I will start off by saying one thing; in prison, telling isn’t cool. This usually applies to inmates, but it applies to corrections staff as well. Unless you are specifically assigned to investigate an officer, or believe that a staff member is posing a security threat to the facility by his or her actions, most staff keep their noses out of each other’s business.
That is not to say corrections staff condone or approve of everything they may see their colleagues do, but prison is a murky, gray-area type place full of policy and protocol. Very few human beings, let alone corrections officers, are perfect all the time. Some “misdeeds” may be quite minor, and easily attributable to a simple lapse of judgment, momentary feeling of empathy or even honest mistakes.
Some violations of prison policy by staff are more serious, however, and these things will often attract attention and cause investigations to begin. The more serious offenses can easily result in charges and prison time for the staff member, and typically the severity of the offense coupled with the amount of evidence there is dictates whether or not that staff member is transferred to a different prison unit or facility, temporarily suspended from duty, fired altogether or criminally charged.
Now, with that said, I will relate some stories of prison policy overlooked, criminal activity actively promoted and even wild oats sown by prison staff at a facility I used to work at. These episodes will not have real names attached, so nobody’s career is ruined by a Google search result, but I assure you, I am not making this stuff up.
The people who have done the most harm here have been dealt with by the prison, and these are merely anecdotes I am able to relate by having been there, having seen various documents, or speaking with witnesses or the people involved after the fact.
Now, if you wonder what its like working around inmates day in and day out, every day, let me tell you. It involves saying the word “No”. A lot. Sometimes, officers and other staff get tired of saying it, and give in to small requests, or turn their head at small inmate violation. For example, there are officers who, as long as no one is looking, don’t mind giving an inmate a cigarette, or dip from their snuff can.
A tired officer may even turn his back as nuisance contraband is exchanged between inmates in the form of small note (kites are supposed to be investigated) or when walking in on a friendly card game with wagers attached (no gambling allowed). A really cool cop might even ignore a new tattoo, something that could result in a major ticket and loss of privileges for the inmate.
I know one officer who had a bad reputation for being quite strict, overly pompous and who was generally disliked among the inmate population at the time was also a softy for an inmate having a nicotine fit. At least, certain inmates. Herein lies the problem with minor “gifts” to any inmate; it can create jealousy and unrest among the other inmates. No matter how low key an exchange of any sort is, the prison yard is a fishbowl. No matter where you are, there is potential for all eyes to be on you.
Cigarettes and dips aside, some prison staff have a kind heart, but limit it to seemingly innocuous things. For a well-deserving kitchen worker, perhaps an extra milk or serving of chicken. For a hard-working staff porter, who cleans up after officers daily without complaint, a cup of fresh brewed coffee from the control room instead of packets of state-issued instant coffee (which resemble and smell not unlike like dirt).
Sometimes charity comes in the simple form of not interfering with an inmate who isn’t doing any harm, but may be “out of line” with policy. Inmates are to be working at all times, but if the kitchen was clean, there was one particular inmate on sanitation who would find a quiet corner to read a book for a short time before getting up to perform another round. Was this technically approved? No. Had a Sergeant walked in, that inmate would have been up on his feet so fast with a broom in his hand it would make your head spin. I left him alone, and he knew I would, as long as he continued to be reliable and hard-working, and follow any reasonable order I issued, when I issued it.
So far, this is a pretty tame list. Some extra food rations, a cup of Joe, and a bummed cigarette here or there. These seem like minor infractions, and in their nature, they are. Laziness or simple pity usually motivates acts of this sort. Yet, plenty of prison staff have been reassigned or even fired due to these small allowances. There is usually more going on in cases of termination, but ultimately, by policy, these transgressions alone are grounds for dismissal.
However, there are far more serious issues prison officials have to deal with from staff members and corrections officers than letting an inmate drink a milk on a hot day or have a moment to himself amid the chaos. For example, one former colleague of mine seemed like a good kid, but his loyalty to security turned out to be easily bought.
For the purposes of this piece, I will call this colleague Paul. Paul went through training with me, and I liked him; he seemed smart, witty and ready for the challenges we would face. This was in sharp contrast to some of the other people we trained with, one of whom we nicknamed “Dead Eyes”, for she was so spaced out each day it hardly seemed possible she could make it through the security briefing, let alone onto a yard.
