- Joined
- Jan 18, 2017
I'm trying to distract myself from my 80 hour workweek so I'll take a break to tell another anecdote.
I used to be a correctional officer, and the facility I worked at housed remanded inmates so we got all the newly arrested subjects off the street. I was working a unit in right in admissions and discharge (where they housed short term stays as well as overflow inmates until they could find another placement for them) and they brought in this Polish dude who didn't speak a word of English and assigned him to my unit. He had been taken down by a police dog which had bit his hand.
Now, the police should have checked the guy's hand out, given him medical attention, and signed off on that when admitting him. The COs responsible for his admission should likewise have checked him out and referred him to medical. But no, everyone up until the point he was dumped on me was either lazy or idiotic.
Shortly after they put the guy in (I didn't know about/notice the hand because injured and untreated inmates aren't supposed to be dumped into a goddamn unit) I went to do my unit round and another inmate came up to me and told me about the injury and said the guy really needed to get checked out. I examined the hand and it was bad; red and puffy with an obvious bite. I tried to reassure the Polish guy and communicate he'd get medical attention (to the best of my ability since I'm not a bloody translator) and thanked the inmate who brought it to my attention and likewise told him I'd inform medical and get him checked out.
I got back to the staff station and used the comm system to call medical. I barely got to say a thing while the psycho nurse berated me about how busy they were (I suspect it's because nursing grads are in demand enough they could work elsewhere and nobody wants to work in prisons, but we consistently had the worst, bitchiest, most nutcase nurses possible there). In spite of the bullshit, I did make sure to convey that the inmate's hand had been bitten by a police dog and needed to be checked out as soon as they had time.
The hours passed. Periodically I had an inmate come up to the staff station and express how pissed off they were that no medical assistance had been rendered, and that the guy was going to lose his hand. The hand got increasingly puffy and disgusting and swelled up to literally twice its initial size. I repeatedly contacted medical to request assistance and update them on the severity of the injury, and was screamed at in louder and more hostile terms every time. I tried speaking to other COs, including floor supervisors, and they claimed that the inmate was fucking with me and spoke perfect English and not to be a pussy bitch and get manipulated by inmates (when I could see the goddamn hand inflating like a balloon). The unit got tenser and tenser to the point where I felt a riot could break out at any point.
Finally, literally at the end of my shift, during the count (when the inmate count is confirmed during a shift change before the COs whose shifts are ending can leave) a nurse came down. For context, the inmate was admitted near the beginning of my 8 hour shift. The nurse took a look at the inmate for literally a second before screaming at me "this man needs to go to the hospital IMMEDIATELY!" in an incredulous tone, as if I was the fucking negligent idiot here and not the one who had been asking and begging and arguing with her to throw me a fucking bone and spend a minute checking this guy out for the entire goddamn shift. I was absolutely furious.
Because she waited until the count and no inmate movement was allowed during the count, the guy then needed to wait another half hour before they could take him out and bring him to the hospital (I had to wait around, unpaid of course, but that's definitely a secondary issue). I already hated that job but this was the moment when it became clear to me that quitting wasn't a matter of preference but necessity; the internal call system was not recorded and there was absolutely no doubt that if that guy lost his hand I'd be made the fall guy. Fuck that job, fuck the cops that brought that guy in, fuck the COs that admitted him, fuck the nurses that ignored me and pretended the lack of care was my fault, and fuck the supervisors who likewise ignored me and ridiculed my attempts to actually do my job unlike literally everyone else there.
Now, the police should have checked the guy's hand out, given him medical attention, and signed off on that when admitting him. The COs responsible for his admission should likewise have checked him out and referred him to medical. But no, everyone up until the point he was dumped on me was either lazy or idiotic.
Shortly after they put the guy in (I didn't know about/notice the hand because injured and untreated inmates aren't supposed to be dumped into a goddamn unit) I went to do my unit round and another inmate came up to me and told me about the injury and said the guy really needed to get checked out. I examined the hand and it was bad; red and puffy with an obvious bite. I tried to reassure the Polish guy and communicate he'd get medical attention (to the best of my ability since I'm not a bloody translator) and thanked the inmate who brought it to my attention and likewise told him I'd inform medical and get him checked out.
I got back to the staff station and used the comm system to call medical. I barely got to say a thing while the psycho nurse berated me about how busy they were (I suspect it's because nursing grads are in demand enough they could work elsewhere and nobody wants to work in prisons, but we consistently had the worst, bitchiest, most nutcase nurses possible there). In spite of the bullshit, I did make sure to convey that the inmate's hand had been bitten by a police dog and needed to be checked out as soon as they had time.
The hours passed. Periodically I had an inmate come up to the staff station and express how pissed off they were that no medical assistance had been rendered, and that the guy was going to lose his hand. The hand got increasingly puffy and disgusting and swelled up to literally twice its initial size. I repeatedly contacted medical to request assistance and update them on the severity of the injury, and was screamed at in louder and more hostile terms every time. I tried speaking to other COs, including floor supervisors, and they claimed that the inmate was fucking with me and spoke perfect English and not to be a pussy bitch and get manipulated by inmates (when I could see the goddamn hand inflating like a balloon). The unit got tenser and tenser to the point where I felt a riot could break out at any point.
Finally, literally at the end of my shift, during the count (when the inmate count is confirmed during a shift change before the COs whose shifts are ending can leave) a nurse came down. For context, the inmate was admitted near the beginning of my 8 hour shift. The nurse took a look at the inmate for literally a second before screaming at me "this man needs to go to the hospital IMMEDIATELY!" in an incredulous tone, as if I was the fucking negligent idiot here and not the one who had been asking and begging and arguing with her to throw me a fucking bone and spend a minute checking this guy out for the entire goddamn shift. I was absolutely furious.
Because she waited until the count and no inmate movement was allowed during the count, the guy then needed to wait another half hour before they could take him out and bring him to the hospital (I had to wait around, unpaid of course, but that's definitely a secondary issue). I already hated that job but this was the moment when it became clear to me that quitting wasn't a matter of preference but necessity; the internal call system was not recorded and there was absolutely no doubt that if that guy lost his hand I'd be made the fall guy. Fuck that job, fuck the cops that brought that guy in, fuck the COs that admitted him, fuck the nurses that ignored me and pretended the lack of care was my fault, and fuck the supervisors who likewise ignored me and ridiculed my attempts to actually do my job unlike literally everyone else there.
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