You load 16 tons

So you get up in the morning and get ready for work like everyone else does. At least those that work. I'd get my uniform ready the night before and most of the time I plan on what I will be eating the next day and that is ready too! My wife is an awesome cook! So I try and get the left overs whenever there are any. So in Corrections they have two types of uniforms. Class “A” and Class “2” no it's really class “B” (it's an old joke I know). So depending on your assignment going in to work you dress in the appropriate attire. If it's a class “A” day you should press your uniform and look as good as Correction Officer can look. And if you know you are heading to the woods and Class “B” is the dress code then don't worry about it so much. Really the biggest difference toward the end of my career was the type of pants to wear. Everyone knows the drudgery of getting ready for work day after day. Making your coffee, cooking breakfast, etc... Your timing has to be right to make it to work on time. Stopping for the paper, gas, possible snacks.. That sort of thing. If you're trying to save a buck meeting the people in your car pool. I think you get my point. Here's how an inmate at Georgetown starts their day.
They are roused awake by the lights being turned on and a Correction officer making an announcement that it's time for wake up! They can shower and are required to make their beds. Dress in their work cloths . Which is Basic green! They don't have to prepare their lunch and they only have to wait to walk over and eat their breakfast which is prepared by other Inmates and Staff. They are fed a fairly balanced diet and the menu is rotating and as diverse as most any average School that our kids attend. Actually very similar to school lunches. No car pools no stopping for gas. None of that stuff. They are on a schedule that doesn't vary much. They don't have to attend any of the meals if they so choose at g-town. They can buy food stuffs at the “Commissary” which is sold to them a very reasonable cost. They are provided with a cooking stove and some of them are very creative with the meals they prepare. I've seen some that could definitely work in the business of food preparations. Although I have yet to see “Jack mack” on any menu! They are picked up and taken to work and lunches are prepared and sent with them. Most of the time it's “Hot” food too. No left overs, no sandwiches. Etc... Rice Diablo for lunch again....Great!! I was hoping for Yakisobi!! These foods are are couple I personally had never seen before prior to working in jail. After work is over back to Camp and dinner is soon served.. Later they can play basketball and lift weights and some nights catch a Movie in the Mess hall (converted quickly into a cinema). They can watch their favorite TV shows. play cards,chess, checkers, sometimes softball that sort of thing. Years ago when I first got to G-town they had the “Pond” open for swimming if the weather was right.. Inmate life-guards included.. I'm probably leaving a lot out. But that's the gist of it. They do have some things scheduled for certain days. Things like a day to go to the “Commissary” (store) ( got to pick up some “Top”) Smoking, it's tough to quit.. They have their laundry done for them and that is on a schedule also. Whites one day greens the next. All in all I can see why some of them don't mind being in Jail, and they keep coming back for more. It takes a certain kind of person to keep going to jail. Don't ask me why they do they just do. Some of them, over the years, I got to see again for another 1-3 years. And sometimes another 2-4. Maybe they just couldn't get a good Yakisobi on the street!!

Crews cont.

Crews cont.

