A guard^[1] at the Macon State Prison in Oglethorpe, Georgia wrote the following in response to our republication of Biggest Prison Protest In History Underway In Georgia (December, 2010).

"to anyone reading this post the inmatess rights this and that,these peole have murdered, raped,kidnap ped,sotomized so on and so on.this is not a countryclub nor a holiday in shut up you did the crime now do the time.the families that were victomized would also want things back the way they were before they got ripped apart by those convicts.i will tell you this nothing ever happened to them inmates that wasnt justified.the inmates have attacked the staff,jack on the female staff all actions were appropiriate for the situation.these so called friends and family members are bringing in contraband every weekend keep these cons so doped up that we can hardley do our job i could go on and on but im a law abiding citizen that wishes to let these animals have this prison crap so have no mersy on these animals."

The response to this guard at macon state and his subsequent reply are included in the author's notes below this article.^[2] Included here is an excerpt:

"My guess is that you grew up in a poor, underprivileged family, surrounded by criminal activity, without the opportunities enjoyed by the wealthier classes. As a result, you obtained the highest possible paying job available to someone with your background and education. That's not your fault either. That error is the responsiiblity of the State of Georgia. The state violates its responsibility every day by hiring people like you and then brainwashing them into thinking the way you think. This results in the abuse of prisoners, the high recidivism rate, a country with the highest prison population in the world and a society that is ever more plunged into violence and criminality. It also results in a society that is more and more subjected to a Police State where citizens are losing their constitutional rights faster than snow can melt on a sunny day."

"Now please do not make the mistake of thinking that I am speaking down to you. I came from a poor background and I worked in 2 state prisons (Tennessee and Pennsylvania) as a prison guard, transportation officer and counselor for a total of 8 years. I have been eye-witness to guards humiliating, beating and even murdering prisoners simply because they didn't like a particular prisoner or the prisoner didn't do their bidding - even when the guards' demands were illegal." (entire response and the guard's reply are provided in the author's notes below).

The Georgia Department of Corrections (DOC) for which the guard above works is one of the largest prison systems in the United States. Their Macon Prison was built in 1993, opened in 1994 and has a prison population (capacity) of 1,506 men. The Georgia DOC describes the security level at the Macon State Prison as "CLOSE," and states that the mission of this prison is to:

"Ensure public safety and effectively house offenders while operating a safe and secure facility by housing close security offenders."

The prison is comprised of "eight buildings each divided into two separate units with 48 cells per unit. One building's unit houses 46 isolation beds & two safe cells and the other unit houses 48 double occupancy cells (2 men to a cell) of segregation beds. Ten additional beds are at the Fire Station."

On their website, the Georgia DOC describes the following services available to their prisoners:

Academic: GED, ABE, LRR, and ESOL Counseling: Corrective Thinking, Family Violence, T4C, TOPPSTEP/Pre-Release, Morale Reconation (sic) Therapy, Reasoning & Rehab, Faith & Character Based Program Dorm, Heads Up, P4L, and M4C Recreation: General Recreation, Arts & Crafts Religious Activities: Worship Services, Marriage Enrichment, & Purpose Driven Life Vocational/OJT: Computer Operations, Horticulture, Food Service, Barbering, Laundry, Custodial Maintenance, Career Clerk, and General/Office Clerk Library & Education

Sounds good, doesn't it?

Well, at least it looks good. U.S. prisons are notoriously understaffed for non-security services like those boasted by state governments like that of Georgia and not all prisoners are free to use them as they want. The quality of prison services like these depend upon the workload and training of the providers and the hiring standards of prison administrators.

Employment Requirements for Correctional Officers

The guard's comment below (he refers to himself as a guard^[1]  - the Georgia DOC refers to him as Correctional Officer) reflects the hiring standards of most U.S. state prisons. The Georgia DOC states that it requires Correctional Officers to take a Post Entrance Exam for employment. Post Entrance suggests there is a screening process before the test is taken. They require a minimum score of 430 on the SAT for employment as a prison guard.^[3] In 2010 applicants for enrollment at the University of Georgia with scores of 500 in reading and 490 in writing were at the bottom 25% of all applicants.^[4]

According to the American Bar Association, the state has responsibility for the personal protection and safety of prisoners in their custody^[5]:

"Correctional authorities should protect prisoners from physical injury, corporal punishment, sexual assault, extortion, harassment, and personal abuse, among other harms ... promptly separating prisoners when one may be in danger from another preventing staff from tolerating, condoning, or implicitly or explicitly encouraging fighting, violence, bullying, or extortion regularly assessing prisoners’ level of fear of violence and responding accordingly to prisoners’ concerns."

Obviously, the state's hiring, training and supervisory practices are essential to those standards being met. We posit that the Georgia DOC cannot possibly meet these standards for personal safety, given their standards for hiring and training their correctional officers. Their failure to meet those standards may be reflected in the alleged abuse of prisoners by the seven correctional officers in December. At that time, the demands of the prisoners, state-wide, and Georgia's DOC reaction to them were described by The Nation Magazine:

"In Augusta State Prison, six or seven inmates were brutally ripped from their cells by CERT Team guards and beaten, resulting in broken ribs for several men, one man beaten beyond recognition. This brutality continues there. At Telfair, the Tactical Squad trashed all the property in inmate cells. At Macon State, the Tactical Squad has menaced the men for two days, removing some to the “hole,” and the warden ordered the heat and hot water turned off."

