One, or more new things per week for the 2013 year...
Week 16 of 52 (April 15th, 2013 to
April 21st, 2013): WCSO Corrections Deputy Job Shadow
A
midget clairvoyant has escaped from the county jail. - APB reads: small medium
at large.
This week I had the opportunity of
working alongside Deputy Muschek, who is a Corrections Deputy for the
Washington County Jail. I worked the 9:30 pm to 7:30 am shift. Upon entering
the jail I felt like I was going through the airport… I had to leave everything
behind, go through a metal detector and get a kick pat down. Following this I
passed the first security door where I received a badge and a security pager. The
security pager is pretty simple, press the red button if things go south and
backup will arrive.
Now that I had my pager and badge I
was ready to go to the second security door, and then wait for that door to
electronically close behind me for the third security door to open and gain
access to the jail. After walking only a few feet I noticed that there were
dozens of inmates walking around within the jail; no bars, and no restraints. Honestly,
this made me confused until I found out that all these inmates were the “privileged”
ones. These privileged ones are allowed to walk around freely, but all of them
have tasks; cleaning the floor, preparing meals, washing clothes, etc.
After meeting most of the staff and
other deputies and given an extensive tour of all the jail I soon realized that
most of this deputy’s job was to walk around and insure that every inmate was
accounted for and that all of them were doing what they were supposed to be
doing. This part of the job was actually pretty fun, and filled with lots of
exercise! I walked over 4 miles, going up and down stars, moving through the corridors and checking in on the cells. I found that all the privileged inmates
were extremely respectful and referred to both the corrections deputy and I as
gentlemen, they said good morning and how are you? With very polite thank you’s
and excuse me’s.
I was shocked. This is not what the
news or movies portrays! Again, this is why I do these new things, because I want to know for myself how these things work first hand and to experience them
first hand!
Now, is this how the entire jail
is? Absolutely not, but those that cause problems are all locked up by
themselves and usually have mental problems. Actually my favorite part was
intake, where all the freshly arrested drunks, gang-bangers, prostitutes and
illegal aliens come in to be booked. Honestly, the drunks are my favorite, they
are a riot! Even the deputies loved to joke around with them. Probably because
50% or more of them have been arrested before, most within hours, days or weeks
of their previous arrest.
While I was there one lady who didn't speak any English, was in need of a translator… well guess who had to
translate? ME! I got to play translator for the night. This actually got the
attention of a few deputies who told me that with my skill set I could probably
be hired within the month, if I really wanted a job in corrections. At a
starting pay of $41,000 it was kind of tempting. Apparently they are so short
staffed that deputies are getting 10-30 hours of over time a week.
A few other interesting things; all
meals, laundry and cleaning are done by inmates. Food for deputies is free, and
I got a chance to eat lunch that was prepared by inmates. Sounds kind of fishy,
right? Eh. It was ok. I wouldn't want jail food all the time, but the food wasn't as bad as the movies portray. After 10 hours, I was ready to go home! Mainly
because I had now been up for about 35 hours straight… I was exhausted!
As I walked through the main corridor
of the Washington County Jail I could start to see the sun, faintly rising through
the double security doors… and that is when I realized I was in the House of
the Rising Sun. As the second security door closed behind me I was now free, I had
stepped through a door that so many on the inside could only wish for. I
stepped outside and took a deep breath of Freedom!
