While I was confined in a high-security penitentiary, for example, I created a niche for myself by finding the right job. I worked in an office of the prison factory. My staff supervisor was a wonderful human being. She understood that I was striving to educate myself. Despite regulations of the prison system that blocked prisoners from reading or writing during the work day, she authorized me to study once I completed my assigned duties.

In many ways, that supervisor influenced who I am today. Because she provided a sanctuary, I was able to avoid the pressures that interfered with so many other prisoner adjustments. During the hours I spent at work, it was as if I were not in prison at all.

My supervisor’s relationship with me was personal. She treated me as a human being, as if I were a son or a younger brother. Her colleagues did not appreciate the special treatment she gave me, but she enough seniority that she could be indifferent to their influence. She was not interested in advancing her position, so she did not have to worry about evaluations from supervisors who said she coddled inmates. Newer or more ambitious staff members could not make such concessions.

I would not say my supervisor was truly dedicated to corrections. She was simply a nice human being, and she treated me with dignity and humanity. She was an exception to what I usually encountered, and she frequently expressed her disagreement with the policies of the penitentiary.

At a different stage of my confinement I served time under the leadership of a progressive warden. He believed in the power of incentives and encouraged prisoners to grow. He was very supportive of those in prison who prepared themselves for release; he created a culture within his prison that required staff members to do the same. Many staff rebelled. Three months after the warden retired, the staff quickly removed all incentives and turned the prison into a more oppressive environment that was consistent with other prisons in the federal system. Prisoners responded with a riot that caused more than $1 million in damages.

Administrators set the culture of every prison environment. They have a huge influence on prisoner adjustment patterns and on staff perceptions. Generally, I have not sensed much of an emphasis on corrections. Prisons are all about warehousing human beings. Those who take a personal interest in prisoners were the exceptions, and they were not well received by the system.

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When I began serving my sentence, in 1987, very few women worked as guards inside the penitentiary. Since then, prisons have changed their employment practices. Women work not only as secretaries and receptionists, but also as prison guards, lieutenants, captains, and even wardens. In fact, recently, the director of the entire federal prison system was a woman.

Women work inside the penitentiary in every capacity. They spend entire shifts in the midst of hardened felons. Administrators do not seem to take any special precautionary steps to protect female staff members from the volatility that can erupt inside prison environments. By working in the prison, all staff members accept the dangers that come with the assignment.

During the years that I have served, I have never known a female staff member to have been targeted for attack or any particular danger. There have been numerous incidents that I have known where female staff members are corrupted into inappropriate relationships with prisoners, though I have never known of a female staff member to suffer any dangers.

Female staff members have no less access to male prisoners than their male colleagues. Some female staff members supervise cadres of more than 20 inmate workers. Other female staff members work one-on-one with a male prisoner in a relatively secluded environment for more than a few hours; they have total autonomy to move through the prison just as males.

Staff members frequently carry transmitting radios that come equipped with panic buttons. Should they feel threatened, they may sound the alarm by pushing a button at their side, and scores of their fellow officers will rush to the area where the staff member is assigned. Recently, administrators have installed surveillance cameras that record the happenings at various spots around the institution. There are other control techniques to maintain security within the prison, yet during the more than 21 years that I have served, I have not noticed any particular attention made to protect female staff members more than their male counterparts. Everyone who staffs a prison is considered a professional, and the staff members support each other equally.

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