Interview with Professional Dominatrix
INTERVIEW OF A DETENTION OFFICER IN A MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISON
1. What is your job title/position/job description?
Detention officer. My job is to maintain order and provide necessities to the prisoners in a maximum-security prison.
2. Do you belong to a union?
Yes, the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Corrections United. The ACU. Its good to be in the union because we can’t just get fired at the drop of a hat. Before we got unionized we sometimes had to work mandatory overtime. This is a bad idea, because even if you wanted to work a double shift you shouldn’t be working a job like this when you are fatigued. You need to be alert to deal with these prisoners. The other good thing about the union is that it makes sure that all the CO’s have proper training, which is crucial because detention officers work in teams and depend on each other for safety. I don’t want to be paired up and possibly endangered because I’m stuck with a partner who is not prepared for the job. I don’t want to be stuck with some kindergarten teacher who knows nothing about prison culture or gangs or self-defense.
3. Describe your physical work environment.
I work on level three. It has four pods, and each pod has twenty cells; nothing but brick and steel bars. No windows, just Funky (smelly) pods. Some other levels have windows but not mine. There’s a circular brick and cement tower that runs up the middle of the building. It has bulletproof glass windows. On every level four pods surround it. At the top of the tower there is a twenty by twenty skylight that provides all the natural light. Not much of it comes down to level 3. What we get it just skims the front of the pods, maybe. Every pod has a fluorescent light on the ceiling.
4. Please describe a typical day (do you travel, hours you work, etc.)
It’s a fifteen-minute drive. I’m part of a carpool of other detention officers from my area. I work the night shift. 10pm – 7:00 am.
When I get to work I go through a security gate and metal detectors. Then I go to the supply room and check out my cayenne pepper foam and my stun gun. Then I go change into my uniform, put on my utility belt and sign in. At this point I usually go to level 3, unless I need to fill in for someone who called out sick. I have to go to the tower, and sign in again. When I sign in at the tower, I have to announce through the loudspeakers to the prisoners…”Mr. Smith out. Mr. Jones in”.
First thing I do is take my first walk, meaning I enter each cell on my pod. As I do this the other guard is monitoring from the tower, using the computer to pop each cell door electronically, as I go; I’m checking for contraband and doing a head count. Most of the time since I work the night shift and most of the prisoners are settled in for the night, I just open the door and close it real fast, just making sure there are two bodies in each cell. I don’t want to rile them.
The walk has to be done every forty-five minutes. The other detention officer that I’m working with will do the next walk and I’ll watch his back from the tower, and use the computer to open and close the cells.
We really have to keep our antenna up at all times, and remain hyper vigilant about our surroundings. Its important to observe the area for any abnormalities…an unusually quiet housing area could be a sign of tension, of a problem about to erupt.
We also have to pay serious attention to any medical complaints that the inmates have. This could ward off potentially serious medical situations, especially in the case of contagious diseases.
5. How does your profession affect your ability to live a healthy lifestyle (exercise, sleep, nutrition)?
I have asthma really bad. The air circulation in the prison is horrible. It really bothers me.
6. Are there over the counter medications, alternative medications that are typically used in your profession (weight loss, tobacco, steroids, etc.)?
I’d say that 85% of the guards smoke.
7. What are things that your friends find interesting about your profession (like how often do you shoot your gun if you are a police officer)?/what types of questions do you get asked by the public?
First thing guys always ask is how many of the inmates are gay and how many get raped.
I don’t know exactly how many inmates get raped. Many of the rapes go unreported because the victims are afraid to snitch. Not all guys get raped. But let’s put it this way: If it’s your first time in jail and you are young, white and not affiliated with a gang, you’ll probably get raped. Then you’ll be known as a punk or a fuck boy, and you’ll keep getting raped until you get the help of a “Man”, a feared, predatorial prisoner (also known as studs, wolves, pitchers, jockers) who will protect you in exchange for sexual favors.
The predatorial prisoners or “Men” who engage in homosexual behavior do not consider themselves gay, or if they were they would never admit it. Most of these men almost always attack a new inmate in groups.
There is an unwritten prison culture rule that gay prisoners are not allowed to form relationships with each other. The openly gay prisoners or jailhouse queens are actually somewhat rare and coveted by the “men” and are expected to form a relationship with a “man” in exchange for protection. The jailhouse queens go out of their way to be as femmy as they possibly can and refer to themselves and their body parts in female terms.
