December 30, 2024 • 25 mins
In this episode of the basics, I talk about what it takes to have Success in Corrections. The Basic, common sense attributes and work habits of a good correctional officer. Listen as I talk about Correctional Basics every rookie should know, and every veteran officer should already be doing...who knows...everyone needs a refresher sometimes.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:09):
Well, hello and welcome back to the final
episode of the Basics.
I wanted to spend a little bitof time.
You know some short podcastsjust on the basics of working in
corrections.
You know what someone needs toknow or sometimes what we need
to review and what we need tothink about.
Um, you know, sometimes we'lldo this for five or 10 years and
(00:32):
we'll get uh, uh, getting somehabits.
So sometimes it's good toreview just the basics of how we
do this job and that was kindof what my intention was.
And, uh, we put out eightepisodes.
They were very successful.
I will tell you, I've gotten alot of emails from several
people who are going through theAcademy, several emails from
(00:53):
people who have just started ajob in correction somewhere, so
I was very happy about it.
I did put out a post last twoweeks ago asking if anybody had
any more ideas for what weshould do on the basics.
No responses, so I'm going togo ahead and finish up today
with you know some of mythoughts on how to succeed in
(01:15):
corrections and some of thebasics of just being a good
correctional officer.
I've already written this downbefore, if you haven't taken a
look the Prison Officer PodcastJob Guide Information and
Guidance to Start your Career inCorrections.
I've already written this downbefore.
If you haven't taken a look.
Uh, the prison officer podcastjob guide, uh, information and
guidance to start your career incorrections was a book that I
wrote.
Uh, in 2021, and then in 20 andthen this year.
(01:36):
Uh, we've updated it and soit's got new information in it.
But, uh, anyway, I'm going totake some of this, you know,
straight from the book, becausethese are are some of the things
that make a good correctionalofficer, and a lot of that has
to do with, you know, treatingeach other with respect in in
many different ways, and I'mgoing to cover a couple of those
(01:57):
.
Being a good officer doesn'talways mean coming down hard on
inmates or coming down hard oneach other.
Some of it is growing up andrealizing that the world isn't
just a punching bag.
You don't have to fight yourway through it.
(02:18):
You can walk your way throughit with your head high, carrying
yourself in a manner that youwould carry yourself anyplace
else, whether it's on the street, whether it's at church,
whether it's, you know, a partyoutside, whatever.
A lot of people want to changewhen they come into corrections
and that's probably the worstthing you can do.
You need to be who you are andhopefully, who you are is a good
(02:41):
person to start with.
If you're not a good person,then okay, I'll agree with that.
Maybe you do need to change.
But if you're just a goodperson who wants a job and wants
to, you know, move up in acareer, make some friendships,
retire, have health insuranceyou know the basics of what
(03:02):
we're all after um provide foryour family.
If that's who you are, then goto work like that.
You don't have to go to work totry to beat down the world, and
I've worked in penitentiary, soyou're not going to tell me
anything.
I haven't already been throughand walked through and you're
not going to change my mind.
I know there's a lot of crustypeople out there who are mad the
(03:24):
minute they walk into work andthey're mad when they leave work
and they take it out oneverybody, staff and inmates
included, while they're at workand they just make it a hard
place to work.
And I will tell you that I'vehad as many staff who made my
life hard at work as I haveinmates, and there's no need for
(03:47):
that.
We're all on the same team.
It's us and them.
There's no in between.
There's no us and them.
And then you the best thing youcan do is get on board, get on
the team and then start treatingpeople like you want to be
treated.
You know the golden rule whenwhether whether that's inmates
or whether that's staff but I'llget off my soap box there for a
minute.
So here's some of the ways tosucceed in corrections, some of
(04:08):
the basics of succeeding incorrections, and I think I'll
start with one of the biggestshow integrity.
Daily you know I cannot stressenough to a new employee
Integrity cannot be bought orborrowed while inside a prison.
It belongs to you and you only,and you should protect it at all
costs, because once it's lost,you'll never get it back.
(04:31):
You can't bring back integrity.
Once people don't trust you,it's gone.
They may get to where they canwork with you again, but you're
never going to get that fulltrust back that you started with
in, but you're never going toget that full trust back that
you started with.
So you need to protect that.
That needs to be, that needs tobe the number one thing that
(04:54):
you do every day is wake up,protect that integrity, work
with integrity, treat otherpeople with integrity.
There's no reason to lie,there's no reason to make up
stories to make yourself lookbigger, there's no reason to
forge paperwork, all that stuff.
And I've watched it.
I've watched it for 30 years.
I've watched a lot of peoplewho thought that they were going
to get by with stuff and itcame back around on them and
(05:16):
once that happens, you loseeverybody's trust, not just, not
just a staff, but you also losethe inmates trust.
And if you can't have a certainlevel of trust with the inmates
you work with, then you'reineffective as a correctional
officer.
Lead others and how important isthat inside how?
How important is leadership?
It's something I've talkedabout, it's something I speak on
(05:39):
.
But leading others correctionalofficers are some of the best
leaders.
That's because we do it.
