Interview with a Female Corrections Officer from Texas

Pam, a bright intelligent female corrections officer speaks about her life as a prison guard. She speaks about the inmates, her supervisors, her thoughts on Texas prison, and the fear instilled at work. She was open, honest, and thought provoking.

Please give us a Bio of yourself

My name is Pam and I'm a Correctional Officer III, I'm 37 and I'm married, no kids. I have a BA in Fine Arts (English and Philosophy) from The University of Texas at Austin. I began my Masters Program in ancient and medieval literature, however, did not finish. I went to Hollywood when I was in my 20's to try my hand at screenwriting, worked as a production assistant for many years on many projects, but eventually burned out of the 17 hours a day, 6 days a week, 11 months a year lifestyle. I'm actually not at liberty to say which prison I work at, simply that it is a Texas Department of Criminal Justice State Prison.

I understand you work for a Texas prison, please tell us about that.

The unit I work on at the moment is a men's prison, I have been working for the state for about 5 years. When I first moved back to Texas it was to help my mother care for my dad, who sadly passed away in December of 2006. I started out working at a restaurant as a dishwasher until it dawned on me that the dishwasher was also the busser, salad maker, cleaner, sign maker ...etc ...etc ... I don't mind washing dishes, I always found it very cathartic, however, the other stuff was impossible to keep done. I had been putting in applications with TDCJ as a clerk, grievance investigator, or mail room worker, but the Agency likes to hire people from within. I very rarely see people hired in to those sorts of positions who are not, in some way, associated with TDCJ. I sent in a Correctional Officer inquiry and was invited to take a test, and decided to go that way. I didn't know if I would like it, or if I would be able to deal with it, however, I wanted to try. It turned out that I was pretty good at it. Saying 'no' is an art form that one must excel at when working in a prison.

Do you have other family members who are also Correctional officers?

My husband is also a Correctional Officer.

What is the hardest thing about your work, dealing with the inmates or your supervisors?

To be honest, I think it balances 50/50. People have to understand that these men have committed a crime. Twelve of their peers decided they were not safe enough to be within the freeworld (prison term for the outside) population. Our job is to make sure they stay there. Mostly, when these men were in the freeworld, they were sex offenders (about 80%), murderers and gang members. They sold drugs, they beat people for no reason, but they were used to getting their way. Now they are in an environment were they do not get their way. Everything they do is timed, watched, judged and they hate it. They can, and do lash out. They stand in their cells and masturbate so the female officers will see them. They throw things on people, sometimes it's benign, like water, sometimes, it's not, like feces or vomit, or urine. I have seen an entire dayroom (prison term for a recreation room with a television) erupt into a riot over a dollar, or a stamp, or a package of soup. Everyday, when you walk through the door, you better be a little afraid. If you're not, you get sloppy and apathetic. Bad things happen when you don't pay attention. It's extremely high stress because you must always be on your guard. If you walk out the door without injuries and alive, you've just had a good day. Let me clarify, however, because this does not apply to the whole of the inmate population. Do they all have the potential to become violent at any moment? Yes, they do. Some of them, however, mainly the older offenders, want to do their time and go home. Do you still have to be wary of them? Yes, always.

Dealing with supervisors is more of a political game than one of survival. It's relatively easy, and is the standard for pretty much every job on the planet. If you show up for work consistently, and you don't open your mouth, you're going to be fine. I, unfortunately, have not yet learned how to keep my mouth shut, and I do not feel that I should be forced to work (because my lieutenant is going to be mad if I don't show up) when I can barely stand. I don't play their games very well, therefore I am not high on the list of their favorite people. Plus that, I'm female, which in a male dominated career is always worse. What it comes down to is that no matter what anyone, anywhere says, retaliation is alive and well within TDCJ. If you miss one day, you get the worst wing, with the worst offenders they can come up with. That's simply how it is. In any other job, they would drop your hours, etc ...it happens everywhere. Not just in TDCJ. Supervisors can take an immediate dislike to you (and you to them), be that the case, I've no idea what can be done. It's happened to me, and it makes you not want to be at work at all. I try not to take my prejudices into the prison. These people must have my back if something bad happens and when it comes down to it, they will; no matter how much they dislike you.

Do you feel the prison is overcrowded, and if so how does this effect your job?

Not here in Texas, no. Strangely, I actually watch shows like Lockdown, and I see people piled 3 high in the gym. That's definitely overcrowded. So far, I've not seen that in Texas. I do have a solution to the problem. Stop committing crimes. It would significantly decrease the amount of people in prison. Somehow, I don't feel like that is asking too much. Just don't break the law. Lots of people manage this for their entire life. How is it that people can complain about overcrowding, too many inmates, not enough guards, when it is the inmates themselves who cause the problem? We shouldn't have to spend taxpayers money to build more prisons.

