Week Six: Internal Security and Transportation of Inmates

- We had three guest speakers at this evening’s presentation; Lt. Mansur, Capt. French and Sheriff Cousins who brought his young son. The sheriff spoke briefly but it was a good opportunity for everyone in the course to put the name with his face finally. I have known the sheriff since he was probably about his son’s age. His family was friends with one of my best friends from Triton. I also remember he snowplowed my driveway about twenty years ago when he must have been a state rep, doing some odd jobs. Mr. Flemming tried to be a wise guy and put me on the spot to see if I had any questions for the sheriff since I was writing a blog. I was pleasantly surprised someone had actually bothered to read it, even though an article in the Daily News about the Citizens Academy this week posted a link to it. Most people suffer from information overload. I suppose if I was writing something juicy about any shenanigans going on behind the scenes at the jail, I’d have a readership, but I can look at the stats on the blog website and see that it’s a good thing I don’t have to rely on writing to put food on my table. Even if the entire county were reading the blog each week, I wouldn’t be making a red cent.
- As far as juicy shenanigans behind the scenes, I know nothing. But what I do wonder about is how the whole elected official thing comes into play as far as being accepted by the rest of the staff. Also, how different is the sheriff’s role in 2011 versus the role of his early predecessors who actually lived on the premises. He has no background in law enforcement, but as he explained, the best correctional officers do not necessarily make for good administrators. His position seems to be one more of leadership and oversight of the entire correctional system in the county. There hasn’t been a lot of competition for the job certainly. From the looks of the letter that the last person to run against Sheriff Cousins submitted to the newspapers to campaign for the sheriff's positon, one could question if he even had a High School diploma. The sheriff said he starts each day at 7AM visiting Middleton and then makes the rounds to the other facilities. He is on the road quite often and usually puts in long days.
- Lt. Mansur teaches the use of force in the correctional academy. Force is defined by any tool or weapon needed to control a suspect when communication is ineffective. Within the jail, only handcuffs are used to control inmates. The correctional officers never ever carry a weapon, not even pepper spray to prevent the likelihood that an inmate remove it from them and use it against them or other inmates. He discussed many of the de-escalation techniques to use when talking to agitated inmates such as lowering your voice and remaining calm and trying to change the subject hoping to get them to forget what they were angry about in the first place. When inmates begin converging into groups, physical proximity is important; moving towards the groups and standing between them. Prison riots are sparked not planned. The name of the game is to get any uncooperative inmate out of the unit as soon as possible. Every correctional officer carries a life-line at all times, a radio attached to the uniform near the collarbone for the quickest and easiest access.
- Capt. French oversees anything related to transportation of the 1300 inmates and staff of 500, which includes having a plan for evacuation should a disaster occur such as a fire, an earthquake, an explosion nearby, anything that would compromise the safety of everyone. He manages 26 officers in the transportation department, sees to the transportation of one hundred inmates each day to and from court and the maintenance of the sheriff department’s vehicles. They are progressing towards using video conferencing to save wear and tear of vehicles, fuel, etc. I find it amazing that we are still so far behind with the level of technology in the correctional facilities. It may be a matter of the law catching up with the times? I think that there may be an existing law stating that the defendant be present physically in court before a judge? I know that in Maryland last year, they were hoping to trim costs for their transportation budget by installing a teleconferencing system however. They were even going to use if for doctors’ visits. One of the biggest killers of correctional officers is by their own handguns removed from them in the hospital according to Capt. French. Saving money would clearly not be the only benefit from teleconferencing whenever possible.
- After tonight’s presentation, we were all escorted out to the parking lot where they had parked a variety of the department’s vehicles for us to check out, including the newest and largest paddy wagon. I could have used that on a couple of field trips during my career! It was impressive to see the number of compartments within even of the smallest of the vans, the sole purpose being to segregate according to each inmate’s classification. One of the vans looked like a horse trailer but inside there were benches on either side, separated by a wall. Nobody gets a window seat in that thing. Some of us climbed on board three or four different styles and then we all got in the new one. The compartments within were more like cages.
- Both Capt. French and Lt. Mansur were interesting speakers and clearly very enthusiastic and proud of their work. They both put a lot of time and energy into their presentations. I cannot say I have enjoyed one session more than another during the citizens' academy and I’m looking forward to next week’s talk on the recruitment and training of correctional officers.