The prison we toured was Central Michigan Correctional Facility which was opened in 1990. This prison is a secure level I prison that contains males of ages 18 or older. Prisoner housing units contain 8-bed open cubes, with about 150 prisoners to a unit. The security inside and outside the prison was very interesting. Outside of the prison I noticed the 12-foot fences with rolls of razor-ribbon wire on the side and top of the fences. There is also perimeter security vehicle patrols which we saw because we showed up to the wrong side of the prison. Once we step inside of the prison we were greeted at the front desk to be identified. Cameras are everywhere in the prison to avoid as many blind spots as possible. Once checked in we were patted …show more content…
We went through the interlocking doors and met with our tour guide which was Captain Paul. Before heading out we were given a personal protection device to alert any officer in case of an emergency. During the tour, Captain Paul constantly keep in contact with other correction officers through the radio. I noticed that every officer made sure that others knew what they were doing, where they were at, and everything in-between. We first went to the west dining hall and you could tell it was a prison dining hall because it was set up open. Cameras were located to make sure there was no blind spots. We went inside the kitchen and saw a shadow board to make sure that every kitchen utensil was counted for and if it wasn’t on the board it was hook to the table. The shadow board was in an officer where an officer could supervise the kitchen behind the glass. Then we went to a housing unit and I was surprised how it was set up. It was very open and nothing was separating the officers from the inmates. The housing unit held 8 men to a cube and about 150 in each unit. There are two officers to a unit with plenty of cameras. I noticed that inmates had plenty of stuff to keep them busy such as televisions, …show more content…
When we first came in the officers took our I.D’s and patted us down. Then one officer was in charge of opening the interlocking doors and checking I.D’s again. Once outside there were plenty of officers patrolling around the prison. The next officers we saw were in the housing unit. There were two of them and their job was to keep an eye on the inmates in that housing unit. When walking to the other side of the prison there was one officer at a post to make sure that anyone walking through had the right to do it. Throughout the prison there were officers watching over the activities the prisoners were doing such as gardening and the kitchen duties. If I got to pick a position, I would chose in the housing unit because that way I would get to know the prisoners better. I feel like I would have more of an advantage because I would be around those certain prisoners more and understand them
Unable to get official permission to interview and write about correctional officers, Ted Conover, author of the book Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing, “got in" by applying for a correctional officer position. After training, he and his fellow rookies, known as "newjacks," were randomly assigned to Sing Sing, one of the country's most famous -- and infamous -- prisons. Sing Sing, a maximum-security male prison, was built in 1828 by prisoners themselves, kept at their task by frequent use of the whip. Today, the chaos, the backbiting, the rundown building and equipment, the disrespect and the relentless stress that Conover experienced in his year at Sing Sing show, quite well, how the increase of prisons in the U.S. brutalizes more than just the prisoners. Some of the individuals in Conover's entering "class" of corrections trainees had always wanted to work in law enforcement. Others were ex-military, looking for a civilian job that they thought would reward structure and discipline. But most came looking for a steady job with good benefits. To get it, they were desperate enough to commute hours each way, or even to live apart from their families during the work week. Their job consists of long days locking and unlocking cells, moving prisoners to and from various locations while the prisoners beg, hassle and abuse them. Sometimes, the prisoners' requests are simple, but against the rules: an extra shower, some contraband cigarettes. Other times, they are appropriate, but unbelievably complicated: it can take months to get information about property lost in the transfer from one prison to another. Meanwhile, the orders officers give are ignored. Discipline -- even among the officers themselves -- is non-existent. And with the money and benefits of this "good" job come nightmares and family stress, daily uncertainty about one's job and duties, and pent-up frustration that, every so often, explodes in violence -- instigated by staff as well as by prisoners.
...they want to be not only respected but also being able to survive in the prison environment. In prison, there are so many inmates and not two inmates are the same. The inmates will disrespect the officers by calling them names, giving officers difficult times, but it goes the other way around too. It is disturbing image after learning that sometimes it is the officer’s fault and not just the inmates’ wrongdoings. There will be times when officers and inmates will engage in a conspiracy crime and times when the female staff is engaged in sexual actions with an inmate. Conover wrote this book to allow the audience to see the prison society from many different point-of-views and give future officers an early insight to becoming a correctional officer.
Captain Earl Davis of the County Police Department is in charge of the county jail. Davis said that the jail has an elaborate locked door system. When one door in a hallway of two or more doors is opened, all of the other doors are locked until the open door is shut. The system, Davis said, is to prevent any prisoner from escaping. Each door is opened by a person in an operating room, and each officer who enters through a door must receive clearance from that operator.
As a newly promoted Lieutenant in charge of jail operations in the Houston Police Department (HPD), there are several critical issues regarding the jail environment that require immediate attention such as, inadequate conditions of confinement, health care, security measures, and sexual misconduct between correctional officers and inmates. The aforementioned issues are a controversial topic all across the U.S. and it usually attracts media attention and creates negative publicity towards the Department of Corrections. A lieutenant of jail operations is responsible for his or he shift and oversees multiple areas of the jail facility. Responsibilities of a jail lieutenant includes but is not limited to the following: (1) coordinate shift activities;
When people talk about Alcatraz, they usually remember it is an island with a prison on it, but many do not know what is included inside the prison. Two common places inmates were in most of the time were either the dining hall, where the prisoners and staff would eat their meals, or a library in which inmates could check out books and magazines. The Models Industries Building contained a laundry facility, and the New Industries Building contained a clothing factory, dry cleaning plant, furniture plant, and a brush factory where prisoners could work and earn money. Prisoners had the chance to make items such as gloves, furniture mats, and army uniforms. Military officers were found in the dining hall since that was where they ate their meals, but they were also found in the other places as well. Former Military Chapel was a small building, where the ground floor had quarters for the officers and their families who worked at the prison. In 1920, when the building was first built, the top floor of the building was used as a school and chapel, but in 1934 when Alcatraz became a Federal Penitentiary, the building became a Bachelor Quarters for unmarried officers. Later on, the officers and their families eventually stayed in Building 64 which was a three story apartment building. The best part of living in the prison for
...sist either an inmate or a fellow jailer when they need help. Safety is a priority. Psychiatrists are there to diagnose and treat the inmates as best as possible. They are a big part of the facility. Furthermore, there are politics in this jail just like any other jail. Not every unit or floor has politics, but if the floor or unit does, then inmates have to follow it or they will get beat up by the rest of the inmates. Inmates like homosexuals and child molesters get special housing because the system knows that if they are left with the general population of inmates then they will be vulnerable. Last but not least, the cylinder type design of the jail is very convenient to keep a look at all the inmates from the control room. The objective is took be able to have an eye on all inmates all the time; therefore, achieving control and safety over the facility.