It's almost instinctual for usafter a while, because even if
you're not in charge, you're nota sergeant or a lieutenant or
whatever ranks in your agency,you still lead inmates, you set
an example for them, you getwork done by getting people
(06:04):
involved and moving towards thesame goal, and that's leadership
, whether that's inmates orwhether that's staff.
But there's a lot of staff outthere that need leadership.
I hear the grumblings thesedays all the time with these
older staff.
They're like these rookiesdon't listen, they don't do.
That's leadership.
(06:25):
It's time for you to step in.
If they're not listening, thenyou've got to pull them aside.
You've got to bring them intothe fold.
You've got to bring them intothe department, into the job and
show them why it's important.
And if you can't, I mean Ireally I haven't ran across that
many people in my career that Iwas not able to help improve
(06:48):
themselves or to become a bettercorrectional officer.
There were a few.
And if you run across that oneor two that you know they're
just not made for this, theywon't listen, then it's time to
work on, you know, getting themout the door towards another
career.
But I really believe thatthere's not that many of those.
Everybody has the capability todo this job.
(07:11):
The thing that makescorrectional officers good
correctional officers is thesame thing that makes good
employees anywhere.
We've talked about the firsttwo integrity leadership you can
take that anywhere, but if youtake it inside prison, you can
make a difference.
So that's one of the first.
You know you're going to findout that you're naturally
(07:31):
becoming a leader.
If you're a new rookie that'scome into this system.
You're going to find out thatyou're becoming a leader,
whether you know it or not, andyou're going to start noticing
that the you know, your localchurch has tapped you on the
shoulder to run some Sundayschool classes, or maybe the
school wants you to come coachsome little league classes, or
or maybe it's just a communitything.
Um, you know, leadership worksin all areas of our lives and we
(07:56):
get to hone it daily as acorrectional officer.
Another one is uh, you know,learn from your mistakes.
Uh, that's a hard one for a lotof people.
It's a hard one for people whocover up who they truly are with
a lot of ego.
You know, when you're open tocriticism and when you're open
to feedback as a way to improve,you're going to go a long ways
(08:20):
in whatever career it is.
But in corrections you can go along ways.
You've got to understand thatyou don't immediately know it
all, and there are people therewho can help you take those
steps, who can point out whereyou can become better.
And I was resistant to that formany, many years.
So I'm talking from experiencehere, and it was later in my
career when I realized that Iwasn't perfect, that I wasn't
(08:44):
doing things perfectly and thatthere was a lot of room for
improvement.
And I started reaching out tothose mentors around me and some
of them have been reaching outto me for a long time, but I
wasn't listening and so Istarted listening and I started
reaching out and learning fromtheir mistakes, learning from
their experience.
And if you'll do that, if youshow respect to a person that
(09:10):
gives you constructive criticism, you'll be rewarded with their
respect also.
And that goes a long ways inthis career, and I know that
probably I'll get a few raisedeyebrows on this one, but you
can learn from constructivecriticism of inmates too, and I
(09:31):
remember, early on in my career,a couple of inmates talking to
me about how I talked to inmatesin general, and, um, I was
resistant to that, but I I dideventually learn that a lot of
what they were telling me wascorrect.
I didn't have to run in there,you know, with this big ego
threatening to throw people inthe hole.
(09:51):
Communication goes a long ways.
Integrity goes a long ways, um.
So there's another one learnfrom your mistakes.
And here's one that, um, Ithink is very important and I,
and here's one that I think isvery important, and it's
probably as important now asever, and that's be there for
others, be there for others.
(10:12):
There's a lot of people that youwork with who have things going
on at home and they hide itwhen they come to work, and we
all get caught up in our ownlives and we all get caught up
in you know what's going onaround us that we don't take
time sometimes to listen to thestaff around us, and I know if
you've been in corrections, youknow very long, uh, just about
(10:35):
any agency you've probablyalready dealt with.
You know staff suicides.
It's just going crazy and Idon't know if it's because of
where I sit or because I hearfrom more people these days, but
there's almost an epidemic ofstaff suicides going on, and
these aren't people whooutwardly look like they have a
(10:58):
lot of problems, you know.
They look like they've got somepretty decent lives, but
somewhere deep inside they don'tfeel like life's worth living
anymore and that's sad, and Ireally do think that a lot of
that could be solved.
Just by when you ask somebodyin the morning, you know, hey,
how you doing today.
You know that passing, uh,making, making conversation.
(11:19):
Take a second Listen, see whatthey say.
Don't just make it a passingconversation.
See if they do need to talk tosomebody.
See if they do need someonewho's you know there for them a
little bit.
And in corrections we need toknow that we're never alone.
You know we're outnumbered fromthe moment we walk into work to
(11:40):
the moment we walk out, andsome of the best bonds I've ever
built relationship bondshappened at some of the best
bonds I've ever built.
Relationship bonds happened atsome of the roughest prisons
that I've worked in, becausethere's no room for little
squabbling, there's no room forthese little problems.
When you're dealing with bigproblems every day you build
(12:00):
tight relationships.
