Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

I have a few issues about where I work, most of which I choose not to put out on a public forum. This particular issue has really been irritating me though.

Last night I did a cell search and turned up several pieces of contriband, two of them being pepper and jump (home made jail house wine). I wrote both inmates tickets for the rest of the contriband, excluding the jump and the pepper.

This is why I am irritated. About a month ago I found jump residue (a little bit in the bottom of a cup, but enough to test. You can't miss the smell.) in two back to back cell searches on the same tier. I sent it up front to be tested for alcohol since it is necessary to get a conviction when it goes to a hearing officer. I was told that there were no test kits. Now this is a big institution with several different compounds and there were no test kits any where.

I hate to think that I was just told this because certain people didn't want to deal with the documentation required. I don't know if this was the case and I am not trying to accuse anyone it just seemed funny. Any way, I was not happy. I was pretty sure that there was a fairly large supply of jump on the tier and I had wanted to use the positive test results to lean on the two inmates and see if I could find out who was holding. Even if they didn't talk I still would have had tickets for the original find.

Back to last night. Last night I was told, once again, that there were no test kits. Why, in the last month was it not possible to get some more since it was clear we needed some? This burns me up. It does no good to find and take this stuff if the inmate is going to be left free and clear to make more. Not to mention if it is not documented it does not show up in the inmates file and he looks like he has been a model inmate, qualifying him for things he would not otherwise get.

About the pepper. While this went in the ticket I wrote, the inmate was offered an informal disposition. This is a plea bargin of sorts. I was told that he was not formally charged with the pepper because it would bring up questions about how well dietary officers were doing pat downs when workers left the kitchen. With as much dietary supplies that are leaving the kitchen I dare say that this should be addressed.

Am I blowing this whole thing out of proportion or do I have a right to be irritated?

You are doing you job. When it seems others don't want to do theirs a person has a right to be irritated. And there's nothing wrong with venting under circumstances like this. Also it can cause a great deal of discouragement, "Oh, well, why bother even looking for anything that shouldn't be in the cells, no one will do anything about it anyway."

Granted I don't know anything about where you work (Prison). But I do know what it's like to work with people who only do enough to get by, but don't want to go the extra mile it takes to complete the job.

Personally, I find it rather frightening that people like this can get away with such things and still appear to have that clear record. Cheez!

Hopefully, someone here will have something better to say (than I did) that will help you to deal with it or find the right solution.

When I first started working at the Rita Hilton, I was all gung ho myself - making the contacts, finding out who was who and what their gang affilliation was. Making sure everyone was classified correctly. Searching cells for contraband which included everything from shanks to pruno (another name for jailhouse wine) to stingers (wire wrapped around a nail used to heat water - very dangerous for the user), and such obscure things as Creamora (which is used as a catayst for blow torces).

I can't count the number of inmates and inmate workers (I refused to refer to a scrote as a "trustee") that I rolled up for contraband and other offenses just to see them out in the general population again because of the favortism of one Deputy or the other.

My advice: What is your goal? Is it really your goal to work in a jail or is this merely the first assignment after the academy? It it is the latter, my advise is to do your best, do your time, and move on. I have found that a lot of the "old timers" were either waiting for their retirements and didn't care or didn't like working other assignments (such as the streets or the courts).

Yes, you have the right to be irritated. Make a mental note of it and move on. Don't allow the inactions of others to affect your goals.

Just my two cents
ZZ

I worked in a privately run Re-entry Facility. The "tenants" were still state prisoners, but were given opportunities to get jobs, counseling, weekend passes, etc. When inmates violated the CDC rules they could be written up on a CDC115. This is an evil word to inmates - 3 115's and back to prison.

I believe in doing the job I was hired to do, in spite of how crappy the pay might be ($8/hr), so I wrote a lot of guys up. You had to write the report twice - once in a log book and once on the actual CDC115 form. It was a pain in the butt and time consuming.

Most of my co-workers did very few write ups because "they weren't paid enough to do all that work". I disagreed, so I did it.

Because of all of my write ups (in comparison to other employees) the director thought I was abusing my power. She wanted my supervisor to write me up for mistreating inmates. This was totally bogus.

Well, my supervisor said, "I will not write him up. I work with him 5 days a week and I have never seen him do anything inappropriate". The director told my supervisor that he would be written up if he didn't write me up.

The inmates could have done a better job of running the place!!

Anyway, a little more drama ensued and my supervisor decided to quit rather than write me up. Because of his decision, I followed him right out the door.

People are lazy, period. Those of us that work hard in environments where people can get away with laziness will always have trouble.

I wish I could walk out but I have to pay the bills some how. This place is bad. Some times I wonder who the inmates really are. You can trust very few once behind the wire. Everyone has their own agenda it seems. I'm hoping that one of the departments I have applied to will pick me up soon. Until then I will suck it up and drive on.