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Firstly, I've never started a thread before so hopefully I don't make a mess of it. Sorry if that happens. The reason for this thread is I read SH/SC quite a bit an occasionally post - I mentioned I work in a prison (doing IT) and it raised the discussion of the constraints working in a secure environment poses. Some of the posters suggested making this thread and it seemed like a good way to avoid derailing the existing topics so here I am I don't really have an prepared pile of information to share (like some of the other thread I checked here, sorry to those that are putting in far more effort than me!) and given the nature of working in a secure place that might not be a bad thing - so I suppose there will 2 initial points to make, there might be some security subjects where I simply can't share the info publicly, if that happens sorry - I'll just say. Also, I may change the names/details to protect the innocent (And the guilty I suppose... pun sorry, can't help myself) but the main reason will be to not dox myself if my employer, or a colleague happens to be reading this. It seems sensible to mention I am not based in the US for some context. As I said I don't really have a load of information to share I'll just say a bit about what I do to perhaps prompt some questions (and I'll go link this thread in SH/SC to perhaps draw some questions my way and get things going!) I've worked in multiple prisons in multiple countries for over 15 years. As the IT guy we do basically everything, including all the bits IT guys want to get rid of (think printers and phones) this does also include any tech prisoners use such as education devices etc and the kiosks they use for commissary/phone contact. I also look after all the security and alarm systems and I'm also part of the prison management team. The first question (IRL) that people always ask when they find out is "omg do you see real prisoners" - yes I'm on the shop floor every day and interact with pretty much anyone, I try to take the approach of behave like an adult get treated like an adult because that isn't always a given. So I guess I'll leave it at that and say as me any technical question or, any ethical questions I suppose. Let's go 
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Sep 12, 2021 21:14
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I'll bite. In which types of prisons have you worked? Low security, medium security, supermax? You mentioned you worked in prisons in several countries, can you point to any notable differences between these countries, in how they treat their prisoners? How much are you in contact with prisoners? How does that contact look like, i.e. are you required to have a guard present when you're helping someone with their pc or something?
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Sep 15, 2021 11:22
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Thanks for biting It's probably worth saying every country classifies security in their own way - to translate my experience into what looks like the American levels you've quoted there most of my experience is medium/high security - I've not really done anything in 'supermax' or open - I've worked in male and female prisons but I've not worked in any youth or immigration places. Where I've been my experience of prisons are fairly consistent - there are some nuances dictated by the local government but never anything wildly different. My work has been via a private company though, so I guess the values of the company have been consistent in how they operate no matter where they are. It is probably really wise for me to point out at this point that I have never worked in America - I am aware there is a massive 'prisons for profit' type thing with the privatisation of prisons and I can honestly say I am proud to work for the company I work for, even compared to our competitors I think we operate with a strong moral compass, make the right decisions and treat people, be it staff or prisoners in our care with dignity as much as we possibly can. I am currently based in a medium security prison, this means I could encounter prisoners wandering around the place and an old prison governor said to me once if you treat people like adults they will behave like adults - I always very consciously say hello how are you to anyone in passing (staff or prisoner) and it's important to not look down your nose at anyone and actually develop some kind of working relationship with the people around you. It's unusual these days that I would get into any "here I am to help you fix x" type situations but it happens occasionally - I generally take the same approach to fixing prisoner IT that I would with staff - please show me the issue, then I can show you I've fixed it and we can both walk away happy knowing the problem is resolved - It would be easy to try and guess the problem and fix it during lock up, but this only leads to frustration if you guess wrong and honestly, most prisoners are grateful someone is paying attention to their requests so it's really no bother at all. In terms of guards - they are always around where prisoners are around, they always offer as a courtesy to follow me if I'm say, going to fix a kiosk - The only time I need them is to actually open a cell as I dont have a key, plus the highest risk thing is probably ending up in a cell of a prisoner you dont know and they lock you in - This has never happened to me but I like the officers to know where I am just in case at least. It's just a safety thing really.
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Sep 17, 2021 11:50
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What are the kiosks, internally? Why would you ever need to go into a cell? How do the security systems work? How automated / electronic are they, in general?
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Sep 18, 2021 14:51
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Great thread idea, I am a maintenance mechanic in a US state prison, and you rarely see prison threads from the viewpoint of someone who’s not either a correctional officer or an inmate. The prison I work in is oriented toward inmates with medical issues, is classified a medium-security institution, and it’s not a private prison. My question is this: What sort of technology do the inmates have access to? In the prison I work in, computers and personal phones are contraband, the inmates have a television cable running into their cells but must buy their own small TV’s at inflated prices from the commissary. Phone calls are only through pay phones and are also wildly expensive.