Quite a different type of crew work compared to the one I just talked about was taking the Inmates out into the forest and cutting down trees.. I was kind of surprised that the State was allowing the Inmates to use chainsaws. They gave them safety gear, and one and sometimes two Inmates on each crew were tested and if they passed they gave “chainsaw licenses” to them so they could operate the chainsaw.. The rest of the crew would do the axe work or drag the bows off. The State basically handed over weapons to the Inmates just in case they may need them. I on the other hand had no weapons to fend them off if they decided to revolt ! Never had a major problem which was good for me. Other’s have stories of Inmates fighting each other swinging axes trying to take a head off if they could. I was pretty lucky not much fighting and injuries were mostly minor. I do remember having them rip apart a bridge way back in the woods and one of them stepping on a long spike and driving it right through his foot. (ruined a good pair of boots.). He had to be carried out of the woods. which was a lot of work. But he made a full recovery and was back to the chainsaw work fairly quickly. Not long after arriving at Georgetown they took away the chainsaws. Some Officers thought it was a bad thing I personally enjoyed the Inmates cutting down trees with Bow Saws. It was a much quieter day out there. It was a real drag of a job in the winter months. We had this one Superintendent who thought we should stay out all day and not return to the Camp for lunch. No chance of warming up and the days were really long especially on the cold windy days.. Really sucked!! This Sgt. back then (nameless) would actually come around no matter what and make sure you were working no matter what the conditions were. I couldn’t wait to get out of that type of work. But it did have it’s good days out in the fresh air and staying busy would pass the time quite quickly.. For the most part as I got more and more seniority I avoided taking the crews out and moved on to other shifts and other jobs to try and avoid the boredom of Correction work. The crews changed there functions as Georgetown tried to maintain a semblance of purpose. Later becoming more community service oriented. I never like that job at all due to always feeling I was taking the job away from someone who could use a good job. Also they seemed to always find something to get into trouble with,especially in the churches ...I had a crew up in a local town and the Inmates were allowed inside to use the bathroom one at a time. So I let this one kid go in while trying my best to keep the others painting. Only to hear soon after a “rapping” sound coming from the church steeple..Of course I was a little ticked off and he was surprised that it went over the speaker system for the whole town to hear. I never heard anything from anyone in the town. You get what you pay for when it comes to inmate Labor. Of course there are two sides to every coin and some may think well it’s good they give back to the community. I agree with that but maybe they should pick garbage along the roadways more often and stay away from the jobs where they cause an honest working man to not have a job. I guess I am old school in that way of thinking but I think they should be back in the woods chopping and sawing trees. Clearing ski trails that sort of thing. In the woods they can “rap” all they want as long as I can’t hear it!!

Crews

Georgetown, Not sure where to start with what I’d like to say about Georgetown. I spent 23 years there and overall it was probably the best place that I could recommend for most people if they want to work in Corrections. I guess I’ll start with talking about the primary function of Camp Georgetown which is sending the Inmate work crews out into the public and performing various work assignments. Some may view this in their own perspective but here is mine. So back in 87 ‘ they had these wood signs posted on the exterior walls of the the two dorms that had the crew numbers 1-16 ( later 17) engraved on them so each Inmate would know where to meet the Officer to report for work. In those days some of the crews had 12 Inmates on them and many of the crews took a small “school” bus to the work area. What I remember about the gathering of Inmates at the signs on the wall was it worked great if you had the same crew every day but it sucked for a new Officer due to you had to rely on the Inmate to tell you he was on your crew. So it usually meant tracking down the bunch of them and asking the other more "honest" Inmates who had shown up who was on the crew. It was very chaotic on the black top area gathering your crew because of the 190 or so of the inmates in the jail close to 160 would go out to work. That changed dramatically by the end of my 23 years there. I let myself get off track a bit there I wanted to tell a story about being trained to take a crew out. They had this unwritten procedure which was followed if they had enough staff and not followed if they were short on help and that was they would send a new Officer out with a Officer who knew the the ropes. So they did send me out for two days with another Officer. I’ll leave out names but he had been around a while at Georgetown. He knew how it worked and that was important to me to get off on the right foot. It just so happens that they have these jobs there that only come up once in a while and the first day I went out was one of these jobs. We had to go to Utica with several other crews and unload tractor trailers at a warehouse. The food the trucks carried was for charities and was taken to various churches and community centers through out the area. There was a lot to unload and the first thing that made me think ”what the heck” was the Officers were joining in and helping unload. I doubt very much that we should have done this but I joined right in too. We formed long lines and hand over hand we unloaded all the trucks. I remember it was the first day I ever worked up a sweat while working in Corrections. Then we loaded smaller trucks up and helped deliver the food items out into the various areas. Huge bags of rice and bulk items were the norm in those days. Later we did something similar at a much smaller scale and we would unload junk food along with the other foodstuffs. . Which seems a bit ridiculous if your mission is to help feed the needy. But off we went in the bus and I had no idea where these places were but I was along for the ride. We had unloaded most of the stuff and a couple open ripped bags of rice were all that was left. No place wanted the open bags so I remember we ended up taking them to a small farm and feeding the pigs.. That seemed strange to me but this was a new place and Blue is Blue..No one would find out until 24 years later.. It all would have been thrown out anyways but what shocked me about this was all the Inamtes now knew where the farmer lived. If this farmer had a job working in the jail is up to you to decide. haha! All I know is I wouldn’t have did this on my own, but I hadn’t worked at Georgetown very long in fact only about two days! The thing I really disliked in those days at Georgetown was not much in the way of procedure to help a new Officer out. I and many others then and sometimes now, who didn’t know how to get to a work assignment were actually told to ask the Inmates. Which I did and I must say other than one long ride around Syracuse one day they pretty much did tell you where you had to go.. In 87’ and a few years after, once you left you were on your own. No cell phones and very poor radio communication due to all the hills in the area. Everyone pretty much gets through it though and it becomes old hat after a while. Now I haven’t even touched on the work crews who cut down trees but I’ll write about that next time.