You get close to the peoplearound you because when you're
on the bottom of that dog pile,those are the people that are
running to help you and thatmeans a lot.
And if you haven't experiencedthat yet, you probably won't
know it fully.
Until you do experience it,it'll change the way you look at
(12:21):
everything.
One of these days I've had ithappen a couple of times to me
you can look when everybody'sresponding to a body alarm and
I've told other people this, butI think it's absolutely true If
you see staff responding to abody alarm.
You can see who's been on thebottom of that pile and who
hasn't by how fast they'rerunning.
(12:42):
There's the people that haveexperienced that and they
understand.
15 seconds, 30 seconds feelslike 30 minutes, um, and they're
running as fast as they can.
And then you get those peoplewho haven't experienced that and
they're just jogging.
They're trying not to get theretoo soon.
Uh, soon, because they don'twant to deal with it.
But pay attention next time inthe hallway and you will see
(13:07):
who's been on the bottom of thatdog pile and who has needed
someone in the past.
And that's why it's soimportant that you're there for
others, because next time theymay need you.
So another one that I liketalking about real quick, and
this is pretty simple and easy.
Uh, it seems to be a little bitmore of a problem these days,
(13:28):
but uh, uh, be on time Shouldn'tbe a point of discussion.
You know the impression you givewhen you show up right on time,
or even worse, is that youdon't care.
You don't care about the peopleyou're relieving, you don't
care about the job, you don'tcare about anything, and that's
the impression that you'regiving.
You may not realize that.
But there's nothing wrong withshowing up five minutes early.
(13:51):
I will talk that.
The federal Bureau of prisons,you know they got rid of the
shift briefing and that was.
That's a bad thing.
When I was with Missouridepartment of corrections, we
had shift briefings.
We came in 15 minutes early onmy, on our own time, you know,
uh, so that we could catch up,so that we knew what was going
(14:12):
on, so that we could pass oninformation, and that was a good
thing.
I'm sorry that there are a fewpeople and most of it's been
pushed by the unions but thepeople that think they don't
have 15 minutes for their fellowworkers, uh, I'm S I'm sorry
for them, I'm sad for thembecause, um, this job is
important and the safety ofeverybody is important.
(14:33):
And if me showing up 15 minutesearly, it's not about giving
the man anything, it's not about, you know, not getting paid for
whatever, it's about me caringabout my fellow staff.
You know I care enough to showup and know what's going on and
be ready for that shift whenit's time.
I know we can't do that anymoreAt most places.
(14:54):
I think there's still a fewthat are doing shift briefings
and I applaud you, but, ifnothing else, be on time.
It's not fair when you've hadthat person who's put in their
eight hours and and you'rerunning five, 10 minutes late
and rarely do I run across theperson who's five or 10 minutes
late Once in a while you eitherhave people who are on time all
(15:15):
the time or you have people whoare late all the time and, um,
don't be one of those people.
That's just pretty simple.
Here's another one, and thisshould just be basic.
But I wonder sometimes how someof you people live at home but
clean up after yourself.
I tell the story I, I onequarter.
I got put on a relief postwhere I was a rover for a couple
(15:39):
of days.
I was in a tower, uh, one day.
And I was in another tower theother day and the one tower.
I'd go up there and I workedwith this officer and, uh, he
was clean as could be.
He spit, shined everything, andI'm saying you could eat off
the floor, it was so clean upthere.
And then I'd go over to theother tower on the other day and
(16:02):
you could eat off the floorover there too.
But it's because the officer Irelieved was just filthy.
Uh, he literally would justpull a trash can up in front of
his uh chair and just eat withstuff, dropping part of it into
the trash can, part of it intothe floor.
And it was just nasty to haveto come up there and sit in that
chair where he'd been eatinggreasy chicken or whatever.
(16:25):
You know, it's on the arm restsand there's pieces of food in
the floor.
Don't do that to each other.
Be, be an example to others andclean up after yourself.
Wipe your table off when youget done, you know.
Wipe your keyboard off Ifyou've been eating your bologna
sandwich while you're writing areport.
That's just.
I mean, it's just hygiene.
(16:46):
It's just being a good personto each other.
I shouldn't have to come in,and neither should anybody else
and and clean up after you.
So if you're one of those pigs,learn to clean up after
yourself and I'll just leave itat that.
Um, another one is no policy.
You know a lot of people don'tthink it's their job to study
(17:10):
policy, to know policy, but theway I judge how successful a
correctional officer is, one ofthe ways how successful a
correctional officer is, one ofthe ways how successful a
correctional officer is is howmany people ask them questions?
Do they have other staff thatcome to them for information or
questions about how to do thejob?
(17:31):
Do they have inmates that talkto them about what's allowed or
what policy is, what housingunit rules are?
If you see an officer who haslots of staff who talk to them
and ask them questions and lookto them as a mentor, if you see
staff who have inmates that cometo them as an expert in policy
(17:54):
and rules in the institution,then you see a good correctional
officer, and I think that's oneof the main things if you know
policy, if you know the rulesand if you are able to be an,
you know.
