Well, I slacked off again this week. Thought I better get at least one post in for this last week, so here goes.
My work week was actually pretty quiet. Even the morons in DSU side seemed to take a brake and were pretty quiet for the most part.
On Sunday though, there was an assault on a sergeant in population. An inmate came out for med line, and for some reason attacked the sarge with a razor. He cut him on the arm, back and ear before staff dog-piled him and got him restrained. Luckily, none of the cuts were too serious. He did have to have a few stitches though.
The following is an excerpt from the local newspaper that actually did a RARE article commending us. Notice they still insist on calling us "guards" instead of Correction Officers though. Then they got it right in the article itself. Go figure.
As always, I prefer not to list names in my blog, so those have been removed or changed.
Guards look out for prison security, their own.
Attack on guard on Sunday highlights risk of the job.
October 23, 2007
Among the Mid-Valley's residents are thousands of state prison inmates, including 2,182 at Oregon State Penitentiary in Salem. The task of guarding the inmates and keeping the penitentiary under control rests with the 361-person security staff. It can be a dangerous job. Sgt. (name withheld) was attacked Sunday night by an inmate wielding a razor blade. Fortunately, (name withheld)'s wounds to his arm, ear and back were not life-threatening. He was treated at Salem Hospital and today was reported to be doing well.
Oregon State Police are investigating. The suspect, inmate dumbass, has been placed in the penitentiary's disciplinary segregation unit. Dumbass had been released from his cell to receive routine medication when the attack occurred about 7:45 p.m., officials said.
Security and correctional officers have a difficult, under-appreciated job. They constantly must be vigilant to their and the inmates' security, and to issues that may affect inmates' behavior. For example, the officers generally are the initial line of contact when an inmate is distressed after receiving bad news from home or suffers a health problem. And the threat of violence always is present. The penitentiary averages about one physical assault on a staff member each month.
It must take a special person -- with skill, determination and self-discipline -- to be a correctional officer. Be thankful for their work.
Kind of nice to see a positive article about us for once in the paper. Usually this particular paper is the first to point a finger at us and print anything negative they can.
Friday, October 26, 2007
Thursday, October 18, 2007
October 18th
Pretty quiet night again last night.
The Lt. did call me at about 01:00am to tell me I needed to do a piss test on a guy just before breakfast. Turns out I was the only person in the building that had done the training and was listed as being qualified. The funny thing is, I did that training probably 3 or 4 years ago, and have never had to do it. Well, he never did call me down, I think he decided it could wait until dayshift got there to do it.
We do a certain number of random piss tests each month to check for drug use in the institution. That is one of the ways they keep track of whether drugs are getting introduced into the institution.
The Lt. did call me at about 01:00am to tell me I needed to do a piss test on a guy just before breakfast. Turns out I was the only person in the building that had done the training and was listed as being qualified. The funny thing is, I did that training probably 3 or 4 years ago, and have never had to do it. Well, he never did call me down, I think he decided it could wait until dayshift got there to do it.
We do a certain number of random piss tests each month to check for drug use in the institution. That is one of the ways they keep track of whether drugs are getting introduced into the institution.
Wednesday, October 17, 2007
October 17th
Well, I should have posted yesterday too,l but things have been pretty quiet for the most part the last two nights.
I was talking to the guy in ten tower on the phone last night, when he said he needed to go because something was happening. About five minutes later, the lieutenant called on the radio to let us know we had two incoming from a fight on the yard. Well, that was what was happening. I never did hear any details about what it was over or who it was, but we got two new morons for the DSU units. Our DSU unit is now completely full, so they had to kick two guys out early to make room for the two new ones.
I guess last Saturday evening they were pretty busy in DSU unit 1. The guy that works my unit on the floor said he worked an overtime shift in there and they flooded out several times and had to do three cell extractions.
I was talking to the guy in ten tower on the phone last night, when he said he needed to go because something was happening. About five minutes later, the lieutenant called on the radio to let us know we had two incoming from a fight on the yard. Well, that was what was happening. I never did hear any details about what it was over or who it was, but we got two new morons for the DSU units. Our DSU unit is now completely full, so they had to kick two guys out early to make room for the two new ones.
