OUTSIDE LOOKING IN

Hello my good friends come on in grab a cup of coffee and let Fish tell you about his 30 years in prison,working that is!

Before we getted started let me explain that behind the wall is a city.In those days everything that was needed was inside. We could exsist for several days without any outside contact. Our streets had names,just like any city. Main street was our main street, Back street was our back street. Our houses(buildings all had names). We had a check point(stop sgns). We had our industry.butcher shop,laundry, machine shop, mess hall (restaurant) also the commissary(store).

InMay 1970 I went to work for the Dept. of Correctionas as an Officer. Let me tell you that was an experience for a young man that had led a sheltered life:). My whole training consisted of going around with a Lt. on Main Street in the morning and on Back Street with another in the afternoon. The second day I spent 1 hour in each of the towers except the tower over the  North Gate.That was supposed to be a whole day training, not sure if I ever got the training but am sure I worked the post. The North Gate was where all our traffic came thru. It was also our receiving point for all new arrivals. It was complete with rail road tracks which was used to bring in coal for our power house. Also this post was heavily armed. Today a new Officer recieves 6 weeks training before they are ever in direct contact with the convicts.

After several months of tower duty, I was assigned to the segregation units as a relief officer. The seg units are where the bad boys are locked up.Now you ask aren't they all bad boys? They have all been convicted of a felony, but most just want to do their time and be left alone to pursue whatever peace they can find. But some don't really care. These are the ones that keep on stealing  raping, and yes also the killing goes on. These are the ones that must be locked away from the others. Segregation is  solitary confinment. They are not caged like animals. But they are allowed to get recreation. phone calls, visits and books to read also the have acccess to the law library. In my opinion the threat of excution is the only thing that keeps them from being worse than they are other wise they have nothing to fear.

Back then we only had  two or three officers assigned to a unit and we took care of almost all our problems that came up. Today if there is a problem all the help we need is available. Only once in all the time I worked the units did I ever feel that I was in any real danger and  I remember it well. A convict had to see the chaplin. When I took him to the chaplin he looked at him and asked his name and said "Your brother got killed in Saint Louis and you can't go to the funeral". With that he left the room well the con did not take the news well and proceded to raise  holy hell. Our convict clerk hit the emergency button and got us help in a hurry. The clerk was like a secretary, he did almost all our paper work as well as acting as the barber in most cases. The next morning the officer I was working with the day before and my self gave the chaplin a piece of our mind.

My next assigment was to the prison ward uptown. I was supposed to go there and shackle the convicts to the bed. They had just had  three escapes from there. I spent 23 miserable months on that duty. There I learned real quick how to deal with the public. Our office was a bath room ,  yep complete, with all the fixtures. Just before I left that assigment they installed the air conditioning duct. Then shortly they moved the ward to another hospital complete with a real prison ward.

My next assigment was working outside maintenance,  that is outside the walls. They had just fired the garage mechanic, carpenter, painter,plumber as well as the electrican. I also was in charge of the green house. My self as an officer wearing civilan clothes and a Captain ran the whole shebang. As time went on we got more help but it sure was  a mess for a while. While working this assigment the Warden was starting his own business venture of building private housing. So I quit and started building houses . In 1973 the bottom fell out of everything so in December  I returned to the prison . Shortly after returning there we had our only escape over the wall during my career there. also we had  a walk away from a farm detail which resulted in  a woman and her daughter getting killed and raped and another daughter getting raped which closed down the farm detail.

After returning  to the prison to work. Several occurences forced me to transfer to the midnight shift. Gas prices had gone sky high and my wife at the time had just broken her leg. There  I stayed until  May  1975. I did'nt like leaving her alone at night. There came an opening in the Tag shop. That is where the license plates are made as well as other kinds of tags it was also connected to the sign shop and cabinet shop. Our Industry department is self sufficent and is not suported by tax dollars. Working in the tag shop was an experience all its own. We were making the first graphic license plate for our state, that in itself presented all sorts of new problems but we finally got them done ,with lots of overtime worked.

In 1980 D.O.C.  had just converted a mental institution into a prison and I was asked to go down there and help set up the industry shops. When I got there they had a tailor shop set up and running . I helped set up a tire recapping shop, heavy equiptment shop, a furniture refurbishing shop, sign shop and a shop to rebuild palletts.  About 1983 I transfered back into coustody. Shortly after that they had an escape where some convicts drove a truck thru the fence. Also during my time there the previous  prison where I had worked had some hostage situtations And we were support staff for them.

In 1986 I transfered to a prison that had only been open about four years and here I will retire. I have never been sorry that I chose a career with the Department of Correction.Yes I get disgusted with all the politics that goes on but overall it has been good to me. I have never lost a minutes pay. And due to the fact that one can accumulate sick,vacation,and personal days I have some great insurance  against sickness or can take a nice vacation. We are a para military organization we have a uniform dress code. Some wear the uniform proudly and others not so proudly. I always wear my uniform with pride. I could talk for hours or write pages about all the things I have seen in our prison system. But in closing if anyone is interested in a great job with the best benefits I would suggest you check out the Department of Correction in your state.

fish16

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Two very old picturesof Indiana State Prison at Michigan City Indiana

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