After spending 10 years of my life around people with whom I was directly connected to but whom really didn't give a dam about my well being was educating and enhancing and it had a devastating effect on my future. I went from being blessed to just cursed beyond repair. CO's are people just like you and me. They have to work to make a living and if it weren't for the prison some of them would be homeless in the streets themselves. They are human beings when they empathize and show a minute amount of compassion for the inmate as well as when they don't but these everyday people are subject to the same woes of everyday life that is why most of them spend the majority if not all their time on the inside, by choice, like an inmate becoming institutionalized by a naturally hostile work environment. The hostility of the environment becomes apparent when an inmate for no apparent reason burst out in a violent rage verbally or physically. The hostility of the environment becomes apparent when the CO attacks an inmate for no justified reason. Our environment shapes us and when we spend long hours and days in a prison environment we become like our Veterans over seas. We become overly alert, overly cautious, and overly aware with the hostility of the environment taking its toll on the individual psyche. Sometimes even after we are released we have a tendency to hear the voices of those of whom had the greatest impact on our lives during our time in their custody. Overall the difference is only the side we stand on; friend or foe; inmate or officer. With the right people, in the right place, at the right time, doing dam near perfect stuff what do you think would be the outcome?
Time is the ultimate enemy to both sides and how we spend it is almost like how we spend our money. Maybe, maybe not but budgeting is something we all struggle to do whether we have not enough, enough, or more than enough We just don't know what to do with all of it.
