My First and Only Conflict with a Supervisor

One of the things that you could expect working in the lock-up unit is that you knew you were going to have the inmates yelling at you or them yelling at other inmates. Sometimes the only thing you could do is write them up again for disturbing the unit, but their famous line was "What you going to do? Lock me up?" They were already locked up so writing them up was only going to give them more time in the unit and giving them more time to yell at you. So the best thing to do was to ignore them and eventually they would get hoarse from yelling so much that then they would finally stop.

One of the experiences where I had an inmate yell at me and I ignored her plea got me in trouble with my supervisor. One of our responsibilities, since they were locked up, was to go around with a small cart and hand out supplies to them through the small little wicket in the all metal door.

As I mentioned in my previous article all the doors are opened by the officer in the tower above the main floor. The doors slide open side to side electronically and not like a usual door that you would pull or push open. In the middle of that door is what is called a wicket. This wicket is approximately 18 inches wide and about 6-8 inches tall and when you open it the little metal door swings down.

To hand out supplies you would never open the main door but just the little wicket. This was used when we put their food trays for them to eat as well.

When I was handing out supplies on this particular day it was a day assigned for handing out hygiene products and toilet paper. Everyday we had certain things we would hand out. One day it may have been hygiene products and toilet paper and on another it might be paper, pencils and or even library books.

On this particular day it wasn't the day for paper or pencils, but this one inmate called "Magic" wanted me to give her a pencil. Of course I said, going by the book, "No! This is not the day for pencils!" Magic, who was one of those yellers and a very big pain in the behind, started yelling at the top of her lungs, "I want a pencil! Give me a pencil!" Of course I kept on going on to the next cell and doing what I was supposed to be doing. In the meantime of course, since I didn't give Magic a pencil she was calling me every name in the book. And some names that hadn't even made it to the book yet or at least I wasn't aware of some of these names she was calling me.

As I was ignoring her and continuing to do my job my supervisor, Sergeant Handleton, (name changed) called me over to his office. He told me I needed to give her a pencil, so she would shut up.

"I will not, I said. "She just disrespected me. Why would I give her a pencil after she called me every name in the book?"

"You need to give her a pencil or I will write you up!"

"Do what you got to do but I'm not giving her a pencil."

With that the Sergeant went over to the cell himself and gave the inmate the pencil. Then he called me back in the office.

Normally, I am the most level headed person and rarely do I lose my cool. But with Sergeant Handleton I went completely off the handle (pun intended; being that the Sergeant was always going off the handle.) I never used any cuss words but I did plenty of yelling.

The Sergeants office is right below the officer in the "bubble" or the "tower" and Officer Lewiston (name changed) could see through his little glass window below him, on what was going on. He thought for a minute that he would have to get his 38' caliber out because he thought Sergeant Handleton was going to choke me. Luckily, after about 20 minutes or so of us volleying back and forth we came to a compromise. The Sergeant said he was going to write me up but was not going to turn it in unless I acted up again. I quickly apologized to him and said there shouldn't be any more problems.

I left the office and went back to work wondering why I let something so silly take place, but at the same time feeling I had to stand up for what I felt was right.

I learned through out my career there are a lot of times staff do things wrong, including myself, but we must let these things go and forget about them and do the best that we can to get along. As Rodney King once said, "Can't we all just get along?"