Some staff think that they have to be rough and show everyone who is in control. Let’s look at this picture: one staff member vs. 100+ inmates. Sorry, folks, it does not compute. Staff stay in control by being fair, firm and consistent.

It’s always a real pleasure to watch an experienced officer handle a group of inmates. Remember, that the older, slower and sometimes overweight officer may have survived more years in the walls than the age of most new recruits. Listen to those old war stories. The old-timer is there to tell them for your benefit. Every story can provide you with a method of handling inmates without anyone getting hurt.

I have heard for years someone ask how the shift went. The answer is usually, "Good, we are leaving with the same body parts we came in with." No one hurt. Everyone going home.

But sometimes something different happens, a brief lapse of attention, such as forgetting that you are sitting with your back to an open door. Or maybe it involves doing something against procedure, because staff is shorthanded and nothing happened before when that procedure was violated.

These kinds of lapses have cost good men and women their lives in the past.

It’s hard, really hard, to always be on guard for everything going on. Ours is one of the few jobs where when it gets quiet at work, something is wrong, something is about to come down. It won’t hurt to always remember that NO INMATE CAN BE CONSIDERED TO BE HARMLESS, AND NO INMATE IS SUPPOSED TO BE YOUR FRIEND. You will meet some that are OK human beings, but, when push comes to shove, they are usually not on your side. (There have been exceptions to this, and I am here today thanks to certain inmates over the years.) Never expect nor want the inmates to like you. Earn their respect by being fair, firm and consistent.