8. How did you get interested in your profession?
During high school I was a Crip. Where I come from, whatever neighborhood you’re in, that’s the gang you’re in. But when I pulled myself out of that gang banging, I did a complete turn around. I really got it stuck hard in my head that I wanted to serve and protect.
I was eighteen and my older cousin worked at the same prison as a detention officer. He told me to apply for the job, that I’d start at $11.50 and hour and get raised to $13.00 after 6 months. I was so impressed that I could be 18 and they’d let me work at the jail and make that kind of money.
“The job is so easy,” he said “all you have to do is watch the inmates and walk the pod every 45 minutes.”
I should have taken into account that my cousin is 6ft tall and weighs 230 lbs. And he’s ten years older than me. I’m 5 ft 8 inches, weigh about 150 lbs. And I have this baby face. I was eighteen when I started but I looked like I was about 12. Now I look like I’m 14. Watching the inmates is not that easy.
9. What do you like most about your profession?
Pay and benefits. That’s it. And to tell you the truth, the adrenalin rush. If a fight starts up I like the rush that hits me. I like it right up until the ass whooping commences, then I don’t like it any more.
10. What do you dislike most about your job?
Strip searches. I hate having to spread some guys funky butt cheeks and sticking my finger in there up to the first knuckle looking for drug filled balloon.
I also hate the way the inmates have divided themselves by race. It makes things so much harder. I have to watch everything I do so that one of the groups doesn’t perceive me as being racist or imparting favors to my own race.
11. What is your educational background?
High school. Then I went to a trade school and studied security.
12. High School
13. Vocational School or College
14. Graduate School or Special Training
15. How does one obtain a job in your profession?
You have to put in an application. You have to have a clean record and pass a lie detector test, a psychological test and a physical test.
I really wanted the job, but I knew that my past history as a Crip would be a problem. A cousin of mine who was Blood told me how to pass the lie detector test. He told me to act like I was scared to death right from the start. So that’s what I did. They put that thing on me with the electrodes and I just let myself get all emotional.
I had to tell so many lies about my past, but I passed the test. The results were ‘inconclusive’ and I got the job.
You also have to pass a drug screening urine test when they hire you. They haven’t started random drug testing yet, but they are talking about it.
16. What previous positions have you had since you started this profession
I worked as a cashier at K-Mart. I only lasted three months.
I got this yen to upgrade my appearance. So I got my eyebrow pierced with a loop. The manager decided that K-mart cashiers couldn’t have pierced eyebrows. He told me to take it out, but it was a new piercing and the hole would close up if I took out the loop. I covered it with a Band-Aid, but then he took offense to the Band-Aid and started ragging me about that. All the time it was the Band-Aid, the Band-Aid, and the Band-Aid.
Then one day he reached over and ripped the Band-Aid off my face. He didn’t have time to take his next breath I jumped up and beat him down so fast. Then I grabbed my stuff and left. I didn’t even go back to get my last paycheck.
17. Can you get promoted? If so, to what positions and how?
There is room for advancement, but it’s a slow process. After about 5 years you can try to move up to supervisor. Or if you take advantage of any addition training or educational benefits that the prison has to offer, you can work toward joining a more specialized team, like SRT (Special Response Team), or being a counselor.
18. What are the perks of your job?
Good health benefits, retirement after 25 years, and the badge can get you out of tickets.
19. How do you get paid (contract, per mile, per hour, etc.) How can you make more money?
$23,000 a year, after taxes. I get a paycheck twice a month.
I know for a fact that at least 50% of the guards are doing favors for the prisoners and getting paid well for it. One prisoner paid a guard to him bring a box of baking soda every two weeks. He used it to cut into the cocaine he was selling. A lot of stuff goes on in the prison. You gotta understand that we are talking about a maximum security prison. These guys are very talented at being in jail.
20. What is the most stressful part of your job?
The inmates.
The white guys in jail despise me. They don’t want to take orders from a black guy who looks like he’s twelve. At my prison it is a 60% white population. There are a lot of Aryan Nation types. 70% of the inmates are in for murder.
The Asian gang bangers from the Triads or the Nomads. They are crazy and that’s no joke.
21. What emotional problems are common in people in your profession?
Correctional officers tend to be a bit closed, a bit shut down. I don’t want to say crazy…they tend to have a screw loose. A lot of these guys act like they are superior to the inmates, like somehow they are worth more.