Georgetown.

It’s been a while since my last blog. I kind of wanted to wait to write about Georgetown but not this long. I’ll start out by telling about my finding Georgetown and my first day there. I was up North visiting my brother Dan and we drove down to check out the area Georgetown is located in. Very nice scenic area of the state. I remember having a tough time asking the locals where it was located, due to no one seemed to know for sure. I guess I should have looked into the address prior to driving down there but who would have figured it would be a bit hard to locate. Got the right road from some local guy who was a Pastor or Minister something like that and took his word for it.. "I think it's over on the road that goes over to the Deyruter". So driving down route 16 keeping an eye out for a prison and taking my time, and I drive right by the place. I actually thought it was a Boy Scout Camp. Picnic tables out front. Log Cabin visible from the road. These days it looks a bit different they have added a nice large sign out front, and they moved the Totem pole out in front of the Cabin, and across the road is the "Con" shop. There was no fence or anything that would indicate in 1987 that it was in fact a prison. IN those days in the summer months people would pull in driving there RV’s and ask for a spot to Camp. So this is a bit of a shock to me.. Quite a bit different from Mid-Sate and Green Haven. But it fit quite nicely into my backwoods upbringing in Redfield. My first paid job on the books was cutting ski trails up near Orwell, NY and who would have figured that years later I would find myself doing the same thing with a Crew of Inmates. The big difference was the pay was probably 10 times more and later even ore than that!! I took a test in High School that once done would tell you what a good career might be for you. It didn’t say Prison Guard! But it did say Forrest Ranger.. This Georgetown place wasn’t to far off. Woods every where and dirt roads going all over the place. So I reported the first day and Officer DB (real funny guy) sees me coming in the front door dressed in my class “A”’s and he comes out to meet me and immediately tells me to put my “Bus driver” hat back in my car, you won’t need it here..

