let me be Frank

[Frank 013]

Well this is my last day at book talk for a while, I leave for the academy on Sunday but will be too busy to getting stuff together and spending time with family to post again after today.I will try to check in from time to time on the weekends but I do not think I will have the ability to contribute to any discussions. I'm gunna miss you guys. Later Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a wellpreserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, totally worn out,shouting..."Holy Crap...what a ride!"

[Frank 013]

Week 1

There are a few minor inconveniences... I will get to them later

The class room stuff is easy so far; I got a 94% on our first end of week test. We will have one every week.

I passed the physical obstacle course already, It is actually fun. I am glad that I had been running for the last month though. When I run the course again I plan to smash my old run time.

The physical training is hard if you push yourself (which I am) and I am very sore right now, (and will probably continue to be for a while yet) but again it is fun in many ways and is good for me, so I can't really complain about it. Once again I am glad that I had been running. (My knee is holding up just fine.)

I am the squad leader of Column 1, of 07-8 Bravo Unit. My brother is squad leader of column 4. Yes it is nice to be recognized as super cool!

Our class which consists of two units 07-8 Alpha, and 07-8 Bravo, have had several people wash out already. My thought is if they can't hack it here they have no business working in a prison.

Our group has lost 2 and our sister class has lost 5 or 6 at last count. Each class started with around 36 people.

We expect several more to go AWOL over the weekend.

We have already toured 2 prisons (one max security and one medium) I did not feel very uncomfortable in either, so no problems there.

With all of the PT and quick light eating I lost 4 pounds already.

Now for those inconveniences I mentioned...

The academy is run much like an actual military boot camp, including marching drill, PT, and military etiquette.

Our days start at 0430 which is 4:30 AM, and we are typically up to about 11:00 PM. we go to bed very tired, but sleep does not come easy because there is no AC in the dorms.

The place is an old monastery and it has never had air conditioning. They have put AC in the offices and class rooms but not the dorms. So we sweat all night long.

The food is ok by my standards, which is not saying much (My pallet was ruined by the Army years ago) but we spend so little time eating that it doesn't matter much anyway.

Finally the whole attention calling and report giving stuff is getting a little old already, but I have gone through it in the past, I can handle it again for a while.

Overall it's been a blast. The people who are going through this training (and the ones giving the training) seem to be kindred sprits, and our group is turning into a unit quickly, which is the goal of such training.

Anyway I can't spend much time on the computer today; I have a lot to do this weekend. Haircut, getting pants hemmed, Ironing shirts, shining shoes, getting my Corrections Officer Training Manual in order sleeping... and more, so I can be ready to go again on Monday.

Week 2

My class lost another three people, one never returned from the weekend and we lost two on Monday, (all voluntarily) We got C. A. P. E. d (Corrective Action Physical Exercise) twice, once because someone made an inappropriate comment in class (No it was not me) and the second time because several people are still making simple mistakes in military protocol.

But overall it was another outstanding week!

We started each day with P.T. at 5:30 in the morning, (I lost another 4 lbs) I did not think that it could have been much worse than last week but the Drill Instructors found a way. But I am improving fast and I do not have as hard a time with it as most. Oddly I am the only person in unit Bravo with any Martial Arts experience, I have already done a brief demonstration for some of my classmates and they seemed easily impressed. My class does have several athletes that will do well once trained however.

This week's classes included more Marching Drill, Cultural Diversity, Key and Tool Procedures, and three days of Report Writing. I got another 94% on my end of week test; I have discovered that I have the highest average in the entire class (around 60 people) including both Alpha and Bravo squads, but there are some close contenders.

My brother Dan is also doing well, he has demonstrated a real talent at shining boots and has a small following of classmates that want him to teach them his secret. Our group is bonding fast and we have some real characters among us, one of which sounds and acts like he should be a game show announcer, and many of us share a similar sense of humor.

Next week classes include the Baton, (the club for beating up bad guys) and Chemical Weapons (where we learn about and get exposed to pepper spray and tear gas) I am looking forward to the Baton class, as a sword fighter I think I will find this class interesting. As far as the Chemical Weapon class, I have already done this in the Army and security so I have no real anxiety over the matter. Many of my classmates are very worried. I know it is going to suck, Badly! But I also know that it is only temporary and that I will live through it, it can't be much worse than P.T.
I still can't believe they are paying me for this amount of fun!

Well that's it for this week's update; I hope everyone is doing well and staying healthy!

Week 3

Rite of Passage

Week three was more difficult than the others, even though P.T. is getting easier and the class is getting better at military protocol, as this becomes more and more second nature the Drill Instructors have less and less to criticize, which makes things easier for us as a group.

