Back in prison

David G

Well-known Member
I had to drop some materials off at the prison this morning for my project, have to go back end of week for commissioning of the new equipment.

I am getting used to stopping there, not sure that is a good thing.
 
Never visited anybody in prison but they are sobering to drive by. If I have business in Auburn, NY the main highway takes you by the state prison there. Also, when state highway 98 in WNY was under rebuild the alternate route took a driver right past Attica. Drove past Attica several times due to that.
 
I have visited a few in county jails.

Some are business like and well run. Others are horrible! They treat every visitor as a potential inmate, very slow and frustrating process, every visitor gets run through the system to check for warrants, rude and arrogant personnel.

Only visited a state prison once. It was well organized, minimum security but strictly run. Not a place I would ever want to be!
 
After a tornado hit my county seat and destroyed a lot of the small city, the FSA offices were temporarloly moved to a mental health state hospital building for 2-3 years. We had to drive in past the barbed wire fences and security systems for the farm paperwork. It is a heavy security, bad person state hospital, so there is a lot of that security there.....

Many jokes and comments were made of that involving farmers, govt, and the location over the years, none of which I probably am able to say in public any more as people?s feelings are so easily hurt.

Paul
 
Many years ago I remember driving by Dennemora and the road was right next to the wall.
 
When I lived in Georgia I participated in a prison ministry at the maximum security prison on Reidsville, GA. I guess that county jails, minimum security, and medium security prisons might be a lot better, but I can tell you from spending many days visiting the maximum security prison, that it is no place for a normal person to want to be. The noise is disconcerting from the steel doors clanging, the prisoners yelling to each other, and the nasty old television hanging on the wall at the end of the corridor outside the cells.

Reidsville is all concrete and steel. There's no air conditioning and very little heat. In the summer time, dew forms on the steel ceilings of the cells at night and then drips down onto the prisoners and any "furnishings" that are in the cells. We couldn't hold any church services because the prisoners are not allowed out of their cells for any group activity. And then there's the stainless steel unit in the cell that offers cold water for a wash basin in the area of the toilet that would be the equivalent of a where the top of the tank would be on a normal toilet.

Etc., etc. Not a nice place to be.

Tom in TN
 
Never even knew anyone that worked in those places. What kind of a person typically does it take to work there day in and day out.?
 
been in womens and mens prison several times . the men were all not guilty. the women were all guility. yes i killed the sob because he was no good and hit me. i took boys crew in to the women prison for lunch.he women were all nice. we worked crews on roadside jobs. no guns and could walk off about anytime. we had 3 walked off in 5 years. to get on work crew they have to be close to getting out. biggest problem was friend hiding alco for them to brink. they wanted to mow roadsides. ok. one day they played chicked with 2 mowers. 15 mph hit head on. you had to watch your self close. one time a highwat foreman was showing a women how to run a front end loader. she said he touched her. a hoader is very small. fun fun
 
I have known at least 2 people that worked in the real deal federal prison system.

I believe both were guards that had direct contact with prisoners.

I have never known any 2 people that could have been any more opposite in their personality.

One was an arrogant, "make my day, punk" personality. He scared me from a distance, never had any real dealings with him, and frankly didn't want to!

The other was a "Mr. Rodgers" to extreme! Very timid and soft spoken. He worked at the Carswel women's prison in Ft Worth.
 
We just did an HVAC upgrade at a jail in new York it's a min security boot camp deal. However in the one back corner is another fence with a jail house inside of it that's where they keep the real bad guys they are prisoners who messed up at any other jail in NY and got sent there to be in solitary and do some more time. That's the building we were in lots of fun getting in and out of there. One day a carpenter broke a tap off in a door jamb putting on some hinges. He didn't see what the big deal was until tool count time at the end of the day. They made him get the broke off parts out of the jamb the rest of us got to wait for him to retrieve said tap.
 
have several close friends that are corrections officers in the local county jail--they have some real horror stories to tell--don't think i could ever deal with the abuse they have to take--but they do get there revenge in small ways
 
I usually don't disclose my professional information on public forums, but I do trust most here. I am a Corrections Officer for the state (MN). I have spent my entire career on the ERT (Emergency Response Team), am a DOC Use of Force instructor (Firearms/Self Defense/Control Tactics/Chemical Munitions/ERT Instructor)... Started when I was 25 and am 32 now. My intention was not to make this into my career, but I LOVE going to work... About a month ago, myself and 3 of my team members were honored in our yearly, DOC-wide awards ceremony. We were nominated for our contributions to safety at our facility... Not bragging about myself - but am bragging about the type of people I work alongside.

