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.
As far as I know it is not ILLEGAL but it is highly questionable. The staff member would be looked at very closely from a security standpoint, and the prisoner would be moved to anther prison due to security concerns.
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Assuming you are all in the same family it should not be a problem, at least in CA. If the former felon was no longer on probation/parole it would not be a problem in any case. In CA staff are required to report family members and close friends who are under the control of the department, as long as that was done it should not be a difficulty.
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They are primarily paper pushers. They prepare board reports, pre-release reports and stuff like that. Their principle attribute must be the ability to think critically and write clearly and concisely. they must have a good understanding of "the system" and how it works.
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A significant percentage of inmates are either totally illiterate or functionally illiterate. Possibly as much as 25%, certainly at least half that. Inmates manage to communicate between one another without that much difficulty, mostly verbally or even non-verbal "body language" communication. There is also a significant number of non-English speaking inmates in the system. The phrase "school to prison pipeline" generally refers to people dropping out of school and ending up in prison. There is also a "books not bars" undercurrent, at least in CA, that assumes (incorrectly) that making school more available to people will mean less people in prison. There is MANDATORY k-12 education in California and most other states as far as I know. You have to work REAL HARD to be kicked out of the system. You don't have to work that hard to stay in and at least TRY to get an education. In my experience most people in prison have CHOSEN to be there. They have deliberately adopted a criminal lifestyle for whatever reason. That reason does not, generally speaking, include lack of educational opportunity (IMHO). I admit it is something of a chicken and egg thing, but I believe that the criminal mindset and lifestyle pushes the education problem, not the other way around..
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As an entry level employee they will be much more interested in your general background than in your specific knowledge of the job. It is very likely they have a web site and it is possible they have a new employee orientation packet or even a prison rule book on line. Being familiar with this sort of thing is not necessary, but it certainly doesn't hurt. IN addition being able to speak standard English coherently and write a decent report are both very desirable skills. In some places they want you to write a brief narrative at the interview site, bring it in with you and read it out load to the panel. Good luck.
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Generally speaking no one. Most posts-work areas have staff bathrooms. It is sort of an OSHA thing. If you have a job assignment that allows or requires you to move around a lot (like yard officer) you just wander over to the staff bathroom while you are wandering around your area. It is a good idea to let a co-worker know if you are disappearing into the head for a while in case something jumps off while you are there so they are not worried about where you are when they count noses, but that's about it usually.
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Each system has its own rules about such things. As long as they are not actual relatives and you disclose the relationship I would be very much surprised if it would present any problem.
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