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.