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Well, clearly I'm just a big ol meanyhead and I should just be oh so ashamed of myself.
Of course, it could be that there is more to the story than what I shared. So perhaps we can put down the torches and pitchforks for a moment here and I can shed some light on the circumstances surrounding my latest crop of stories.
Honestly, I couldn't care less what's on the TV when the inmates are out. I truly couldn't. For the record, I don't watch the TV. It's background noise as far as I'm concerned. I am generally at my desk, which is about 30 feet away from the TV, where I am keeping an eye on 30 or so convicted criminals who ARE watching the TV (as well as the ones playing chess/cards/whatever, talking on one of the phones, getting books off the book carts, in the showers, cleaning their cells, visiting on doors, or just walking around aimlessly). Once an hour, I make a round of all cells on both floors, then it's back to the desk. The desk in right in the middle of everything, and it's the best vantage point to keep an eye on everything that's going on.
There are two reasons why I refused and have continued to refuse to allow them to watch basketball. First of all, we noticed over a period of 10 days or so that it was the same guys every night who came up to the desk wanting to watch the game. I rotated into this house in about the middle of April. Since doing so, my personal policy was I'd change the channel once per Dayroom period, and there are four 55-minute periods. If, by some chance, basketball wasn't on, the next group to come out would see one of the same guys in each group come running up to the desk to ask me to switch to the game. Some of the other guys started to wise up, so if the game was already on, they'd come over and ask me to put it on a different channel (usually FX so they could watch part of a movie).
Here's what I was noticing. The guy who got the one and only channel change for his group would find himself surrounded by the sports fans. After a few minutes, he'd come back to the desk and say something along the lines of "We've all seen this movie, you can put it back on the game." I had developed a reasonable suspicion that the guys were being strong-armed into watching basketball.
But, why would they be so petty as to threaten others into watching a ballgame? A few of them probably had money on the game. They don't have cash-in-hand in prison, but they have accounts that their families and friends can put money in. And when they owe someone money, they have their friends and family put money in their debtor's account to prevent getting their asses kicked. They can also exchange property, though in the house I work in they are severely limited on what they can have. Blowjobs are also a pretty common form of currency.
I don't believe that many guys are gambling where I work, though. It's about establishing dominance. It's a "my house, my rules" type of mentality. If one guy, or one group, can establish their position as the alpha(s), everyone else sees that it is their territory and they make the rules. I see this happen over and over and over again.
The other reason I put my foot down was because my sargent simply doesn't allow them to watch any sports, any time, period. Most days I work on the other side of the house, by myself, but I do occasionally work with her on her side. It makes no difference to me, but she's my boss and I need to run things her way so that everything is consistent. I don't always agree with my sargents, and different OIC's have different expectations, but I do my best to follow what each individual superior demands from me depending on who I answer to.
There's another reason, I suppose. Where I work is called the "Reception and Diagnostic Unit," or RDU. It's where inmates live for the first 6-8 weeks of their incarceration while they are assessed and assigned a custody level based on their crime, behavior, mental health issues, and how much trouble they do or do not get into. Once they get their custody level, they are sent out to other facilities or the General Population at my facility. RDU is a different beast. We have specialized guidelines and procedures because we are dealing with "unclassified" inmates. Some of them will be Minimum custody and not bother anyone. Some of them are future Max/Segregation superstars who will raise all kinds of hell. We take different precautions, we have tighter behavioral rules, and we are far more strict than anywhere else in the facility. It is against the rules, in RDU to talk or otherwise make noise in your cell that can be heard outside your cell. So I have to get on them about talking to loud, or shouting, or whatever. Do I personally care? Not really, I've spent most of the 5 years I've been out there working in Segregation, and those guys never stop hollering at each other or at us. But thems the rules, and therefore I will warn the noisemakers to knock it off or I won't allow them to come out when it's their Dayroom period.
So, with all that in mind, let's talk about basketball. We have a man come up to the desk at the start of the Dayroom asking me to put the TV on basketball. While dealing with handing out spray bottles of cleaners, chess boards, decks of cards, and taking the ID's of all the guys borrowing those things, I tell him no. He proceeds to ask me why. I tell him because I said no. I can see the indignant look of disbelief on his face and before he says another word, I tell him I'm tired of them watching basketball. He asks why, I point out that I am the officer in charge of the floor and I said no, which is also part of the rules of RDU. Not 2 minutes later, here comes another guy, who is buddies with the first one. And we go round and round again.