I guess last Saturday evening they were pretty busy in DSU unit 1. The guy that works my unit on the floor said he worked an overtime shift in there and they flooded out several times and had to do three cell extractions.
Tuesday, October 9, 2007
October 9th again
I just looked at my site tracker and thought this was kind of interesting.
I originally started this thing for friends and family because people are always interested when I tell them I work at a prison.
They always want to hear stories and wonder if working there is anything like the movies and TV.
Well, sometimes it is, but you know how Hollywood is....
Anyway, the interesting thing is how far spread the visitors are to my silly little blog here.
So, mostly for my own amusement, here is a list from the tracker of where the last hundred people that have visited this thing are from....
Houston, Texas
Durham, North Carolina
Detroit, Michigan
Springfield, Oregon
Linn Creek, Missouri
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Eugene, Oregon
La Crosse, Wisconsin
Monroe, Louisiana
Chicago, Illinois
Lebanon, Oregon
Bonnie, Illinois
Corvallis, Oregon
Turner, Oregon
Salem, Oregon
Brainerd, Minnesota
Tampa, Florida
Wellpinit, Washington
Ashland City, Tennessee
Byron Center, Michigan
Seattle, Washington
Bronxville, New York
Yeah, I know that isn't 100, but it has multiples of some cities and there are about 20 that it lists as Unknown.
I also remember checking it once a long time ago and there was even a hit from someone in Germany.
So to all you folks that find your way here, Welcome, and I hope that you find this at least interesting enough you don't stare at the screen afterwards thinking "There's ten minutes of my life I'll never get back".
Lastly, if anyone out there has a question or comment, please hit the comment link and feel free to ask. I check this thing often enough (even if I don't update enough) and will be happy to respond.
Thanks for stopping by.
I originally started this thing for friends and family because people are always interested when I tell them I work at a prison.
They always want to hear stories and wonder if working there is anything like the movies and TV.
Well, sometimes it is, but you know how Hollywood is....
Anyway, the interesting thing is how far spread the visitors are to my silly little blog here.
So, mostly for my own amusement, here is a list from the tracker of where the last hundred people that have visited this thing are from....
Houston, Texas
Durham, North Carolina
Detroit, Michigan
Springfield, Oregon
Linn Creek, Missouri
Grand Rapids, Michigan
Eugene, Oregon
La Crosse, Wisconsin
Monroe, Louisiana
Chicago, Illinois
Lebanon, Oregon
Bonnie, Illinois
Corvallis, Oregon
Turner, Oregon
Salem, Oregon
Brainerd, Minnesota
Tampa, Florida
Wellpinit, Washington
Ashland City, Tennessee
Byron Center, Michigan
Seattle, Washington
Bronxville, New York
Yeah, I know that isn't 100, but it has multiples of some cities and there are about 20 that it lists as Unknown.
I also remember checking it once a long time ago and there was even a hit from someone in Germany.
So to all you folks that find your way here, Welcome, and I hope that you find this at least interesting enough you don't stare at the screen afterwards thinking "There's ten minutes of my life I'll never get back".
Lastly, if anyone out there has a question or comment, please hit the comment link and feel free to ask. I check this thing often enough (even if I don't update enough) and will be happy to respond.
Thanks for stopping by.
October 9th
Last night, more of the same stupidness.
Inmates in Unit 1 of DSU started acting up.
I am not sure what the original problem was, but the Lieutenant called for an extraction team to get ready.
When they went in to extract a guy, the dumbass in the next cell shit-bombed the Lieutenant and an Officer. So the Lieutenant sprayed him with pepper spray. They let him sit and enjoy the spray for a while as they brought in a new guy that transport brought us. Then they went back in and got him out. He backed up when they went to get him, but as soon as they brought him out, he tried to kick staff. He got promptly "placed on the ground" for his trouble. That little episode should cost him another 3 to 5 years or so. Oh, this is the same moron I posted about on July 6th.
In the mean time, apparently another one started kicking his door, and kicked it enough to red light the board. On our control panels for the doors, there are two lights for each door, a red and green light. The green light indicates the door is secure, a red light indicates it is open, at least to some degree. So they had to go in and take him out.
