IamA Federal Correctional Officer at one of the most dangerous institutions in the USA AMA!

How many different gangs are there in your prison and do you see a lot of gang on gang violence or do they keep to themselves?

There are a ton of gangs..the largest being:

aryan brotherhood (and there are multiple subsections of this gang, AB Texas, AB Syndicate, etc. and they all hate each other. It doesn't make sense for them to kill one another when they want the white race to be dominant.)

Black Gangster Deciples

Black Guerrilla Family

Surenos (hispanic gang from southern california)

Norteno ( same as above but from northern california)

and we have 5 Black Hands on our compound at the moment which are certified mexican mafia members. Every single Sureno will do whatever a black hand tells them. Surenos act as foot soldiers for the mexican mafia.

This may sound like a stupid question. But how are gangs able to form within the prisons? Like how can the function when inmates don't have "free time" to speak of.

TripleSkeet is correct. All these inmates have is free time. They are unlocked from their cells at 6:00am and locked in at 9:00pm. Any time in between they can partake in GED classes, hobbycraft, recreation, commissary, meals (breakfast/lunch/dinner) or they can choose to sit inside their housing unit and watch TV all day.

Most inmates wake up, go to breakfast, come back and watch tv and then attend class/rec and then go to lunch and do the same thing in the afternoon and then there's a count at 4pm so everyone returns to their cells and they are let out at 5pm and then they watch tv until 9pm lock in. The entire time all this is going on they are working their "hustle" whether that be running the gambling slips, making cards to sell for inmates to send home, crocheting or knitting things to sell, or running drugs/weapons.

A housing unit at our USP averages around 120 inmates. There are 32 cells on the bottom and 32 on the top tier, with each housing unit having 6 microwaves, 5 washers/dryers, 2 irons, a prayer room, an exercise room, a card room, and a typewriter room. These housing units are a large open space (pretty much like a military barracks except 1,000 times nicer) they can choose to stay there all day or participate in the activities provided. The only issues these prisoners have, they bring upon themselves. If they all followed policy, didn't gamble, do drugs, make prison wine, and all the other things they do which are against policy, they would have it extremely easy.

It sounds awesome, except for being next to violent people, having no women around, and not being able to leave. Most of us go to work, come home tired, have to do crap work around the house, and rush off to bed before we get to do the same thing tomorrow.

Exactly. They get free food, free housing, every single channel Comcast has to offer, free exercise, free education.

Since this leads me to believe you are likely southern, what about MS13 and which do you consider the most dangerous?

If you were in the yard, which one would you fear the most?

Also, is it possible to exist and NOT be in a gang? Thanks.

I am not southern, but the MS13 is very prevalent at our institution as well. As far as danger goes, whatever the black hands want to happen, will happen. So i suppose the Mexican Mafia is the most dangerous.

No, you have to at least FAKE being part of an organization while on the compound or you will be taken advantage of by everyone. The only exclusions to these rules are the very old inmates or the ones with deathly illnesses. Most inmates will leave them alone.

As an Asian guy scared to ever go to prison, where do the Asians fit into all this? Who do they hang with?

There are very few asians in our prison. I would say less than 20. They don't fit in very well and are often taken advantage of.

I want to get your opinion on something I heard from a television documentary about prisons that I watched several years ago. The idea was this. In any prison, somewhere between 1-3 percent of the population of inmates is absolutely crazy violent. They're outright psychos. The quote I remember went something like: "One of these guys could kill you, sit down on your dead body, and take out his lunch and eat it."

Because of this small core of violent crazies, every other inmate has to play defense—acting tough and like they take no shit, and ready to fight at the drop of a hat. In other words, this small percentage sets the tone.

The remedy (and I think this was tried successfully in some prisons) is to lock these nut jobs away from the rest of the population. Basically, lock them up and throw away the key. The level of violence among the remaining 97-99 percent then drops dramatically—even though many of these guys are still badass criminals. With the outright psychopaths gone, the tone of the prison changes and the rest can relax somewhat.

Do you think there is any merit in an idea like this? Is this what the prison population is really like, do you think?

Yes, that is very accurate. And we do lock up the majority of these inmates. But there will always be fights and stabbings on the yard due to gambling debts, turf wars, and things of that nature. But on average there are probably only 2 fights per week. If we did not have a special housing unit it would be 20 fights per day.

