Bob Walsh
Stockton, CA
Male, 60
I worked for the California state system, starting as a Correctional Officer and retiring as a Lieutenant in 2005. I now write for the PacoVilla blog which is concerned with what could broadly be called The Correctional System.
Never worked at a female prison. I have been told the women have cliques, but they are not nearly as racially based as the men's.
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I have been gone for quite a while, but the last time I checked it was roughly 30% white, 30% black, 30% hispanic with the rest made up other American Indians, Pacific Islanders, S/E Asians, etc. Since California had about an 11% black and 19% hispanic population at that time you can see whites are significantly underrepresented in the prison population and hispanics and blacks are significantly overrepresented. There has been a census since I retired so I am confident those numbers are no longer accurate.
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Good question. I dont have a good answer for you since I was never in the hiring loop other than interviewing. I had nothing to do with background checks. I admitted to a little weed in highschool in the 1960s, more than 15 years before I hired on. They had no problem with that. I suspect they have a problem with recent drug use. Obvisouly any felony conviction is disqualifying. My guess is they would have a problem with any significant hard drug use history.
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Money is most helpful and welcome. Complaints about how rough things are at home without them, or how stupid they are to end up in prison, are probably the least helpful.
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Very rarely do such crimes occur in full view of staff, or other witnesses. When reported they are actively investigated. Also preadtory inmates (or even likely victim inmates) are classified as such, and are often single-celled or housed in protective custody. IN addition staff do patrol the tiers and dorms to keep an eye out for all sorts of nastiness.
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It is difficult due to the shift work. Once you get some seniority (in the Calfiornia system anyway) you can bid on a job and the days off and shift that go with it. Some people stay on first watch (graveyard) voluntarily for some time so they can interact more with their family. Also vacations are seniority bid so it can take several years to get a summer vacation. Most people start the job young and don't have children yet. That helps. Family and work is a juggling act in the real world. The shift work does make it harder.
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Prisoners do their own cell cleaniing, unless something REALLY messy happens, like somebody gets killed in there.
Generally speaking the inmates turn in their clothes in bags on one day and get them back the next day. The bags, with the clothes in them, get run through the wash and dry in the laundry bags with number tags on the bags so they get back to the right place. Individual clothes are not labeles to individual inmates, at least not in california. They are responsible for washing their own personally owned clothing, which they are allowed to own in General Population. Landury is a major expense and a major logistical headache in the system.
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