What do the writers at Connected Internet do when we aren’t penning articles for you to read? Some of the logical guesses would be:
A) IT guys. Whether working for a big service provider or a corporation, we are somehow involved in keeping the hardware and network up and running. The classic way for a unix geek like me to make an honest living.
B) Writers. Between all the sites we write for we somehow manage to eke out a living doing it.
C) Web guys. We’re in the design end of things. The other way for chronic computer/internet junkies to make a legitimate career out of their inability to stay off a computer.
D) Web moguls. We all have a collection of web sites out there that make enough money from ppc and other types of advertising that we are financially independent.
These would be the likely choices. In my case, nope, nope, nope and nope.
Many of you know that in addition to contributing to Connected Internet I maintain the audiophile and home theater equipment news site AV Enthusiast. That’s the extent of my internet fixation, and it eats up all the time I can afford to share. My day job: I’m a Corporal at a 1400 bed county corrections facility.
A county corrections facility functions as a detention center for all the people incarcerated in a county awaiting the dispositions of their court cases. This means that a county facility like mine holds everyone from people who got caught drinking and driving to the murderers, rapists and pedophiles. The one thing all these people have in common is that they all have a history of not being able to adhere to the laws of the community, and I personally feel they are all, to one degree or another, sociopaths.
The main functions of a corrections officer are to:
A) shield the public from the predators in the community
B) provide an environment where the inmates are not victimizing each other
C) enforce the rules of the facility
A typical six month rotation for a corrections officer where I work looks something like this:
- Housing unit officer- you are assigned to a particular housing unit on your shift for 60 days. Your job is to conduct formal flesh counts, feed the inmates, oversee medication pass, make sure that inmates get out for court appearances, attorney visits, doctor’s sick call, law library, ensure that the rules of the facility are being adhered to, sanitation of the housing unit, and all appropriate documentation. If it isn’t on paper, it never happened where I work, so there is a considerable amount of paper work involved.
- Escort- for 60 days you are assigned to a floor containing X number of housing units. You are tasked with transporting the inmates to and from court appearances, attorney visits, doctor’s sick call, law library, anything that would take them out of a housing unit. If there is a fire somewhere, you are the one that gets to put it out, and by that I mean that fights and combative inmates are your responsibility. If searches get conducted, you are on the team.
- Float- for 60 days they fill holes in the schedule with you. You are likely to find yourself in a different spot every day for 60 days. In my case, I have a specialized job, so I don’t generally float. Instead I get to be:
- Administrative confinement housing unit- for 60 days you work in a housing unit that contains all the inmates in the facility that have assaulted staff or are otherwise unsuited to be in general population. This is a hand-picked team of volunteer officers. Your chances of having to put out fires rises exponentially in this assignment.
Corrections is a stressful occupation. The turnover rate is probably somewhere around 75%. The reasons for such high turnover: X percentage of young officers use corrections as a springboard toward other law enforcement jobs, so once they get on a department somewhere they leave. Many officers do things that compromise themselves and find their corrections careers terminated prematurely. Mainly, it takes a special person to go into a housing unit full of 64 people who are incapable of following rules and impose their will on them, and the stress eventually does in officers not suited to it.
Corrections is an important link in the law enforcement chain in your community. It’s also a thankless job because people have no idea what goes on behind our walls. Take it from me, it’s a tough job, and a necessary one. I find it rewarding because I know I fulfill a necessary role for the citizens of my community. The media usually casts corrections staff in a less than favorable light. There are a lot of good people in this field, and if you knew the job we did for you, you would be glad that someone was stepping up to do it. If you know anyone in your community that works in corrections, take a moment to thank them sometime. They put their safety on the line for you every day.
