Interview with Deez, Associated Content Producer and Corrections Officer

I met Deez on Associated Content. He was the one that was leaving somewhat negative comments on all my articles. I am the prison rights activist, advocating for the inmates, he is the one guarding them. We butted heads. After an exchange of several messages, I asked Deez for this interview, which he accepted to do. His interview with me will follow.

Deez, Could you start with a bio of yourself?

I'm a 39 year old (forty is coming up fast) father of two teenage boys and a husband to the love of my life, my wife of 21 years. I have coached all kinds of sports for my sons as they grew up (football, T-ball, Baseball, Wrestling, Soccer, and Basketball). I was a UAW Executive Committeeman in my last place of employment. I'm originally a welder by trade, disciplined and certified in multiple forms of welding. I was displaced after my factory closed and was finding it hard to find employment in the area that I lived, so I started looking elsewhere.

Our town was in the heart of the rust belt and had been particularly hard hit by NAFTA and other trade policies set by the Government. Most of the factories had closed over the years, so finding a replacement job that paid as well was proving difficult. All the people in elected office (including the Mayor and city council members) that I knew, that tried to save the plant, and all the higher ups in the UAW told me that, if things didn't work out for the factory to come and see them and they would help me out. Well, ten months later and a lot of empty promises spent, I ended up in corrections. I have been working towards an Associates Degree in Human Services and Corrections Management, with which I'm almost completed, and have many other college level classes under my belt in the building and welding trades.

How long have you been a Corrections Officer, and what influenced you to becoming one?

I have been a corrections officer for four years now. I first applied for a position within the Federal Bureau of Prisons as a welding instructor for their inmate population at the Federal Prison "Big Sandy" in Paintsville, Kentucky. This was the only job at the time that seemed to be a suitable replacement for the one that I lost, prominence and monetarily speaking. I was beat out for the position but it got me thinking in the direction of corrections. I had worked as a Security Officer/EMT for a local hospital as a second job for years and I had a lot of close friends that were Police Officers. I had also just got my hands on a career projection demographics report that predicted the field of corrections to outpace all other career fields in growth. It just seemed like a natural fit.

What type of facility do you work in?

I work in a state run facility in Ohio. Our facility ranges from level 1A to level 4 in security. That means we house inmates in minimum status to maximum status. We have two camps in one, the minimum side and the close to max side. We house everything from fathers who have failed to pay child support (dead beat dads) to serial rapist and murderers. We have a very unique set up and we have the hard earned reputation of both being the model prison in the state and also of housing a majority of sex offenders.

What is the hardest thing about your job?

Where to start...let me see..! Well first of all, the young inmates that are doing straight time is always a challenge. They have no respect for themselves much less anything or anyone else. They know they are doing a set amount of time and nothing you can do or say to them seems to make much of a difference. The youthful offenders would probably rank right up at the top of the list as well. These young men have been convicted of some of the most horrible crimes you can imagine. They are violent to one another as well as to staff. Combine that with the superman mentality of teenagers, add in all the energy young men can have and you can kind of get a picture of what I'm talking about. Probably the third hardest thing to deal with is staff. Everyone trying to get promoted and stabbing one another in the back to get a leg up, it's ridicules (even if what they say is false, if they don't like you, you wont last long).

Statistics show that a Corrections Officer is one of the most stressful jobs there is, do you agree, and why?

I once read a chapter in a sociology text book that stated, the two most extreme cultures to live and work in is the Military and Prison. Boy was that right on the money. The stress can be unbearable at times, trying to run a dorm with between 120 and 240 inmates, keeping management happy, fitting in amongst your peers, and maintaining your integrity. Try it sometime, I bet your head would explode...LOL!

Has your life ever been put in a dangerous situation, and if so could you tell us about it?