On to MS

Crime rate was on the rise and traffic was getting ridiculous downstate where my wife and I lived. It was convenient living down there due to low commute times. But someone got knifed in a parking lot that was about a mile from our house while putting her groceries in her trunk, so it was time to sell and move. We would take the toyota we had at the time and drive up North on our days off and look for areas to move to. I'm a up north boy and my wife was raised downstate. The compromise was nothing above the through-way line. So off we would drive on an adventure to an area neither of us knew anything about. We'd pick a spot on a map (NO GPS's in those days) and off we'd go to see what it was like. I asked my Dad one day where he'd move if he were me in my situation and he gave me the central part of the state near where I finally ended up doing most of my career.He was right it is a beautiful part of the State. Rolling hills and green valleys. We drove into "N" one nice sunny day coming in from the east on 23. It's a beautiful view and the town lies in a nice Valley. It was one of our first choices. But I wasn't so sure I'd transfer to GT very quickly if at all. MS was North of there about one hour. Just outside of my commute comfort zone. So our house is on the market and my name is on a couple jails MS and GT. So we have to wait. Well I couldn't have sold a fixed up dump like it was any quicker. We had it sold for what we wanted to get out of it in about a week. That was great and also sucked somewhat, we had to scramble to find a place to move. T's Mom and Dad came through for us with letting us stay in a small house they owned about an hour and half drive north. We moved in and I commuted to GH for the last few months which really sucked and added a lot of extra time on to my work day. So eventually I transferred out to MS. We got the first apartment we could find and off we went. I reported to MS in August the summer of 1987. It is and old Psych center totally different from GH , medium security jail. Inmates had rooms and the only cells were in the box. The place was sprawled out and they had a bus you caught to take you to the other side of the jail. And it was an Inmates job to drive the bus. That was a hard place to get used to after working GH. They wouldn't give me a night stick which sucked. No one seemed over happy to help a new Officer out. Most of the CO's there were home so to speak. Meaning they were not planning on going on to another jail. I had decided that I more than likely would end up here for quite some time. So you get a couple days orientation and this one other CO was there with me getting the tour etc... He tells me he just came in from GT and how great it was. I had him beat in Seniority and was wondering how he ever got there. But if I remember right in those days you could transfer in temp and when a permanent spot opened up you could go on to the permanent spot. So he goes on and on how great it is there and the swapping is the best he has ever seen. It was one thing after another so he's filling out a transfer paper which at the time I thought wouldn't amount to anything. But what the heck I filled one out too. My name had been on the list already for GT but never moved up much, maybe one jump up on the list the whole time I was on it. Let me jump back to MS I don't have many stories about it due to only working there about a month. But it was in my view totally unorganized compare to GH. I was given a job at line up one morning and went to get my keys only to find that the person already had collected the keys for that job. Went back to the WC and told him what happened in which he gave me another job. Only to find it already taken. Three tries that morning and I finally got a job. That sort of thing was common. I worked every shift they had in the month I was there. I walked around the outside of a building one 12-8 shift which they had house Inmates in without first putting up the security bars on the windows. They were on the third floor. So I walked around and made sure there aren't any sheets hanging down from the windows. I also would go up and help with the counts when they were taken. Easy job but those kind of jobs to me are what sucked most about being a CO. Either way. I met some good CO's and bad while there, I'm sure once I got a bid there things would have been much better. But I had filled out a transfer which I didn't think would have amounted to anything. The apartment we had rented was a half hour away. So other than working whatever shift for the month I was there things were working out. Then I get notified I think by phone, that I'm transferring to GT. A few days later I reported to GT. It took over and hour to drive there from our apartment. But I was happy to leave MS I figured I couldn't possibly bounce from shift to shift like I was any worse than I was there. It was the Fall of 87. It must have been about the end of September. Somewhere around that time. Thanks to that CO named King I was where I ended up spending the next 23 years working. Next time GT.

Shanks, shivs etc..