All in all a pretty busy night for the first 4 hours or so. Things finally quieted down after that.
In other news, my youngest son turns 18 today. Happy Birthday son!!
Inmates in Unit 1 of DSU started acting up.
I am not sure what the original problem was, but the Lieutenant called for an extraction team to get ready.
When they went in to extract a guy, the dumbass in the next cell shit-bombed the Lieutenant and an Officer. So the Lieutenant sprayed him with pepper spray. They let him sit and enjoy the spray for a while as they brought in a new guy that transport brought us. Then they went back in and got him out. He backed up when they went to get him, but as soon as they brought him out, he tried to kick staff. He got promptly "placed on the ground" for his trouble. That little episode should cost him another 3 to 5 years or so. Oh, this is the same moron I posted about on July 6th.
In the mean time, apparently another one started kicking his door, and kicked it enough to red light the board. On our control panels for the doors, there are two lights for each door, a red and green light. The green light indicates the door is secure, a red light indicates it is open, at least to some degree. So they had to go in and take him out.
All in all a pretty busy night for the first 4 hours or so. Things finally quieted down after that.
In other news, my youngest son turns 18 today. Happy Birthday son!!
Monday, October 8, 2007
October 8th
Yes, Yes, I know I haven't posted in two months.
I am going to get back in the habit of updating, honest.
I don't think I posted since I had the back surgery.
Most of you that actually read this already know that it was a success and my back is doing better than it has for years.
Although I have not got back in the habit of updating, I was only off work for about eleven days after the surgery.
The building I work in has finished the swap to become both our Intensive Management Unit (IMU) and our Disciplinary Segregation Unit (DSU).
The building itself is now called Special Management Housing (SMH).
It consists of the IMU (A and B unit), and the DSU (Unit 1 and 2).
The old DSU building is now known as the Administrative Special Housing (ASH).
OOOHHHHH YEAH boys and girls, you can imagine the fun a bunch of twisted, sarcastic, cynical Correction Officers are having with that.
Imagine if you will, the radio traffic as 10 tower announces to staff in the Administrative Special Housing that they have someone entering the building.
"Ten Tower to ASH, you got one coming in the ASH"
Yes it is childish, schoolyard humor, but come on. What were they thinking when they named this thing.
Oh that's right, it was named by management. There wasn't any thinking involved.
Anyway, so the ASH consists of Death Row Unit (DRU) and the Administrative Segregation Unit (ASU).
ASU is what most people would think of as protective custody.
So back to my little home away from home. I am assigned the control center of IMU B unit.
This is where the higher level guys are housed, and consequently, it is for the most part pretty quiet most of the time.
This works for me. I have done my time dealing with the boneheads. At least the boneheads up here are a little more well behaved.
Not so much for the rest of the building. Tonight we started moving inmates around in the unit. We were supposed to get two more brought up from A unit. One decided he didn't want to move. Normally this wouldn't be SUCH a big deal, but two things weren't going his way. Number one he failed the attitude check when he was told he was moving. Number two, he didn't have any reason to be such a mouthy ass about moving, which threw up red flags to the Lieutenant. Why would he NOT want to move to the better, more quiet unit? Well, he then refused to even be cuffed up to come out to talk. So an extraction team was formed and they went in to get him. He got a face full of pepper spray and staff dog piled him, cuffed him and he ended up coming out the hard way. Now he will lose his level and his property will be searched thoroughly to determine if he had something to hide.
Just as they were finishing dealing with this mess, a guy in one of the DSU units started having chest pains. So an ambulance was called and the guy was transported out to the hospital. This was all within the first two hours of my shift. Can't wait to see what the rest of the night has in store for us.
And so it continues. At about 10:30pm, the officer working control in DSU Unit 2 calls on the radio to have the water turned off in one of the sections. An inmate was flooding out. When they went in to talk to him the inmate was in the process of tying his sheets around his neck. This was an inmate we just got in tonight. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that on top of everything else going on earlier tonight, we had 4 inmates brought in for DSU all within about 30 minutes of each other. The details I got are still a bit blurry, and I am not sure if anyone knows for sure at this point what happened but it sounds like maybe the guys cellmate beat on him. They brought him down to my unit and put him in the holding cell. So now i have a bunch of staff, the Lieutenant, a couple nurses all milling around. Well, they finally all left and the rest of the night was quiet.
