Prison Guard Strike

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I can’t even begin to imagine what it might be like to be a prison guard.

Well, I can imagine it a little.

Last summer one of my contractors had a project at the prison where there is a strike currently taking place. 

Every two weeks, I had to be there early in the morning so I could be part of the crew that walked through the gate with a few of the guards.

Hated it!

Had to leave my phone in the car. I couldn’t take any photos and had to be sure that I didn’t have anything on me that could eventually be used as a weapon.

The gate procedure took an hour every time. The job was about 2,500 square feet…took me ten minutes to look at…and then I had to begin the lengthy process of begging a guard to walk me back out through the gate.

Usually they were having coffee and didn’t want to be bothered.

“Buy us a pizza for lunch and you’ll get out faster,” one guy told me.

I can’t tell you my answer.

As for the prisoners, they spent a lot of time calling me a few names as I passed by. At a different prison a huge, black man in an orange jump suit said:

“They said I murdered three people. I only killed two.”

He walked away from me and I about passed out in fear, and the entire work crew I was visiting burst out in laughter.

“He’s a great guy,” the foreman said. “He does that to everyone.”

To a man every guard that I spoke to mentioned how bad the job sucked.

“We are short-staffed and when we have to be around the prisoners we are sometimes asleep on our feet, and that’s not a good thing.”

Yet, most spoke about how much they made in overtime.

“Ain’t worth it,” most mentioned. “It’s dangerous.”

So, I kind of understand the strike.

Usually that’s the only way to get change, unfortunately. It seems that everyone is short-staffed, no matter the job.

I ran into a state trooper at a scene one day and he was bitching about not having enough help.

The thing about most businesses is that they will allow people to work long hours to make up for the fact that the staff is cut to the bone.

There will be a resolution, I suppose, but with cuts coming to everything it is beginning to feel like we are going to have a lot of people who are forced to work longer hours for pay that remains stagnant.

People, half-asleep, working with convicts…

…not a whole lot of fun.

I imagine.

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