Читать книгу Prison Puzzle Pieces 2 - Dave Basham - Страница 28

There are times that officers would give an inmate the OK to violate a policy. We don’t like to do it, but at times it’s the right thing to do. You have to be extremely careful though because doing this makes you responsible for anything that might go wrong. That is the big reason to go with NO EXCEPTIONS to any policy. I tried to apply some common sense, at least my kind of common sense.

At times an inmate would oversleep and a friend would ask permission to go wake their friend up. This was if they were housed on different tiers requiring them to go to an unauthorized area. At times, depending on the circumstances and the knowledge I had about those inmates, I would give him the nod. I never had anyone cross me on making exceptions like this, at least that I was aware of.

You have to be very careful with making exceptions. What you do for one, you have to do for all. If I wouldn’t do the same thing for anyone in that situation, I wouldn’t allow it.

As you can see, enforcing policies are helpful and make your job easier if you look at them as being black and white, no racial connotation intended. If you attempt to be more realistic to the multitude of situations that can occur, you will make your life in this place more difficult.

When I taught academies, I would explain all kinds of situations and give them examples of things I experienced and heard. I would flat out tell them that the way I do things is only right for me and who I am. I told them that they would have to make decisions based on who they were and how they felt they could best handle the job and be able to deal with the decisions they made. There are a huge number of policies and there are an endless number of situations that will occur. They will be held responsible for any decision they make. If they make a decision and some idiot superior officer doesn’t like it, their decision will be deemed a mistake.

When an inmate would complain about there being too many policies, I would tell them that they would never want to be an officer then. There are more policies dictating what officers can and can’t do, say, wear or anything else than there are for them.