Back In The Saddle Again

I haven’t been on OD all week long, I’ve been back to work and too tired to log in for the lasts few days. Things went well, everyone seemed happy to see me back at work. There were a couple of frustrating days, but they had more to do with co workers than anything else. The major sent me to a building to talk to an offender who was being moved to another unit. She had mental problems and claimed to be paraplegic. She’s not, I’ve seen her walk, but she truly at times believes herself to be crippled. As a result, she sat on her bunk for a week without eating and needed to be sent to a facility that is set up to deal with and treat psychiatric issues. The officer on the building was a young lady with little experience in dealing with difficult situations. She was frustrated and kept interjecting herself into the problem, making it worse. I was forced to tell her to leave the area so I could try diffuse the situation. Unfortunately, she had the offender in such a state that I had to place her in restraints and have her forcibly moved, which was not a good situation. I know most people believe that prison guards are heartless jerks (thank you Hollywood) but most of us try to perform our jobs in an appropriate manner. Because of a young lady with delusions of power over another human, the prisoner was taken out in a n hysterical fit that was completely unnecessary. The other guard was angry that I forced her out of the situation in front of other offenders, saying that I undermined her authority.

Yesterday, I ended up being assigned to a building with the young woman as my co worker for twelve and a half hours. I thought the day would be horrible, and it did start out that way. I finally spoke to her and explained my reasoning. I told her that one of the keys to competency in this type of job is being able to recognize when to be a "hard ass" and when to back down and reason with the offenders. it was inappropriate to try to take a hard line with someone who was clearly not able to comprehend what was going on. A little kindness would have smoothed the situation and achieved a desirable result for everyone. She felt that it was showing weakness in front of the inmates. I pointed out that respect is not based on who is stronger. If that were the case, we’d be in trouble. At any given time, there are about sixty staff members in charge of over two thousand offenders. We are unarmed, except for a 5oz can of pepper spray, so the numbers seem to argue that the offenders have the upper hand in strength. After we began to talk, things got a lot better. The day ended with her wanting to set her mother and me up on a date. She texted the phone number to me yesterday, I haven’t called her yet, but probably will. I’ve been feeling like I need to have a life outside this house recently. Not saying I want a serious relationship, but some friends outside work would be nice. She is a bail bondsman (woman?) which could come in handy one day, lol. She owns he own business. If we like each other, and it’s a successful business, maybe I could become a kept man. Nah, probably not. The last four months without a job drove me crazy, the rest of my life would be too much. I don’t know what the idle rich do with their time, not that I wouldn’t like to find out one day.

This morning was bill paying time and grocery shopping. Don’t know if I’m going anywhere or doing anything tonight, but I want to do SOMETHING this weekend for myself. My work week was tiring, but not painful, for which I am eternally thankful.

Both boys are doing well. Annoyed that I asked them to stay in for one night and do something together, and neither one wants to spend a friday night with Dad. I tried to do the same thing last week, and it was a disaster, so I’m going to stop asking them. None of us enjoy the time if I have to force them to spend it with me. The sad thing is, I know that the day will come when they will regret not spending time with me, but I’ll be gone by then. That’s when I realized the same thing about my parents; after they had died. I guess that’s just the way of the world.

At any rate, it’s time to ditch the computer for now and get back to business at hand. I hope everyone has a great weekend and I will check in later.