Society has made it clear that through the numerous studies provided by state universities and private grants, that the environment that exists within these prisons influence or affects the human psyche more than it is led up to do as we all agree that the prison world is an isolated world. Isolated from the norms of society and where rules and cultures oversee the daily events dictated by power, greed and control.
Every day, the warden and those employees paid to work closely with these convicted felons are faced with challenges that include life and death situations as well as routines that are common inside a small town or city resembling some sort of social order but different none the less. The power is between three cultures that exist behind the walls.
The first culture belongs to the prisoners who fall into the category of predatory and manipulative. These groups consist of violent and non-violent offenders but share common ground on their culture and their “code” to survive inside a prison. It is true that many join gangs based on their ethnicity or race to receive personal protection from the masses and do so to reap the benefits of belonging to a gang. Whether violent or non-violent they find a position within the cultural phenomena that gangs are a reality for the administration to deal with daily. The second culture is the warden and executive staff that oversees the entire prison operation and has to impose those policies and procedures to maintain a firm control over behaviors, spending and threats. The last culture, no less the least, is the culture that exists within the correctional ranks that enforce those rules and policies to the point they have to put their lives on the line to gain compliance from those who have already demonstrated a will of anarchy and refusal to comply with societal rules and now prison rules.
So as these books are written and illustrate these cultures of the prisonization of men and women behind the razor wire, seldom does the writer include the changes that impact employees that work there as well. All employees who work within the razor wire and high walls share two things in their jobs; fear is constant and stress or anxiety is a part of their daily routine that changes them over time. Daily challenges of their ability to control and handle their work environment is conducted by the prison population to see if they can manipulate them into working for “them” thus the attempt to corrupt the employee is first most to gain the upper hand.
Just like prisoners coming into the system are forced to show their “paper” to show what kind of person they were on the outside, so does the employee receive similar challenges to see what kind of person they are and what makes them tick. The prisoner looks for weak spots in both the psychics of the person and the physical abilities to carry their own weight.
Perhaps this isn’t the most dangerous job in the world but it ranks right up there with being a combat soldier, a fire fighter or a street cop that are equipped to properly defend themselves against harm or danger. A correctional officer, unless he is armed to do a transport or an escort that is pre-planned, is never armed except with a radio, perhaps a canister of mace or just a pair of handcuffs. Maybe, that would make this the most dangerous job in the world.
Walking into the gates of hell inside these dirty and un-kept prisons is risky to say the least. First the actuality or possibility of being physically harmed at any time during your shift is a reality to where you work. Second, the filth and the dirty air carries with it disease and contamination that you would not want to bring home to your family or friends. And last, your mindset has to adjust to elevate your survival skills over those who are preying on you to make your life a living hell while you are at work. As the days go by, your slowly learn the games they play and the appropriate moves to counter their tactics as you grow with experience and learn that almost everything they tell you is to benefit them one way or another. It is never about the “good” guy but most seldom it is about “him” the prisoner.
As you walk the gauntlets inside the yards and corridors, you will get bumped, hit, kicked, bitten, spat on and even stabbed or hit with a flying object or prison made dart. The weapons are abounding inside such a place as any object can be made into a deadly thing. As the mentality changes from the neutral mindset you came in with, you are now formulating a new psyche that brings forth an “us versus them” attitude that must endure the entire shift or fall victim to their ploys to compromise you or even damage you if the opportunity arises. Within months, you have adapted to the new mindset and are determined to treat them as lesser humans than you though of them before you donned the uniform and the badge. You see and you experience their brutalities towards each other and your peers and you decided that you won’t tolerate that kind of abuse from them or anyone else. Thus you are now thinking of these prisoners as the lowest form of human life there is to elevate your own status as a means of survival.
This change in psyche can occur once or twice or even more than twice in your career. It depends on your social awareness skills and your ethics and morals that you grew up with. Many times during your career you will fall into these pits of transformation to another mindset and it takes another person to bring you back to that baseline of behavior you have found to be suitable for this kind of job as you struggle to make it for the next twenty years or so. Not every person reaches the extremes of these different levels of conduct and many never reach the level of misconduct but as a whole entity and one work group, we all suffer the same consequences as a few step out of line and show the world that working inside of prisons can corrupt your thoughts, your heart and your mind if you let it to be that way.
The thoughts of death were omitted on purpose although I know now with the new breed of violent prisoners being incarcerated throughout our prison systems; they have become bolder, stronger and more likely to kill rather than to inflict serious injury and maim the person for life. This trend is currently contributed by the overcrowding of prisons, the reduction in meaningful programming and the severe shortage of staffing these hell holes to keep these officers safe while at work. This most dangerous trend is growing and there seems to be no answer to this problem as life inside the penitentiary is becoming an expendable and a less valued treasure to those who run the prisons on both sides.
Another aspect of this affect is the impact of this stress and fear absorbed by these correctional workers as they pass it on to their families and friends. Raising children and demonstrating those qualities of sound parenthood requires certain capabilities that can often be impaired be these deep physiological driven emotions or influences in our lives. The fact that many employees possess an element(s) of post-traumatic stress creates another concern when it comes to raising these children are directly impacted or influenced by their parent’s actions, thoughts and emotions.
Although the fear that exists within the workplace or job is a genuine element that keeps them on their toes and enabling them to sense and respond to the dangers, this can spiral out of control and create other factors in their lives such as anxiety disorders, panic disorders, obsessive compulsive disorders and social anxiety disorders, it must be managed and dealt with in a most positive manner.
Today, with the massive growth in the prison systems nationwide, there is a genuine need to a solution to the mentality that locking the masses of prisoners up has no affect on the employees and families. This is becoming a most urgent matter as times have changed and disasters are more common and frequent in severity. The most influential forces known to man are not the use of the world’s powers to use nuclear weapons on other humans or nature’s wrath that creates earthquakes and tsunamis but the thoughts and ideas that exist in the mind. The dangers of fear and stress loom over us everyday and there is no relief in sight as these prisons are overfilled with masses of human mankind that co-exist in the same hell hole as the employees.
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