I am going to get back in the habit of updating, honest.
I don't think I posted since I had the back surgery.
Most of you that actually read this already know that it was a success and my back is doing better than it has for years.
Although I have not got back in the habit of updating, I was only off work for about eleven days after the surgery.
The building I work in has finished the swap to become both our Intensive Management Unit (IMU) and our Disciplinary Segregation Unit (DSU).
The building itself is now called Special Management Housing (SMH).
It consists of the IMU (A and B unit), and the DSU (Unit 1 and 2).
The old DSU building is now known as the Administrative Special Housing (ASH).
OOOHHHHH YEAH boys and girls, you can imagine the fun a bunch of twisted, sarcastic, cynical Correction Officers are having with that.
Imagine if you will, the radio traffic as 10 tower announces to staff in the Administrative Special Housing that they have someone entering the building.
"Ten Tower to ASH, you got one coming in the ASH"
Yes it is childish, schoolyard humor, but come on. What were they thinking when they named this thing.
Oh that's right, it was named by management. There wasn't any thinking involved.
Anyway, so the ASH consists of Death Row Unit (DRU) and the Administrative Segregation Unit (ASU).
ASU is what most people would think of as protective custody.
So back to my little home away from home. I am assigned the control center of IMU B unit.
This is where the higher level guys are housed, and consequently, it is for the most part pretty quiet most of the time.
This works for me. I have done my time dealing with the boneheads. At least the boneheads up here are a little more well behaved.
Not so much for the rest of the building. Tonight we started moving inmates around in the unit. We were supposed to get two more brought up from A unit. One decided he didn't want to move. Normally this wouldn't be SUCH a big deal, but two things weren't going his way. Number one he failed the attitude check when he was told he was moving. Number two, he didn't have any reason to be such a mouthy ass about moving, which threw up red flags to the Lieutenant. Why would he NOT want to move to the better, more quiet unit? Well, he then refused to even be cuffed up to come out to talk. So an extraction team was formed and they went in to get him. He got a face full of pepper spray and staff dog piled him, cuffed him and he ended up coming out the hard way. Now he will lose his level and his property will be searched thoroughly to determine if he had something to hide.
Just as they were finishing dealing with this mess, a guy in one of the DSU units started having chest pains. So an ambulance was called and the guy was transported out to the hospital. This was all within the first two hours of my shift. Can't wait to see what the rest of the night has in store for us.
And so it continues. At about 10:30pm, the officer working control in DSU Unit 2 calls on the radio to have the water turned off in one of the sections. An inmate was flooding out. When they went in to talk to him the inmate was in the process of tying his sheets around his neck. This was an inmate we just got in tonight. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that on top of everything else going on earlier tonight, we had 4 inmates brought in for DSU all within about 30 minutes of each other. The details I got are still a bit blurry, and I am not sure if anyone knows for sure at this point what happened but it sounds like maybe the guys cellmate beat on him. They brought him down to my unit and put him in the holding cell. So now i have a bunch of staff, the Lieutenant, a couple nurses all milling around. Well, they finally all left and the rest of the night was quiet.
Saturday, July 14, 2007
July 14th
Well, had the surgery yesterday.
Other than getting in late, everything went well.
I was scheduled for 10:00am, they didn't get me in until 02:30pm. The one before me apparently got more involved than expected and took a lot longer than they thought.
Once I got done, I was able to get up and move around within about an hour, so they let me go home. I haven't had much pain at all. Yesterday of course I was still pretty groggy and doped up, and I took a pain pill just before we left the hospital.
Today, I feel a bit of pressure as I am up and about, but still not in any real pain. I have been taking Vicadin about every 5 or 6 hours though.
Got out and went for a walk up and down the block this morning, still feeling fine. I'm not moving real fast, and using my cane for stability, but feeling pretty good otherwise.
