Narrative Essay On Working In Prison

Working in Prison The way television depicts how a prison functions isn’t exactly correct. Most television shows normally show how Correctional Officers mistreat an Inmate or, Offender (politically correct term in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice) which may be true, but is most of the time taken out of context due to the circumstances. My career as a Correctional Officer ended this past January after 4 years of service due to a major incident that could’ve ended fatal. Working in a prison can be a learning experience, as well as very dangerous. I was offered employment with the Texas Department of Criminal Justice (TDCJ, for short) on August 6, 2010. I originally applied for employment due to having a lot of friends working for TDCJ at the time, but when I was offered employment, most of them had already quit, or had been fired due to not abiding by policies. The Training Academy started on August 8th, so I had little time to prepare for what was to come next. The training lasted 8 weeks, and was surprisingly difficult, given what I’ve heard from others. I personally struggled with …show more content…
The prison had a terrible smell, the closest comparison would be ramen noodles, and rat droppings mixed together. On-The-Job training, (OJT) was mediocre and pointless. All of the Officers that were supposed to train me, did nothing but complain about having a “new boot” with them and often joined in with the Offenders in picking on me for being new. After the OJT was completed, I was assigned to work in General Population, which is where all of the minimum custody offenders were housed. Being in an enclosed area with 144 offenders is extremely intimidating, especially knowing that some of them are convicted murderers. Most of the offenders gave respect if they were shown the same in return, I grew up with that mentality so I was mostly well liked and respected once I established