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Sep 18, 2021 22:00
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ante posted:What are the kiosks, internally? Kiosks, (I assume this answer works internationally) The kiosk is very similar to what you would see in MacDonalds as in the big touch screen things where you customise the order except they are build to withstand angry prisoners so, physically a bit more robust. In terms of use, they basically try and replace all the paperwork processes within the prison - need to see medical dudes? go on the kiosk. Need to check your finances? check the kiosk. Want to see what activities such as work or visitation you are doing? check the kiosk etc etc. The idea is to increase efficiency in terms of less people to lose... I mean pass paper around but also to get prisoners to take responsibility for organising their own lives. In cell - we have responsibility for a little bit of the stuff inside the cell, they have a TV, we are responsible for making sure the aerial point is functional but not the TV itself. They are issued a (monitored) phone, again we are responsible for the data point and cabling. There is also an emergency alarm button, depending on if it's networked decides if it sits with us - for all these systems we potentially need to go in the cell to test the point, repull the cable subject to vandalism. It's probably worth saying since the pandemic the prisoners have been locked in their cells for far greater amounts of time than ever before, this has led to vandalism to these items being at an all time low and long may it continue!! Security systems, hmm got to be careful about how I answer this one as it's quite a big no no to reveal any security processes, obviously. I'll try and answer in terms of things that might be public info, so basically if a prisoner could have observed it and blabbed then I am not revealing anything too secret. I would say it's generally not overly automated. There are some safety features like panic buttons where all that happens is a radio message goes out and staff come running at the sound of alarm. I think a lot of it is to do with contingency - a lot of prison people are ex-military people (in my experience) and a lot of that experience means people naturally sort of prepare for "if that thing breaks, what is our contingency" - this generally leads to people not wanting a technical solution all the time through fear of it falling over when you need it. JnnyThndrs posted:Great thread idea, I am a maintenance mechanic in a US state prison, and you rarely see prison threads from the viewpoint of someone who’s not either a correctional officer or an inmate. The prison I work in is oriented toward inmates with medical issues, is classified a medium-security institution, and it’s not a private prison. prisoners have access to IT in the education area to learn IT skills and apply for jobs but anything else in their possession is contrband. Thinking about that, I think I had a conversation with someone about the situation in Scotland over in the UK - they issued mobile phones to prisoners (yeah really) in a reaction to covid. The way I interpreted this was that they were slow on the deployment of in cell telephones as the government in scotland felt this would not look good, so then when the pandemic hit they had to do something and issues funky mobile phones. I'm pretty sure I saw an article suggesting those phones have been hacked. (oops!) My question for you is how do you find your job over in the USA? I would say in my role, prisoners work out that as I'm not a CO I am just a guy there to fix things for them, so I dont get a hard time because ultimately I am useful to them. COs have to discipline and generally say no so it's a different relationship - US prison is always hyped up in the media as the worst of the worst so would you say you have a similar experience of decent relationships with the prisoners or is it totally different? I am going to make an assumption that if your prisoner is geared towards the medically infirm, that you dont have major issues with violence so it probably isn't the worst place to be perhaps?
