Custody: Keeping Us Safe

I need to talk to Lionel. He is high up in the custody hierarchy, but we had some kind of connection when I first started working. He is real. This is what the guys say about me… but he also seems deeply into the whole issues of us and them. I have to find a way to connect to the custody folk. My job is not just limited to what happens in my office. Somewhere, we have to find a way to make the inmates function and responsible. I can’t do this alone. An hour a week is not enough.

So I think tomorrow, I will hunt him down. And I will just put it out there. His job is to keep us safe; all of us, not just the staff, but the prisoners, also. I believe part of that is to find the humanity where it exists and exploit it. My guys are not just dealing with being in prison, they are trying to work through serious mental issues.

I have lots of years working with a multi-disciplinary team. Everybody needs to be on board. It doesn’t need to be warm and fuzzy, it doesn’t need to go too far out of boundaries, but custody needs to somehow be pulled into what works. Aren’t we here to bring these guys back into the mainstream? God knows, what happens in prison is not mainstream. When was the last time you went to take a shit and two guys were practicing the fine art of sodomy in the stall next to you? When was the last time you took a shower afraid for your safety?

If my boss is reading this now, he is having a heart attack.

Today, another guy popped up in my radar. He is maxing out in a couple of months. He will return to the sticks, not the metro area of our state. Mr. Klark, has a serious flaw somewhere. He is wound tightly, and is ready to take out anybody seen as a threat. But under it is a person. A shiny bit. He is in there, but he doesn’t know how to get out. If nobody shows him, if he can’t find the essence of himself, he is doomed to return. How do you reach out amongst the twists and turns and find a love and a connection that comforts his soul; that make him want something more? It is not just drugs and music and numbness.

How can custody help me instead of just backing up against rules and regulations? How can I help these men and women in custody find a way to be in charge without abusing?