PRISONS is a Discussion list open to current or former correctional and law enforcement employees. Its purpose is as an unmoderated discussion list featuring issues related to corrections.

Items discussed are security issues, employment security, wages, and other subjects related to the correctional field or just chat among fellow members. This list is available in real-time or digest form.

To subscribe, send a request to PREQUEST@PTSI.NET. You will receive a short questionaire requesting information about your corrections/law enforcement background. Return it to PREQUEST@PTSI.NET for subscription approval.

As this is a very new feature of the Break Room, I'm looking for more links to correctional facilities with websites and correctional officers' personal home pages.

Now, in case you're wondering just what the author of the Break Room knows about Corrections, let me explain: In 1976, I became a Correctional Officer at Soledad Prison -- more correctly called "Soledad Correctional Training Facility." I only lasted a year in that career -- and I grew up fast during those twelve months!

A lot has changed since the mid-'70s, believe me! But back then, it was a very tough time for female correctional officers -- particularly at a facility with a male inmate population. There were all sorts of lawsuits filed on behalf of the inmates, citing "cruel and unusual punishment" at "allowing" women corrections personnel access to the dorms and shower facilities. (Give me a break! I surely didn't want to sneak peeks at inmate genitals!)

I was assigned to Search & Escort duty for several months, and then to Culinary, so I've got some war-stories of my own about that year at Soledad.

In any case, my experiences in Corrections eventually led me to my current career in Public Safety Communications. For those of you who currently work at a prison facility -- minimum, medium, or maximum security -- believe me: You have a tough and dangerous job. Don't let anybody get away with calling you a highly paid "security guard" or anything like that. You put in your shift, and come home again, safe, every day -- only because those inmates haven't yet plotted the perfect method to ..... errrr... "mess" with you yet. They've got all the time of their sentence to think about ways to get over on the staff.