LIFE AND TIMES OF A CORRECTIONAL OFFICER
By R. Mark Shepard

(Chapter 13)

While working in the Close Management unit one evening, an Inmate orderly informed Sgt. Tom and myself that he saw an inmate trying to hang himself. We went to the cell and saw this inmate with the cord from his laundry bag wrapped around his neck, tied at the top of the bunk, trying to hang himself. 

With another officer present, I began to untie the rope from around his neck. As I started to untie the cord, the inmate jumped up and with a closed fist, hit me in the face. Startled for just a second, I grabbed the inmate by his upper body, and slammed, OOP’s, I mean, placed him on the floor, face first.

We started to wrestle with him for a few seconds, but with myself weighing close to the 300 pound mark and the inmate weighing in close to 130 pounds, he was not a problem at this point. 

Sgt. Tom and the Officer assisted me in placing his hands behind his back and handcuffing him and placing leg irons on his ankles. Because the inmate had just tried to hang himself, not taking in account that he had just assaulted me, he was taken to the Mental Health Unit for observation. This inmate would eventually be placed back into the close management unit, where he would stay for another year or year and a half. 

This is just another case of an inmate who doesn't care enough whether or not he lives or dies. But when someone tries to help he would just as soon fight or hurt someone else. 

At the same time that this was going on, the Lieutenant had a team of four officers suited up in soft body armor, and was going in a cell where an inmate in the wing next to us had a piece of a broom handle, and was trying to break out the light fixture, so he could get to the light bulbs. These bulbs were to make an excellent weapon against the officers when they came into the cell to get him. This inmate was already agitated because the shift prior to our shift had used force on him for throwing a cup of urine on a Sergeant.

The door was opened and the extraction team immediately took care of business, disarming the inmate of the glass bulb and the broom stick, trying to calm him down. Needless to say, when they were done the inmate had no more energy to cause anymore problems. The team did an excellent job, with no causalities.

CONTACT MARK SHEPARD
markshepard2003@yahoo.com