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.
That is not uncommon actually. I have known a couple of people who did that. Some jail-house lawyers get pretty good at it. They have the time, and it is kind of a niche market.
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Depends on how you look at it. Sergeants get paid more than officers. However, they may not get as much opportunity to work overtime. In additon your seniority resets when you promote so you end up starting over with bad shifts and crap jobs until you get some seniority built up. I know several people who promoted to Sergeant then voluntarily busted back. They found being a relatively senior Officer better than being a relatively junior Sergeant. There is significantly more responsibity and much more paperwork. Some people just don't like the tradeoff. It is a legitimate consideration.
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Generally speaking minimum custody is a realtively good gig. It is pretty much always dorm housing and some guys don't like that but most do. You can wander around and congregate with few restrictions, you can shower pretty much anytime you wan, you can usually get outside most of the time. There is (usually) a lot less drama and quite often the food is better. It takes a while to get into minimum for most people. Many jurisdicitons have tight rules about minimum cusotdy, i.e. no sex offenders, no arsonists, no active gang members and a pretty solid release date within a specific time, i. e. 4 years, etc.
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Don't know. They didn't have one when I started beyond the general interview and observation by supervisors during probation. There is a formal psych test now I am told, but I have no idea what it is like.
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The salary is good, the retirement is good, the benefits are excellent and continue through retirement. Most locations have overtime available, some whether you want it or not. If your primary interst is a stable career that will enable you to support a family this is an outstanding choice. The shift work can be a pain, at least until you develop some seniority.
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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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Depends on what you call "hurt." CDCr has something like seven or eight times the number of officers as does the CHP. The CHP rarely goes a year without an officer being murdered on the job, and there are usually more than one per year. CDCr often goes a year, or two, or three without an officer being murdered on the job. However, there is a lot of lower level violence either directed at staff or which staff get involved in responded to incidents. Some of it is just crazies going off. Your chances of being hurt during your career are very good. Your chances of being seriously hurt are relatively small, but it is certainly there. Just this month there have been two serious attempts to murder officers inside prisons, leaving the officers with serious injuries. If you work in a gun tower your chances of being hurt are small. If you work in a housing unit with GP borderlline nutters, the chances are much larger.
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