First Week

The first week at the prison took some getting used to. The inmates pick up right away that you are a new person. They can tell if you have transferred from another facility or not. In my case, I had not. I was the new guy on the block. To make sure i get adequate training, NCI put me with a mentor for the first 10 days that i work. It equals out to be 120 hours of on the job training. Its nice to have that person there because it gives the inmates and myself the time to adjust to a new face or in my case, faces. The week went by pretty fast. I had to absorb a lot. We worked in each of the sections and sometimes switched mid shift so i could get used to moving around more. The control room is by far the hardest post that i have to work. Constantly opening and closing doors, answering phones and writing everything down all while keeping track of what is being said on the radio. It can be very stressful at times because for some reason the inmates are always in a hurry to go no where. They start yelling if you don't open the door fast enough. Sometimes it can turn in to a game. Out in the cell block is where i got my true test. Being in there with 120 guys can be very intimidating. They feed off of that if you let them know that you are intimidated by their size or number. You cant go in there acting like "Robo Cop" like so many of the c\o's say. If you do, they will tear you to pieces. I went in to this job with one simple attitude, do my job and leave at the end of the day. As long as i stick to that i know ill have no problems. The inmates know all the rules. Most if not all of them will know the rules better than i will for the better part of my first year.

When i first got in the block, several inmates walked up to me and told me point blank, "you f*$K with us and we will F*%k with you." But i have to say, i thanked them for their honesty haha. They weren't threatening me, they were informing me. These are men. They may be locked up for doing bad things but they still deserve some type of respect if as a c\o I expect to keep the peace. By the end of the first week i had met several inmates. Some were blunt, some were rude and other were laid back. You cant take anything they say personal. They are just like us in a way. They have their good days and their bad days. Some made it a point to come by the desk each day and ask me how i was liking it so far. It kinda their way of deciding whether i was gonna last or not. My first week in the end was pretty awesome. I was able to meet on a regular basis all the officers that i would be training around and i even learned a few names and faces of the inmates.