I have not lost any more weight but my pants seem to be getting bigger and I need a new hole punched in my belt as well. My wife says I look "stronger".

The squad leaders were made permanent with one change, but Dan and I maintained our status. (Responsibility with no authority... that is truly outstanding!)

My score on the end of week test was a 92% despite the fact that I lost a lot of sleep because I was bunking with a snorer this time.

The baton class was fun but much shorter than I liked, and I will probably resort to other moves I learned in the martial arts if I ever really need to use one. Our instructor said he has needed to use his 24 times in the last 18 years, several of those times was to stop an inmate from attacking either a fellow officer or civilian employee. Apparently those types of attacks are commonplace in some prisons.

The Chemical agent class was much different from the one I took in the military. This class focused on its history, uses, and proper deployment. The military focuses mostly on defense from chemical attack.

This is where things got ugly...

The day we did the chemical agent training in the field was bad, as I knew it would be, but it was far worse than I imagined.

They started by hitting us with a face full of aerosol spray, and if a person recovered too quickly (which I did) they were sprayed again before they recovered completely. If I were to have sand thrown into my open eyes it would not be as painful as the stuff they sprayed us with, several people collapsed and panicked, but several of us did maintain our composure well and the effects were (thankfully) short lived, lasting about 2 to 5 minutes.

After that we fired some chemical weapons from a grenade launcher and threw some gas grenades, we had to run through the gas and again we had some people collapse and panic, this stuff did not really bother me at all, I just held my breath as I ran through the smoke and breathed when I was in the open air, for some reason the smoke based agent does not affect my vision like the aerosol did so that segment was really no problem for me.

Finally we entered the Gas House where they cracked a gas grenade and brought in a group of 10 recruits, they had the recruits walk around inside in a circle and picked one out at random, they then had the recruit remove their mask and asked them questions they did this until all the recruits were out.

I was in group 3 so I had to watch almost everyone come out before I went in; it was horrifying. The first guy apparently smashed his way past the Drill Instructors and crashed the door open, three of us were trying to hold it shut but the recruit managed to get his hands out of the door and keep it open. The people watching said the scene looked like something out of "Jurassic Park" when the raptors were trying to push a door open. Finally we were ordered to open the door and let the guy out, but he did have to go back in and try again. He actually did ok the second time.

Most people came out hunched over choking and coughing with huge buggers that stretched nearly to the ground hanging from their faces, there was screaming and even crying coming out of that house. As the recruits came out of the smoke house two people would grab them by their arms and lead them away into the fresh air.

Out of the 30 people in our class only three of us came out of the smoke house with any true composure, I was one of them. The respect I earned that day in my class was incredible and when we returned, our class had a respect from the higher classes that was non existent before.

As bad as the experience was, it bonded our group in a way that no lesser experience can and I hold a true respect for all of my class mates... even the one who yakked on the hill.

Week 4

The week started off on a bad note, I was not on the weekly recruit list so I was given a room last minute which was with the raw (first week) recruits. One of which snored so loudly that I could hear him clearly from down the hall with the door closed. I did not sleep the first two nights and was awake for over 63 hours before I finally did get to sleep.

I only managed this because Tuesday night we got liberty and I walked several miles to a local grocery store and bought breathe right strips for the snorer and ear plugs for myself.

I managed about 12 hours of sleep total for the week.

Despite this I qualified with all of the department weapons, scoring a 243 out of a possible 250 in the firearms courses and a 92% on my end of week test.

Thats about it for now...

I still need to get some stuff ready before I leave to go back.

Week 5

Well week 5 is done; I now have only 3 weeks left. This week was hard mentally, we had legal classes all week and the last class had 6 people fail the test, two were cut from the program when they failed the retest.

On average people who take this test score 10 points lower than their typical average. Most of the classes were long and boring including topics such as Penal Law, Correction Law and Constitutional Law, and then there were classes such as the Powers of a Peace Officer and Handling of Evidence which were a little more interesting. During the week we had something like 20 classes starting early Monday morning and running right up to Friday before the end of week test.

Being far from average I scored a 90% on this test, only a 3 point drop in my average to date.

In fact our whole class did very well, every one of us passed and our class average in legals is one of the highest recorded in the academy.

P.T. has become rather routine and I have not been sore for a while now, I am still getting leaner.

There was also a little excitement on Friday before we left the grounds. Some of you may know this but for those who do not, the academy is maintained by inmates they clean the building, work the mess hall and keep the grounds.
On Friday one escaped.

This poor fool had 6 months left on his sentence and was on work release, but decided to run. He was caught by one of the P.T. instructors. The inmate was run down on a nearby golf course he had barely gone a mile before he was spotted and caught.

