Busy Week

Well this week has been busier than normal and its not even over yet. By now all of the inmates know that they are moving all of the bunks out of the prison and are getting kind of anxious. So far this week we have had 2 fights in our Unit alone. The first one was on Tuesday right before our shift came on. This one involved to gay guys none the less. One of them was the guy that refused to give up the cardboard box a couple weeks ago. He was the instigator in that right. He didn't do too much to the guy except give him a couple cuts over his eye. For as built as he is I would have figured he broke the guys nose. I guess having a lot of muscles means nothing if you don't know how to fight. Then yesterday we had another fight right before shift change. I'm walking up the sidewalk to the Unit and all the other officers start running past me headed inside. I instantly knew what was going on. But this is where I made my mistake. After seeing 25 officers run in there, I didn't follow them right away. What I should have done is dropped all my stuff and ran right behind them to help. My train of thought at the time was that it was probably only two guys i there fighting and all those c/o's should be able to handle it. Its not that I felt I wasn't at work yet, I just assumed they didn't need me. I assumed wrong. No matter what I should always run in there and make sure everything is ok instead of just assuming. It could have been a riot in the cell clock and here I am just taking my sweet time. But i know better for the next time that even though I may see 20 officers run in there, they may need officer 21 to help finish taking care of the problem. Its not something i thought much about at the time. Later on I spoke to a fellow c/o who is my age and has been there for 4 or 5 years. He filled me in on what I should have done so I know for the next time.

The funny part was when they were walking the guys out in handcuffs, the guy who got punch first was talking about how painful the spray was. He told the officer that after that experience, the next time an officer tells him to "stop!", that's exactly what he would do haha. I know first hand how much that OC spray hurts so its def in their best interest to not get sprayed. When i got sprayed, I was able to wash it out immediately. These guys had to wait almost half an hour before they were able to wash it out. Serves them right.

Lets just hope that tonight and tomorrow night are a little less eventful. There is always so much more stress in the blocks after a fight cause the adrenaline is still pumping and everyone is fired up. Hope you all have a great night. Time to get ready for work.

Update

So it has been a while since I last updated this thing and I apologize. I have been pretty busy and haven't really had the time to sit down and clear my head. There has been a lot going on at the prison over the past several weeks. We most recently found out that they are opening 4 new prisons here in NC and that almost all of the inmates that are on bunk beds at the facility will be leaving. This will be great because it will take close to 50 inmates out of each block. The only downside to this will be they will be losing about 32 c/o positions at NCI. So most likely I will be getting shifted to another camp closer to where I actually live. If that is the case it with be to a close custody camp outside Snow Hill. I'm gonna like it and hate it at the same time. I have become good friends with several of the c/o's I work with and now I will be starting over again. The plus side to the whole thing is that I wont be spending so much on gas. Right now I'm spending about $400 a month on gas just going to and from work. That's a lot of money on gas no matter how you look at it. So the move is gonna have its advantages and its disadvantages. Ill also be going from a medium custody camp to a close custody camp ---> http://www.doc.state.nc.us/DOP/prisons/Maury.htm
Close custody is gonna be much different than the environment I'm used to now. There have been plenty of stories that I have already heard that's getting me prepared if I do end up going there.

A couple weeks ago i came into the block to relieve another officer for break. I noticed a particular inmate had a cardboard box (considered contraband because of fire hazard). So i told him to bring me the box. Instead of doing so, he said "no, you aint gettin my box", and took it and put it under his bed. Like that was really gonna stop me from taking it. So the other officer went on break and I just waited till the right time. Just before he walked back in to take the block back over, I went over to the inmates bunk and took the box. I was going to take it to the Sergeants office and search it then give him his stuff back and keep the box. Well as I'm walking out the inmate jumps up out of his chair at the front of the block and gets in my face and takes the box back from me all while the other c/o is just standing there. I recognized this and didn't want the situation to get out of hand all because of a cardboard box. So I called up the Sergeant and the situation was handled later that night. Later on the Sergeant told me that I should have OC sprayed the inmate when he did that because he took something from me and that's considered assault. I didn't know that then, but I sure do now. He also had a talk with me and the other officer pointing out that to the inmates its looks as though that officer dont have my back and how dangerous that could be in future situations.

The box incident was probably the most tense situation I have been in since starting there. There was almost a fight the other night between two inmates but I got over there before any punches were thrown. Its absolutely amazing to see the things these guys will fight over when they have nothing. The smallest thing will set them off and its downhill from there.

Another side note, I got my permit to purchase a handgun finally so im hoping that ill be able to get one sometime soon.

I will get better about getting back on here and updating on a regular basis. Again if anyone has any questions about things please just leave a comment and ill answer the best I can.

And yes, i realize there a A LOT of grammatical errors haha.