Shanks and shivs, knives if you will. This I promise will be a bit shorter. I already mentioned a stabbing I had responded too and the Inmate had been stabbed 19 times. I only saw one of the wounds and it looked like he had been stabbed with a table candle. Nasty wound right in the forearm. So I was talking to the family last night about the blog. And it occurred to me to try and write about the various homemade weapons I have seen. Now I spent most of my career at a Minimum security jail. So it should be a shorter blog post. But I do have a few stories to share. While working the 8-4 shift at GH I would often get assigned to the Industrial work area. The jobs would be completed before 4 O'clock and I would finish up and walk on up front to see the Sgt. for something else to do. I was trying to be a good employee. Inevitably he would assign me to help with the Inmates leaving visits. It only took a couple times to realize that that was what I would get if I did the right thing and walked up front. Nuts and Butts (you can figure out that if you think a bit)is no fun at all, most of the time. So I learned to make a job for myself after say the auto shop Inmates all left for the day. I would frisk the area. The first weapon I found was in the laundry. I was climbing up on one of the huge machines they have there and found razor blades setting way up on top. You had to climb up a bit to get at them. They were the kind used in your father's or grandfathers razors for shaving. These were pretty common. Also in the laundry hidden in pipe insulation I found what looked like a wood working tool. Like a lathe tool. Wooden handled but this one had been taken to a grinder and or filed to a sharp point. I remember being a bit nervous just taking it up to the arsenal. Not sure why but I was. Another time I was assigned to the biggest auto body shop I have ever seen. Located in the back of GH the Inmates at the time did a lot of vehicles that the DPW in the city had wrecked. Real quickly a little background, an Inmate had beaten another Inmates head in with a 3 lb hammer and the CO that had the bid job there took a couple of weeks off to get his thoughts back together. So I was assigned that job for a couple of weeks. All the big wig's in the place were coming down and they were trying to get shadow boards made up so we could keep track of all the tools. Not sure how that would have prevented the Inmate from taking the hammer and bashing the other Inmates head in but. So it was the same thing I needed to kill about 45 minutes and would frisk the shop. Well I found in one of the open lockers a nasty shank made from what appeared to be a spackling knife that was approx. 5 inches across the top but it had been cut by a pair of tin snips to a point. It was roughly in the shape of a diamond and left all jagged. Man if someone was stuck with that thing it would be hell to sew you up. It also came with a nice case to cover the blade which was a nice touch to the project. That's a few from GH now just a list of some other types I have found without the story. Frisked a guys coat once and found a 10 inch folding hunting knife. Frisked the outside rec. building and found a metal spatula up in the rafters which had been sharpened a little on one side. It had not been finished yet. Since it was a work camp CO's regularly found pieces of "bow" saw blades. Some I have not found but have seen other find were made from melted tooth brush handles, melted cigarette cellophane wrapper, Of course the tooth brush with a razor inserted in the bristles is quite common. I saw one once that looked like a Bowie knife made from a piece of plexi-glass. I guess what I finish saying is this. If it can be made into a shank, shiv, banger, etc.. they will do it. The Inmates can stick a razor in their mouths and spit one right out without cutting the insides. They will secret them wherever they can.. What you see in the movies for the most part is correct. Never saw anyone find one but have seen the collection they use for training purposes and yes even homemade (zip)guns. Not much of a point to make about this other than it is all over the place and the Department's. drug sniffing dogs seem to find at least one shank on every visit at GT. So weapons in jail is now of the way. On to something else. Not sure what yet.

GH war stories.

