Posted: 1/17/2010 7:49:54 PM EDT
| Any CO's on here? What do you like and not like about the job? |
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Used to be. What does that tell you?
I worked in a direct supervision jail, and it was just like being locked up yourself. In the maximum security units there were 2 officers to 64 prisoners, in medium and minimum it was 1 officer to 64 prisoners. I lasted about 2 years before I had more than enough. |
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It's not a bad job. I haven't been at it too long. County jail so we get all sorts. The pay isn't "great", the hours are tough and you deal with the scum of the Earth.... but all in all I like it. Even though I am just a babysitter with a badge, I do feel like a I am doing something. Also, my department is pretty large, about 1000 CO's, so there is a lot of room for advancement.
Oh yeah, our retirement system is great- hopefully Obama won't fuck it up. 
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They throw poop at you! only if you don't know how to "jail" long story short op it's what you make of it if your cut out for the job and a lot of folks are not, if you like making money there is usually ALOT of OT, I know some guys that rake in 100+k a year and don't really kill themselves doing it |
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They throw poop at you! Haven't had that happen, yet  Yeah, I had a buddy who had hot poop mixed with semen and urine and bleach thrown on him from an HIV infected inmate.  Good thing the bleach was in there.
10 years, and never had shit thrown at me...coffee yes. Prison is like working in a pre school full of dangerous kids. No, put that down, no seconds, go back to your room, shut up, stop your whining |
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They throw poop at you! only if you don't know how to "jail" long story short op it's what you make it if your cut out for the shit and there is usually ALOT of ot, I know some guys that rake in 100+k a year and don't really kill themselves Damn, thats a lot of OT! |
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not really , it depends what state you work in, some SD's are getting 100k base in NJ
DOC there makes around 70k in five years base and max at almost 90k so senior officers don't really work around the clock to get to 100k some do live there and hit the 150k mark but look and act like zombies and risk there safty and there fellow officers doing it |
| i have nearly 20 yrs in. if you're a people watcher and you're easily entertained you got it made! otherwise if you can handle the same routine day in and day out and function fine then you're good to go there to. you got job security and most states have pretty good retirement pensions and plans. [compared to what's available out there right now]. it can be a VERY interesting job but then can get old to . you have to adapt to knowing how to turn on your work face and turn it off after you punch out. the job can also harden you. |
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Quoted: Quoted: They throw poop at you! only if you don't know how to "jail" long story short op it's what you make of it if your cut out for the job and a lot of folks are not, if you like making money there is usually ALOT of OT, I know some guys that rake in 100+k a year and don't really kill themselves doing it You know how many hours of OT I had in 2009? 4 hours. Our administration is deathly afraid of giving it out. |
| I know the pay isn't too hot here or most other places in the south for that matter. Most of the people I know working state and county positions are probably in the 25-35k a year range. The upsides are the benefits and retirement plan in many cases. It tells you something when a job still has a high turnover in this economy. I'd do it if it was the best/only opportunity available, from the people I know in that profession it sounds like long periods of boredom with a bunch of BS mixed in. |
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They throw poop at you! Haven't had that happen, yet Yeah, I had a buddy who had hot poop mixed with semen and urine and bleach thrown on him from an HIV infected inmate. The good news is that HIV is dead once it is out of the body. So if the guy had to get the semen, mix it with poop, then wait until the perfect time to throw it at the officer, then it is airborne in the air until it hits the officer... There is very little risk of HIV. Other stuff... Yeah, there is risk of getting Hep, or any number of other things, but AIDS... Very little risk from that scenario. The Feds pay great in their prisons... My mom retired from the Utah State Pennitentiary at the Point of the Mountain in Salt Lake. My SIL is a psychologist for the Texas Department of Corrections... It is a good job. Good benefits, and LE retirement. In some cases I would disagree with the post that you are not as respected as a "regular" cop. If you are good at it, the inmates don't mess with you... If they know they can't get to you, they won't try. It is the people who should not be in corrections who end up with the stupidness from inmates. |
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As a Former CO At my old facility, 1 officer watches 160 inmates, about 25% will be serving life or life w/o parole at the Medium security facilities. Your radio batteries will die w/o warning. There are no security cameras on the units. You will not have a panic button alarm on your person. You will not carry OC or a baton. You will be challenged and tested. You have a 50:50 chance of working a double w/o your consent. You will work a double if it's your Friday. You may have to come in on your day off to work. You will work midnights, evenings, and all holidays. All the inmates carry knives. You won't see another officer until your relief shows up. If you work midnights, you will have to count the inmates every single hour. You must verify "flesh and movement", you will have to wake up the "kitchen workers" at 1am, 2am, 3am. They will fall back to sleep and kitchen will call you wanting to know where inmate so and so is.. At 4am you have to wake up certain inmates for "pill line". About half of the inmates at pill line are insane and need psych meds. At 5am you have to wake up certain inmates for "insulin line". Some of these guys will fight because they go nuts when their blood sugar drops. You will relieve officers who stink up the control room, who leave skid marks in the toilet, and whose log entries are illegible. When it seems you will be going home on time, some inmate will have chest pains and you will need to go on a hospital run. |