C-R-D-T...We LOVE CRDT!

Well this week we started CRDT (control, restrain, defensive tactics). It has been so awesome so far. I have learned so many new things that before this week I never thought about. The insructors told us last week that we were gonna be feeling pretty sore by the end of this week. So far I've been able to handle it pretty well. Its been a lot more high impact things tha anything else.

Monday we learned the basic principles of a defensive stance and ways of moving defensively around an aggressor. They taught us things where to bring our hands when we begin to defend ourselves. We learned the different zones around a person and which ones to stay out of. The most physically challenging part was the break falls. Learning how to fall properly so you dont get hurt is actually harder than you think. And when your falling on concrete, you want to make sure your doing it properly. At first I watched the instructors do it and thought no way is that gonna work. Step by step they showed us how to fall backwards and not bust our "coconut" and and make it explode like a "watermelon" on the floor, and little by little it became evident that it works. Those were the words that the instructors chose to represent our heads. By the end of the day my butt was killing me from doing close to 100 falls backwards. Even though they teach you the proper way to roll when going back, that initial impact is what gets ya. But, I'd rather my butt hurt a little than my head hurt a lot.


Today we got a little further into the training. We learned some basic first aid which I knew fairly well from my last job. After that we were back in the workout room beating ourselves up. We learned how to break a fall while falling forward today. It goes against basic instincts to let yourself fall forward. At first it was difficult to make myself do it. For those in the class that are large and in charge....I can't even imagine what they were thinking. After several attempts and a slight headache later, I was able to, break my fall correctly while falling forward and felt comfortable doing it.

The next thing we learned were the proper blocking techniques that should be used when someone is attacking. Prior to this class I had never really thought about things like this. I thought when your in a fight, you are just supposed to fight and that's it (yeah I haven't been any fights...call me lucky I guess). Who knew there were that many blocks and ways of avoiding your opponent. Now that I ;earned them though I'm gonna make sure that I don't forget them.
Lastly we learned a few ways of making someone comply with only minimal force. The first way is whats called the mandibular angle. Let me just tell you... if done right, it hurts like hell! It will bring a grown man to his knees in a split second. It wouldn't take me but half a second of that pain before I did anything someone asked of me. The second one we learned which was for a more aggressive person actually had no effect at all on me. The Jugular Notch as it is called had no effect. There is a ittle hole above your breastbone and if you use sudden pressure on that spot while pulling the aggressors head down its excruciating pain....for me it just felt like a little pressure. Me and one other guy were the only two that it didn't effect. Seeing how everyone else dropped to their knees immediately, I'm kinda glad it didn't work.

Its been a great week so far. Hopefully the week will continue to be the same way until Friday when we have baton training.

Week 1 in the books

First week of training has come and gone. I learned so much more in the first week than I thought I would. There is so much more information associated thank what i have learned in the last 10 months of working at the prison. I'm learning why certain policies are in place, what rights the inmates have and just gobs of more info. Before this week, I had no idea why inmates had certain rights, or even what those rights are. It makes you look at things in a completely different way. Even though we lost a lot of people who failed to qualify with the firearms, I'm still making plenty of friends with the officers that are remaining. There is only one that I try and stay away from. I guess you have one like that at any job. I know there is definitely one in the Unit I'm already working at, so being able to ignore comes naturally. I can understand someone being a know it all at a young age. But to be a know it all in a job where your a new hire is completely different. They think just because they worked at a prison up north that they know everything. Wrong! If you knew it all, move back up there. I'm going through this training with a completely open mind in trying to learn all these things from scratch and trying to forget some of the things I know.

I've decided that once I get back to the unit after training, I'm gonna apply to be on the P.E.R.T team. It won't be for any extra pay, but its one more thing I can put on my resume. The PERT team travels all over the eastern part of the state doing shakedowns, searches, track down of escapees, etc. The more experience I can get while I'm at the DOC the better off I will be and the better chances I will have in advancement.

Range Day with the Smith and Wesson MP .40

Today was range day. We got to the range around 9am this morning and didn't leave till 7pm tonight. Yeah, that's what you call a long day filled with gunpowder, lead, mosquitoes, gnats, flies, humidity and smelly people. Factor all that in together and it makes for a long day...trust me. When we got to the range today there were still 30 people in our training class. For several of the people, this was there second time coming through the training cause they failed the handgun qualification the first time through training and they were sent home. Not much changed this time around. By the end of the day, there were only 17 of us left in the class. One person was sent home within 15 minutes, one was injured and 11 others failed to qualify after 3 attempts.