I digress. Months passed. As predicted, “Dead Eyes” didn’t last a month. I was doing well on my unit, and from what I saw of Paul each morning up at the main gate, I assumed he was doing well at his. And he was, for a while. But one day, I asked someone if they had seen him recently, and they informed me that they had seen him recently get denied access at the main gate. It turns out, Paul had been flashing around the fact that his cash flow had suddenly improved. Working at the prison won’t a rich man make, and Paul’s bragging about his new motorcycle drew some suspicion. Ultimately, he had been caught trying to smuggle a cell phone onto his yard, and fired on the spot.
Paul was working on a yard predominately run by Mexican prison gangs. Cell phones are life-lines to these inmates in terms of being able to further gang business, organize drug activity both inside and outside prison, call hits (murders), and generally pass information from the walls to the streets.
Things can be said and done with pre-paid cell phones that would never make it past the recorded phone lines that authorized prison calls are made on. Also, inmates are usually allowed only a select few phone numbers they are authorized to call, and a cell phone in the cell block can be used to give access to any number the inmate can come up with.
Paul was caught attempting to bring in a pack of cigarettes that felt unusually heavy to the officer checking him in at the main gate one morning. The pack appeared sealed and unopened, and was likely prepared by someone other than Paul. Paul was likely paid up to $500 for this packaged phone, and a liaison of the inmate probably met with Paul on the streets to deliver the money and give Paul the phone to bring in for the gang member that requested it. This exchange was likely not the first one, since Paul had been boasting of his current financial well-being for quite awhile before he got busted.
Another ex-colleague of mine, who I will call Bill, someone who I worked with quite closely on the same unit, and even commuted together in my car at one point, attempted to get through the gate with a cell phone in a salad. Yes, a salad. Never mind the fact that only clear containers are allowed in the prison per policy, and with a quick shake of the container the cell phone may have easily become visible.
Worse still, Bill became scared, and upon approaching main gate, promptly turned on his heels and put the salad back in the car he had come in (which wasn’t his), and go in to work like nothing was going on. Acting on instinct, officers obtained the keys to the vehicle, which belonged to another colleague of ours, and performed a search. They found the phone in the salad, and questioned both of my former co-workers. Bill admitted it was his, absolving the other party of any guilt, was terminated and escorted off the premises.
I don’t believe any charges were filed in relation to these incidents. Though they were both cases of prison staff attempting to smuggle contraband into a prison facility, perhaps the evidence wasn’t there to support the charges in court. Perhaps the prison didn’t want the press about bad staff.
Speaking of bad press, sexual contact between prison staff and inmates rarely sit well with the public, and usually go unreported to the media. That’s why several (and I do mean several) instances of improper staff/inmate relations at the prison I worked at were dealt with strictly internally. I personally saw at least four officers and other prison staff lose their jobs due to evidence surfacing they were involved with inmates.
Last year, images of a former female food service supervisor we’ll call Angela were found on a contraband cell phone in a housing unit a month or so after she left amid rumors of messing around with and smuggling drugs to a particular inmate. I knew Angela, and knew she wasn’t quite right, but didn’t really want to know anything else. What she did with inmates, unless I walked in on something, was her business. It wasn’t my job or my place as a fellow woman to try to “get” her; I knew she was up to no good, but I didn’t have specifics, and I didn’t want them. I had heard all the rumors, of course, and had my own observations and opinions, but left it at that.
Apparently the rumors of bringing in heroin to a particular inmate hit a bit too close to home for Angela, because she left one day and never came back. Follow-up investigations determined that she had known this inmate from the streets, and though the evidence may not have been rock-solid, yeah, she was bringing in drugs. When the cell phone with pictures of Angela showed up in the same housing unit as this inmate the next month, the rumors were as good as proven in the eyes of staff and inmates alike. She had been dirty, and she had been caught.
Interestingly enough, I watched the aftermath unfold in my kitchen. The inmate Angela had been messing around with hadn’t had his gang’s approval to be having these drugs brought in and they certainly weren’t seeing the profits. Being an Independent Contractor in prison is a big no-no, especially when you’re in a gang already. This inmate was a kitchen worker, and so were several of the guys who were involved in his eventual, brutal assault. None of them returned to the kitchen while I was at that unit; the inmate involved with Angela was hospitalized and those who were alleged to have assaulted him were sent to lock down.