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Sep 20, 2021 12:17
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angry armadillo posted:My question for you is how do you find your job over in the USA? I would say in my role, prisoners work out that as I'm not a CO I am just a guy there to fix things for them, so I dont get a hard time because ultimately I am useful to them. COs have to discipline and generally say no so it's a different relationship Generally, everybody, both CO’s and inmates, are happy to get their stuff fixed, so usually everybody tends have a pretty good attitude to the maintenance people. We also have inmates working as helpers that go with us to most places in the institution(except the disciplinary cells and parts of the administration building), and some of them have worked with us for years, so there’s a decent rapport with them, too. The maintenance jobs are considered desirable to inmates because the pay is better(but still disgraceful, IMO) and inmates can learn the basics of a trade. The only bad part is that due to bureaucracy and permanent budget issues, parts can take awhile to show up so it seems like we don’t care, but I try to explain to everybody exactly why there’s a delay and what we’re trying to do to get the job done, and people are ok once you explain it. - quote:US prison is always hyped up in the media as the worst of the worst so would you say you have a similar experience of decent relationships with the prisoners or is it totally different? I am going to make an assumption that if your prisoner is geared towards the medically infirm, that you dont have major issues with violence so it probably isn't the worst place to be perhaps? Most of the media’s portrayal of prison life is inaccurate(big surprise) and full of hype; the vast majority of prisoners just want to do their time, not pick up any disciplinary actions, and get out. I can only speak to state prisons in my state, but the CO’s are well-paid(they make a lot more than I do, lol) and their training is fairly extensive, so the stereotype of guards being sadistic idiots isn’t fair, the vast majority of them are reasonably decent people. You’re right in guessing that violence levels are fairly low where I work, but there are a great number of inmates with developmental disabilities and/or other mental issues that can cause violence, seemingly out of nowhere. Since the state mental institutions are nearly gone due to right-wingers not wanting to pay for them, there’s a huge number of inmates who should be in a medical/psychiatric institution, but instead are in prison. So we have hundreds of clinicians who work with these inmates-with-reduced-functions and a huge number of protocols dealing with everything from housing to food service to making sure that lower-level-functioning inmates aren’t victimized by other inmates. Apropos of nothing, but I find that the vast majority of inmates aren’t the monstrous individuals that the media portrays them, but most often are just ‘normal’ people who make bad choice after bad choice that ends up in a prison sentence. The biggest issue that I see is the inability to ever have a normal life after being released; the stigma of being a felon absolutely wrecks their employment opportunities, and it gets worse all the time as computer databases make it easy to access criminal records, even for jobs where it really shouldn’t matter. I’ve never experienced being in a private prison(my state doesn’t use them), but I’ve talked to several inmates who were incarcerated in private prisons, and they tend to say that staffing levels are terrible and inmates ‘run the show’ to a higher degree, but they’re allowed more technology(X boxes, yay!) to keep them occupied.
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Sep 25, 2021 14:30
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What happens if a mixed/biracial person gets sent to a prison? Is there a mutt gang?
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Oct 2, 2021 19:08
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ChocNitty posted:What happens if a mixed/biracial person gets sent to a prison? Is there a mutt gang? Not the OP but err eg Obama is mixed. Guess what that equates to in America something something one drop rule, so I can guess.
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Oct 2, 2021 23:04
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what sort of infrastructure is run? Fiber? Cat5? Plain copper? Was infrastructure ever upgraded, or basically you got what they got when they built the place? (thats kind of a silly question) If an inmate damages some sort of infrastructure in the cell, is it automatically repaired? Or is there some sort of discipline, like you're out of luck since you ruined it? Far as I know, stuff in cells like that doesn't really exist in the US. But, say overseas an inmate damages the infrastructure in their cell, what then? I would imagine once a facility upgrades to a specific infrastructure they'll probably never replace it. What about bandwidth? Do they pay for a decently sized pipe? Or do they just give you like 50Mbp for 1000 prisoners and let it go? Do they just pick a basic plan from a local telcom company, and go with that? I'm sure all sorts of sites are restricted, and activity is monitored, but are there any sort of entertainment options they can access via the web? Are there any sort of tele-health options that are offered, like with psychs, or medical doctors? The issuance of mobile phones to me, is pretty crazy. I can't imagine that happens in American prisons. Any stories of all that access for prisoners backfiring?
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Oct 27, 2021 01:47
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How autonomous is your leadership? Is there external audit and oversight that occur to keep management on their toes and compliant with requirements? (think along the lines of a food inspector) And if so, how rigorous or compliant do you find the prison? Are there clever ways leadership within the prison can "phone it in". I often read about prison conditions being bad and below code, so I'm curious about how it even ends up in such disrepair to begin with?
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Oct 27, 2021 02:18
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I heard some people say they never saw rape in prison, and others say that they were taking buttholes. 6'8 300lb dude named Chocolate Lightning in new folsum was taking cheeks. Butts gettin' took left and right. I also heard that prison staff didn't try much to stop the race wars, because it took heat of themselves. Shot callers got to get seconds at chow because they bribed the guards. Can you comment on that stuff? There's a lot of videos on ex prisoners talking about their experiences, but not much from the guards.
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Nov 24, 2021 01:49
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Has the OP abandoned the thread? I'm curious as to how COVID impacted the prison for both the inmates and workers. Is vaccination mandated? What happens if they refuse?