Do you feel the non violent, drug related offenders should be released to rehab programs?

In the State of Texas, they are. We offer a program called S.A.F.P.F. (Substance Abuse Felony Punishment Facility). While it is still on the prison grounds, it is a world in and of itself. These are repetitive, nonviolent, drug related offenses. It is their very last chance to get clean and get out before they go to general population with everyone else. From what I understand it has a very high success rate. These offenders live in dorms, and instead of guards enforcing the rules, they police themselves.

Probably the most important thing people should know is that inmates edit. If you ask them what they did and they are serving time in the State prison, chances are good that they did not just get a third strike DUI. Yes, it was their third strike, however, they will fail to tell you about the two adults, and three children who died in the wreck they created while driving under the influence. I've heard this a thousand times. "All I did was hit some guy who was harassing my girl upside the head, and I got 25 years." Translation, he hit some guy who was talking to his girlfriend upside the head with a crowbar and bashed his skull in causing massive trauma and death. First time drug offenses go to Walker County Jail, not prison.

Do you feel the inmates are treated in a humane manner?

Despite what people hear, yes, they are treated in a humane manner. I know what's out there, I hear it all the time. We beat them, we feed them bread and water, the conditions are horrible, they are in their cell all the time, they never go outside ...I've heard it all. Even offenders in High Security, who are the most dangerous, recreate for at least an hour a day. Do they always go? No, but we can't force them to go outside. They eat three meals a day, every day, and are fed especially well on Holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas. In General Population, the cell doors are opened every hour to allow them to come and go to the dayroom to watch television, play games, just interact. They are offered the opportunity to go to school, get their GED, learn vocational skills, and sometimes even take college level courses. It is not uncommon for someone to come out of prison with a degree. The State pays for a lot of that. In many ways, they have far more rights than the officers do. If I want to go back to college, I have to pay for my tuition, books, and continue to work. Must be nice to pay a little bit of the tuition, get the books for free and not have to work at all.

Have you ever witnessed inmates being abused, tortured, etc., by prison staff?

No. I honestly don't know how else to answer that. Does it happen? Probably. Have I ever seen it, no I haven't. Just as not all inmates are bad, not all officers are good.

What about the CO's, what abuse do they endure?

Imagine a place were you could go to get shot, stabbed, beaten, spit-on, have feces thrown in your face, have food thrown at you, have someone grab you and rip the tendons of your arm out, dislocate your shoulder, throw you over the railing and/or die. That is what we endure. On a daily basis. Naturally, 98% of the time, these things don't happen, but always in the back of your mind is the potential for violence. It's there, it's close, and it's breathing down your neck every moment, of every day.

There was a minister who went to Death Row to pray with an inmate. He asked that the food tray slot (where we give them their meals) to be opened. The guard on duty said he could not do that. It was against the rules. The minister got down on his knees and reached under the door to hold this mans hand, so they could pray to God together. The inmate grabbed his arm, held it, and calmly began peeling strips of flesh and muscle off with a razor. They almost had to cut the arm off to get him out. That's the reality of what we face everyday. I know people don't think that their son or daughter is capable of that sort of violence, but the person you talk to during visitation is very different from the person that steps onto the recreation yard with a shank and stabs one of the officers to death.

On your blog "Inside The Slam" you blog about your job as a CO, how long have you been blogging?

About 2 years. Mostly it's a place for me to rant.

One post mentions "I got to beat up an inmate with a flashlight. How cool is that? I'll probably get in trouble, but oh well, it was worth it", can you tell us what provoked this?

It sound very callous, doesn't it? I was still charged on adrenaline when I wrote that, but I don't regret it either. We were feeding lunch in High Security. The lights were out, so one of us had to hold a flashlight to see in the cells. This was a G5, closed custody, wing with two inmates per cell. They were supposed to sit on the bunks so we could put the food in the cell, close the slot, and move on. This guy came out of no where, before we could even get the slot open, he slammed it open. It hit my hand. I was sure the bone was broken. He reached out to grab me and I reacted on instinct and hit his hands with the flashlight to keep him away from me. I'm currently on workman's compensation and out of work for the rest of the month because although the hand was not broken, the muscles in my arm, shoulder and neck have locked up. I'm currently in physical therapy.

