Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Routine

The week has been a fast one - tomorrow is Thursday already. And there's a three day weekend coming up! The joy of it! I can sleep in for three straight days, barring disaster!

Let's see...work. My boss has given me a new responsibility. In her absence, I will arrange swaps with other units. There are times when it's necessary to find one of our guys a new "home", either because he is a security risk or he is in danger from another inmate. In those situations, we try to find a unit who also has a man they can't keep. For instance, a few months ago, two guys went to an officer and told him they were being forced by a gang to execute a hit on another man. They turned over their shanks to the officers, and those two and the intended victim were segregated until we could find a place for them (which we did, that very day). The gang leader was also locked up - but he was demoted, placed on intensive control and was eventually sent to a higher security facility.

After months of having a minimal role in the process, Ms. L. seems to think I'm ready. She even gave me a swap to work out on my own, for practice, and gave me a list of the transfer coordinators across the state. I was so excited!

I had three men to choose from for my swap....none of them winners, none of them even near honor grade material. So I chose what looked to me to be the lesser of the three evils, and wouldn't you know...he is a liability and in danger of being "food" for a certain gang anywhere he goes. We had no idea until he arrived. See, when they want to get rid of a man, those transfer coordinators aren't going to give the whole story. And I am so freaking naive.

At any rate, that deed is done. This is a responsibility I'm not at all sure I want.

2 comments:

Paula said...

It seems as if your boss has a lot of faith in you. Sounds very stressful to me and scary. I just watched a show about a high security prison in Tennessee named Brushy something and is closing up so they can build a modern one.

roberta said...

hi mara, its been a while, seems to me we are both getting lazy. it was good hearing from you. lets keep it up, if we can!!!ladybug