View from the Inside...Lorne's Voice Pt. 7

My previous article briefly touched upon the wrongful behavior of Nevada correctional employees.  When I consider this topic, it occurs to me that there is a marked difference in the behavioral outlook as a whole between the staff of the norther and southern facilities.  In the north most employees are ethical, professional and of average to above average character.  Of course, there were always a few bad apples.  But in the South, poor ethics, professionalism and overall character seems to be the norm.  This division has existed at least since April 2000, which is when I had the misfortune of entering the Nevada penal system.

I did my "fish time" (the time an inmate serves at an intake while they are being medically examined, processed into the system and classified to an institution) at Southern Desert Correctional Center from April 2000 until September 2000.  I remember that almost every correctional officer with whom I interacted was verbally abusive and did everything they could get away with to make every legitimate task impossible or as difficult as possible for inmates to accomplish.  Some officers were physically abusive as well.  I remember David Horner and I were once physically abused by Correctional Officer Childress while we were on our knees facing a wall with our hands on top of our heads.  The physical abuse was relativly minor with no lasting effect but it was conducted because the officer was under the mistaken impression that we were sex offenders.  At the time I thought it was merely another dismal aspect of prison life and did nothing about it.

I resided at Lovelock Correctional Center, a northern facility from December 2000 until February 2006.  My experience with correctional staff was entirely different.  Officers were firm but polite, courteous and even friendly.  There were a handful of misery-inducers but we inmates knew who they were and their poor conduct was generally limited to rudeness and making inmates wait for things which they had coming to them.  The two worst offenders were Correctional Officers Crane (female) and Anderson (male) who were allegedly engaged in a relationship and of course wanted to work with each other.  They also enjoyed "searching" (trashing) inmate's cells, particularly those of inmates whom they didn't like for whatever reason, sometimes even if it was just because an inmate made a legitimate demand of them, such as a request form, or if an inmate was living too comfortably.  I personally never had a problem with either of these two, but when either of them were around, I laid low and stayed out of their way, even transferring housing units once to get away from Anderson in 2004.

I ended up at Nevada State Prison, which is also a northern facility, at the end of May 2006 and that is where I stayed until July 2011.  There were approximately twice as many bad apples there but by the end of 2008, only about half of them were left.  Those who were still there in 2009 were doozies, but as before, we knew who they were: Senior Correctional Officers Truesdell and Michael Cruse and Correctional Officers Franke, Murphy, Papke, Podesta and Sean Lagier.  All of them lived to trash cell just for the slightest provocation or even just on a whim.  My cell had never been searched more times than when Cruse worked my housing unit.  Cruse would go the extra mile, though, and do his best to convince administration officials to keep restricting the rules more and more, especially when it came to inmate personal property and the hobbycraft program.  And if administration didn't cooperate, Cruse would do what he wanted anyhow. 

Sean Lagier was just as bad.  He had a habit of confiscating, damaging and destroying legitimate inmate property during his cell searches and then threatening the inmates with disciplinary action on the altered/contraband/unauthorized items he found in the search if the inmates filed a grievance against him.  Several times, shift lieutenants told him to stay out of the workers housing units because of all the problems he caused and inmates he pissed off.  He possessed utter disdain for procedure and utter hatred for prisoners.  It was if it was his mission in life to save the world from us, as if he was the last soldier in the country's war against criminals.

Up until the end of my tenure there, I never had a problem with any of those guys.  I was never singled out by Cruse for anything; his shakedowns of my cell were part of training exercises for new recruits.  Podesta was even somewhat friendly to me.  But, Lagier finally got to me at the end of June 2011 and involved all the bad apples except for Cruse and Podesta.  Lagier confiscated my debit card information, destroyed my wallet, trashed my cell (it took me 9 hours to clean up my cell!) removed a bunch of my property from my cell, filed disciplinary action against me for some of it and deliberately failed to account for the rest of it.  I filed half a dozen or so grievances against Lagier and his cohorts and all of my grievances have been denied, or are about to be very soon, in the case of those still awaiting a response at the final stage of the process.

So, a month after all of that, I ended up back where I started, at good old SDCC.  The names are unfamiliar but the prevailing attitude is still the same as it was 12 years ago.  With some exception, the correctional staff here is rude and does everything possible to screw inmates out of what they're supposed to have.  For instance, as I alluded to in a previous article, there is one officer assigned to our housing unit who, although quite respectful, even friendly to me and a select few other inmates, fails to let us out of our cells for tier time on time with delays lasting as long as an hour.  If you need any forms, no matter how urgent, or need to use the stapler, do so on another shift because this officer won't do any of that unless you are one of those select few inmates with whom he's respectful and friendly.  That brings to mind another officer who only works our unit once in a blue moon but specifically tells each wing of the housing unit not to bother him for ANYTHING, no matter what or he will summon security and escort officer to shake down cells on the offending wing. 

(To be continued)