Just going to take it easy this week, and hope I am feeling well and healed up enough to go back to work next week.
Other than getting in late, everything went well.
I was scheduled for 10:00am, they didn't get me in until 02:30pm. The one before me apparently got more involved than expected and took a lot longer than they thought.
Once I got done, I was able to get up and move around within about an hour, so they let me go home. I haven't had much pain at all. Yesterday of course I was still pretty groggy and doped up, and I took a pain pill just before we left the hospital.
Today, I feel a bit of pressure as I am up and about, but still not in any real pain. I have been taking Vicadin about every 5 or 6 hours though.
Got out and went for a walk up and down the block this morning, still feeling fine. I'm not moving real fast, and using my cane for stability, but feeling pretty good otherwise.
Just going to take it easy this week, and hope I am feeling well and healed up enough to go back to work next week.
Wednesday, July 11, 2007
July 11th
Well, I didn't post much last week, figured I would get one in today. I bid for my new shift Tuesday morning. I will be working in IMU still, on the IMU side away from the bastards in DSU. I will work 06:00 pm to 06:00 am on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. Then every third week I go in a day early and work Sunday night as well. I think this is going to be a nice post. I will be starting this post on the first full week of August.
I will be going in on Friday morning to have surgery to fix a buggered up disc in my back. If all goes well, I will be back home that evening. I will be off work next week, and if I am feeling up to it, will go back the following week. I will try to post when I am able to sit long enough to do it, and keep you posted on how the surgery went.
It is time to get ready for work. I am hoping they have the air conditioning working in the control center tonight. It is 90 degrees, cloudy and muggy as hell outside. It is going to be a miserable night if the AC isn't working.
I will be going in on Friday morning to have surgery to fix a buggered up disc in my back. If all goes well, I will be back home that evening. I will be off work next week, and if I am feeling up to it, will go back the following week. I will try to post when I am able to sit long enough to do it, and keep you posted on how the surgery went.
It is time to get ready for work. I am hoping they have the air conditioning working in the control center tonight. It is 90 degrees, cloudy and muggy as hell outside. It is going to be a miserable night if the AC isn't working.
Friday, July 6, 2007
July 6th
Work has been pretty quiet the last couple nights.
Well, not all that quiet, but no problems. They were noisy as hell last night, but just being stupid and making noise for the sake of making noise.
Speaking of stupid, I thought I would share with you the details of the type of special stupid I am around all the time.
We will call him, inmate moron.
Inmate Moron came into the system with a 6 year beef for Robbery II and was 23 years old.
He would have been released in Feb. of this year.
Since he has been in, our little moron has racked up the following charges.
4 counts of inmate with a weapon for another 9.6 years.
4 counts of assault III for another 7.3 years.
2 counts of assaulting an Officer for another 5 years.
Yup, our little Einstein now has an earliest release date of Feb. of 2028.
He would have been out this year at age 28, now assuming he gets no further charges he will be out when he is 49.
On top of that, he has warrants in California, Washington and a local county here.
Some people just shouldn't be allowed to breathe.
Well, not all that quiet, but no problems. They were noisy as hell last night, but just being stupid and making noise for the sake of making noise.
Speaking of stupid, I thought I would share with you the details of the type of special stupid I am around all the time.
We will call him, inmate moron.
Inmate Moron came into the system with a 6 year beef for Robbery II and was 23 years old.
He would have been released in Feb. of this year.
Since he has been in, our little moron has racked up the following charges.
4 counts of inmate with a weapon for another 9.6 years.
4 counts of assault III for another 7.3 years.
2 counts of assaulting an Officer for another 5 years.
Yup, our little Einstein now has an earliest release date of Feb. of 2028.
He would have been out this year at age 28, now assuming he gets no further charges he will be out when he is 49.
On top of that, he has warrants in California, Washington and a local county here.
Some people just shouldn't be allowed to breathe.
Wednesday, July 4, 2007
July 4th
Well, Gravebinder informed me I should post about things going on even on my days off.
So here ya go. I think had mentioned the problems I was having keeping my DSL running decent.
