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

(Chapter 14)

Getting away from the Close Management Unit for a while, the State, as I had said earlier had taken one the regular housing units and turned it into a C.S.U. Unit (Crisis Stabilization Unit) and a T.C.U. Unit (Transitional Care Unit). The whole house had to be totally renovated so that an inmate could be cared for who was suspected to have, or did actually have a Mental Problem.

This Institution had enough problems within itself already, without adding the criminally insane. Also the fact that I guess the Public was on a need to know basis about the Mental Unit, and believe me, they did not need to know.

The windows to the doors of the cells were enlarged in each and every cell. Plexiglas was added on the outside of the stairs going up from the floor, to the second floor, so the inmate could not jump from the stairs, and Plexiglas was added all the way around the second floor, so an inmate could not jump, or throw an officer or a staff member from that floor.

The State required that the whole housing unit and every cell be air-conditioned because of the dosage of the Psychotropic Medication that an inmate would take. They wanted the psychologically disturbed inmate to be as comfortable as possible, with the public tax dollars hard at work.

Along with the addition of the Air, each and every cell had a camera so they could be monitored from the nurse’s station.

This opened a whole new can of worms for the staff of the Mental health unit. In the summertime, the heat index which usually ranged from 90 degrees plus, to over a 100 degrees, and the humidity at a steady 100%, amazingly changed the seemingly quite normal inmate, who had been dealing with prison life for quite sometime, into someone who all of a sudden started hearing voices and having some strange behavioral problems. You know where I am going with this, right? That new found air conditioning the inmates were hearing about was sounding pretty good, especially in the summertime. I'll get back to that in a little bit.

The state went as far as to close down one of the open bay dorms, which held approximately 150 inmates, renovated it, and turned that into the offices for the Psyche Specialists. All of this Money from the State just all of a sudden flowed in to help the Poor Mentally Challenged inmate who was having a hard time coping with the self-inflicted life that he had set for himself from the outside world.

Think about the cost that the state just endured, hiring 20 Psychological Specialists, half as many assistants for them, Secretaries, transcriptionists, security staff, the Nurses that it would take to run a Unit of that size which would be employed with about 8 Registered Nurses, a handful of Licensed Practical Nurses on every shift, and the extra number of Security Staff Officer’s that the unit would have to supply for every shift to keep the nurses and outside staff safe. Also that's not counting the renovation of both housing units, and the cost of just buying the Medication alone just for this one prison. And they were doing this all over the state at other institutions, costing hundreds of millions of dollars.

It took years for a Correctional Officer to get an increase in their wages so he or she could live without working 2 jobs, just to make it. And my point is? How did the state come up with this new found money for these inmates with your tax dollars? Where did it come from? You are paying for an inmate to receive Free personalized and professional care from a Certified Psychiatrist, and also receive Free Psychotropic Medication, as much as it takes to make him a productive and normal inmate again, not a person getting out of prison, but just so he can adapt to prison life. I cannot and will not give false judgment about the psyche Doctors, and would never judge him or her in any way. I would say about one quarter to one half of the doctors in this unit are well aware of the game that the inmate plays to get into this Unit. I know the Doctors are well trained and well versed about the way of life of the inmate and his incarceration. But, there are those who still have that wonderful human feeling and trend of thought that not all people are bad who come to prison, and that not all people can go through life - or in this case, prison life - and not be depressed, sad, lonely, and having a hard time from their endeavors. That's a bunch of crap!.

Just think: You can go to prison, get out and receive not only a Certified Government welfare check, but also another check from the government for just taking this awful tasting medication that was handed to you, Free of charge, by the Department of Corrections. Isn't that great?! More taxpayers are feeling quite proud right about now. So now, why would you need to leave the house and get that honest productive job that would make you a well adjusted model Citizen, Right?.

Please, don't get me wrong. There are people who actually need the Help and Medication that is offered to them by the state to treat them for their Mental Illness. There are quite a few people that come to prison that are Mentally Unstable. After all, that's how they got in trouble on the street. They could not adjust or handle themselves without their medication that I am sure that they could not afford to buy, nor could they handle any of the problems of the outside world, or hold down a job, or for that matter, some of the Mentally Disturbed people could not even get a job because of their Mental Disability, So who do we BLAME?

When an inmate is brought to this institution, he is given the best treatment available, and if his treatments and medication are not successful, he is transferred to the Main State Mental Prison in Chattahoochee where the check book is even bigger to help the inmate. If the inmate becomes stable enough, he is Transferred back to the institution he came from, and if he is transferred back and doesn't like it there and he hurts himself, the cycle begins all over again.

The inmates who receive Psychotropic medication now has quadrupled from that of, let's say 1995. The scam I mentioned, grows more and more every year, and YES, this is true.

CONTACT MARK SHEPARD
markshepard2003@yahoo.com