An example of knowledge, Iguess, is the word I'm looking
for to be an example of askilled correctional officer,
(18:17):
and a lot of that has to do withwhether or not you know policy.
Policy is also what keeps youout of trouble.
Knowing that policy keeps youfrom making poor decisions, and
I'm going to encourage some ofyou and I teach in some of my
classes.
I teach a few of the SupremeCourt decisions in some of my
(18:37):
classes and I don't thinkcorrections.
We talk enough about um and I'mnot going to go into it in this
podcast.
Maybe I need to do one just onthat.
But you know, graham versusConnor, what you're doing, is it
objectively reasonable?
You know Whitley versus Albersis another one.
Um, you know a lot of thosecases.
(18:58):
Case law determine what we'reallowed to do inside.
One of the things I used tobring up to those that worked
with me in the Federal Bureau ofPrisons, you know I'd ask
people how come we serve inmatesthree meals a day and they go
well, that's policy, okay, it'spolicy, but that policy is based
on federal law.
(19:19):
So you're not just breakingpolicy when you do something,
you're breaking the law.
So, to know our policies, toknow our procedures, to be an
expert okay, to be an expertcorrectional officer means to
know that stuff and it means tostudy it once in a while and
keep up on it, because it doeschange.
That's one of the things I wantto see in.
(19:40):
A good correctional officer issomeone who knows their policy,
is someone who is getting askedquestions by not only staff but
inmates, and you'll see thosepeople.
Um, so and finally, um, I guessthe last thing I'll talk about
on this one is uh, you know,just shine bright, and I'm.
(20:01):
I have a quote here.
Francis Bacon once wrote inorder for light to shine so
brightly, the darkness must bepresent.
And I know there's a lot ofpeople that look at our career
and our profession and they go,wow, that's, you know, dark and
you know there's not nice thingsthere and it's violent and all
that stuff.
But if you want to shine bright, corrections is a place where
(20:24):
you can shine brighter than anyplace else.
Don't settle for eight in thegate.
Make your actions, you know.
Shine above the rest.
Make a difference.
Be the person others look tofor direction, leadership and
inspiration.
Be the person that people lookforward to seeing when you come
(20:46):
to work.
And I'm not going to tell youany of this is easy.
It's not.
I had many years where I hadsome tough times.
I had tough times at work.
I had tough times outside ofwork that probably came to work
with me.
But over the years I learnedhow important what we do is and
I learned how much effect Icould have on the others that I
(21:09):
worked with.
And you know this, you know.
Think about just an example Ifthat captain comes in that day
and he's throwing stuff upagainst the wall and he's mad
because I don't know that dayand he's throwing stuff up
against the wall and he's madbecause, I don't know, his dog
bit him at home, I don't know.
But he's coming into work andhe's throwing stuff and he's,
you know, in a rage.
Or the housing unit officer.
(21:30):
You come down there and you'reyou're not wanting to talk to
people and you're slamming doors.
What do you think's going tohappen that day?
I'll tell you what's going tohappen.
You're going to infecteverybody else with your bad
mood and I'll guarantee thatyou're probably going to have a
use of force that day, thatyou're probably going to have a
fight, that you're probablygoing to have something, because
(21:52):
those moods are infectious andjust the way negative moods are,
positive moods are.
If you come in at a good mood,you can set the stage for
everybody in that institutionsometimes, because it will
trickle from one person to theother.
So when you come into work,shine bright, bring a good mood
(22:13):
with you, and sometimes that'stough I know been there but do
it anyway because it matters.
It matters what kind of mood youbring to work.
You affect everybody around youand that goes for everything
that we've talked about in thelast eight episodes of the
basics.
If you're that officer who'sdoing what's supposed to be done
(22:36):
you're doing it correct, you'redoing it in a way that people
are proud of the profession thenyou're going to shine and
you're going to affect others.
If you're a person who cleansup after yourself in your
housing unit before the nextshift shows up, others will
start taking care of that.
They'll start paying moreattention to it.
(22:57):
If you're a person who walks inwith a smile for everybody,
that day you're going to seeother smiles come back towards
you.
If you're a person who'sknowledgeable in policy, if
you're a person who wears theiruniform proudly, you're going to
see people who look to you as amentor and you're going to see
(23:18):
people who emulate you, andthat's going to spread.
It's infectious.
The same way that some of thebad things that we talk about in
corrections are infectious, thegood things are in corrections
are infectious too.
You can change a whole agency.
I truly believe that.
I've seen it.
I've seen one person take anagency down and I've seen one
(23:42):
person take an agency up.
Uh, so be that person.
That's it for me.
Uh, I hope you enjoyed theseepisodes of the basics.
Uh, we'll take a look when weget some time and, uh, maybe
we'll come up with another ideato fill in, uh, our every other
week schedule with the PrisonOfficer Podcast.
If you haven't yet, take a lookon Amazon the Prison Officer
(24:05):
Podcast Job Guide, informationand guidance to start your
career in corrections, and I'llhave that down there in the show
notes.
If you haven't listened to theother episodes, please jump on
the Prison Officer Podcast andlisten to those episodes.