I had one weekend where it went dead and I had no internet for the whole weekend. On that Monday they came out and cleaned up some phone lines and I thought all was well. The next weekend, I get on to play a little EQII, and keep getting kicked out again. I checked my speeds and was getting like 25 to 40kps. It was total crap. I called the 24 hour tech support and they said they were doing some sort of maintenance on the lines that weekend. OK, so that was the problem, no biggie.
Well, the next weekend (this last weekend) I got on to play and the same thing started happening. Crap download speeds, kept getting kicked out of game etc. So now I'm REALLY pissed. I even called the guy at the phone company (his work phone - voicemail) at 01:00 am Sunday morning to tell him he better get someone out here Monday and fix it or I was going back to Comcast.
Well, Monday someone came out and climbed the pole and cleaned up some more lines. Running a little better, but still not as good as it should. He had one of the guys stop by and give me some CAT5 cable which I ran right from the box on the outside of the house, to the jack my computer is plugged into. They even gave me a new jack to run it in to. Monday night I got on to game and yup, got kicked out some more. Now I am starting to think some asshat at the phone company is watching and as soon as I log in to play the game, they shut me down. I swear it was always going down when I got on to play.
I call him up again this morning. So, they show back up today, and we are having a hell of a time trying to figure out why my speeds are dropping. He traces the line I put in all the way into the house. Everything looks good, but it is still all over the place and not as fast as it should be. We were starting to think it was the modem. The guy pulls the faceplate off the jack in the house by the computer. Everything appears to be done right, but he pulls the wires off and re-sets them.
BOOM!! I now have internet and it is stable as can be. We still can't figure out what it was, but I must not have had a good connection on one of the wires.
I now have DSL with a smokin fast (are you ready for this?) 10 MBS DOWNLOAD!! Yeah, that's right. 10 FREAKIN MBS!! My son has his computer in his room, running wireless and HE is getting 6.8 MBS! Three weeks of fighting this stupid thing, and it is all worth it now.
Centurytel 10 MBS DSL2 - FTW!!
So here ya go. I think had mentioned the problems I was having keeping my DSL running decent.
I had one weekend where it went dead and I had no internet for the whole weekend. On that Monday they came out and cleaned up some phone lines and I thought all was well. The next weekend, I get on to play a little EQII, and keep getting kicked out again. I checked my speeds and was getting like 25 to 40kps. It was total crap. I called the 24 hour tech support and they said they were doing some sort of maintenance on the lines that weekend. OK, so that was the problem, no biggie.
Well, the next weekend (this last weekend) I got on to play and the same thing started happening. Crap download speeds, kept getting kicked out of game etc. So now I'm REALLY pissed. I even called the guy at the phone company (his work phone - voicemail) at 01:00 am Sunday morning to tell him he better get someone out here Monday and fix it or I was going back to Comcast.
Well, Monday someone came out and climbed the pole and cleaned up some more lines. Running a little better, but still not as good as it should. He had one of the guys stop by and give me some CAT5 cable which I ran right from the box on the outside of the house, to the jack my computer is plugged into. They even gave me a new jack to run it in to. Monday night I got on to game and yup, got kicked out some more. Now I am starting to think some asshat at the phone company is watching and as soon as I log in to play the game, they shut me down. I swear it was always going down when I got on to play.
I call him up again this morning. So, they show back up today, and we are having a hell of a time trying to figure out why my speeds are dropping. He traces the line I put in all the way into the house. Everything looks good, but it is still all over the place and not as fast as it should be. We were starting to think it was the modem. The guy pulls the faceplate off the jack in the house by the computer. Everything appears to be done right, but he pulls the wires off and re-sets them.
BOOM!! I now have internet and it is stable as can be. We still can't figure out what it was, but I must not have had a good connection on one of the wires.
I now have DSL with a smokin fast (are you ready for this?) 10 MBS DOWNLOAD!! Yeah, that's right. 10 FREAKIN MBS!! My son has his computer in his room, running wireless and HE is getting 6.8 MBS! Three weeks of fighting this stupid thing, and it is all worth it now.
Centurytel 10 MBS DSL2 - FTW!!
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