LIFE AND TIMES OF A CORRECTIONAL OFFICER
By R. Mark ShepardI have said before, protecting the public is the Main concern of the Department of Corrections. Most of the escapes from any prison consist of an inmate, that just walks away from an outside work squad. Those are the inmates the public sees working along the side of the road who have supposedly earned the right to be outside of the Prison fences with the public. These inmates usually have very little time left on their sentence.
All outside work squads consist of 1 Correctional officer, and about 4 to 5 inmates. An inmate who has earned the right to be on a work squad, may decide on his own that it is time to take it upon himself to see the Countryside, and just walk away when the officer is not looking. And yes, he has undoubtedly planned this far in advance. But there are those other inmates who have a spontaneous instinct about them, and just get tired of it all, no matter how little time is left on his sentence, and just walk away.
No matter what rank officer you are, you always think of the worst possible thing that could happen, or what the inmate would do to someone when he is desperate and running for his Life.
When the call comes through from the Work Squad Officer that an inmate has walked away (escaped), there is a bit of time that elapses because of the procedures that the Institution has to follow. After everyone has been contacted, and it is verified that an inmate has actually escaped, and everyone is put into place, the Hunt begins.
One day, this particular inmate walked away from his work squad but had no idea where he was or where he was going. He ran until he found a small mobile home development, and still not knowing what he was doing or where he was about to go, and not even knowing his own motive, this inmate broke into a mobile home and apparently went straight for the liquor cabinet.
By now there were as many officers as possible beating the brush, the K-9 unit was working it's dogs, the Sheriffs' Office was conducting road blocks, stopping vehicles with the help of the Highway Patrol, and Correctional Officers in Vehicles were searching the area that the inmate fled from.
The Colonel and a Sergeant had left the Prison headed for the Main road. Approximately 2 miles from the Institution, they noticed a black man riding a bicycle on this road. Having Photo Circulars of the escaped inmate in their hand, the Colonel and the sergeant could not believe their eyes, there he was!
The inmate had broken into this mobile home, and taken a bottle of liquor. The only transportation he could find was a bicycle and he was fleeing to freedom. The inmate was traveling south on the main road, drinking his stolen 5th of liquor, enjoying the view, thinking he was headed south, going to Miami. But when he turned left onto the road, he had inadvertently headed back to the Institution, ignoring the Big Green Sign that says, "Correctional Institution".
Of course the Colonel and the sergeant grabbed the inmate from the bicycle, handcuffed him and gave him a free ride back to the Prison Institution. This particular inmate had a total of 2 months left on his entire sentence. Like I said, some inmates plan their escapes, and some DON'T.
Then there are inmates who have become Institutionalized. These are people who have been in prison for a long period of time: We call them repeat offenders, and I mean repeat offenders. These people actually love the Prison life because they have a life time partner inside that they cannot live without, they become adapted to the way of life inside: Three meals a day, free medical, free dental, not much work, and their Partner, otherwise known as their daddy, cannot live without them.
One particular inmate who was a repeat offender, begged and pleaded with his classification officer to put him on an outside work squad. The Classification officer was very reluctant because this inmate had been on work squads before and had walked away from them before. The inmate promised the classification officer that he would 'Never do that again', that he wanted a chance to prove himself and get out one day and make something of himself. The Classification Officer and the Assistant Superintendent reviewed his case and felt that he deserved a chance, ONE MORE TIME. This inmate was called out to the back gate, and released to an outside squad once again.
That DAY, once again, that same inmate walked away (escaped) from the work squad. This inmate knew what he was doing, because he only wanted to be out for a short period of time before he wanted to be caught. It was about 2 to 3 months before they caught up with him. Naked on the beach 60 to 70 miles north of the Prison Institution.
When questioned by the investigators, as to why he did it again, he told them he had escaped to make sure he would get more time, because he could not live on the outside away from his prison daddy.
The inmate was immediately transported to another prison in North Florida. This did not bother him to be separated from his daddy, because he told me that one day he would meet up with him somewhere in the system, and they would be back together again.
CONTACT MARK SHEPARD
markshepard2003@yahoo.com