We've had some real goodinterviews in the last few weeks
and we've got some more comingup.
Thank you for what you do outthere and watch your back.
Well, hello and welcome back to the final
episode of the Basics.
I wanted to spend a little bitof time.
You know some short podcastsjust on the basics of working in
corrections.
You know what someone needs toknow or sometimes what we need
to review and what we need tothink about.
Um, you know, sometimes we'lldo this for five or 10 years and
(00:32):
we'll get uh, uh, getting somehabits.
So sometimes it's good toreview just the basics of how we
do this job and that was kindof what my intention was.
And, uh, we put out eightepisodes.
They were very successful.
I will tell you, I've gotten alot of emails from several
people who are going through theAcademy, several emails from
(00:53):
people who have just started ajob in correction somewhere, so
I was very happy about it.
I did put out a post last twoweeks ago asking if anybody had
any more ideas for what weshould do on the basics.
No responses, so I'm going togo ahead and finish up today
with you know some of mythoughts on how to succeed in
(01:15):
corrections and some of thebasics of just being a good
correctional officer.
I've already written this downbefore, if you haven't taken a
look the Prison Officer PodcastJob Guide Information and
Guidance to Start your Career inCorrections.
I've already written this downbefore.
If you haven't taken a look.
Uh, the prison officer podcastjob guide, uh, information and
guidance to start your career incorrections was a book that I
wrote.
Uh, in 2021, and then in 20 andthen this year.
(01:36):
Uh, we've updated it and soit's got new information in it.
But, uh, anyway, I'm going totake some of this, you know,
straight from the book, becausethese are are some of the things
that make a good correctionalofficer, and a lot of that has
to do with, you know, treatingeach other with respect in in
many different ways, and I'mgoing to cover a couple of those
(01:57):
.
Being a good officer doesn'talways mean coming down hard on
inmates or coming down hard oneach other.
Some of it is growing up andrealizing that the world isn't
just a punching bag.
You don't have to fight yourway through it.
(02:18):
You can walk your way throughit with your head high, carrying
yourself in a manner that youwould carry yourself anyplace
else, whether it's on the street, whether it's at church,
whether it's, you know, a partyoutside, whatever.
A lot of people want to changewhen they come into corrections
and that's probably the worstthing you can do.
You need to be who you are andhopefully, who you are is a good
(02:41):
person to start with.
If you're not a good person,then okay, I'll agree with that.
Maybe you do need to change.
But if you're just a goodperson who wants a job and wants
to, you know, move up in acareer, make some friendships,
retire, have health insuranceyou know the basics of what
(03:02):
we're all after um provide foryour family.
If that's who you are, then goto work like that.
You don't have to go to work totry to beat down the world, and
I've worked in penitentiary, soyou're not going to tell me
anything.
I haven't already been throughand walked through and you're
not going to change my mind.
I know there's a lot of crustypeople out there who are mad the
(03:24):
minute they walk into work andthey're mad when they leave work
and they take it out oneverybody, staff and inmates
included, while they're at workand they just make it a hard
place to work.
And I will tell you that I'vehad as many staff who made my
life hard at work as I haveinmates, and there's no need for
(03:47):
that.
We're all on the same team.
It's us and them.
There's no in between.
There's no us and them.
And then you the best thing youcan do is get on board, get on
the team and then start treatingpeople like you want to be
treated.
You know the golden rule whenwhether whether that's inmates
or whether that's staff but I'llget off my soap box there for a
minute.
So here's some of the ways tosucceed in corrections, some of
(04:08):
the basics of succeeding incorrections, and I think I'll
start with one of the biggestshow integrity.
Daily you know I cannot stressenough to a new employee
Integrity cannot be bought orborrowed while inside a prison.
It belongs to you and you only,and you should protect it at all
costs, because once it's lost,you'll never get it back.
(04:31):
You can't bring back integrity.
Once people don't trust you,it's gone.
They may get to where they canwork with you again, but you're
never going to get that fulltrust back that you started with
in, but you're never going toget that full trust back that
you started with.
So you need to protect that.
That needs to be, that needs tobe the number one thing that
(04:54):
you do every day is wake up,protect that integrity, work
with integrity, treat otherpeople with integrity.
There's no reason to lie,there's no reason to make up
stories to make yourself lookbigger, there's no reason to
forge paperwork, all that stuff.
And I've watched it.
I've watched it for 30 years.
I've watched a lot of peoplewho thought that they were going
to get by with stuff and itcame back around on them and
(05:16):
once that happens, you loseeverybody's trust, not just, not
just a staff, but you also losethe inmates trust.
And if you can't have a certainlevel of trust with the inmates
you work with, then you'reineffective as a correctional
officer.
Lead others and how important isthat inside how?
How important is leadership?
It's something I've talkedabout, it's something I speak on
(05:39):
.
But leading others correctionalofficers are some of the best
leaders.
That's because we do it.
