Scenes of Prison
8. Doin My Job
I once knew a deputy sheriff who came to work in our prison for better pay. In Nebraska, deputy sheriffs generally make the lowest salary compared to other law enforcement jobs, police officers and highway patrolmen. But when he started in my Unit, he found himself working with some of the same people he’d arrested, and that made him very nervous.
He explained what was bothering him:
When law enforcement officers decide to make an arrest, three things are true. First, there’s a good possibility that the suspect will be armed. Second, you can plan out the arrest so you have an element of surprise, and third, there will be other officers nearby to back you up. Officers will find the suspect unprepared and outnumbered.
In a prison, we can be pretty sure that the inmates are not armed, at least not with guns, but we never have them outnumbered. In our general population units, the inmate to staff ratio at any given time is 64 to 1.
That’s 64 bad guys for every one good guy, he would remind me, and good-guy caseworkers are usually alone, and they never carry guns. That’s what bothered Bart so much. Being unarmed and outnumbered 64 to 1 are terrible odds. Deputy sheriffs disengage as quickly as they can on the streets when they find themselves unarmed, outnumbered, and surrounded. It’s their instinct to flee, so when they get to the prison and start working with prisoners, they have a hard time overcoming their instincts. Bart couldn’t get comfortable working in a correctional setting, and he soon left.
Bart got me thinking about his discomfort one day, and I began to feel a little uncomfortable myself. I wondered if his discomfort was contagious. But I also wondered if he was right. Maybe the odds really are terrible and none of us should be working here. Maybe it’s just too dangerous to work in a prison.
I raised the question, and we discussed it at work, and my co-workers offered two ideas I wanted to share. The first responds to the question, "Is it too dangerous for anyone to work here?” The second responds to the question, “Is it too dangerous for me to work here?”
Imagine being a security officer and calling out an inmate on the yard for a random pat search. The inmate will be inconvenienced, and he may react with irritation. It’s an emotionally charged interaction, and when it occurs, you’re likely to hear the phrase “just doin my job,” or “he’s just doing his job.”
This phrase speaks volumes.
“When prisoners are incarcerated, they quickly learn the reality of being locked up. We are one of their realities. We are the pathway for them to satisfy most of their needs and desires, and we are the enforcers of the rules that govern their lives, so understanding our role comes naturally and immediately.
Whenever inmates come in contact with staff, they immediately assess whether or not a staff member is acting in accordance with the inmate's understanding of the staff’s job. If he is, then the inmate has been forewarned. He knows what to expect. It doesn’t matter who is making the demands of him. Any staff member will do or say exactly the same thing because it is their job to do so. The inmate will gain nothing by resisting or holding a grudge and resolving to get even. Any staff member will do exactly the same thing. Any successful confrontation with a guard or a caseworker that drives the staff member away will only result in that person being replaced by another staff member who will do or say exactly the same thing, because it is their job to do so.
When you hear the words “doing your job,” the inmate isn’t even talking to you. He is actually talking to himself. He speaks these words to help him control his emotions and his actions. He is reminding himself that neither anger or a physical reaction will do any good. They will not bring a different result. It is your job to act in this way.
Here’s another example.
Imagine conducting a room search, and the inmate returns to his room and finds you alone in his room going through his personal property. He may have been getting ready to fight this unknown person in his room. But he will stop when he sees you, and he will speak to you, and he will use this phrase. He may say “I know you’re just doing your job,” or something similar. And often, if you find yourself getting resistance from an inmate, you’ll often find another inmate joining the conversation and reminding the resistant inmate that, “He’s just doing his job.”
Inmates act out this phrase, too. When we must use restraints or physical force to gain compliance, inmates quickly give up the fight. With their actions they are saying "you’re just doing your job,” and they stop resisting and let us proceed. They don’t fight us, at least not for very long.
As long as a staff member is doing his job, he or she is relatively safe. A danger arises when the prisoner thinks you’re not doing your job. If you hear the words ”that’s not your job,” then you are in more danger. When an inmate says this, he is expressing alarm. Like a rattlesnake shaking his tail, he doesn’t know what’s coming next, and he will have to rely upon his own judgments which may be quite poor. Hopefully, you will never hear this phrase.
As long as we do our jobs, and the inmates understand that these are our assigned duties, then they are forewarned. They will be compliant, and we will not be in too great a danger. It’s still not a safe place to work, but the danger is manageable.
Now, to the second question. “Is it too dangerous for you to work here?”
This is a personal question which requires each person who works with prisoners to assess their own feelings and beliefs about prison inmates. Do you hate them? Do you think they need to be punished while they are in prison beyond the punishment of incarceration? Have you or a loved one been the victim of a violent crime and feel you have a score to settle with all prison inmates? Do you have a troubling history with particular prisoners?
If you harbor an antipathy toward prisoners, they will know it, and they may come to believe that you pose a danger to them, especially by using the rules to "mess with them," their time, their institutional record, and their conditions of confinement.
It helps to have empathy for the inmates, to sense how they are feeling. It helps for inmates to see that quality in you and to realize that their experience in our prison matters to you. Inmates recognize this, and they appreciate interacting with empathetic people. This quality of empathy makes the prison a little safer for those who have it, but some staff really do hate the inmates, and prisoners can sense their hatred. These staff are in more danger. Inmates are afraid of them.
Discussion
- Do you hate prisoners?
- Are you angry with prisoners for being locked up?
- Are you like the deputy sheriff in this chapter who couldn’t get comfortable being surrounded by prisoners all day?
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