Got a few stories about GH

What shocked me the most about Corrections?? I will try and keep this a fairly short post.. haha!! Let's go with the Inmates first. I'm from a real hick area located Upstate. The nearest full time resident was my Uncle's farm and that was about 3/4 of a mile up the road. Our road was half dirt and to say the least a old country road. Seeing a car pass by was a event and we would almost always know who it was. Summer vacation from school started out great but by a few weeks we would get lonely for our school friends. We hardly ever got a chance to see them during the summer. By the end of summer I was looking forward to school. Just for something to do, besides fishing and swimming in the Salmon River. So when I saw the minorities all together locked up, with backgrounds that were completely different to mine, It was a culture shock type of event. I was seeing a totally different form of life style!! Men with boobs was something I wish I had never seen but soon after starting work a GH I witnessed it!! Out in the yard with general population was a guy with a bra size bigger than many woman with a five o'clock shadow. He must have had plenty of opportunities in jail, and seemed to be quite popular amongst his fellow Inmates for some reason. Many of these men have to spend there time in prison locked up in the PC (protective custody) ward. But this guy was walking around in population. I guess Prisons have what they call Jailhouse homosexuals. Apparently they are homosexuals in prison but when on the street switch back. This all was very shocking for me in 1985. The next thing I'd say about inmates being "a shock" was the size they get lifting weights. Luckily for CO's they are the ones that seem to cause the least problems. Most everything else I expected. As far as the CO's and other staff. It seemed that Prisons were created so Upstate country boys could run them. Pretty much 90 percent were "Up stater's" looking for honest work and benefits. These guys were from the same type of area I was from. Sorry guys about this comment I don't mean to offend but there are a lot of CO's that don't quite fit the image you have of an Officer dressed in blue performing his job. The IQ levels vary greatly. Once you learn the job you know you don't have to be a rocket appliance salesmen (reference to Trailer Park Boys)to perform your duties. You'd also think that the State would have a system that promoted the best CO's up the ranks. They don't. They have a testing system which many times promotes people that should never be leading anyone. That was shocking how bad some of the management can be. Not all, so the good ones take up the slack the bad ones can't handle. The wall inside looking up is a bit shocking. Esp. while working the yards and thinking if a riot breaks out could I get out of here? You feel the I can't get out feeling at various points too. The things that Inmates do while they are in jail, was shocking. At least it's something I never would have guessed. They make furniture,underwear,license plates, cook food, milk cows,cut down trees ( I did a lot of that with them) etc.. etc.. Pretty much anything that is done on the street. The amount of violence in the max jails is shocking. During my time at GH I'd say at least one red alert a week. So I got to sprint at least once a week to keep up my speed!! And for what I have heard that was a fairly quiet time at GH. It was worse earlier and later than when I was there. I am going to stick with these things. More will resurface I am sure. I will talk about the "GT" (where I spent most of my career) stuff for later.. It's a stressful job and one that most civilians can't quite understand unless thrown into it for a while. I know that people like to hear the stories. I also know that like me a lot of CO's don't like to inform people they work as Correction Officers. I remember years ago going to this bar with a fellow CO and he told the locals there he worked for the phone company. I have never lied about it but down played it most of the time. It's not the kind of job where you come home proud of the work you have done that day. At least that's how my career went. It's a job that provided for my family and we live a decent life style because of it. So my last bit of shocking (may not have been so to some it's hard to put it in words that reflect the atmosphere in jail) It is really hard to believe that I did 25 years when my goal was to work a few years get my degree and move on to something else. I am doing that now, so it just took a few more years than expected. That's shocking!!