I had drove down from NY the day before training started. My sister is letting me stay with her until i decide to get a place. In return im helping her with things. She lives an hour and fifteen minutes away from the facility so after getting to her house on Sunday night around 8pm, I had to go straight to bed since i had to be there at 8am Monday morning.
The first day we didn't do a whole lot. Got our uniforms and watched a movie or two and talked about things we might see. Day 2 was the one that we were all worried about. See, just like in police departments, we had to get OC sprayed (pepper spray) to be allowed to work there and to be allowed to carry it and use it. They want you to understand what it is capable of so you wont just use it for no good reason. Well all day long they kept talking about it and building up the anxiety for those of us who had to get sprayed. After watching a few more movies and having a informative meeting with the superintendent and a few other big guys at the facility, it was the end of the day and time to get sprayed. Now for those of you that are like me, i thought pepper spray comes out as a mist. Well that's completely wrong. It comes out as a stream of liquid capable of shooting 12-15 feet which makes it way worse. To get sprayed we had to be outside so we would be able to wash it out immediately with the water hose. It was about 30 degrees that day and the water was just above freezing. To say it was cold was an understatement even for me, a guy who had lived through the winters in Buffalo for 5 years.
Anyway, we all get sprayed one at a time. In order to be sprayed, we had to walk straight towards the instructor with our eyes open and our hands behind our back not knowing when he was gonna spray. I am by no means a pansy, but i will willingly say, that was one of the most awful and painful things i have ever had to go through. The stuff they sell you in normal stores is nothing like the potency of this stuff. It was so strong it literally took my breath away to where i was gasping for air. After using baby shampoo and washing my face several times and flushing with the water hose for half an hour, I was finally able to keep my eyes open without having to hold them open with my fingers. After about an hour most of the burning had subsided and it wasn't quite as bad. I can only imagine what the inmates go through when they get OC sprayed and it takes them 20-30 minutes to be transported to SEG (segregation or solitary confinement). That's up to 30 minutes before they even get near water to wash that stuff out. Yet i have no sympathy cause they got themselves there in the first place.
After that, the rest of the week was a breeze. We watched several more movies and had tons of lectures. They showed us officers who had taken the wrong path and were caught doing things they should not have done. Several female officers were arrested and thrown in prison themselves for having a sexual relationship with a inmates. Other officers were caught trying to sneak in illegal drugs and contraband. I just cant wrap my head around why someone would throw away a career to do something for someone who has absolutely nothing to offer. It just makes no sense to me. But i know they are out there, the ones who always try to beat the system.
We also got to see several videos of weapons that the inmates make with the materials they have available to them. Its absolutely baffling to see what they can make with a couple sheets of paper, a pillow case and a couple batteries. I guess if all i could do was just sit there day after day, id think of things too. You may think prisoners are dumb. That's far from the truth. They can be very smart. All it took was the one dumb thing to get them caught.
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