Almost more times than I can count now. I've been luck not to be severely hurt yet but I know that one day my luck will probably run out. Contrary to the public image of a Corrections Officer loving violence and being just one step above those they watch, none of us like to be in altercations. That is just another part of the job. You have to understand these people aren't like your friendly neighbor, like Mister Rogers and Big Bird and there is no fairytale world inside an institution. This is hard-core reality. Human nature can be very evil and dark and we are in charge of controlling it. I've been in riots, I've been attacked by inmates, I've had blood piss and shit thrown on me, I've broken up more fights than take place in the UFC...LOL. At our prison we have had inmates kill inmates, inmates kill staff, inmates kill themselves. So, I guess to answer your question everyday I step foot in the institution I put myself at risk.

Do you agree that the majority of the inmates are incarcerated for drugs, or drug related crimes?

Yes, I believe that most of the inmates we house were abusing drugs when they committed their crimes, whether it be alcohol, crack, pot, or crystal meth, etc., etc., etc. Also, we do have a large portion of the population (especially in the last two years) that are coming in on straight drug charges. These are the ones that are doing flat time with the new "Truth in Sentencing Laws" that have been passed. Some of these guys can be a handful. That being said, we have a lot of special programming for these guys, GED classes, NA, AA, College Classes, counseling in various fashions specific to their needs.
Some take this stuff to heart but most, to put it bluntly, don't give a shit. Just to give you a taste...I'll ask some of these guys that I know are getting short (going home soon), what they are going to do once they hit the streets and the majority are honest and say, "I'm going back to the same hustle." You wouldn't believe the amount of guys I see come right back in. There was one guy not too long ago who was released, walked out the front door of the institution and caught another drug case in less than 45 minutes.

Is there a need for prison reform in our nation?

This is an interesting question but maybe not for the reasons you think. There is a need for better mental healthcare on the streets. We, at least in our state, have become the new default mental healthcare providers. Thanks to deinstitutionalization and the closing of most of our MRDD program sites, a lot of our prisons are housing mentally handicapped, disabled or disturbed people in our prison system. When they are left to fend for themselves on the streets they generally end up in trouble with the law, hence we get them. That being said, we do have some pretty good mental health programs on the inside (out of necessity). It's just a shame we have to get them in the prison system to get them some much needed help. Another problem is with the aftercare of these people. Once they are released they rarely ever continue with the inadequate care they do receive on the streets, facilitating their reincarceration.

What issues need to be reformed?

The prison industry has gone through many changes over the years, from "Prison Labor" to the "Medical Model" to the "Nothing Works Mentality." Many scholars from the halls of academia have beat their proverbial heads against the wall looking for the answers but they all have come up short.

This I do know however, the inmates we house in the US prison system are the most well treated inmates in the world. I had a professor who started out as a Corrections Officer in our state, he worked his way through his education and the prison system. He became a Warden for the ODR&C, Assistant Director for the ODR&C, then moved on to work for the ACA and then eventually he worked for the State Department. In his employment for the State Department he traveled to many countries investigating human right violations. He told me stories of his true life experiences in foreign countries that would just blow your mind.

One of the stories was about his hitch in Haiti. He received a call one night from someone in the prison, about three in the morning, while he was stationed in Haiti. The caller said there had been a problem in the prison, some of the inmates refused to lock down. Now mind you, these prisoners had to lock in a 8 by 12 cell with forty to fifty other inmates. My professor told them that he would be in in the morning. The caller told him well the problem had been fixed. He asked what do you mean fixed. The caller told him, we lined them up against the wall facing their cell and shot them all. My professor told him, I'll be right there. When he showed up at the prison he found a blood bath. The ten prisoners that refused to lock down were dead and the rounds had traveled through the wall and had killed and wounded scores more inside. The prison officials rapped the bodies in sheets, put them in the back of a truck, drove them out into the country, dumped them in a ditch and poured lye on them. The families had never been notified. Now, I know our system isn't the best it can be but we are much better off than a lot of countries. That's not an excuse to try and justify our deficits it's just fact.

Is the prison you work in overcrowded, and how is it dealt with?