By this point it has occurred to me that they seem to think we're having a power struggle. Because these guys who think they're running something are now being told "no," in front of everyone, by a female. So they get more aggressive, I get more dirty looks, and I can see that my lack of caring what was on the TV for the past couple of weeks was mistaken for compliance, and also seen as an unspoken submission to their supposed dominance.
Now, several comments were made in which I said I was tired of basketball. Those were general statements. But at one point, yet another inmate puts words in my mouth saying that I said I was "tired of watching basketball." I said I was. I see now this is where I goofed. I should have clarified, I suppose, that I don't watch the TV. As I said, I have other things to tend to and it's just background noise to me (or perhaps background imagery, since there's so much other noise going on that you can't even hear it unless you happen to be within 6 feet of it).
The fact is, I had my reasons for not turning the TV to the ballgame. As stated above, I believed some of the inmates were being strong-armed into watching it. Actually, I meant to comment on this after the story where an inmate said " If we all want to watch the game, then I don't see why not," as this comment was made after he made sure everyone agreed with him. But what it comes down to is this: I was taking ownership of the word "no." It's not like I'm going to start throwing accusations and say, "No, because you and your friends are threatening everyone." I'm not obligated to give them a reason. I don't have to explain myself. So when they want to argue, when they want to make a huge deal out of something petty, I own it. "Because it's what I want." Because I said so." They don't need to know why I made a decision, just that I made one. Not because of what my boss said, not because of the facility itself or any outside influence other than the fact that I said so.
I try to give a little background info for my stories, because most people don't know what it's like in prison. But sometimes I forget that, sometimes I fail to realize that it may not be as funny if you're on the outside looking in. Maybe I should have provided more detail behind what was going on. Maybe I should have mentioned that for every story where some guy was fighting me about putting the stupid game on, someone quietly thanked me for not making them watch another basketball game.
Anyway, hopefully this all clears the air a little. It's probably more defensive than I intended it to be, just as my post apparently made me look nastier than I am. Take it as you will. Let the lynching of my character and integrity continue if it must.
Of course, it could be that there is more to the story than what I shared. So perhaps we can put down the torches and pitchforks for a moment here and I can shed some light on the circumstances surrounding my latest crop of stories.
Honestly, I couldn't care less what's on the TV when the inmates are out. I truly couldn't. For the record, I don't watch the TV. It's background noise as far as I'm concerned. I am generally at my desk, which is about 30 feet away from the TV, where I am keeping an eye on 30 or so convicted criminals who ARE watching the TV (as well as the ones playing chess/cards/whatever, talking on one of the phones, getting books off the book carts, in the showers, cleaning their cells, visiting on doors, or just walking around aimlessly). Once an hour, I make a round of all cells on both floors, then it's back to the desk. The desk in right in the middle of everything, and it's the best vantage point to keep an eye on everything that's going on.
There are two reasons why I refused and have continued to refuse to allow them to watch basketball. First of all, we noticed over a period of 10 days or so that it was the same guys every night who came up to the desk wanting to watch the game. I rotated into this house in about the middle of April. Since doing so, my personal policy was I'd change the channel once per Dayroom period, and there are four 55-minute periods. If, by some chance, basketball wasn't on, the next group to come out would see one of the same guys in each group come running up to the desk to ask me to switch to the game. Some of the other guys started to wise up, so if the game was already on, they'd come over and ask me to put it on a different channel (usually FX so they could watch part of a movie).
Here's what I was noticing. The guy who got the one and only channel change for his group would find himself surrounded by the sports fans. After a few minutes, he'd come back to the desk and say something along the lines of "We've all seen this movie, you can put it back on the game." I had developed a reasonable suspicion that the guys were being strong-armed into watching basketball.
But, why would they be so petty as to threaten others into watching a ballgame? A few of them probably had money on the game. They don't have cash-in-hand in prison, but they have accounts that their families and friends can put money in. And when they owe someone money, they have their friends and family put money in their debtor's account to prevent getting their asses kicked. They can also exchange property, though in the house I work in they are severely limited on what they can have. Blowjobs are also a pretty common form of currency.