I have seen a lot of things (good, bad, and downright disgusting) working in this environment, many I will never forget. We have had a REALLY rough summer in our department - Two officers were killed less than 90 days apart (our first two officer KIA's)... A word that we use in corrections is COMPLACENCY... Complacency KILLS. I think the same thing can be said in many other lines of work - agriculture is a big one. When you become complacent, real bad things can happen, real fast. Construction, heavy equipment operation, military, law enforcement, truckers... There are a lot of dangerous professions out there. Whatever you do, please be safe, do not become complacent.

At the end of the day, we all want to go out the gate the same way we came in... With just a few more pennies in our pocket.

Me? I am serving a life sentence... 8-16 hours at a time. :)
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I used to do business with the county jail, and sometimes going fairly extensively through areas where the prisoners were. It actually seemed kind of lax to me, but you never hear of any problems there. The inmates want to be bugging you all the time, telling about how they are innocent. I was supposed to be always escorted by a CO, but they were often short handed and would have to leave me within a certain locked area. One time The superintendent, who was an old tractor guy, was escorting me and had to go to a problem, so he gave me his portable radio so that I could call central control to get the doors that I needed opened. One time I had a fairly lengthy job to do in an area that was not open to prisoners. I had my son with me who was around twelve at the time. He looked the area over very carefully and kept pointing out ways that prisoners may be able to escape.
 
Did you get to meet Jesus?? He has got to be there cause everyone there seems to find him while they are there. :eek:
 
That is a bad deal for those guys, just trying to do a job and make some money to live on. Be careful Ken in most professions the age 30-39 are the statisticly where a fatality happens from being complacent. It's called the Superman syndrome where you have experience and feel like the game has been beaten.
 
I'm not so sure I enjoy building and fixing and repairing these places so much, but it's what pays the bills. We do it all, local, county, state, federal - FBOP, and recently I did some new holding cells for the USMS in a federal courthouse. The work is relentless and is a gigantic pain in the @ss at times ! Lots of moving parts in prisons, things wear out, break and malfunction.

Just getting the clearances sometimes is enough of a pain, like getting a PIV card for GSA work. I drive 2 hours to finally pick up the PIV card, they said they received it, but could not find the darned thing. They almost issued one for someone who looks like me, told them, that's not me. Had to make the trip one more time. Makes for no hassle access, but what a process and try to explain that to your workers, how to get it done, only one of my guys got through it, 4 others could not understand how to complete the process.

It's nuts walking amongst the worst of the worst, I have seen a few notable ones in person in NYS facilities.
 
The Ohio State Reformatory was on Rt.13 near Mansfield, OH, where they filmed the "Shawshank Redemption". I remember Dad driving by it with my 6 year old brother and me in the back seat of his 1950 Chevy, and telling us "If you don't straighten up, that's where you'll be." Sure didn't want to go there.
 
I worked on generators at state prisons and county jails.All over north Texas. Most of the time just me and a trustee helper. I hated going to the mental prison in Rusk. I worked in what they called the kill zone. One guard with me and two tower guards watching me. Was told that if the alarm went off. Drop to the ground flatten out and don't move.
 
I worked for a contractor at Auburn for a couple of months. Repointing the stone work. Never had a problem with either staff of residents. Of course being a masons helper at union scale smoothed a lot of things out.
My nephew is a captain with NYS Corrections. Hell of a good job did change him into a miserable sumnagun though.
 
I work at a county jail as a corrections deputy in a small rural facility. I spent the first 19 years of my adult life as a welder/machinist in the semiconductor industry, then when I wanted to move the family to take over the great grandpas ranch after his passing I needed a new line of work. There are few machine shops out here and they dont pay well. I like working in a small facility, I dont think a large jail or prison would be something I would enjoy. I wish that running the ranch was profitable enough to do full time, however that's not really an option- and the corrections job has retirement/insurance and all those goodies.
 
For you guys that work in prisons, looks like you will be able to meet a real celebrity soon. I just saw on the news that DJT's lawyer is going away for a few years. Probably more of that ilk to follow.
 

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