This is my qualifying target for today...------------------------------------>>>>>>

All week so far the instructors have harped on safety, safety, safety. The #1 priority on the firing range or anywhere a weapon is present is safety. One person must not have gotten that memo. When we, the first group of 10 had our weapon and ammunition (50 rounds), we were told to stand at a certain spot, take the magazine from the pouch, insert it into the weapon and chamber a round. The most important thing they told us, which is common sense, is to never have your finger on the trigger until you are ready to shoot at the target. Well this particular individual forgot to keep their finger outside the trigger guard while loading the gun. When they loaded the magazine into the weapon, the released the slide to chamber a round, they had their finger on the trigger. When the slide slammed forward inserting a round, they flinched, pulling the trigger and discharging a unexpected round. Needless to say, there were several of us who had to check our pants...including the instructors. She was removed from the firing line immediately and sent home. They were not exaggerating at all when it comes to how serious they take safety on the range.

After all that got cleared up we got to fire our 50 familiarization rounds. After this I was somewhat disappointed because several of my rounds were not going where I was aiming...at all! I knew was I was doing, I just had to correct it during qualifying. So after that 50 rounds was wasted into the hill, we got 50 more to qualify with. Qualifying was a little stressful cause it was all timed. After the first magazine of 12 rounds was empty and we were reloading, I was counting the holes and somehow or another I lost a bullet. Either it went through another hole perfectly or it went so wide it didn't hit the paper. Either way I'm not sure. I finished up the qualifying and ended up with a 94/100. For the second time ever shooting a handgun, I'd say I did pretty well. After everyone had gone their first time, I had the highest score out of the entire group, minus the unsafe person. Several people (11) had to shoot a second and a third time to try and qualify. All of them ended up still not being able to qualify. Out of 4 of us from NCI, I'll be the only one continuing on. I hate it, but that's how it goes.

At the end of the day, almost 4000 rounds of ammunition was fired. Which meant that we had to walk the firing range and pick up all the brass that was left behind. That too 30 minutes on its own. All in all it was a great day. I'm way more confident in my shooting ability, and I know who NOT to stand beside at the firing range. On to the next day of training.

Handcuffing amd Firearms

Today was day #2 of the training. By far it was WAY better than day #1. Today we started out with the handcuffing techniques and proper ways to escort the inmates while they are handcuffed if they are not being compliant. We all partnered up and performed each one on each other. Since Jones and I started at NCI in the same class together, we decided we would team up and tackle this together. So far we learned four types of handcuffing techniques....all of them are very effective in, A: nearly breaking your wrist if your not careful and B: bringing a grown man to his knees no matter how big he is. It was fun to go over it though and be familiar with the cuffs since all we had done prior was just tell the inmate to out their hands behind their backs and put the cuffs on. Along with the techniques we of course had to learn more policy. Policy that tells us why we have to have certain hands here or there to prevent this or that. It was actually very interesting.

According to the instructors, the NCDOC is gonna start incorporating a physical fitness agility test prior to them hiring you. Which after looking at the size of some of the men and the women...I can see why. There are numerous people that have no business in the DOC because they cant perform their job duties efficiently. I have seen it so many times already. It aggravates me to know that if I need backup, and I have to depend on them, they will either pass out on the way there, stop 50 times to catch their breath, or stop when they get there and be so out of breath they are useless. Is this mean of me to say? Sure it is. But its the truth. Fat/unhealthy/out of shape people do not belong in the DOC. Yesterday was a prime example. While working with the firearms, one of the officers went down on one knee to practice shooting and couldn't get back up, then proceeded to fall over. Sorry but in my opinion, they should have never passed the physical.

The firearms functionality test we had was pretty simple yet very informative. The instructors are very serious about safety as they should be when it comes to firearms. A handgun is not meant to be babied, yet so many of the officers felt the need to ride the slide back ad forward cause they thought they were gonna hurt the gun. Nope, definitely wrong.Your not gonna hurt it. I mean there were people that were jamming the gun when you do the slap, rack, ready. How is that possible? I have very little experience with handguns and even i ADD to the max Kevin, was able to follow instructions. We also learned all the basic parts and actions of it. Tomorrow were gonna spend the entire day at the range. It should be fun. Were supposed to have a couple hours to practice then we have to qualify. After that were supposed to do our low/limited light or night fire. Yeah that means were gonna be there till 10om if all goes accordingly. Oh well. It should be fun.

