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.
Sorry. Question is so general it makes no sense to me. Good and bad? Male and Female? Smart and Stupid? Young or old?
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Yes, there is a general prohibition aginst overfamiliarity with the families of inmates or the inmates themselves. The idea is to prevent pressure, in either direction, to influence treatment or to expose the staff to problems. Staff are required to inform the system in writing when a family member or close friend comes into the jurisdicition of the department.
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Yes, usually. IF they were just released and are on probation, parole or some other sort of supervision they are still under the jurisdiction of the department. Any such relationship would (at least in California) have to be reported. It could be legally considered to be rape due to the possible coercive nature of the relationship. Also in most jurisdicitons former inmates are not allowed to come onto the grounds of the prison without written permission of the warden. They can be charged with a felony for doing so in California and be returned to custody. I have seen it happen. IF that person was released "without a tail" (no parole or probation) it would not be illegal and probably not a violation of any written policy, but would likely be seriously frowned on and would tend to bring that C/Os judgement, focus and reliability into quesiton.
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Most are for it. In my case working at a prison made no differnce, I was, and am still, in favor of capital punishment.
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I have never been a counselor. It is primarily paperwork, preparing board reports, progress reports, fiddling with pre-release paperwork, that sort of thing. In California it pays about the same as a Lieutenant, it is a non-uniform position and is mostly 8-5 M-F or 4X10. if you have custody background you can then move into a Lt. position without ever having been a Sergeant.
As for the second question, that is hard to say as i have seen some seriously stupid stuff. I remember one guy who locked himself out of his apartment then kicked his own door in. He then filed a false police report to avoid responsibility for the door damage. That was pretty stupid. Another guy got some mile-high action from a sweet young thing on the plane back from Hawaii and she turned out to be under age. He was prosecuted and lost his job.
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Actually I have only bumped into three inmates on the streets since I retired, and those interactions were all very banal and generally positive.
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I am afraid I can not help you much here. There was no formal psych test when I hired on. In general it is always good advice to get a good night sleep, try not to be too nervous and don't overthink the questions, but beyond that I can't help you much. Sorry.
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