Topic: The Club House / Where in the world are you

LOL. No Transporter. Over here what you would call a “Warden” we call a “Governor”. “Warden” is a good natured slang name we use for fellow Officers. Especially is you can’t remember/Don’t know their name. Like “Hey Warden can you…...”

Topic: The Club House / Where in the world are you

Hi Michigan RUO. Uunfortunatly we don’t use any patches on our normal uniforms. But if you like I could send you one from the 2007 Honour Guard. There is no need to send me anything. You can contact me a warden1003@eircom.net with your address. And I will send it off to you.

Topic: The Club House / Where in the world are you

I work for the Irish Prison Service in Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, Ireland

Topic: The Club House / Any suggestions for my prison toilet?

Are you taking the Piss? (pun intended). I would suggest you get in touch with your local scrap metal merchant. Because anyone building a Prison/Jail will only buy from approved and certified dealers.

Topic: The Club House / A Select Few.

Today I joined a very select group of Officers. I have earned the enmity of inmates so much so that they have ordered an outside “Hit” on me. I was informed of this today by the Police which have received intelligence about it. And rather than Fear, it inspires Pride in me. To know that I have done the Job so well that they feel the need to try and have me killed. The Police Officer was a little taken aback when I started laughing when I was told. So all I could say was Bring it on.

Topic: The Club House / New Career

Okie has pretty much summed it up. Just be yourself and do the Job to the best of your ability. It can be a scary and intimidating place at first but that will pass has you get to know your way around become friends with your collegues and learn about the inmates. If you watch the more experenced Officers you will see that they are at ease but alert when dealing with the inmates. As Okie said do it by the Book and nobody can fault you.

Topic: The Club House / Greetings from a fellow Canadian Officer

Personally I and most of my colleagues are fully in favor of both Capital and Corporal punishment but unfortunatly the prevailing sentiment both here and in Europe is on the more liberal side of the fence and as such is not availible to us anymore.

Topic: Letter of The Law / Second Chance Act

I have said it before and I will say it again. “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink”. It’s all well and good to have all these schemes and incentives but the people they are aimed at have to want to change and alter their way of life. As one inmate said to me once “Why would I want to go straight, get some shitty job and get paid shitty money. When I can rob a bank or sell drugs and get more money in a day than you make in a year slogging your guts out.” Need I say more.

Topic: Letter of The Law / # chances before drug offenders go to prison instead of rehab

They should be given One chance and One chance only. Let us not forget they did this to themselves. Their drug of choice has not been legal for nearly a century if ever at all. Nobody forced them to go out the first time and break the law by buying/taking the drugs. They knew that the drugs were likely to be addictive yet they still took them. So why should some Junkie be given a second chance after throwing away the first one.

Topic: The Club House / Losing control

We have our fair share of liberal, whinging, crying, hand ringing, m**f**g, interfering,do-gooders. (excuse my french)

Topic: The Club House / Losing control

It sounds like Noneya is either an Ex-Convict herself or has a Husband/Boyfriend or family member that is a Convict. Usually the ones that are most vehement about Correctional Officers have had some form of contact with us from the criminal side.

Topic: Health & Wellness / Mandated CPR On Inmates: Good Or Not So Good?

With us it is the opposite situation. If we as “Untrained Medical Staff” even attempted to get involved other than the most basic treatment we would get a severe bollixing from management for “Endangering the inmate”.

Topic: A Broader View / This month, Corrections.com focuses on architecture. What makes your facility's design unique? What historic prisons have you visited?

The only time we don’t get official meal breaks are when we are on an escort outside the Prison. And then we get paid overtime for the time we should have had our meal break plus 17 Euro for meal expenses.( $25 for lunch)

Topic: Health & Wellness / Mandated CPR On Inmates: Good Or Not So Good?

This is why we have Medical Officers. They are trained in the in the use of the portable Defibrillator’s and M.A.R.S. equipment (Mobile Artificial Respirator System). We have always at least 5 Medical staff in the prison at any time. So if there is a need for medical intervention they deal with it.

Topic: Health & Wellness / Mandated CPR On Inmates: Good Or Not So Good?

Lets assume your are performing CPR on an inmate and are giving him mouth to mouth. Then due to what ever reason he coughs or spits blood into your mouth. Now most of the inmates that I work with have either HIV or one of the Hepatitis virus’s. How do you explain to your wife/girlfriend that you have either to wait for the all clear or that you now have one of the above because you wanted to play “Hero” and save a Dirt Bird. I would rather face a deceased inmates family rather than commit Biological Suicide.

Topic: A Broader View / This month, Corrections.com focuses on architecture. What makes your facility's design unique? What historic prisons have you visited?