It's almost instinctual for usafter a while, because even if
you're not in charge, you're nota sergeant or a lieutenant or
whatever ranks in your agency,you still lead inmates, you set
an example for them, you getwork done by getting people
(06:04):
involved and moving towards thesame goal, and that's leadership
, whether that's inmates orwhether that's staff.
But there's a lot of staff outthere that need leadership.
I hear the grumblings thesedays all the time with these
older staff.
They're like these rookiesdon't listen, they don't do.
That's leadership.
(06:25):
It's time for you to step in.
If they're not listening, thenyou've got to pull them aside.
You've got to bring them intothe fold.
You've got to bring them intothe department, into the job and
show them why it's important.
And if you can't, I mean Ireally I haven't ran across that
many people in my career that Iwas not able to help improve
(06:48):
themselves or to become a bettercorrectional officer.
There were a few.
And if you run across that oneor two that you know they're
just not made for this, theywon't listen, then it's time to
work on, you know, getting themout the door towards another
career.
But I really believe thatthere's not that many of those.
Everybody has the capability todo this job.
(07:11):
The thing that makescorrectional officers good
correctional officers is thesame thing that makes good
employees anywhere.
We've talked about the firsttwo integrity leadership you can
take that anywhere, but if youtake it inside prison, you can
make a difference.
So that's one of the first.
You know you're going to findout that you're naturally
(07:31):
becoming a leader.
If you're a new rookie that'scome into this system.
You're going to find out thatyou're becoming a leader,
whether you know it or not, andyou're going to start noticing
that the you know, your localchurch has tapped you on the
shoulder to run some Sundayschool classes, or maybe the
school wants you to come coachsome little league classes, or
or maybe it's just a communitything.
Um, you know, leadership worksin all areas of our lives and we
(07:56):
get to hone it daily as acorrectional officer.
Another one is uh, you know,learn from your mistakes.
Uh, that's a hard one for a lotof people.
It's a hard one for people whocover up who they truly are with
a lot of ego.
You know, when you're open tocriticism and when you're open
to feedback as a way to improve,you're going to go a long ways
(08:20):
in whatever career it is.
But in corrections you can go along ways.
You've got to understand thatyou don't immediately know it
all, and there are people therewho can help you take those
steps, who can point out whereyou can become better.
And I was resistant to that formany, many years.
So I'm talking from experiencehere, and it was later in my
career when I realized that Iwasn't perfect, that I wasn't
(08:44):
doing things perfectly and thatthere was a lot of room for
improvement.
And I started reaching out tothose mentors around me and some
of them have been reaching outto me for a long time, but I
wasn't listening and so Istarted listening and I started
reaching out and learning fromtheir mistakes, learning from
their experience.
And if you'll do that, if youshow respect to a person that
(09:10):
gives you constructive criticism, you'll be rewarded with their
respect also.
And that goes a long ways inthis career, and I know that
probably I'll get a few raisedeyebrows on this one, but you
can learn from constructivecriticism of inmates too, and I
(09:31):
remember, early on in my career,a couple of inmates talking to
me about how I talked to inmatesin general, and, um, I was
resistant to that, but I I dideventually learn that a lot of
what they were telling me wascorrect.
I didn't have to run in there,you know, with this big ego
threatening to throw people inthe hole.
(09:51):
Communication goes a long ways.
Integrity goes a long ways, um.
So there's another one learnfrom your mistakes.
And here's one that, um, Ithink is very important and I,
and here's one that I think isvery important, and it's
probably as important now asever, and that's be there for
others, be there for others.
(10:12):
There's a lot of people that youwork with who have things going
on at home and they hide itwhen they come to work, and we
all get caught up in our ownlives and we all get caught up
in you know what's going onaround us that we don't take
time sometimes to listen to thestaff around us, and I know if
you've been in corrections, youknow very long, uh, just about
(10:35):
any agency you've probablyalready dealt with.
You know staff suicides.
It's just going crazy and Idon't know if it's because of
where I sit or because I hearfrom more people these days, but
there's almost an epidemic ofstaff suicides going on, and
these aren't people whooutwardly look like they have a
(10:58):
lot of problems, you know.
They look like they've got somepretty decent lives, but
somewhere deep inside they don'tfeel like life's worth living
anymore and that's sad, and Ireally do think that a lot of
that could be solved.
Just by when you ask somebodyin the morning, you know, hey,
how you doing today.
You know that passing, uh,making, making conversation.
(11:19):
Take a second Listen, see whatthey say.
Don't just make it a passingconversation.
See if they do need to talk tosomebody.
See if they do need someonewho's you know there for them a
little bit.
And in corrections we need toknow that we're never alone.
You know we're outnumbered fromthe moment we walk into work to
(11:40):
the moment we walk out, andsome of the best bonds I've ever
built relationship bondshappened at some of the best
bonds I've ever built.
Relationship bonds happened atsome of the roughest prisons
that I've worked in, becausethere's no room for little
squabbling, there's no room forthese little problems.
When you're dealing with bigproblems every day you build
(12:00):
tight relationships.
You get close to the peoplearound you because when you're
on the bottom of that dog pile,those are the people that are
running to help you and thatmeans a lot.