I don't believe that many guys are gambling where I work, though. It's about establishing dominance. It's a "my house, my rules" type of mentality. If one guy, or one group, can establish their position as the alpha(s), everyone else sees that it is their territory and they make the rules. I see this happen over and over and over again.
The other reason I put my foot down was because my sargent simply doesn't allow them to watch any sports, any time, period. Most days I work on the other side of the house, by myself, but I do occasionally work with her on her side. It makes no difference to me, but she's my boss and I need to run things her way so that everything is consistent. I don't always agree with my sargents, and different OIC's have different expectations, but I do my best to follow what each individual superior demands from me depending on who I answer to.
There's another reason, I suppose. Where I work is called the "Reception and Diagnostic Unit," or RDU. It's where inmates live for the first 6-8 weeks of their incarceration while they are assessed and assigned a custody level based on their crime, behavior, mental health issues, and how much trouble they do or do not get into. Once they get their custody level, they are sent out to other facilities or the General Population at my facility. RDU is a different beast. We have specialized guidelines and procedures because we are dealing with "unclassified" inmates. Some of them will be Minimum custody and not bother anyone. Some of them are future Max/Segregation superstars who will raise all kinds of hell. We take different precautions, we have tighter behavioral rules, and we are far more strict than anywhere else in the facility. It is against the rules, in RDU to talk or otherwise make noise in your cell that can be heard outside your cell. So I have to get on them about talking to loud, or shouting, or whatever. Do I personally care? Not really, I've spent most of the 5 years I've been out there working in Segregation, and those guys never stop hollering at each other or at us. But thems the rules, and therefore I will warn the noisemakers to knock it off or I won't allow them to come out when it's their Dayroom period.
So, with all that in mind, let's talk about basketball. We have a man come up to the desk at the start of the Dayroom asking me to put the TV on basketball. While dealing with handing out spray bottles of cleaners, chess boards, decks of cards, and taking the ID's of all the guys borrowing those things, I tell him no. He proceeds to ask me why. I tell him because I said no. I can see the indignant look of disbelief on his face and before he says another word, I tell him I'm tired of them watching basketball. He asks why, I point out that I am the officer in charge of the floor and I said no, which is also part of the rules of RDU. Not 2 minutes later, here comes another guy, who is buddies with the first one. And we go round and round again.
By this point it has occurred to me that they seem to think we're having a power struggle. Because these guys who think they're running something are now being told "no," in front of everyone, by a female. So they get more aggressive, I get more dirty looks, and I can see that my lack of caring what was on the TV for the past couple of weeks was mistaken for compliance, and also seen as an unspoken submission to their supposed dominance.
Now, several comments were made in which I said I was tired of basketball. Those were general statements. But at one point, yet another inmate puts words in my mouth saying that I said I was "tired of watching basketball." I said I was. I see now this is where I goofed. I should have clarified, I suppose, that I don't watch the TV. As I said, I have other things to tend to and it's just background noise to me (or perhaps background imagery, since there's so much other noise going on that you can't even hear it unless you happen to be within 6 feet of it).
The fact is, I had my reasons for not turning the TV to the ballgame. As stated above, I believed some of the inmates were being strong-armed into watching it. Actually, I meant to comment on this after the story where an inmate said " If we all want to watch the game, then I don't see why not," as this comment was made after he made sure everyone agreed with him. But what it comes down to is this: I was taking ownership of the word "no." It's not like I'm going to start throwing accusations and say, "No, because you and your friends are threatening everyone." I'm not obligated to give them a reason. I don't have to explain myself. So when they want to argue, when they want to make a huge deal out of something petty, I own it. "Because it's what I want." Because I said so." They don't need to know why I made a decision, just that I made one. Not because of what my boss said, not because of the facility itself or any outside influence other than the fact that I said so.
I try to give a little background info for my stories, because most people don't know what it's like in prison. But sometimes I forget that, sometimes I fail to realize that it may not be as funny if you're on the outside looking in. Maybe I should have provided more detail behind what was going on. Maybe I should have mentioned that for every story where some guy was fighting me about putting the stupid game on, someone quietly thanked me for not making them watch another basketball game.
Anyway, hopefully this all clears the air a little. It's probably more defensive than I intended it to be, just as my post apparently made me look nastier than I am. Take it as you will. Let the lynching of my character and integrity continue if it must.
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