Escape (Absconding) is a felony and the inmate is likely going to end up with several years added to his sentence.

Next week is a week that I have been looking forward to for a while now, "Unarmed Tactics" with my background this class should be FUN!

Week 6

Well I am now another week closer to graduation and another year older! (I am 273 in dog years) my class is now the senior class at the academy. We still have two weeks left but things seem to be getting easier, at least for me.

This week we had classes on Sexual Misconduct, Leadership, First Aid, CPR and Unarmed Defensive Tactics. We had 3 tests during the week one on First aid (I got a 96%) one on CPR (I got another 96%) and the end of week test that covered the rest of the material (I got a 100%).

I really liked the Defensive Tactics course, but it needs to be longer some of the moves I was familiar with, others were variations of moves I had seen in Ninjitsu but were altered to not hurt the inmate very much, they still cause great pain and can be used to break bones, but are less direct and safer then their more aggressive counterparts.

We spent 3 days throwing each other around and putting these locks and pressure points on each other and I received a birthday beat down on Thursday, but I came through it un-bruised (mostly) but I am very sore.

That's it for this update I have another busy weekend... I hope everyone is doing well.

Week 7

Another great week is complete, I got a 96% on my end of week test and we had several very good classes. We learned about gangs, religions, riots and what to do if taken hostage, frisking, and cell searching. We also took our final physical test, and just as I said I would I smashed my old time, taking a full 29 seconds off of my previous score. That's very good for a 2 minute course!

The cell search was the most informative (and fun) hands on class that we had, one of our class members got "shanked" (stabbed by a home made knife) by the guy playing the inmate. Another guy got "thrown on" (that's when an inmate puts his poop and pee in a cup mixes it together and throws it at an officer) in this case it was chocolate pudding diluted with chocolate milk.

I did manage to avoid any such embarrassing nastiness but while I was searching a bunk a 14 inch bladed weapon popped out of the sheets and landed on the floor. My partner and I had to wrestle the inmate to the floor and cuff him; that was really fun. Because of the size of the weapon everyone was saying "leave it to Morris to find the only sword in the room."

Anyway next week is graduation week we have several other important classes and our final test. We will also see the video of our adventures including the weapons range, chemical exposure, the baton class and defensive tactics, it should be very funny!
Well that's it for this week; hopefully my next message will be talking about my graduation... In fact I know it will be!

Graduated!

I graduated third in my class at the academy and am already working my first post. The two people who scored higher than I did tied with less than one point above my score. My final average was a 94.3 and the two who tied got a 95.1.

The two recruits that scored higher than I did are very educated but both are lacking in real world knowledge (very similar to a few people who post here at booktalk) and I am afraid that they will be in for a rude awakening once they get to their respective prisons. I feel this way for two reasons, one, neither one read people very well and two, both flaunt a "know it all" attitude that has left them alienated from the other Correction Officers. Both of these failings are very big problems in the corrections field.

Thankfully I an not haveing any such problems.

[Frank 013]

Hey everyone it's been a while since I sent out an update so I thought I would write you all to let you know how I am doing.

I am now working in a jail called Fishkill it is a medium security facility, which means that we have all the murders, rapists and psychos that a max has but they have shown the state that they are well behaved. (By inmate standards) The Prison is rather quiet especially at night (I landed the night shift) and although there has been some trouble here I have not been involved in anything yet.

The first day off of on the job training one of the guys from my class got clocked by an inmate in the mess hall, he got punched twice in the face before the inmate could be restrained. We also found a straight razor hidden in an inmate's property transferring from down State. There are a host of other minor issues that have sprung up since I have been here but these were the most noteworthy ones.

We also have a building called the special housing unit 200 which is where the really hardcore sickos go, it is almost like its own little prison with its own rules and special security measures. These are the guys that are so disruptive and violent they only get 1 hour a day out of their cell and that is spent on a small caged balcony attached to the back of their cell. When these guys have to be moved for court, legal visits, medical trips or whatever, they must be shackled; hands, waist and feet, and somehow they still manage to injure and kill each other (and officers) on a semi regular basis.

Recently one of our officers was attacked by one of these guys, the officer got a broken jaw and a broken off mop handle stabbed through his hand. The inmate got more time in the SHU (special housing unit) where he will already spending the rest of his life.

These inmates are so out of their minds that they will mix their poop with their urine and hold it in their mouth just for a chance to spit it out on an officer. Some of these guys are true monsters.

Despite all of the above dreadfulness I haven't even had an inmate give me any lip yet, not one prisoner has given me any reason to even threaten to write them up. It must be the grey in my hair; they must think I am a transfer not a newbie, and apparently I can look menacing; luckily these guys do not know how goofy I really am.