I work local corrections (county jail) and an inmate told me last night after he went to the door of another inmates cell and was cussing at him calling him names etc. He said "I'm sorry I gotta act like that. It's just dudes like him that disrespect the COs make us all look bad and it puts y'all in a bad mood and makes y'all look at all of us like y'all do him." It caught me off guard but I honestly appreciated him saying that and it made perfect sense to me and really he's right. It doesn't excuse him for acting an ass but it was cool for him to think of it that way I guess. The guy he was yelling at had been violent all night. Threw his soup out of his food chute at chow, threw his meds out the same way, dumped water and urine out under his door, and after I went and got a trustee to help clean it up he crammed a paper plate under his door and proceeded to piss on it. So needless to say I was pretty annoyed with this guy. And yeah it put me in a mood

Yes, there are many inmates like this that respect CO's or just want other inmates to stay out of our way so they dont lose TV privileges and other things that we can take away if they are being assholes.

What's life like in prison for the powerful gangsters? Are they able to get special treatment or live better than the other prisoners?

They have unlimited funds, food, and other inmates cater to them.

The black hands never wash their own clothes, never carry their own food, never have to wait to use a computer or phone, and their cells are always stacked to the ceiling with commissary.

1. Is there a level of "corruption" amongst other correctional officers, or perhaps people of a higher position?

2.Have you ever befriended an inmate?

Yes. There are staff that sleep with inmates (male and female), and bring in contraband (drugs, outside food, tobacco, and cell phones mostly).

• No I have never befriended an inmate but there are inmates that never cause you trouble whom you're more likely to give the benefit of the doubt in certain situations.

How many inmates have cell phones and are they putting in any sort of reception blockers to counter them?

There are no reception blockers, and I would say probably 10 inmates out of 1600 have a cell phone that we cannot find.

From an outsider's perspective it often seems that prison is a crime school. People go in as minor offenders and come out as hardened criminals. Is this accurate? If so, how can we stop this?

This is accurate to a certain degree. Most inmates that end up at the USP are not first time offenders, so they already have the criminal prowess on the outside. The inmates do learn a lot about offending on the inside of the walls though!

You won't like my answer, but i'll give it anyway. I believe any inmate convicted of a violent crime, or a sexual crime should immediately be executed. If it's drug related, they need to be in rehab, and if they cannot get themselves under control then they should be sent to a prison where they are locked down 23/7 and fed once a day. We spend too much money on people who do not want to better themselves. These inmates eat better breakfast/lunch/dinner than any child that attends the public school system in the USA and it's sickening.

Thanks for doing an AmA! So many prison questions running through my mind right now, but here are two:

1) What percent of total inmates do you think are innocent? 2) What kind of crimes do you think shouldn't be punished with prison time?

1) 3-7%

2) Low level drug crimes (which already arent until they commit them a few times) but there are some people in my prison that have an extensive sentence from multiple low level offenses, I don't think they should do over 10 years.

and you are very welcome!

Quick follow-up question. Of the inmates serving time for low level drug crimes, how often do they end up getting in trouble in prison and extending their stay by 5+ years? Is that possible or just a movie/TV show thing?

It's VERY possible and it happens all the time. Although I disagree with their lengthy sentences the inmates with 5-10 year sentences are always the most troublesome. They are disrespectful, get into trouble with gambling and other debts and usually will get caught with contraband (tobacco, weed, SUBOXONE is HUGE in our prison right now..inmates are getting letters in the mail with the strips hidden in the glued area, and prison made weapons) they will go to SHU (special housing) for these 100 series "shots" (the bureau of prisons calls infractions "shots") and then while in SHU they will assault staff or do something else to get themselves in trouble.

Have you found it difficult to not view every inmate as human garbage? I ask because I used to work at a halfway house and I went in with the attitude that I would be different. I wasn't going to be a stereotype of a CO who treats people like dirt. I was going to make a difference. Well, after dealing with those people for about a month, that changed. I didn't become some sadistic bastard or anything but I definitely started seeing everyone in there as scum and I quickly stopped giving a crap about them or their futures because of how many times I was metaphorically stabbed in the back by just a few of them.

Yes, this is a huge issue. There is a saying that if you are not racist before you work in a prison, you will be by the time you're done and I believe that is the case because of how many black inmates they are and how obnoxious they act. White and black inmates are by FAR the most trouble. Hispanics not as much because they are kept under control by the black hand's and usually are only disruptive or disrespectful when you catch them with contraband or they've been drinking.

Which TV show or movie would you say most accurately depicts prison? How often do you feel worried for your own safety?