And if you haven't experiencedthat yet, you probably won't
know it fully.
Until you do experience it,it'll change the way you look at
(12:21):
everything.
One of these days I've had ithappen a couple of times to me
you can look when everybody'sresponding to a body alarm and
I've told other people this, butI think it's absolutely true If
you see staff responding to abody alarm.
You can see who's been on thebottom of that pile and who
hasn't by how fast they'rerunning.
(12:42):
There's the people that haveexperienced that and they
understand.
15 seconds, 30 seconds feelslike 30 minutes, um, and they're
running as fast as they can.
And then you get those peoplewho haven't experienced that and
they're just jogging.
They're trying not to get theretoo soon.
Uh, soon, because they don'twant to deal with it.
But pay attention next time inthe hallway and you will see
(13:07):
who's been on the bottom of thatdog pile and who has needed
someone in the past.
And that's why it's soimportant that you're there for
others, because next time theymay need you.
So another one that I liketalking about real quick, and
this is pretty simple and easy.
Uh, it seems to be a little bitmore of a problem these days,
(13:28):
but uh, uh, be on time Shouldn'tbe a point of discussion.
You know the impression you givewhen you show up right on time,
or even worse, is that youdon't care.
You don't care about the peopleyou're relieving, you don't
care about the job, you don'tcare about anything, and that's
the impression that you'regiving.
You may not realize that.
But there's nothing wrong withshowing up five minutes early.
(13:51):
I will talk that.
The federal Bureau of prisons,you know they got rid of the
shift briefing and that was.
That's a bad thing.
When I was with Missouridepartment of corrections, we
had shift briefings.
We came in 15 minutes early onmy, on our own time, you know,
uh, so that we could catch up,so that we knew what was going
(14:12):
on, so that we could pass oninformation, and that was a good
thing.
I'm sorry that there are a fewpeople and most of it's been
pushed by the unions but thepeople that think they don't
have 15 minutes for their fellowworkers, uh, I'm S I'm sorry
for them, I'm sad for thembecause, um, this job is
important and the safety ofeverybody is important.
(14:33):
And if me showing up 15 minutesearly, it's not about giving
the man anything, it's not about, you know, not getting paid for
whatever, it's about me caringabout my fellow staff.
You know I care enough to showup and know what's going on and
be ready for that shift whenit's time.
I know we can't do that anymoreAt most places.
(14:54):
I think there's still a fewthat are doing shift briefings
and I applaud you, but, ifnothing else, be on time.
It's not fair when you've hadthat person who's put in their
eight hours and and you'rerunning five, 10 minutes late
and rarely do I run across theperson who's five or 10 minutes
late Once in a while you eitherhave people who are on time all
(15:15):
the time or you have people whoare late all the time and, um,
don't be one of those people.
That's just pretty simple.
Here's another one, and thisshould just be basic.
But I wonder sometimes how someof you people live at home but
clean up after yourself.
I tell the story I, I onequarter.
I got put on a relief postwhere I was a rover for a couple
(15:39):
of days.
I was in a tower, uh, one day.
And I was in another tower theother day and the one tower.
I'd go up there and I workedwith this officer and, uh, he
was clean as could be.
He spit, shined everything, andI'm saying you could eat off
the floor, it was so clean upthere.
And then I'd go over to theother tower on the other day and
(16:02):
you could eat off the floorover there too.
But it's because the officer Irelieved was just filthy.
Uh, he literally would justpull a trash can up in front of
his uh chair and just eat withstuff, dropping part of it into
the trash can, part of it intothe floor.
And it was just nasty to haveto come up there and sit in that
chair where he'd been eatinggreasy chicken or whatever.
(16:25):
You know, it's on the arm restsand there's pieces of food in
the floor.
Don't do that to each other.
Be, be an example to others andclean up after yourself.
Wipe your table off when youget done, you know.
Wipe your keyboard off Ifyou've been eating your bologna
sandwich while you're writing areport.
That's just.
I mean, it's just hygiene.
(16:46):
It's just being a good personto each other.
I shouldn't have to come in,and neither should anybody else
and and clean up after you.
So if you're one of those pigs,learn to clean up after
yourself and I'll just leave itat that.
Um, another one is no policy.
You know a lot of people don'tthink it's their job to study
(17:10):
policy, to know policy, but theway I judge how successful a
correctional officer is, one ofthe ways how successful a
correctional officer is, one ofthe ways how successful a
correctional officer is is howmany people ask them questions?
Do they have other staff thatcome to them for information or
questions about how to do thejob?
(17:31):
Do they have inmates that talkto them about what's allowed or
what policy is, what housingunit rules are?
If you see an officer who haslots of staff who talk to them
and ask them questions and lookto them as a mentor, if you see
staff who have inmates that cometo them as an expert in policy
(17:54):
and rules in the institution,then you see a good correctional
officer, and I think that's oneof the main things if you know
policy, if you know the rulesand if you are able to be an,
you know.
An example of knowledge, Iguess, is the word I'm looking
for to be an example of askilled correctional officer,
(18:17):
and a lot of that has to do withwhether or not you know policy.
