Essay: "What Makes a Good Prison Guard"

by Timothy N. Baker
Some of the most difficult professions we have today are those that require us to take care of our fellow man in some form or another and correctional officers are at the top of that list. You have some very intelligent inmates in our prisons today who have some morals and then you have some out right psychopaths, but the vast majority of our prisoners today are ordinary people who have made a mistake and some how have got caught up in the system with no idea how to get out. With virtually no form of rehabilitation in our penal system today 70% of all these inmates are lost without hope and will end up back in the system after they are released.

Taking this into account, not every Tom, Dick and Harry can come to work in America's prisons. We are packing some of the worst that society has to offer in over crowded prisons all across our country and expecting officers to do the job the way it is supposed to be done. Over the eleven years I have been incarcerated it had grown steadily worse for inmates and correctional officers alike.

The title of this essay is "What Makes a Good Corrections Officer," and that is a difficult question to answer, especially with me being an inmate. Trying to keep my emotions from interfering and not to be biased in my writing is a difficult task indeed. Most inmates feel a good officer is one who will let the inmate get away with murder, but that isn't realistic because that would just let the inmates run all over the system. Rules and guidelines are necessary to control our growing prison populations and correctional officers are needed to enforce those rules.

All of the good correctional officers I know have a few things in common. One they all say the training they received during their on the job training was inadequate and fell short of preparing them for the realities of prison they faced upon their first days as correctional officers. Many on the job trainees quit out of frustration or fear. Though many of the officers will not go into detail about their training because it violates the rules of this institution, some will say the training they go thorough is sanitized because the state thinks if people know the thing that really go on and the things they will go through most will not stay on as employees. When the trainees get past the training and actually start working--which is only six or seven weeks after they are hired-- they find themselves thrown into many situations they don't know how to deal with and either quit out of frustration or are fired for violating rules. Others improvise the best they can and some take older officers as mentors. Some of these new officers see others resort to violence to deal with the inmate and they also see ranking officials condone this behavior and even participate in it so they feel it is ok to do it too. With all the different kinds of personalities and mentalities these new officers have, you end up with a wide variety of correctional officers.

Another thing these good correctional officers have in common is their attitude towards inmates. They treat us with respect as long as we return this respect; normally there is never any problem with these officers. I am not saying these good officers bow down for inmates, far from it. Most will not tolerate misbehavior and if an inmate misbehaves the officer will do what needs to be done to contain the situation. One example of the type of respect an officer will show an inmate while still doing his job is when they perform a search of our cells for contraband. They handle our property will care and try as hard as they can, not to destroy anything. A lot of the officers handle our property as though it was trash. They rip magazines and books, they step all over our bed sheets and leave our cells looking like a tornado went through it. This is unnecessary to do a proper cell search for contraband.

Even when these good officers are forced in the course of their duties to write an inmate a disciplinary case for a violation we have committed, 90% of the inmates will continue to respect this good officer, because they know he has done nothing wrong. The inmates might not like a disciplinary case for a violation they've committed but they know it's not the officer's fault. He was just doing his job. On the other hand, when an officer is dirty, lies or does other stuff the inmate knows about, like bringing in drugs or tobacco or any number of things, NO inmate will really respect him. Sure they may use him to their own advantage but they will not respect him and if he writes someone a case for something he does himself, the inmates will hate this officer.

I have never seen nor have I heard of a correctional officer being assaulted by a sane inmate unless the officer was doing something that he shouldn't have been doing. Whether he stole something from the inmate while doing a deal, like what happened in south Texas or maybe he hit the inmate first. There was something there that provoked that inmate to assault that officer. Now I am aware that you have some mentally ill inmates who are very unpredictable. But, I have never seen an inmate of sound mind do this.

Another thing these good correctional officers have in common is that they do not go out of their way to antagonize inmates. For example, on almost every unit I have been on there was always one or two officers who would walk around with a stack of disciplinary report papers in their hand and by the end of the shift they have used them all. This is another example of how these bad officers like to go out of their way to antagonize inmates. If I am walking to the chow hall and I have some stubble on my chin it is a violation of the rules. We are always to be clean-shaven. There are some officers who will deny us our meal unless we go shave. This is in violation of their rules of conduct. They are suppose to write us a case for not shaving and let us go to chow, but they find pleasure in refusing us our meals and everyone from the warden on down condones this behavior.