• Oz (without the large amounts of rape) and Shawshank Redemption

• I don't fear for my safety, In the environment we are put in as correctional officers if these inmates wanted to kill us, they could do it any day of the week (inmates on the compound, not in SHU) So I have the mindset of doing my job to the best of my ability and if I die, I die knowing my wife is going to get a large sum of money from my life insurance and that inmate(s) is going to spend the rest of his life in prison and receive a lot of beat downs from other officers for the rest of his life.

Are those who assault and kill correction officers automatically moved to the bottom of the social totem pole? I would think that if you did kill a correctional officer you would be seen in a brighter light by the other inmates.

I think it might be because they understand the correctional officers are there to protect the inmates from each other as much as they are there to prevent escape. Correctional officers aren't police, they're more just there to keep everyone behaving which benefits everyone.

Ding ding ding!

He meant assaulted by other guards as retribution.

exactly.

Do you think solitary works? Or does it just make people angrier and crazier?

Yes, I do believe it works. I know I could not handle SHU and some of the stuff that goes on down there. But for those inmates that are not mentally unstable, it works. But some inmates just do not want it to work.

Can you give us an idea of what goes on in the SHU? I was under the impression that they were in there in small dark boxes waiting it out, and that that's all that was down there.

It's about an 8x8 cell with a window a shower and a door, they get books, food and that's about it.

they also get access to the law libary, barber and other hygiene stuff.

Hi! I want to ask you a couple of questions:

-Do you think that minorities are more exposed to arrest than white people?

-What do you think about the War on Drugs?

• Yes, but not because of racism, but because of where they live and what their families subject them to at an early age.

• I think it is a huge waste of money and believe there are much better ways to combat drug use. First be legalizing marijuana, and then allocating every cent from the war on drugs and putting it towards eradicating homelessness and starvation in our country.

Thank you very much for the answer!

You are very welcome! Thanks for stopping by my AmA :) I am an avid user of reddit and thought some people may be interested in the knowledge I have from our federal prison system!

Have you ever been assaulted on the job?

Yes I have.

Could you elaborate on this?

[deleted]

he decided to strike me with a closed fist

He punched you.

That's the language one would generally use in a use of force memorandum.

Exactly.

Yes, corrections officers elaborate and use specific details because events like these are investigated, and specific language is helpful

Very true. Just like prison wine/hooch must have a citrusy smell, and marijuana must be a green leafy substance.

What was the strangest thing you found on an inmate that they weren't supposed to have?

At the FCC where I work there is an

SPC (satellite prison camp) for white collar inmates

SFF (secure female facility)

FCI (medium security prison)

and USP (united states penitentiary)

One while working at the SFF I caught a female with a dildo that was fashioned out of old crusty socks. That was not very pleasant.

Wow I think reddit finally found the female version of the cum box: the sock dildo.

Haha, that is very possible! and it was made of multiple socks!

How common are gay relationships among male prisoners? How harshly are gay inmates treated by straight ones?

They are not all that common. There are about 4 male inmates at the USP that act like women and get pimped out to other inmates by their "Daddies." One inmate even has fake breasts!

[deleted]

Not all inmates treat each other harshly surprisingly. A lot of them get a long with each other really well. It's just when business goes sour or someone owes someone money that things get out of hand.

Hi, from the UK here. Thanks for doing an AMA. Over here we are told that it is easy to start, or keep, a drug habit in our prisons. What is the drugs situation in your prison? Thanks again.

We currently have a lot of inmates that gain access to marijuana, suboxone, and tobacco through dirty staff (employees bringing it in to them) visitation (their families bringing it in to them) and through the mail (people on the outside mailing in suboxone to inmates)

Most of the time we will find tobacco and marijuana but suboxone is a growing issue.

I understand the corrupt staff is hard to prevent but why is it hard to stop visitors from bring drugs in or stop them in the mail. Is it under funding or an under staffing thing or something else. I understand it's impossible to stop all of it but it seams to be a much bigger problem than it should be.

With the amount of visitors that come through, someone is bound to get lucky. We catch visitors all the time but the BOP does not prosecute for some reason. We just bar them from ever coming back for another visit.

How do they get the money to pay for drugs? A habit can get pretty expensive, and it's not like these people can earn any real amount of money.

A lot of these inmates have very large amounts of money on the outside. They call up a buddy and pay them most with their stash most likely.

How is marijuana used in a prison? Wouldn't the smell give it away? I've always wondered this

Yes the smell gives it away but there are many vents they can use to mask the smell. Also cologne and other things.

