Interview with Mel, a Female Corrections Officer

I met Mel on Myspace. Mel is female prison guard. She sent me a message after viewing my anti-death penalty page. She stated she was not trying confront me, but she did have legitimate questions to ask me.

"What about what these criminals did to their victims? What about what they did to the families of the people they took out of this world? What do you say to that? No, executing someone will not bring their victim back, but that isn't the point. The point is that there is a consequence for every action we choose to make. When you commit murder--by which I mean taking a purely innocent life for selfish innocent purposes and criminal enterprises--you act with the knowledge that there will someday be a consequence, whether in this life or the next."

Thats when I decided she would be the perfect person to interview to show the "other side " of the story. Since most of my interviews and stories are aimed at the Anti point of view, this one will be the Pro side.

Mel, could you tell us a little about your self/life?

I'm a musician, martial artist, writer, and small-time political activist in Arizona (for the cause of justice reform). My dad was in the navy throughout my childhood, so we moved around a lot; I consider San Diego, Phoenix, and Houston all to be my hometowns.

I understand your a corrections officer, how long have you been doing this, and what got you interested in this kind of work?

I've been a corrections officer for about three years total. I got interested after my cousins who are detention officers for the Maricopa County Sherriff's Office told me about their jobs; they'd been doing it for nearly 20 years when I moved here, and they seemed to like it. I've worked for the Arizona Department of Juvenile Corrections, DOC, and a private corrections company.

What is the hardest thing about being a corrections officer?

The constant negativity. There is next to nothing positive about this job. Some people are suited to deal with that kind of thing; others aren't. It's very difficult to leave work inside the fence, because you see things all the time that are very disturbing.

Correctional officers rank high in the most stressful jobs, what do you feel accounts for this?

All day, every day, you deal with criminals. They play games; they have all the time in the world to figure out how to mess with you. They'll do anything to get inside your head. They'll play mental games--such as trying to see if they can get you in their pocket, groom you to be a "duck" (officer who is easily duped)--or just play with the boundaries to see how far they can get. They'll throw all manner of bodily fluids on you, assault you with their bodies or homemade weapons (usually shanks), anything. The constant negativity and feeling you have to look over your shoulder even when you're not inside the fence can get to you.

Have you ever been in a dangerous situation at work?

Several. Just one week into my job at the juvenile prison, I had three kids gang up on me in a hallway. I knew I wasn't long for that place when I fought back and got in trouble for it. I've had inmates threaten to send their friends after me on the outs, I and other officers have found letters threatening me and others at work, I've even had one try to shank me and one try to throw me down the stairs.

How would you rate the inmates basic needs such as food, health care, sanitation?

Inmates, in my opinion, are taken care of very well. They don't have anything to complain about. In most private facilities, the sanitation can be neglected from time to time, simply because the company doesn't want to put the money out to take care of it until it becomes a major problem (like a sewer main flooding a building), but on the whole, inmates get better healthcare than any uninsured person would get.

When people think of prison, some think of prison rape. How bad is it in the unit you work at?

There's always something going on. Where I work now, it's more a problem with the female detainees, but we'll usually see it with the men when we get a male detainee who's coming from another state prison to await deportation (or fight his case). But we're also pretty good at spotting those predators, so we'll keep them locked down in SHU if we can. According to PREA (the prison rape elimination act of 2003), we now have extra measures we can take in order to stop prison rape. It's not nearly as bad now as it once was.

Do the inmates get mistreated by some of the guards?

On the state level, I never saw it. In the private companies, you see it sometimes, but only on the verbal level (almost always sexual harassment directed at openly gay inmates). I've not yet seen an officer physically abuse an inmate. There have been times that I've seen officers single out inmates for disciplinary action and write them up for the slightest of offenses, but that's sometimes the only thing you can do with the major troublemakers.

Who runs the prisons?

The inmates. I don't care what anyone says; the inmates have a stranglehold on our prisons. Everything we do is reactionary to everything they do. And all one of them has to do is cry foul about a supposed violation of their "civil rights," and investigators are all over it, trying to ward off a lawsuit--inmates also get all the legal representation they want at absolutely no cost to them. That's another power they have that I don't believe they deserve.

What do you feel about the death sentence?

I feel that the death penalty should still be used, and that it shouldn't take 20 years to execute a condemned inmate. I think that allowing convicted inmates the ability to worm their way out of their sentences gives them too much hope for a freedom they don't deserve, and as a consequence, they rarely (if ever) feel any remorse for their crimes. If we were to crack down on it and send a strong message that their actions will not be tolerated, I think we'd see a sharp decline in the types of crimes considered capital offenses.

One in 32 people are incarcerated, on parole or probation. Our nation houses the most prisoners. Is this due mostly to drug charges?

I have seen more inmates commit crimes related to their drug habits than anything else--even behind bars.

What does the prison system do to rehabilitate inmates?

They offer education and counseling. Probation and parole are considered part of the rehabilitation process. The system can only do so much, though; the inmate has to want to change before the system can do anything for them. Unfortunately, the way our society is, they want what they want and will deceive anyone to get it because it's convenient. I think that's a big part of why our prisons are overcrowded.

What are your goals for the future?

I'm also an EMT and I'm training to be a firefighter. A lot of my cop friends think I should be a cop, and though I wanted to as a kid, I'm not sure how much I'd like it now. I volunteer as an EMT for my local department to keep my skills fresh, and I hope to make it within the next couple of years.

I want to thank you for this interview, and at this time if you would like to add anything please do so.

People don't realize some of the things corrections officers have to go through to keep their facilities secure and the community safe. Here in Maricopa County, whenever an inmate dies at a county facility, the press reports it as DO's and CO's being heartless monsters that caused the death; and the people swallow the story as is, ready to judge those officers without hearing the whole story. Corrections officers work hard at what we do, and sometimes we pay a dear price for it. Don't be so quick to judge those officers you hear about in the news. For every day that you don't hear about these things, there are little things those officers are doing to make sure the bad guys don't kick down your door.

These were Mel's last words to me" I've watched inmates come in and out of prison for a long time. Most of them claim innocence, and the rest claim to have found God in order to get out early. And every single one of those types, when they got what they wanted, pitched that holy book in the dustbin as they walked free and laughed. I have no reason to believe that our justice system is too harsh. From my perspective, it's way too lenient."