I left this morning that he was doing ok.

Then at about 0930 an inmate in the old DSU building threw salad dressing and other food stuff on an officer. So they brought that inmate down to us and put him in the cell that the guy had been in that went to the psych unit. I must have had to change our count on the little tabs we keep track of how many inmates we have 6 times last night. I decided from now on I am going to just wait until 10:00 when we turn the lights out to update it. Things finally quieted down after that, and the rest of the night was uneventful.

Thats life in the big house for you.

May 7th

Well, I let this go to long without an update. I had intended to update each evening as I was in training last week, but having to work dayshift pretty much kicked my ass last week. All I wanted was to collapse on the couch until it was time to go to bed. Then I got to lay in bed wishing for sleep to come. There is a reason I still bid night shift, I DON'T DO MORNINGS!!

Training last week, despite having to get up at a ridiculous time of the morning, was not bad. We had the usual refresher talks about things like ethics and team effectiveness, treatment of the mentally ill in prison, communicable diseases and inmate access to health care, a lecture on the acceptable use of technology at work (aka, don't play on the computers or use it for personal stuff), emergency preparedness and PREA - the Prison Rape Elimination Act.

Then there was a four hour class that was titled "Customer Service". I was planning on coming home that night and UNLOADING on this particular class. Things were running through my head like, "Inmates are NOT my customers" and "Gee, the definition of customer is one who buys goods or services. The only staff that I know that have sold any goods or services to inmates are either in jail themselves, or looking for a new job." It turns out that the class was actually supposed to be more along the lines of boosting morale, and they were saying our fellow staff are our customers. It still doesn't really work with the definition, but after sitting through the class, it was easy to see where they were going with it. In a nutshell, they were trying to encourage everyone to keep up their spirits, and try to have a positive attitude while at work. Not always such an easy thing to do in the type of environment we work in, but it is possible to still have a decent time and not let things get to you.

Then the week ended with a day of shooting to qualify for armed posts, and a day of defensive tactics. All in all not a bad week. Getting up at 6:00 am is incredibly painful for me, but it was a nice break from the same old grind at work.