The way correction officers are treated in prison is dreadful. “A corrections officer was seriously burned Monday morning in an attack by an inmate at the Green Bay Correctional Institution” (Roberts, 2016). This topic interest me because most of my life my brother has described the working conditions of correction officers in prison. I remember him telling me how one officer had his finger bitten off by an inmate. Correction officers are the guards who work in prison to enforce prisoners, so that inmates do not find themselves constantly in trouble. In addition, the officers ensure inmates’ safety. Despite the fact that the officers want to secure the inmate 's safety, people are unaware of the hardships officers face every day. A great deal of the rigorous challenges guards go through are never mentioned on the news or make it to newspapers. Correction officers are rarely mentioned within society, even though they are a huge part of the law enforcement. There is a
According to the documentary, the prison has more attacks on inmates and staff than any other facility in the state of Ohio. Typically new arrivals are classified as 4B. These inmates spend their entire stay in the “hole”. Which means the inmate is confined to his/her cell for 23 hours of the day with strict movement and little privileges. If the inmate breaks the rules, the time starts over. If the inmates are compliant, their status moves to 4A, where the inmates will still spend 23 hours a day in his or her cell, but the inmate will have more privileges such as recreation time that is not as strict. The prison staff needs to be strict and concise to prevent an inmate take over, which has happened in the past at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility res...
They were all charged with armed robbery and burglary, told their legal rights, handcuffed, and shoved into a police to be taken to the police station. There the suspect went through the entire system. According to Zimbardo in his journal, they were booked, warned of their rights, finger-printed, identified, taken to a holding cell and blindfolded until they were transferred to the mock prison. There, each prisoner is brought in to be greeted by the warden one at a time. Being strip searched and then issued a uniform. The uniforms consisted of a dress, and heavy chain for the ankle, sandals, and stocking caps, each crucial to the emasculation and reality of the prison. In addition, prisoners were stripped of their real world identification and given numbers to be identified as. Combined with a disgracing uniform, this made prisoners lose all individuality, especially after having their heads shaved.
These strict guidelines along with over 10 others helped shape the prison. The guards at the beginning of the experiment formed these guidelines. Their authority, from the start, was absolute. They did not allow prisoners to speak, eat or even use the restroom without permission. Sometimes, unimaginably, the inmates were not granted permission. Day one of the experiment was full of confusion and learning for everyone involved. The events
There is roughly 2.4 million people locked up in the United states. This statistic surprises everyone and automatically makes them think about the conditions of the prisoners. Even though prisoners have to deal with harsh conditions, most people do not think about the effects of prisons on correctional officers. Even though some may argue that prison conditions are too harsh, correctional officers still have to endure the same conditions as prisoners even though they are not the ones that are locked up. Correctional officers have to endure violence from inmates, intense stress that can cause psychological problems, and stress on families.
The jobs of correctional officer are some times overlooked. Correctional officers are playing a huge role in society because they need to perform important tasks. A correctional officer’s job is not easy and can become very stressful at times. Correctional officers are required to enforce and keep order, supervise inmates, help counsel offenders, search inmate cells for contraband, and also report on inmate actions. Correctional officers need to contain power over the prisoners in order to enforce the rules of the prison, or else the prison will not function correctly. In the book, Conover says, “The essential relationship inside a prison is the one between a guard and an inmate…the guard, it is thought, wields all the power, but in truth the inmate has power too” (Conover, p. 207). In the book, the importance of power the prisoner’s hold can be seen through the sudden increase of prisoners, the Stanford Prison Experiment and through the contraband they make.
Prisoners have little or no personal privacy. Guards monitor the inmates' movements by video cameras. Communication between prisoners and control booth officers is mostly through the vents. An officer at a control center may be able to monitor cells and corridors and control all doors electronically.
The mass media uses prison life as the source for movies and television shows. Over the years there have been many movies written about prison but the most prominent in my mind is Frank Darabont’s, The Shawshank Redemption. Throughout the film there are many examples of the falsities of prison life. There are some elements of truth but they are out weighed by the misconceptions. Numerous prisoners are allowed to walk around the prison and the prison yard with no guards in sight. In actuality there are always guards around, especially on the inside. The prisoner’s movement through the prison is highly restricted.
Periodically or at any given moment, the officers conduct searches of inmates, cells and facilities. They’re looking for contraband, unsanitary conditions, and signs of a security breach (such as prying window bars and doors), settle disputes between inmates, and enforce discipline. The CO’s (correction officers), use constructive communication to employ the rules and use penalties, which involve punishments, ranging from loss of privileges to solitary confinement (Bureau of Labor, 2014). Besides conducting searches and maintaining orde...