My Life in Law Enforcement: A True Life Story #14 Doin Time

I named this chapter "Doin Time" because that's basically what it was. Just starting out working in the jail fresh out of rookie school was horrible. Yeah, I knew that I had to do my time in the detention center but I sure didn't want to. I had just busted my ass working a full-time third shift job while going through rookie school and this was not what I went to school for.

Some of the detention officers look at you and treat you different. Some have a chip on their shoulder because they know that you will be leaving eventually and you're just using the jail as a stepping stone. It wasn't my fault though, I didn't want to start out in the jail. Other detention officers looked up to me because I had done something that they wanted to do but probably would never be able to do.

Starting out sucked pretty damn bad. I was fortunate enough to be on a great squad, but it still sucked. The inmates can smell a new officer from a mile away and will try everything in the book to get an advantage. I had already made up my mind that I would show no fear or be intimidated by no one. On the other hand, I'm actually a nice guy that will try and help someone if I can. I didn't judge the inmates and I treated them with respect as long as I was getting it in return. Being nice and trying to help everyone I could, helped me in a way but it also made my job more difficult. If I stopped to help one inmate, then the rest of the block would be next.

There were really two types of detention officers. You had the type that ignored the inmates and treated them poorly and then the other type that treated everyone fairly and took the extra time to help. I chose to treat everyone like I would want to be treated. This was actually a double edged sword because it helped me by gaining respect from the inmates and not catching so much shit from them BUT it also caused me to run my ass off all the time. To give you an example of what I'm talking about...Making security checks/rounds throughout the blocks is mandatory every 30 minutes or twice an hour. Most of the officers would go through the blocks and ignore the inmates if they asked them for something. Inmates despised these types of officers. I, on the other hand would stop to see what the inmate wanted and possibly help if I could. Some of the things that they would ask for would be an extra phone call, cleaning supplies to clean their cells with, exchange their mat/jumpsuit/blanket or sheet for a new one, toilet paper, soap, legal advice or just advice in general, look up their time to see how much they had left and all kinds of other things. Many times an inmate would stop me just to talk. I had other detention officers to say I was crazy for even stopping to talk but I wouldn't go back and change anything I done differently. By doing my job the way that I did, I built character and earned respect, I learned valuable people skills because I dealt with every type of person you could imagine inside that place. I dealt with murderers and rapists to someone that got behind on their child support or just missed a court date for a simple misdemeanor and everything in between. I also learned much about who I was dealing with every day. I know who had the short tempers and who was a serious threat. The other officers lacked these tools and were often given a hard time by the inmates. So if you can imagine trying to make your rounds and constantly getting stopped and asked for favors, it became very taxing at times.

It didn't take long to realize that I had made the right choice because I could see right off how differently the inmates treated me compared to the others. The majority of the inmates liked me, some even drew me pictures that were extremely impressive. I was amazed at the artistic talent that was in that place. I think that I still have a couple of the drawings that a member of the Mexican mafia had drawn for me. I know that sentence in itself sounds crazy, ha! I will have to see if I can find those drawings, I know they're packed up somewhere.

Even though I was liked by most in the jail and I had good relationships with the inmates, it was important for me not to get "too attached" or develop genuine friendships with these guys. Some of these guys were clever con artists and would use my kindness against me. I have several stories about that topic. It was a delicate balancing act that I needed to be careful with.

This completes another installment of My Life in Law Enforcement: A True Life Story, a series of chapters talking about my real life experiences going through rookie school and pursuing my career in law enforcement. I will post links to the previous chapters at the bottom of this page if you would like to catch up to speed from day one. Many thanks for your time!

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