Respect

In the past few shifts I have worked, I have come to realize something very important. Growing up our parents have always said that to get respect you have to give respect. Never before have I seen it so evident than I have at the prison. Each night i have to deal with 120 boys/men, alone. Sometimes it can be hard, sometimes its very easy. Even though these guys are inmates, they are still men. They may have done some very bad things, but, they are still men. From the start I had the opinion that they were inmates and I was an officer. I felt I was better than them in some way. Yes, i am a c/o, and yes, I kept my self outta jail, but I'm still just another man in this world. Where they made bad choices, I made better ones.

Over the past couple weeks, I have realized i have been treating them only as inmates and not as inmates and men. I haven't given them the slightest bit of respect. There are only a few situations where the inmate was able to understand where i was coming from. I made a mistake the other week and accused an inmate of not doing his job. The inmate has been incarcerated for more than 30 years. The job he does, is one he has had for a long time. I was in the wrong once I realized what had happened. Instead of me doing nothing about it, the next day i went right no his cell and apologized. I was wrong and i was man enough to admit it. That night he told the c/o who relieved me how much respect he had gained for me, by me being a man, and owning up to my mistake. Two nights ago after lock down, he made a point to come up to the c/o's desk and tell me that he hoped I had a great rest of the night and a safe drive home. That is one of many stories I have already of times where i have found out how far respect will get you. To the normal person you might say I'm crazy, or even stupid. But you must remember, at any time these guys can turn on me and it would be 120 to 1. And believe me, the OC spray wont knock down 120 guys. Respect truly does go a long way and I'm slowly learning that. There are other stories i could tell and im sure there will be many more new ones. Maybe tomorrow ill tell ya how a 21yr old changed his tune.

**** Lock Down- All inmates must go to their assigned bunks or assigned cell for the night. Lock down ends at 5AM.