The door to the cell block's control booth has a small rectangular opening. It has a hinged flap through which, more often than not, a female correctional officer will push institutional forms and memorandums for prisoners to read or fill out.
There is a Plexiglass window above the opening. The bars do not block the officer’s view of the cell block. Once posted inside the control booth the officer’s primary duty is to operate the control panel (here read, push the buttons that electronically open cell gates inside the cell block).
It is February 21, 2010; since it is a Sunday, there will be no incoming mail for the control booth officer to pass out. Correctional Officer, First Grade (COI) Patrick is in the booth today.
I should note too, that COI Patrick is one of a few female officers at the Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison who chooses to conduct herself in a genuinely professional manner.
Let me clarify that: I have always found her to be civil, respectful and dignified in her interactions with prisoners. Consequently, it is fairly easy for us to reciprocate despite the fact that dignity has to duck a lot of punches around here.
COI Patrick’s humanity is such that she never fails to recognise ours. Unfortunately, the unprofessional behavior of the majority of her colleagues (be they male or female) suggest that they have lost touch with their own humanity, which greatly reduces their ability to see a prisoner as a human being. In many ways their self-made-prison is far worse than the one us prisoners are forced to live and die in.
Those readers who would like to know more about the absence of humanity currently being demonstrated by the majority of the men and women who work at the GD + CP should be on the lookout for this author’s next book which will be published later this year: it is titled the humanity of prisoners.
Brandon A Jones can be reached at:
UNO#400574
Georgia Diagnostic Classification Prison
P. O. Box 3877
Jackson, Georgia 30233
USA
Attention Editor
Copyright ©2010
All rights reserved by
Brandon Astor Jones
Word count 341 (including name and address)
Composition date: February 21 2010-03-16
21:00 hours