At any rate things are going well, I am quickly learning to work the arsenal (one of the more difficult jobs in the prison) as well as getting a good amount of housing unit work; Showing that I can handle both the complex administration of equipment and am not afraid of working with the inmates.

I hope all is well with everyone

Later

[Chris OConnor]

What do you do if you're taken hostage?

[Frank 013]

Taken hostage means just what it sounds like it means...

Inmates occasionally riot and take hostages. They also (rather regularly) attack correction officers and civilian staff and in an effort to avoid immediate punishment they take a hostage.

This happens often enough that every prison employee has a series of photos taken so we can be sorted out from the inmates after the response team comes in.

Anyway it's not a big issue at my prison; it's a medium, but we do need to know what to do in case the situation ever does arise.

Recently I have been working the tower, out of 25 new employees only two of us were tower certified; we have to be proficient with the 38 revolver, the AR-15 rifle, the shot gun and the grenade launcher. We have all of these weapons in the tower with us... loaded... and enough ammo to stop a zombie invasion.

I like the tower

Later

[Mr. P]

Anyway it's not a big issue at my prison; it's a medium, but we do need to know what to do in case the situation ever does arise.

Recently I have been working the tower, out of 25 new employees only two of us were tower certified; we have to be proficient with the 38 revolver, the AR-15 rifle, the shot gun and the grenade launcher. We have all of these weapons in the tower with us... loaded... and enough ammo to stop a zombie invasion.

I like the tower

Later

Frank...your participation in the "Lucifer Effect" discussion would seem to me to be beneficial...even if you are not reading.

Mr. P.

[Chris OConnor]

Nick is right, Frank. We'd love to have your input in the Lucifer Effect forum since you have real life experience as a prison guard.

So what do you do when taken hostage?

[Frank 013]

When taken hostage you should... follow the instructions of the hostage takers but do not make suggestions, try to sleep if you can and hit the dirt when the response team arrives!

Hostages will likely be treated the same as the inmates during a hostage response for a variety of reasons. The most notable are the possibilities of inmates taking and wearing the clothing of the hostages and the fact that responding response team members are never from the prison they are responding to, so they will not recognize officers or inmates. The latter is an effort to keep incidents of pay back from getting out of hand.

So it's better to be on the floor when the response team comes in, you will end up there one way or the other anyway!

Ill take a look at the Lucifer Effect thread.

Later

[Ophelia]

Hi Frank,

I have read your postings with interest, in particular those concerning your training as a prison guard.

What struck me was your optimism.

If I think about this, part of my surprise may be personal (some part of me may always be surprised by optimism), or cultural ( French people have a tradition of grumbling and complaining, and I, for better or for worse, am part of it).

I seem to hear very little about prison guards in France. When I do, it is because a demonstration is reported in the press : prison guards have demonstrated because of bad working conditions -- prison overpolulation is up to 150 % in some prisons, and the job is unsafe.

Prisons are a theme in French movies, but always (it seems to me) portraying prison guards or prison officials being corrupted by wealthy or well connected inmates -those films are far from stupid as far as the theme of the influence of people in power is concerned, but they make no attempt at portraying prison life or prison guards at ordinary level in a realistic way-- it is just not their point; or perhaps it wouldn't sell.

I was surprised at your optmism : I would have thought that prisons were a place where everything was gray, where morale was low for both inmates and guards. Then I went backwards in your posts and saw that you had extensive training in martial arts. Here I am thinking of the mental aspects of this training, it must (or may?) give you a special outlook on a difficult job.

Well, if you have the inclination and the time to write about this I'll be very interested in reading it.

[Frank 013]

Evelyne

Some of what you mention is true of American prisons.

The job is unsafe, overcrowding is a problem; and while I have not seen it personally I am sure corruption exists, but I doubt it is as rampant as shown in cinema.

On the other side of the coin is decent pay, awesome benefits, room for advancement, 6 weeks vacation time yearly, 2 weeks sick time with personal days added to that, and paid training.

As far as my training... I am sure that in many ways (ways that I may not even be aware) my martial training helps me cope with the adversity of being in the prison environment. It truly helps when walking among the inmates to not have a constant feeling of dread. Its not that I am not "on guard" when I am around the inmates (pun intended) but I am not fearful of being attacked either, I think the inmates can sense that and respect it.

I also like to have my abilities tested from time to time and the prison environment is a good test ground. You could call it my way of being a dare devil.

I have found that my past experiences have honed my skills for me to be a good fit into the role of corrections officer and it's nice to find a use for the skills that I have spent so much time practicing.

Finally I am an optimistic person, I can't really say why but I just don't worry much.

I hope this answers some of your questions.

Later