When the Majority of Officers are on their breaks there are a skeleton crew of Officers on duty. eg: Breakfast 8:40 to 9:10 there are 12 Officers covering. As the inmates are locked back in their cells it is very smilier to night duty. And the staff mess is only a shout away. As has happened before you can have every officer back in the prison within 45 seconds. We work 12hr shifts. 8am to 8pm and 8pm to 8am. One week we work 3 days and the next we work 4 days. Because our working week starts on a Saturday it works like this. On Duty Mon,Tue. Off Duty Wed,Thur. On Duty Fri. Then the start of a new week. On Duty Sat, Sun. Off Duty Mon,Tue. and so on. So every second week we are Off Fri, Sat, Sun. And We only work 7 nights every 20 weeks. And those nights are spread over the 20 weeks.

Topic: The Club House / Into every life a little rain will fall.

Don’t worry folks this is not a downbeat thread. Just something amusing that happened today. Every day inmates that are put on disciplinary report are placed in a holding cell until their report is dealt with. Now this cell is Non Smoking and the inmates are told this before they are placed in there. And there is a very good reason that this cell is Non Smoking. The Sprinkler System. So today their were 9 inmates from one particular wing who believe themselves to be the “Tough Guys”. So to be the “Rebels” and to show us some contempt they all decided that they were going to ignore our warning not to smoke. Now the Sprinkler does not spray water in a gentle mist but pushes out 60 gallons of freezing cold water under high pressure. Now the holding cell has a transparent door made of bullet proof glass so myself and my colleagues had a ring side seat. I have to say it was priceless to watch. They were kicking at the door and screaming to get out while we were rolling around the place laughing. And as for getting out I had the great pleasure in telling them that the door wasn’t going to be opened until the system stopped and the water drained away. After about 10 min’s the system reset and stopped. So out troops 9 very wet, very cold and very miserable inmates. And in between the laughter one of our lads pipes up and says to them “Remember Guys. Into every life a little rain will fall”.

Topic: A Broader View / This month, Corrections.com focuses on architecture. What makes your facility's design unique? What historic prisons have you visited?

They are issued with aluminum chamber pots. The way our system works is like this. 08:00am prisoners are unlocked to empty the chamber pots (Slop Out) and collect their breakfast which they eat in cell. 08:30am Locked in cell while the staff have breakfast. 09:10 staff return from breakfast. At which time cells will be picked at random to be searched. 09:40 Morning Unlock. Prisoners clean their cells and slop out and can use Toilets at the end of each landing then go to the Yard, Work or School. 12:00pm Inmates “Fall in”. Collect their lunch and are locked up until 14:00pm Afternoon unlock (as morning unlock).16:00 Fall in for Dinner. 17:20 Evening unlock as before. 19:10 fall in for the night prisoners may use the the toilets on the landings before they are locked up for the night. The Prison is locked down for the night by 19:30. All meals are eaten in cell. And when the are locked back the staff have their meal breaks and can carry out searches on targeted cells.

Topic: Letter of The Law / Dumb Laws from History.

Ok. Useful info if I am ever in a quiz. But to be truthful not a lot of value otherwise.

Topic: The Club House / Thanks a lot guys.

You have 4 posts including this one. Were you asking a question in your previous posts?

Topic: A Broader View / This month, Corrections.com focuses on architecture. What makes your facility's design unique? What historic prisons have you visited?

The odd time they let fly. But most of the time they behave themselves. They get to “Slop Out” about 6 times a day. When the prison was originally built every cell had a toilet. But the Civil War in the 1920’s the IRA smashed all the toilets during a riot. And they were never replaced. The attitude was that “They” broke them so they can do without them. And as inmates welfare was not high priority to the successive Governments up to the 1990’s at which point new prisons were being planned and built the cost of restoring the cell toilets was prohibitive. Mountjoy is scheduled to be replaced by a new prison in 2012 so they don’t see the need to do anything more but maintain the existing structure.

Topic: A Broader View / This month, Corrections.com focuses on architecture. What makes your facility's design unique? What historic prisons have you visited?

The Prison it’s self is still solid. When they built things in those days they built them to last. But because it is old and the cost of upgrading it makes the Dept shudder. Most of the cells have no in cell sanitation. They only got electricity in the cells 2 years ago. As for the Service web site this is it. It’s not much. http://www.irishprisons.ie/prisonsItem.asp?prisonID=5

Topic: A Broader View / This month, Corrections.com focuses on architecture. What makes your facility's design unique? What historic prisons have you visited?

I work in Mountjoy Prison in Ireland. The prison was built in 1850 and is still in use 158 years later.

Topic: The Club House / Ohio DRC

Try This Site. http://groups.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=groups.groupProfile&groupid=103477571&Mytoken=186BE588-0B53-42AF-A189EE92F25EEB8420170543

Topic: The Club House / Officer Safety

If I were you I would make a list of all the safety issues give a copy to the management and keep a copy yourself. And if nothing is done and if an Officer gets hurt you can use your copies to make them pay.