Quote for the Day

Me: "Yeah, Matthew Shepard was killed in Laramie, Wyoming for hitting on some guys."

Other person: "Well it served him right! HAR HAR HAR!"

So, it looks like I work with a lot of conservative homophobes. Calling them conservative is a half-insult when I use it, because I find the conservative mindset to be quite insulting and ignorant in almost all cases. The homophobe part, yeah, that's just annoying.

I also work with lots of racists.

And total douche bags.

So, working at the prison, today I did pat-downs on some 30 inmates as they were heading to lunch. I didn't get too much guff from them. Two guys complained that I was sexually assaulting them (checking the groin area for contraband) but that was it. Another couple guys told me I had magic hands. I just laughed.

But some of the guys I work with that were also doing pat-downs were just stupid. One guy was practically hitting the people he was searching. He thinks of the inmates as animals, as robots, as a task he has to complete, rather than as humans that he has to keep safe and secure. I don't think a single inmate walked away from him in the same mood or better. Every one was upset with the way he handled them.

Then another guy was so paranoid that they would be hiding a shank that he asked if we were supposed to check their beards for PIECES OF SHARPENED STEEL! He obviously knows nothing about the resilience of facial hair. He also was checking their bare skin for shanks and razor blades. We're talking guys with short sleeve shirts on, and he would check their wrists... for shanks...

These inmates I deal with ARE HUMAN. There is something awfully strange about the mindset of some of the people that work there. I'm not sure if it's just my class or the training method we're going through, but I get the feeling that I'm the only one that really realizes that these people are just normal people who got caught. Normal people who may have had too much to drink one night. Everyone has done something worth getting in trouble for, and many of them go to prison, but that doesn't mean they are mere animals. Jeez.

I'm not saying I'm going to go and be buddy-buddy with all these guys. That's dangerous and against all kinds of policies. But they deserve basic respect.