Thanks for the answer. We seem to have a heroin problem In our prisons. A good friend was a prison officer in the UK, for many years, he confirmed this to me

We also have a heroine problem. We had an inmate die about a month ago from heroine bags rupturing in his abdomen.

Have the female prisoners ever come onto you?

Yes. In two years I have only worked at the SFF for 5 days total. They are disgusting and you dont want to get caught up in a PREA investigation if you piss one of them off.

IE: You make a female inmate angry and they tell staff you raped them. Even if the administration knows it isn't true, it will still have to be investigated by the region.

I would assume a false rape accusation would be prosecuted by law enforcement or at least have serious repercussions in the prison. Again, an assumption, but staff would be immediately terminated if true, but how would the prison deal with a false rape accusation?

They don't give a shit. These inmates do not get punished for false accusations, it's disheartening.

Half the time when a staff member is caught bringing in drugs or cell phones they are not even prosecuted and I have no idea why.

So how possible is it for someone to just go to prison, keep their head down, keep their mouth shut and stay out of trouble? I see all these shows/movies that depict prison as a place where you have to buy protection, become a girlfriend, etc.....

Not really...You'd get bullied and have your things stolen. But you could PC up and go to SHU voluntarily if you were scared.

Do you enjoy your job? What's the best part? The worst?

Yes, I definitely enjoy my job for the most part.

• My favorite parts are finding contraband, locking up inmates that don't follow the policies, and to be honest, making the inmates that are disrespectful assholes have an even more miserable time than they already are having.

• My least favorite part of the job is knowing how some staff are dirty and bring in contraband which endangers the lives of other staff. We all want to go home to our families at the end of the day and these selfish people cause us more headache than we already have.

My least favorite part of the job is knowing how some staff are dirty and bring in contraband which endangers the lives of other staff. We all want to go home to our families at the end of the day and these selfish people cause us more headache than we already have.

What, if anything, do you do about these kind of staff members?

The hard part is, we don't know who they are 99% of the time. Usually the only way they are caught is when an inmate rats them out.

We've had 2 female staff walked out by SIS (our Special Investigative Service within the Bureau of Prison) in the last 3 months for bringing in cell phones and sleeping with inmates. One of which had a husband and a child at home which was born 6 months ago.

Was that on the news?

Nope

Has an inmate ever tried to bribe you to bring in contraband for them?

No, Ever since I started there the inmates know I follow policy to the T and they wouldn't waste their time because they would end up in SHU by the end of the day.

Genuine question here, not trying to make point... do you think correctional officers and anyone else who works in a prison would benefit from body cameras?

Yes, I think all law enforcement should have to wear body cameras!! And then they should publish the footage on the internet so you can see what some of these inmates act like.

How many people have tried to escape? Have any successfully?

None from our USP. There was an attempted escape at a USP on the east coast where they successfully cut the prison bars, busted out their window and made it to the perimeter fence. They did not make it over the barbed wire though.

Have you noticed a degradation of a person's mental state if they are put into isolation?

Yes, on about half the inmates.

So just tell me, what's the funnies thing you've seen an inmate do? Make sure it's elaborate!

The funniest thing I've seen an inmate do is when an inmate decided to tell his buddies he could jump from the top tier and land safely. He proceeded to break BOTH ankles and army crawl into the cell door underneath because he didn't want staff to know.

But it wasn't his cell, and the inmate in that cell drug him back out by his ankles and the inmate was bawling hardcore.

Outside of solitary are there any ways to induce inmates not to associate with gangs?

I am not sure what you mean here, please re-phrase your question and I'll gladly answer!

If an inmate is in solitary, he presumably can't participate or associate with gangs while there. Outside of that, what can you do to prevent him from joining a gang, or speaking with other gang members, eating with them, etc...

Absolutely NOTHING

When inmates are not in solitary, federal prison is pretty much summer camp for these inmates. The only few differences is the violence and disruptions they cause, and the fact that they have to be locked in their cell at night, and other times for counting purposes.

What percentage of the population could you reasonably put in solitary at any given time then?

I think you could fit around 20% of the population if you had to!

Is your facility privatized? Either way how do you feel about some facilities beige run "for profit"?

No we are not, and I think that is absolutely moronic. Not-for-profit facilities have enough issues. I can't imagine what all goes wrong in those for-profit institutions.

What are the top 3 things, in your opinion, that could be changed about our prison systems for the better?

Drastically decrease the amount of luxuries these inmates are given.

Reduce the types of healthcare these inmates receive. These inmates can have life saving operations done, but an upstanding citizen on the outside cannot due to a lack of funds. Ridiculous.

and end the war on drugs.