If I would have to say of all the "war" stories that stick in my mind there about three short ones I always tell people if they want to hear one. Some people love to hear stories of jail work. But there are a few that stick out above the others. One time I was running to a RED alert and thinking I hope none of the CO's were hurt and I hope it isn't too bad. That sort of thing. I show up at this junctions point where they have three gates in the joining hallways so we can stop the spread of riots, that sort of thing. When I get there things have already come to conclusion as far as the fighting goes. None of the Staff had been hurt. So your heart goes at ease. I was one of the first to arrive and the Sgt. says take this guy to the infirmary. He was stabbed but able to walk. So I assumed that some one previously there had frisked him. Bad idea. I guess the Sgt. should have told me to do so but also I should have asked but here's this fairly small inmate bleeding all over himself. So I hustled him down to the infirmary. There were Officers there so when I got there I turned him over and went back to my bid job which at the time was the package room. I know it doesn't sound like much of a story. But one of the CO's in the infirmary told me later that when they took his jacket off they found 19 total stab wounds!! They had also found a razor in his jacket concealed somewhere. What always struck me odd was that this inmate had thought he could throw his jacket on to cover the stab wounds and go back in the block like nothing happened. Now I had seen one stab wound on his arm. It looked like someone had taken a candle stick and was able to stab him quite deeply with it. A nasty wound for sure. What I hadn't seen were the 18 other shots! And this guy actually was trying to avoid getting medical help. Luckily he hadn't pulled the razor on anyone. I felt sick in my stomach when I found out he had a razor somewhere on him. Lesson learned was any time something like that happened for the rest of my career I made sure the inmate was frisked.
Another one I remember was responding to "A" block one day for some big fight taking place. When I get there two of the biggest inmates in the place were having a big dispute. The only issue was the bigger heavy set one was trying to get through the bars to kick this muscle bound inmates ass.. He was totally out of control and would not listen to directions from the Officers. He was a fairly well known inmate in the block and usually was a well mannered inmate. So what I found funny was this guy is refusing to let the CO's cuff him and struggling like crazy totally had lost it, and there were two Officers on each arm and they were having difficulty getting his arm close enough so the cuffs could be used. I remember saying to the one female Officer on one of his arms. Let me take your spot due to she was about 115 soaking wet.. Not that she wasn't giving it her all, but his one arm was about as big as her whole upper body!! We finally did get him cuffed and I remember the normal sized cuffs were tight with just one click. Things calmed down and I guess the whole fight was over the one muscle bound inmate had thrown his oatmeal into the other guys face. I think if the gate hadn't been there someone may have died over throwing oatmeal.
The last one I'll bring up is the story if an old black inmate who was known around the jail for knowing karate. Some of the CO's who had been around a while tell the story of seeing him kick a ceiling pipe in the hall leading to sick call. Now that is really up there so I always wondered if that story was true. But if was a long day at jail and stories always helped. I'll stick with not telling names but we'll call him "M". So "M" had been in a big altercation at some point in a the furthest north Max jail in the state. He hurt some CO's and ended up getting hurt quite badly himself. Serves him right I'd say. You want to act like an idiot you get what you got coming to you. But for the last few years I guess this inmate "M" was going about jail life without issues. You see the story goes he had shaved all his hair off his body and used Vaseline everywhere on him so no one could get a good hold on him. And totally naked, no hair, greased up, and he decides to do some fighting. So this old story floated around the jail. But for while now "M" was acting like he should so life in jail goes on. Until one day I am heading to the block to do the count. The CO controlling the gate, I can't remember his name but did know it then, says "Hey "H" go check the yard there's still an Inmate sitting out by the TV". So I go out and here's this "M" sitting there. I went up to him and asked him why he was still out. He said he didn't want to go back in. And it was going to take a lot of you to make me. So I'm not a lot of you, so I go back in and tell the CO's running the gate better get a Sgt. here. It was the notorious "M". So I had never been up close to "M" prior to that day. He wasn't very big or in very good shape. I was like this guy doesn't look like much. But whatever, the Sgt. will no how to take care of it better than I. I had given him an order to leave the yard I'd given it a shot. So I'm hanging out there waiting for the Sgt. to show and when he gets there we go out in the yard again and the Sgt. tells this guy he has to leave the yard. I can't remember who was all there but it was about 4-5 Officers and the Sgt. I remember "M" looking at us and he starts sizing us up. He's pretty big, He looks fast, That sort of thing. The Sgt. makes a decision to let him sit there a while., No one was getting hurt so no since pushing it I guess he figured. I thought at the time we should have dragged him out of the yard, he shouldn't be allowed to do what he like whenever he wants. Plus I thought we could have easily done it. But now after all the years under my belt, I think the Sgt. made the right choice. Let him sit there a while and maybe he'd decide, once he figured the TV wasn't coming on any time soon, that he should come inside by himself with no force needed. Well it was count time and as any CO knows it's what we get paid for doing. "The Count" So I have a company to count and take to chow. So the Sgt. orders all of us out of the yard and tells some of us to go do our counts. I was really curios about how it all ended so I'd ask whoever if they had heard anything. I guess they got as many CO's they could and surrounded him. They had given him a lot of time and he kept acting like he was going to fight. He hadn't greased himself up but apparently his rep had followed him. Enough was enough and they closed in on him and as the first one was close enough to touch him he gave up completely. Off to the box he went!! An odd event to say the least. Maybe he owed a gambling debt or just want to spend some alone time in the box. Who knew.. More "war" stories for another time.