What was a typical day for a guard, er, correctional officer?
It was a regular 40-hour week, 8-hour day. Three shifts. Somebody had to be there all the time. I went to training class for about a month. They teach you procedures, weapons training, jujitsu, how you should act. The different jobs were doing the counts, doing shakedown detail, going through cells, checking to see if there was any contraband, being a yard officer. Things like that. Did you have to be a certain size and strength? You didn’t have to be a great big guy. You had to be big enough to take guys down. Just a normal man. What was a typical day like for a prisoner? Monday through Friday, we’d wake them up at 6:30 in the morning, and they’d have a half hour to get themselves dressed. Before that, we did a count. They had to stand in front of their cell, and we’d walk by and count them. As soon as that count was over, the lieutenant would blow a whistle, and by each tier on either side they would file into the dining room for breakfast, which was called Times Square. There was no