Training has commenced

Today was the first day of training. And in true Kevin fashion, I managed to do something dumb and show up an hour early. But hey, punctual is a good thing right? Even if stupidity isn't. The day started out with them drilling it into our heads that they hate for people to be late/tardy etc. yet someone still managed to be late after the first break that was given. That's just from a lack of caring. The rest of the day was filled with policies and procedures. Most of the training will have a lot of that. I did find the excessive and lethal force section pretty interesting. There are some things you just don't think about till you have the policy explained to you by someone who knows and understands it. It definitely made me feel more knowledgeable in when are the correct times to use lethal and non lethal force and the policies that guide those decisions. We went over several other topics as well but that was the one that i showed the most interest in.

People at NCI don't realize just how good they have it. Me included in that list. After hearing how other officers are treated at other facilities it makes me so happy to work at Nash. Some people never get a break the whole shift. Some have to stand the entire shift. All the facilities had different stories and ways they were run. Just makes you appreciate how good you have it when you hear how much worse it could be.

Tomorrow were gonna be doing handcuffs and restraints and then working with the handguns the rest of the day. Like any guy should be, I'm looking forward to that and then being on the range all day on Wednesday. Hope everyone had a great Monday and a great start to their week. Now its time for me to go and shine my boots, press my uniform and study my notes.

Update 9-18-2011

The past few weeks have been rather crazy at NCI. We finally got all of the inmates shipped back out to Pamlico. The downside is they are bringing 95 more inmates in from Hyde correctional this coming week. They were only there for about 3 weeks. It seemed so much longer. Lucky for me, I starting training tomorrow and I'll be there for a month. Which means 1 whole month of working day shift. The main thing I'm gonna look forward to is only having to drive 28 miles to work instead of 72. Big difference.

Once training is finished, I'll be putting my transfer in to the close custody facility closer to home. Its gonna be a huge difference from where I work right now. Sometimes I ask myself if I'm ready to be in fights every day with the risk of getting hurt. Sometimes i call myself crazy and even stupid for wanting to go there. But, life is all about trying new things.

I went to Richmond last week for my interview. All went well from what I can tell. I was asked to sign a conditional offer and allowed to move ahead in the process. Next step I have to take is taking a polygraph test. I know I will have no problem passing it. I'm trying to be optimistic about this entire thing and not get my hopes up just in case I don't get the job. Something can always go wrong. But, I also know that this is an amazing opportunity. One that I would be crazy to pass up.

9-07-11

The past couple weeks a lot has happened at NCI. Two weeks ago, Hurricane Irene hit the east coast and damaged several prison facilities on the NC coast. One of the facilities hit was Pamlico Correctional. They suffered damage to several of the roofs. Well since I'm relatively new with the DOC and haven't worked through hurricane season until now, I didn't realize that they evacuate the prisons near the coast as the hurricanes come close. Well the weekend of Irene, I was in Bristol instead of working so I wasn't there when they brought in 100 inmates from Pamlico and stuck them in the gymnasium to sleep on the floor. NCI is already over crowded as it is. There is only supposed to be 680 or so inmates at the camp. On a normal day we have 980. Now we have over 1080 inmates at NCI. Since the guys from Pamlico are staying in the gym, they finally got bunks to sleep on, they have to send them 8 at a time into the blocks of the 4 units to get showers and make phone calls. What they really dont like is that to get it all done faster, we make them go into the showers 2 at a time. Right off the bat we were told if they refuse to go in with another guy, no shower for them. Its kinda a sticky situation because we have to shut down the showers for our normal inmates so these new guys can get in and get out quicker. Its been kinda hectic the first few days getting these guys in and out. On certain days there is a lot going on already with clothes exchange, canteen call, medication call and other stuff. Now we are having to add in the task of getting these guys in and out of the block as quick as possible. It definitely adds a whole new level of stress if you let it.

In other news, I start basic training in a couple weeks. Its gonna be a month long all during the day. Im definitely looking forward to that.