The Inside of a Prison from a Correction Officer's Eyes

Boasting a population of over 65,000 prisoners, Michigan employs a lot of prison guards, or corrections officers as now termed. I recently sat down with an officer and asked him a few questions of what prison is really like for a prisoner. The following shows a corrections officer's opinions.

Q: How long have you worked for the prison system?
A: Almost 10 years.

Q: What type of criminals do you house in your unit?
A: We have just about any type of offender, from a nonviolent level one (usually a drug charge) to a violent level four (murder, armed robbery).

Q: Do you know each prisoner's crime when you guard them?
A: The prisoner's record is available upon request, but we usually don't want to know of their crime unless they warrant us to. Especially in the case of child molestation. That would draw more attention to the beating and discrimination of a prisoner in most guards' eyes.

Q: Do you have a lot of violence between prisoners?
A: Sometimes. In our facility we have a lot of prisoners who are eventually going to go up for parole. If they get in a fight or cause problems, their parole is more than likely going to be declined. So they try to keep it cool.

Q: Have you ever had a prisoner try to escape?
A: Well, I can tell you what you may have heard in the news, but nothing more. A few years back, not on my shift, a prisoner was able to hide in a laundry van and get off the premises. He only got as far as the neighboring town before he was caught. He did frighten a person by holding him up in his vehicle, but didn't cause any physical harm. We also had a riot at this prison a year before I started. It was kept short due to guards reacting fast. Other than that, if we see a prisoner making a run for it, the tower guards are taught to shoot the prisoner. Plus they don't stand much of a chance against the fencing.