Hi. Were you always interested in working in the correctional system? What kind of jobs did you have prior to your 2 year tenure at your current FCC?

No, I had never even thought about it. I worked in the field of Social Work and when I wasn't enjoying that my friend told me to apply for the BOP, I did, and I was hired three months later!

What requirements did you have to be in the job you're in now?

The BOP prefers to hire people with military background, or a bachelors degree. I have both.

I have hear that some female COs prostitute themselves to prisoners. Is this true?

I do not believe that is true. But female CO's do sleep with inmates from time to time, and they all get caught eventually. (They sleep with one inmate and turn the other inmate down, inmate #2 rats on her because she isn't putting out for all of them)

Do prisoners ever get their sentence extended for not following the rules, not behaving? I am thinking maybe guards could control the inmates better if the inmates knew they would never get out unless they did what they were told.

Yes they do, my best friend was assaulted by two inmates and they each got 2 years added to their sentence.

How effective are prison puppy programs or other NGO's working with the prisoner population you're exposed to? Do they work (and if so, which ones?) or are they kind of BS, self-congratulatory programs?

Do you mean the programs where inmates actually train dogs? They did that for a few years at the SFF and I heard it was not successful because the inmates would not stop giving the dogs table food.

There are a lot of arts and crafts like card making and crocheting that the inmates get into and some of them are very talented. They sell the cards for stamps and other inmates send them home to family members.

What was the training to be a corrections officer like? Did you have to take a test like police?

The BOP has a 3 week academy in Glynco, Georgia. But you attend this after having anywhere from 3months to 9months in the bureau so you don't learn much.

Have you ever been on Lockup?

The Federal Bureau of Prisons does not allow anyone to film inside our institutions.

White male here. If I were incarcerated fire some reason would it be possible for me to just "do my time" or would I be forced to join a gang? (Even if out of necessity for safety).

You'd need to at least pretend to be in with the whites or you'd be taken advantage of. Not in the sense of getting raped, but you'd basically be bullied constantly and have all your shit stolen. Commissary food etc.

So how possible is it for someone to just go to prison, keep their head down, keep their mouth shut and stay out of trouble? I see all these shows/movies that depict prison as a place where you have to buy protection, become a girlfriend, etc.....

Not really...You'd get bullied and have your things stolen. But you could PC up and go to SHU voluntarily if you were scared.

I see a lot on here about dirty COs, so I'll ask some questions about them:

Why do you think COs become dirty (generally)?

What changes to the system, if any, do you think would reduce the number/occurrences of dirty COs?

Greed, Inmates will pay $300 for a carton of cigarettes.

Nothing, some people have no integrity.

Ok. How do drugs get into prison? I'm sure there are unknown ways but there must be known ways that are just impossible to stop or?

Mail, visits, dirty staff.

I hope you've taken all precautionary steps to be safe? Most redditors are relatively harmless, but still. Better safe than dead right?

I'm not sure what you mean.

So what does a 'correctional' officer 'correct' ?

Immoral behavior.

For the inmates that want to do drugs anyway, why not just drug them up until their sentence is up? 24/7. They would be much easier to handle. Misbehave, you get a fee withdrawal.

God...there are so many things wrong with this question.

"Let's foster addicTion!" People in prison who want to get high more than likely already have a problem (which may have even led to them being in prison) and force feeding then drugs because they "want it" is idiotic. With this logic you could take a step to the side and feed a toddler nothing but icecream and stop feeding them if they're bad.

"Withdrawal as punishment!" Detox can be lethal not to mention drugging them constantly would probably kill them and throw away a boat load of tax dollars on frivolous lawsuits (funded by taxpayers, in case you forgot. We pay for it.)

"They would be much easier to handle." What? People, locked up, going through constant withdrawals (at different rates because the more you use the more you need to use for the same results, not to mention different metabolisms and allergic reactions that some may have) having aneed to being monitored around the clock. Shit,man. Why not go the whole 9 yards and put them in chemical induced comas so that they learn nothing from their experience and maybe try to turn their lives around.

GingerBear handled this for me lol

First of all do you know how much some drugs fucking cost? Not to mentions the MANY legal battles you'd have to fight/loopholes you'd have to jump through to make that close to being remotely possible. Heroine is illegal for a reason ya know, it's so addictive you'll kill people you love just for the next hit and end up dead. So ya, /r/shittyideas

we already spend an ungodly amount of money on these inmates.