I can’t do that because I come from the same kind of background as most of the inmates. Just because I’m on the other side of the bars, doesn’t make me above them.
22. What type of physical activity is required in your position?
We walk a lot. You have to be strong enough to break up fights between the inmates.
23. What things happen that really make you angry?
There’s no reasoning with inmates. They try to irritate you as much as they can.
Lazy detention officers. I can’t stand having to work with a fat out of shape lazy detention officer that tries to get you to take the walk every forty five minutes, while he sits up in the tower eating Twinkies and shit. You don’t want a guy like that watching your back.
24. What other professions do your work with, and how do they affect you (make your job easier or harder)?
There’s a nurse that comes to give diabetics and asthmatics their medicine. It’s harder for us when she comes around because she’s a female and you have to deal with the inmates. It’s not her fault; she’s just doing her job. The inmates get out of hand whenever a female comes on the floor.
The social workers also make our jobs easier.
25. What “health risk behaviors are common in your profession? (tobacco, alcohol, specific drugs, sex, stress, marital or family discord, etc.)
Smokers.
Lots of stress and sometimes you take it home with you, even though you didn’t want to. Working around criminals is very stressful. You got to worry about your safety and their safety all the time.
Even though we switched from pepper spray which gets all over the place, to pepper foam, which foams up on contact with the prisoners skin so it’s not as bad, but it still affects you if you are in the vicinity.
26. How does your vocation affect the personal life of you or people you know?
Family life because they worried about me a whole lot. I was getting into a lot of incidents. I try not to but I bring my stress home.
27. What activities and/or hobbies do people in your profession like to do?
Sports. We love sports and working out. Anything aggressive…We get together and play tackle football every two weeks. Most of us work out a lot. It’s a big stress reliever when you can hit somebody or work out.
28. Are there any items of clothing or props that someone portraying a person in your profession would use consistently? (Hats, keys, stuff you’d keep in your pockets or bags, day planners, work boots, particular costume or types of clothing…)
Utility belt, mace, stun gun, walkie-talkie, daily uniform. Where I work we keep it at the jail and change when we get there.
All of this stuff stays at work. A lot of people get out of jail, you know what I’m saying? You don’t need to tip them off that you’re a detention officer. .
29. If a person in your position were to get fired, what would they most likely have done to justify the termination and what would the steps involve? Do lay offs happen in your occupation?
There weren’t too many things you could just get fired for. You’d you have to have sex with an inmate, bring contraband to jail, blatantly refuse to follow any of the everyday procedures. It’s a union job. If someone had a problem with you they’d have to fill out paperwork first, then there was a process including a disciplinary hearing.
I don’t remember any layoffs.
30. Please define any jargon or lingo specific to your profession.
We use standard police radio and alphabet codes:
a- alpha, c – Charlie, t- tango, etc
187 – homicide
Donkey, mule – a person (usually a gang member) who gets themselves arrested on purpose (usually under threat or duress) so they can use the opportunity to bring contraband into the prison.
Lieutenants and Generals - gang inmates went by rank in jail
Pod – prison block containing twenty cells. The number of cells can vary from prison to prison.
Pod Bitch - Any inmate perceived, as being in a submissive position would be made to do all the cleaning. This could happen because of uneven racial segregating. If the balance were too uneven, the inmates of the least represented race would end up being the pod bitches. For this reason, Asian inmates tended to be put on a pod of their own, separate from the Whites, Blacks and Hispanics. The Asian jail population has less numbers than the other three, so if they weren’t segregated they’d always end up being the pod bitches.
Bubble – control room
C.O. – officer
Mutt – inmate
Brass – administration
Weekend – an officers particular days off (ie: “My weekends are Wednesday and Thursday.”)
New Jack – new officer
31. Anecdotes:
The inmates on some days get a bag breakfast in the morning. They would save these plastic bags to fill with water and use as weights for lifting. In California and Arizona they banned real weights because the inmates were getting too massive. They saved the breakfast bags for all sorts of things. Inmates have nothing but time to think and plot.
As I said before, it was really difficult to deal with the racial issues in the prison. One morning, I was serving breakfast, and there were leftovers. Typically if there are left overs, you hand them out equally to the prisoners: The extra burrito to the whites, the extra fruit to the Mexicans, the extra juice to the blacks…and if the leftovers are odd and you have to pass over a race one morning, you make sure they get there turn the next day. I made a point of being really fair.