Yes, we are at double occupancy as we speak. It is hard sometimes because we do not have the Segregation space we need. We only have 100 beds in segregation per 2250 inmates. We used to be more overcrowded than this for quite a few years. My prison is set up campus style with two dorms to a building. Each dorm has two sleeping bays and one dayroom area (common area). It was such a problem in the past, we had inmates that used to bunk in the common areas as well as the sleeping bays. Man, the tension was unbearable at times. There has been talk that we may be going back to that soon. I truly hope that, that is just a rumor.

Is there corruption by prison guards where you work, and how?

Unfortunately yes. It mostly happens with the women that work in the system. They get hemmed up with inmates. The inmates get the women C/O's involved in romantic situations and then bribe them into bringing dope or weapons into the institution. There has been so many women (just in the four years I've been there) hemmed up by inmates, I've lost count. That my friends, is not an exaggeration it's the truth. The men that get in trouble are guys that are weak. The inmates can smell weakness in guys as well as women and will turn them out just as quick. I have only seen two guys walked out in the last 4 years. I have seen a lot of guys on probation quit or get fired due to inexperience and immaturity. I will admit that at one time if you were an inmate and you messed with (attacked) a C/O you would get you ass kicked all the way across the yard in cuffs or not.
The staff is so closely watched in today's corrections (at least in my state) that it is a rarity now. It does happen but it is rare. The State has a zero tolerance policy for prisoner abuse and they take their job very seriously and will prosecute staff by use of the Highway Patrol.

Do the inmates work, and how much are they paid? Are big corporations making money by prison labor?

Everyone is supposed to have a job on the inside but that is a joke. Anything can be considered a job in modern corrections. You go to GED class that's your job, you sweep the floor in the day room three times a day for about 15 minutes a session that's your job. Most inmates are idle most of the time. The only exception is the OPI (Ohio Prison Industries). These jobs are premium positions within the institution. Inmates that work within these jobs are paid the best and they have to be ticket free and non-problem inmates to acquire and maintain these jobs.

With the money they make at these jobs the inmates can buy musical instruments, TV's, radios, clothes, food (commissary), and various other things the state doesn't issue. These men love the work, it makes their time go fast and it gives them a purpose as well as spending cash. The products they make go back to the state. What ever they make gets consumed by state agencies. It doesn't go out to the public sector and no profit is made on their labor. The wages are low and vary greatly depending on the job class but you have to understand everything they need to live is already supplied by the state.

Is the food and medical attention adequate in your opinion?

The food yes, we eat it. Believe it or not keeping the food good inside of the institution is one of the most important things we need to do to keep the inmate population happy. The medical attention isn't the best but we have made great strides in this area, especially in the last four years. The recent strides we have made are due in large part to a class action law suit that was won against the state. Since the suit things have improved a great deal.

If you were not a corrections officer, what other kind of work would you be doing?

I'd run for political office. You can promise all sorts of things and never have to deliver on anything...sounds like a good job to me..! Seriously, I would like to work in Parole or Probation (adult or juvenile), or an investigator for the Bureau of Workers Compensation or Case Manager or Unit Manager for the ODR&C. These are my future prospects and any of these things would fulfill me as far as my professional aspirations go.

At this time, if you would like to add anything to this interview please do so.

I really get fired up when I hear or read people attacking the Correction Officer Profession without knowing first hand what a tough job we actually do and without walking a mile in our shoes. Don't group all of us under the popular stereotype of "The Brutes With no Brains." We have a tough job and we do the best that we can. I wish the bleeding hearts out there would realize that these men deserve to be here and shouldn't be catered to and coddled like children. One other thing, an officer that is crooked, he/she injures the rest of us and I hope he/she gets what he deserves. There are things inside of these walls, that these inmates do, that no one should witness or be subject to, NO ONE..! People should be thankful there are those of us willing to do this job. Thank You Dee for letting me speak a little about what we go through as Correction Officers. I hope I opened your eye's and the eye's of anyone who took the time to read this interview. Good luck with you and yours.