Policy is also what keeps youout of trouble.
Knowing that policy keeps youfrom making poor decisions, and
I'm going to encourage some ofyou and I teach in some of my
classes.
I teach a few of the SupremeCourt decisions in some of my
(18:37):
classes and I don't thinkcorrections.
We talk enough about um and I'mnot going to go into it in this
podcast.
Maybe I need to do one just onthat.
But you know, graham versusConnor, what you're doing, is it
objectively reasonable?
You know Whitley versus Albersis another one.
Um, you know a lot of thosecases.
(18:58):
Case law determine what we'reallowed to do inside.
One of the things I used tobring up to those that worked
with me in the Federal Bureau ofPrisons, you know I'd ask
people how come we serve inmatesthree meals a day and they go
well, that's policy, okay, it'spolicy, but that policy is based
on federal law.
(19:19):
So you're not just breakingpolicy when you do something,
you're breaking the law.
So, to know our policies, toknow our procedures, to be an
expert okay, to be an expertcorrectional officer means to
know that stuff and it means tostudy it once in a while and
keep up on it, because it doeschange.
That's one of the things I wantto see in.
(19:40):
A good correctional officer issomeone who knows their policy,
is someone who is getting askedquestions by not only staff but
inmates, and you'll see thosepeople.
Um, so and finally, um, I guessthe last thing I'll talk about
on this one is uh, you know,just shine bright, and I'm.
(20:01):
I have a quote here.
Francis Bacon once wrote inorder for light to shine so
brightly, the darkness must bepresent.
And I know there's a lot ofpeople that look at our career
and our profession and they go,wow, that's, you know, dark and
you know there's not nice thingsthere and it's violent and all
that stuff.
But if you want to shine bright, corrections is a place where
(20:24):
you can shine brighter than anyplace else.
Don't settle for eight in thegate.
Make your actions, you know.
Shine above the rest.
Make a difference.
Be the person others look tofor direction, leadership and
inspiration.
Be the person that people lookforward to seeing when you come
(20:46):
to work.
And I'm not going to tell youany of this is easy.
It's not.
I had many years where I hadsome tough times.
I had tough times at work.
I had tough times outside ofwork that probably came to work
with me.
But over the years I learnedhow important what we do is and
I learned how much effect Icould have on the others that I
(21:09):
worked with.
And you know this, you know.
Think about just an example Ifthat captain comes in that day
and he's throwing stuff upagainst the wall and he's mad
because I don't know that dayand he's throwing stuff up
against the wall and he's madbecause, I don't know, his dog
bit him at home, I don't know.
But he's coming into work andhe's throwing stuff and he's,
you know, in a rage.
Or the housing unit officer.
(21:30):
You come down there and you'reyou're not wanting to talk to
people and you're slamming doors.
What do you think's going tohappen that day?
I'll tell you what's going tohappen.
You're going to infecteverybody else with your bad
mood and I'll guarantee thatyou're probably going to have a
use of force that day, thatyou're probably going to have a
fight, that you're probablygoing to have something, because
(21:52):
those moods are infectious andjust the way negative moods are,
positive moods are.
If you come in at a good mood,you can set the stage for
everybody in that institutionsometimes, because it will
trickle from one person to theother.
So when you come into work,shine bright, bring a good mood
(22:13):
with you, and sometimes that'stough I know been there but do
it anyway because it matters.
It matters what kind of mood youbring to work.
You affect everybody around youand that goes for everything
that we've talked about in thelast eight episodes of the
basics.
If you're that officer who'sdoing what's supposed to be done
(22:36):
you're doing it correct, you'redoing it in a way that people
are proud of the profession thenyou're going to shine and
you're going to affect others.
If you're a person who cleansup after yourself in your
housing unit before the nextshift shows up, others will
start taking care of that.
They'll start paying moreattention to it.
(22:57):
If you're a person who walks inwith a smile for everybody,
that day you're going to seeother smiles come back towards
you.
If you're a person who'sknowledgeable in policy, if
you're a person who wears theiruniform proudly, you're going to
see people who look to you as amentor and you're going to see
(23:18):
people who emulate you, andthat's going to spread.
It's infectious.
The same way that some of thebad things that we talk about in
corrections are infectious, thegood things are in corrections
are infectious too.
You can change a whole agency.
I truly believe that.
I've seen it.
I've seen one person take anagency down and I've seen one
(23:42):
person take an agency up.
Uh, so be that person.
That's it for me.
Uh, I hope you enjoyed theseepisodes of the basics.
Uh, we'll take a look when weget some time and, uh, maybe
we'll come up with another ideato fill in, uh, our every other
week schedule with the PrisonOfficer Podcast.
If you haven't yet, take a lookon Amazon the Prison Officer
(24:05):
Podcast Job Guide, informationand guidance to start your
career in corrections, and I'llhave that down there in the show
notes.
If you haven't listened to theother episodes, please jump on
the Prison Officer Podcast andlisten to those episodes.
We've had some real goodinterviews in the last few weeks
and we've got some more comingup.
Thank you for what you do outthere and watch your back.
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