I have known other female staff to involve themselves with inmates on a quite personal basis, and lose their jobs over it. I heard rumors that even on Minors Unit (the juvenile yard), there was a female officer caught with a young boy, performing sexual acts through the meal trap in his door. On the other hand, there is a female Sergeant currently still working that is married to an inmate that used to be on the same complex, but at a different unit.
In far more serious cases than even the previously mentioned, prison staff have been so corrupt as to bring inmates items from the streets even more dangerous than drugs. Weapons, even guns, have been smuggled in for sale to inmates. Worse, some prison staff in the past have even been compromised into giving up pieces of correctional uniforms, enabling escapes and causing hostage situations.
In the end, a policy-bending cup of coffee, moment of leniency and perhaps even adult relations are far different than drug smuggling and promoting gang activities by bringing in items for profit. Neither are encouraged or approved, yet there must be a distinction drawn by assessing what lies with the intent of the straying staff member.
One act could be labeled as being lax, or giving preferential treatment, which is prohibited. This could potentially cause inmate jealousy, which can certainly compromise security and even result in violence depending on the situation. The other, more serious act is most certainly a security risk to the prison, but also criminal in its own nature, and is subject not just to internal reprimand and termination, but also to criminal charges, though charges are not always sought for a variety of reasons.
When one enters a prison facility in an attempt to carve out a living and work among the caged all day, every day, temptation and opportunity to stray from the straight and narrow may be present at every turn. One must always be aware of the potential for their own actions to have broader repercussions in a prison setting, and always strive to maintain security and safety at the unit they are assigned.
Turning down offers firmly, avoiding personal discussions with all inmates (especially those who are known to be manipulative with and tend to target weak staff), and reporting an inmate who you believe is trying to get you involved in something illegal are the only ways to ensure your survival among the wolves.
Lest they go unmentioned, we must remember that other forms of “corruption” by prison officials can also lead to unsafe conditions for inmates. I had a manager who, since I’ve left, had an episode in her kitchen where she instructed inmates to serve out of a box of lettuce that had been contaminated during a fight. There was blood splatter and chemical agents on the box (whch is by no means airtight, not even close), and witnesses say she would not allow the lettuce to be thrown away, instead saying it must be served. For the contract employees in the kitchen, food cost is the almighty, often to the exclusion on good judgement and what’s right. I was once instructed to use a bag of onions that was full of bugs. Some were dead, some were flying around. “Use the onions.”
Many, many times I witnessed violations that would make most people shake their heads in either disgust or pure bewilderment. I wasn’t always quiet about these violations, and I soon became a bit of a thorn in the side of upper management and DOC head honchos alike, because I wouldn’t sit by when I saw displays of either poor ethics or blatant stupidity.
In one case, I stood with the inmates, who were being told to serve off of dirty, unsanitized trays. The dish machine wasn’t working, and the Lieutenant wouldn’t approve styrofoam trays because they cost hundreds of D.O.C. dollars each time we used them (so its always fairly difficult to get them approved). I informed the Lt. that I would not be issuing orders that my guys to serve off of these trays, I would not be issuing tickets for refusal to work, and I would not be serving off of them myself (often when inmates are uncooperative, staff perform many facility duties themselves to keep operations running). So, I lamented to him, I didn’t know how the yard was going to get fed. Period.
An act of “insubordination” such as mine could have easily gotten me written up for interfering with a ranking officer and ignoring orders to serve chow, which could have caused a problem on the yard. However, I knew, and eventually the Lt. understood, that it would be a far bigger security problem to let the inmates find out they had been served off dirty trays (especially, you know, ones OTHER RACES had potentially eaten off of) than to let them know there would be a half-hour delay in feeding while get got styro trays ready. We did things my way that time, but it’s not always so easy to be taken seriously.
The thing is, even if you can’t fathom sympathy even for an inmates health, consider that the officers, support staff, nurses and even the Deputy Warden himself will potentially eat this food as well. I myself ate meals at work almost daily. To shirk your duties is wrong, plain and simple. When you do so at while working at a prison and think you’re only affecting the inmates, you’re mistaken. Ultimately, when staff can’t get the job done right, everybody else picks up the slack, and the whole operation is impacted.