The officers who I feel are good officers will have a very low use of force record, unless they are on the response team which causes them to use force that is ordered by the ranking officer. The reason this is because they do their job like it is supposed to be done and do not deliberately go out of their way to antagonize inmates. So, in turn the inmates don't bother this good officer. All these good officers will tell you it takes patience, knowledge and understanding to deal with inmates on a day-to-day basis.

Not all of the people who work here are up to the job of being a correctional officer. You have some down right mean officers who dislike inmates, period. These officers don't feel we deserve any kind of humane treatment. One such officer is a female officer who works on the unit I am on today. She finds great pleasure in refusing inmates their meals and the ranking officer who is her direct supervisor condones this type of behavior. I have personally asked her why she treats inmates like she does and her response was, "you don't deserve shit!" These types of officers use our food to try to control our behavior and as I've said the ranking officer condones this type of behavior, which is a direct violation of officer conduct.

Though, the officers who resort to this level of behavior are just a small group, the other officers whether they are good or bad will never go against a fellow officer. Whether by standing silent or by outright lying they will back up their fellow officer whether he is right or wrong. I have talked to several officers who I know and they have told me this is part of their training. They are instructed to back up a fellow officer no matter what the officer is doing, whether he is right or wrong. I believe this is an unofficial policy. The officers have said if they go against a fellow officer and speak the truth, they will end up losing their jobs. This is the same sort of code the free world law enforcement agencies go by.

An example, I saw recently was of an inmate who assaulted an officer and while bringing him to administration segregation they cut his hands to the bone. Nobody, including the nurse tried to help this inmate even though it was their job and they knew it was wrong not to help, and his injury went untreated for two days and they also refused him his lunch and dinner meals for three days. An officer I knew to be a good officer whom I wouldn't have thought would be capable of doing something like this also denied this inmate food. I asked him why he did this and he said if I don't they will call me an inmate lover. I have never seen this officer doing anything like this again. But, it just goes to show you all officers whether bad or good will resort to this level of behavior if put under pressure, and there is no ranking officer, a captain, a major or a warden who does not condone this type of behavior.

What makes a good correctional officer is someone with the understanding that he is here to do a job, that he is a public servant who is here for the purpose of filling a necessary position in our society. He leaves his feelings, opinions, and his prejudices at the door whether he likes inmates, whether he is mad that day or not. He just comes to work to do a job, nothing more, nothing less and that is a man I can respect. I feel we must require all of our correctional officers to do this. I feel this is what separates the criminal from the public servant. A good officer has developed a balance while working here. He treats inmates as human beings while maintaining the required amount of security needed to keep the institution safe for the inmates and officers alike.

It is a shame that in the 21st century, our federal and state agencies must be made to give us our rights granted by the United States Constitution because if left to do as they want, we would be treated as animals. The only people I have to thank for this are our founding fathers who understood the cruelty our fellow man is capable of.

The reasons these correctional officers sometimes do bad things like beat inmates, harass inmates, antagonize inmates and violate other rules they are supposed to follow is the lack of proper supervision. There is no one from the Director of Prisons on down to the lowest correctional officer that doesn't know that this type of behavior goes on, and by supporting each other even when they do wrong, and by the administrations silent approval of these abuses it will always continue.

When the Texas Seven escaped from Kenedy, Texas, it was only successful because a corrections officer didn't do his job properly and that violation of the rules cost a police officer his life. Even though some of the officers were punished, the system still didn't change. The inmates were punished more than the officers. I am referring to the added restrictions that were placed on certain groups of us. But, the officers still are guilty of dereliction of duty today, and when something like the Texas Seven happens again, which it will, and then will society see the truth?

As long as a correctional officer follows the rules made for the proper running of the penal system, is given proper training, and the trouble makers are weeded out, the United States penal system will be safe for inmates and correctional officers. The general public will be safe as well, and the only people who can demand these changes are made are the law-abiding citizens of our country. Without them, the system will stay as it is. More people will get hurt, more people will die and everyone will shift the blame or deny any wrongdoing.

The penal system hides the reality of what goes on behind these walls from society, and since most people feel we are nothing but worthless criminals, nothing is done to stop these abusers. Only when someone is on this side of the fence whether they are an inmate or officer will they open their eyes.

Not everyone condones these abuses and our penal system is better than that of almost every country I can think of. But, if we allow these abuses of authority to continue they will only get worse until one day the cries you hear from behind these walls will be yours or someone that you know and love.