Just Another Naked Guy

Last week there was a guy who was banging his head on his cell door. Officers were called to help put him in the restraint chair. The lone female officer on the floor was on her break when the call came, so she was the last to arrive.

The inmate had stopped banging his head and someone was getting the chair, so there were just 4 officers waiting at his door to ensure that he wouldn’t start banging his head again. Physically he was fine, so immediate action wasn’t absolutely necessary.

The female officer rounded the corner into the unit and walked right up to his door… to see a completely naked man standing tall in his cell.

I don’t think I have ever seen anyone make an about-face so fast. I suppose it would have been friendly to let her know about the nakedness of the guy BEFORE she walked up to his door, but really there was no time. That’s what I tell myself anyway.

A couple of weeks ago we all switched shifts. I happened to go to Swingshift which is 4pm to midnight.  I don’t like swingshift much. It is when all of the inmates are awake and rambunctious. It also is the worst shift for my sleep schedule, due to some nasty insomnia.

Typically, I will come home at midnight and be in bed by around 2:30 or 3am. Sometimes, though, I can’t sleep, and end up staying awake until around 6, or I sometimes won’t sleep at all. These days are hell. I feel drunk all day and I can’t sleep even though I am tired to the point of nausia.

Two days after my shift switch, I was scheduled to attend a CPR class at 8am. I didn’t get to sleep until 6am and I totally forgot about my class. I would have called in sick if I had remembered, but I didn’t remember, so I didn’t call. At noon, when I got up, Jamie told me that a woman from work called… and it all came to me. I had missed the class, and didn’t call in… I am screwed. Step one complete.

Oh wait, did I mention that I overslept about a month before that and was late by about an hour. That can’t help when it comes to my disciplinary action. WOW, I am so screwed.

On to step two.

I came to work today to find out that I forgot to hit one of my area buttons. For the uninitiated, the buttons alert the administrators when I forget to check in on an area in the prescribed amount of time.

I was doing towel exchange on the top level of an area and didn’t check the doors on the bottom level before I left. In my defense, I was doing towel exchange and personal laundry, so I was a bit distracted. However, I am paid to do my job… all of it, not just parts of it. End step two.

What I find interesting is after all the times I complain about my job, the only thing that ever gets me into hot water is me.

Tonight wasn’t too bad. It was relatively quiet, and I was the cell check officer, so inmates weren’t able to badger me too much. All in all, a pretty good night.

Except for the old lady. This old lady wasn’t the normal disheveled looking lady. She was brought in for Assault 4th degree. She had apparently/allegedly assaulted someone… twice. She was brought to jail in her blue flannel pajamas, and wasn’t overly drunk. She was a bit demanding at booking and I found myslelf getting frustrated by her. She eventually became outright rude by the end of the booking process with had an air of annoyance that filtered her every word.

I think the thing that bothered me was the fact that she didn’t look like the normal inmate. She looked like a normal person but acted like an inmate, and I think that bothered me. She could have been my mother or aunt, but she acted like a 18 year old brat instead.

I know, I know. I should probably let it go and just chock it up to “the Job”. (That’s what this cathartic blog is for) I know that I should probably just “take it”, and not let it get to me, but sometimes I just can’t help being a little bothered, and for some reason this lady got to me.