Once the adrenaline waned, I realized how close I came to being more seriously hurt. How much more dangerous that situation was and I was truly frightened. Fear is not a bad thing, but I felt almost crippled by it. I wasn't sure I could go back to face that. Many conversations with my husband later, I feel better about it and I'm ready to return to work. It was a very close call, however, if we won't deal with these offenders, if we refuse to keep them where they so obviously belong, who's going to do it?

At this point Pam asked these very thought provoking questions

Let me ask you? Do you think the world would panic if every Correctional Officer in the country quit on the same day? What would you do? How would anyone deal with the idea that no one is guarding these people? Are you going to do it?

Have other similar incidences happened to you or other CO's?

I have a friend who actually did get grabbed. She was unable to pull away fast enough and the offender ripped the tendons in her hand. She was out for 6 months. I have another friend who was taking an offender to medical. He had a front handcuff pass. Rather, because of some problem with his shoulder, he couldn't be handcuffed in the back. He had a shank hidden between his hands. The offender sliced him from the top of his forehead to just over his eye. 24 stitches. Another officer was working, just doing her job, when an offender jumped her and almost beat her to death. Apparently he was angry at another officer and she got in the way. We recently had a woman on the field force (they take out the field squad for farming and that sort of thing) get shot and killed. This list could go on and on. We deal with these things every day. No matter how careful you are, they will find ways to hurt you.

What goes on behind prison walls that the public should be aware of?

I think the most important thing is that people realize Correctional Officers are not the bad guys. We are in place to keep the bad guys from getting to them, their families and their friends. We do a job that is horribly dangerous, for very little pay, in service of a community who has no idea we even exist. The only side people ever see on television is that of the offenders. Sadly, no one seems interested in these people who risk their lives every day so that you will be safe.

Do you want to continue doing this kind of work or do you have other goals?

I love working in the kitchen. In a lot of ways it is the most dangerous job in the prison, given that the inmates have access to so many weapons, but I find I am able to encourage them, teach them things they didn't know how to do before, perhaps even give them a chance when they get out. A sad turn of fate took me out of the kitchen, however, my goal is to return to being a Food Service Manager. I enjoy it very much. As a guard, you must always keep a huge distance between yourself and the offenders. You don't work with the same people every day and you don't know what they are capable of. In the kitchen, we deal with the same inmates, day in and day out, we know what they can do, what they won't do and who the problems are going to come from. Most people hate working in the kitchen. I guess it's not for everyone, but given a choice, that is where I will stay for the rest of my career.

In your opinion is prison an industry, and how?

Actually, prison is every industry. The CO's must learn people skills, customer service (to a certain degree), how to defuse a tense situation, and teamwork. The inmates do everything from cook, to clean, to making furniture. Some of them are amazingly talented. TDCJ has it's own cows, hogs, chickens, all of which are tended by offenders. We have horses and dogs, again, trained and attended by offenders. Yes, it's an industry.

Do inmates receive adequate medical treatment?

Yes, they do. Understand, we have more inmates than nurses and doctors, so small things (I think I twisted my ankle), must wait, like any emergency room in the world. We deal with heart problems, diabetes, cancer, AIDS, you name it. We run insulin in the morning and afternoon, we also have special diets (called DFH, or Diet For Health), for people with hypertension, high cholesterol etc... We have an extensive allergy list. I am allergic to ...well, everything ...so I understand how one peanut butter cookie can send someone into anaphalatic shock. We monitor these things very closely.

Do the officers have medical coverage and benefits?

Texas probably has the best benefits package out there. In my opinion they are trying to compensate for the fact that we get paid so little.

At this time, if there is anything you wish to add to this interview, please do so.

I think I wrote this on my blog, and I'll add it here. I get a lot of people who come up and tell me how horrible I am because their son/father/mother/daughter/niece/nephew is in prison and they just don't get treated the way they feel they should. Prison is not meant to be a country club. We do not have sofas or king-sized beds. It's a prison, they were sent there, hopefully, to learn that the life they were leading before was the wrong path and they need to look to something else in the future.

The next time you see someone in a prison guard uniform, walk up, say "Thank You." and be grateful that you will never have to deal with these people because there are others who do it for you.

During the course of the interview Pam asked some very important questions:

"Let me ask you? Do you think the world would panic if every Correctional Officer in the country quit on the same day? What would you do? How would anyone deal with the idea that no one is guarding these people? Are you going to do it?"

I never really thought about what would happen if we had no prison guards. I suppose these are questions we should all ask ourselfs. Maybe someday we can all find a solution for our prison system that will be a safe environment for the prison staff, and a humane, rehabilitating one for our prisoners.

Please comment on this interview and Pam's questions below.
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