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Nov 30, 2021 18:42
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slidebite posted:Has the OP abandoned the thread? (Not the OP)Since the prison I work at is a medical prison with a poo poo-ton of immunocompromised people, the warden and the state administration above the warden took Covid very very seriously., immediately fencing off half the main yard and contracting for huge portable dormitories, showers, etc to be brought in in preparation for a huge quarantined Covid-positive population. They stopped all visiting and inmate transfers dropped to a very few. Several wings and dorms were made into holding quarantine dorms for new prisoners, masks were immediately mandatory for everyone, they didn’t gently caress around. Luckily the precautions kept it from spreading too badly, I think at the worst point, we had about 150 active Covid inmates and about 80 CO’s. All persons in the prison have to wear surgical procedure masks indoors at all times and outside if we’re within 6 feet of anyone else, both workers, administrators, CO’s and inmates. AFAIK, they can’t mandate prisoners to be vaccinated against their will without an individual court order, but they do everything else to try to get the inmates vaccinated - basically take away every privilege and make them be tested three times a week and wear N95 masks 24/7 until they’re fully vaccinated. Most inmates grumbled but eventually got the vaccine. As for workers, they’ve tried for months to force CO’s to be vaccinated or be fired, but their unions have fought tooth and nail, so AFAIK, they still aren’t absolutely required, although, like the inmates, the unvaccinated CO’s need to wear N95’s and get tested three times a week. The rest of us employees are going to face disciplinary action if we’re not vaccinated by Dec 15th, although I’m not sure that’s going to stick either. Most anti-vaccine people are trying to get religious exemptions, I don’t know how many are successful. Personally, I and my immediate co-workers got the vaccine as soon as it was offered, because we’re not loving dumbasses.
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Dec 5, 2021 14:53
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OP is probably gone but maybe Jnny can answer Does your prison(s) allow conjugal visits still? How does that work? What about prisoner romance? Are there many open relationships or is it all on the downlow still? How is prisoner sex dealt with?
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Aug 27, 2022 20:05
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How common is corruption among prison guards? And does being a prison guard make people become corrupt, or do corrupt people become prison guards?
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Sep 11, 2022 12:33
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I don't have a link for it, but I think we've had 'ask me about working in a prison' and also 'being a prisoner' threads before here in previous years. Someone more  than me might want to link them if they remember them (Not anyone from IT though, this is new and interesting)feedmegin fucked around with this message at 17:54 on Sep 11, 2022 |
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Sep 11, 2022 17:51
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Le Faye Morgaine posted:OP is probably gone but maybe Jnny can answer Conjugal visits are called ‘family visits’ and there are a set of rooms that look like the world’s shiftiest Motel 6 in a back corner of the institution. You have to have a bunch of good behavior and wait for your name to come up in order to get one. I think they’re morning Saturday through evening Sunday in duration. Prisoner relationships are loving wonky, as you might imagine. Technically, there is no consensual sex between inmates because technically an inmate can’t consent. In reality, they keep it on the downlow as one would expect. Condoms are now available, that’s a new policy which you would think is at odds with ‘no consensual sex’, but at least somebody is accepting that it’s going to happen anyway. PREA(Prison Rape Elimination Act) is a big deal now, Google it to learn all about it, it’s taken very seriously because a sexually violated inmate can sue(and win) if they can prove the institution didn’t take proper precautions. From everything I’ve seen, and I’m not a CO and only worked in one institution, there’s very little of the commonly-imagined prison rape, it’s mostly made up for TV and/or movies.
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Sep 13, 2022 19:46
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BiggerJ posted:How common is corruption among prison guards? And does being a prison guard make people become corrupt, or do corrupt people become prison guards? I’m from a HCOL state where CO’s are paid very well, and there’s still people that get busted bringing in phones and tobacco and drugs, although it’s not terribly widespread. Phones and/or tobacco are popular contraband because they’re not felonious to have, you get fired and threatened with prosecution but I don’t think it ever happens, they just can you. I have heard from inmates that there’s a lot more corruption in states with private prisons and low-wage public prisons. I’ve not heard of any trafficking in weapons or escape assistance or anything like that, but I’m sure it happens somewhere. As for a psychological makeup of a corrupt CO, I don’t know. There are people that work overtime and have a lot of years in and make a LOT of money and they’ll still do dumb poo poo and get fired, I think there are people everywhere who just make poor decisions, and not all of them wear prison garb.
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Sep 13, 2022 19:55
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