Associated Press, Jan 22, 2011 - The Georgia DOC suspended seven prison guards at the Macon State Prison last December due to allegations that they abused inmates during a prison lockdown. They were suspended with pay pending the outcome of an investigation. The state locked down four Georgia prisons in December for five days after discovering inmates were launching a protest to seek better work and living conditions. Inmates have alleged that guards used violence to get them out of their cells and back to work during that time. (Photo Courtesy of Ken_Mayer via Flickr.)

The Role of Prison Guards in U.S. Prisons

More important than the limited relationships inmates have with teachers, counselors and clergy are their relationships with guards. Anyone who has spent any time in prison, as an inmate or an employee, is aware that prisoners have far more time in contact with guards than counselors, teachers, recreational workers, clergy, work bosses or vocational workers. Guards live for at least 8 hours a day inside the buildings where prisoners go to sleep in their cages at night, wake up in the morning and spend much of their day, except when they are given passes to visit the prison school, law library, counselor, recreational areas, vocational training facility or church.

The guards are the ones who really know the prisoners' daily life, their habits, who are their cell mates, other prisoners with whom they interact, who are their friends and their enemies. They witness their emotional life, their anger, joy, sadness and grief. They talk to them through the bars of their cells. They shake down their cells to find contraband, see their girlie pictures on their walls, tear down the curtains they put across their bars for a little privacy, see them sit on their toilets, often take what few possessions they may have, hand them their opened letters from home during mail call and sometime know about their crimes inside prison. It's the guards who give them their passes and know who goes to church, the library, the school, the counselor and the exercise yard.

Most prisoners struggle for identity by having a prisoner seamstress put that little detail in their uniform, perhaps just a seam, or by decorating their cell with simple things that distinguish them from the others - but only when a guard will allow it. It's the guard who notices (or doesn't notice) someone who may be depressed or suicidal or may notice illnesses or see an injury from a beating or a stabbing that would otherwise go unreported. Sometimes it's the guard who forms an intimate relationship with a prisoner either for friendship or for gain, be it monetary (e.g. selling drugs) or even sexual. I remember one time when a guard was escorted out through the Control Center at the Tennessee State Prison, fired in shame before those of us working there, after another guard walked into a prison hospital ward and witnessed the guard giving oral sex to a prisoner.

One, Two, Three Plus Four

The judge said “one to three” but now
I got a dime, that came by way of a
little blood shed in my cell block
after school. Got no problem wit’
them takin’ what’s due for a thing
I did. Been their man since I broke
their law but I will never
be their lass.^[5]

So it's the guards who provide the primary contact with prisoners in terms of time spent with them and the nature of the prisoner's relationship with "the free world." Please consider this when reading the comment made by this poor guard at the Macon State Prison in Oglethorpe, Georgia. He is not to be despised and he is not unusual. Men like him are the ones who are hired and given responsibility for the security and welfare of prisoners in the United States. Prisoners in Tennessee used to tell me things like this, "Hey Yank, don't you realize that you're doing time here just like me? You gotta come here every day. Yeah, you get to go home for a few hours, spend some time with the old lady and people out there, but you gotta be back in here with me tomorrow."

Acts of loyalty, heroism, enmity, love, betrayal, compassion, violence, dominance & submission and many more occur every day in U.S. prisons and no doubt, in most prisons throughout the world. Prison life is a subculture. Everything that happens in "the free world" - is compressed and intensified - in a facility containing in this case, 1500 men. When I was working in prisons, inmates have teased me with, "Hey, we have everything you have except for women," and in their own way, they had their "women" too.

The guard at Macon State Prison who wrote the reader comment on Axis of Logic yesterday and again today describes his view of inmates which suggests his treatment of those who are in his custody. Whatever your reaction to his words, don't condemn him too harshly. He is just "doing time" like a lot of other workers in the capitalist world but he is doing his time in a prison. Like many prison guards, this man probably comes from a poor and underprivileged background just like the men in his charge. He also represents the education and mentality of those who are given responsibility by the state for the safety and treatment of U.S. prisoners.

The U.S. Prison System

U.S. prison systems began using the title, Department of Correction back in the sixties when the notion of rehabilitation came into vogue. For men and women locked away under the penal code, a more accurate name would be Department of Punishment. Prisoners in the United States are always punished with more than the simple loss of their freedom, although this is the only sentence imposed by the courts. From the prison factories of fear, distrust, injury, deprivation, violence, and tragedy, those who emerge corrected are an anomaly.

NOTES

[1] Please note that the writer identifies himself as a "guard at Macon State." Since there is no way for us to verify his employment there, we have asked him in a followup comment if he is willing to provide us with his actual name and verify his employment at this prison. It is doubtful that he will be willing to do this. We have also asked him to distinguish between "guard" and the term used by the Georgia DOC for guards, i.e. "Correctional Officers."

[2] The following paragraphs consist of the exchange between the "guard at macon state" and myself on February 15 and 16:

guard at macon state
February 15

"to anyone reading this post the inmatess rights this and that,these peole have murdered, raped,kidnap ped,sotomized so on and so on.this is not a countryclub nor a holiday in shut up you did the crime now do the time.the families that were victomized would also want things back the way they were before they got ripped apart by those convicts.i will tell you this nothing ever happened to them inmates that wasnt justified.the inmates have attacked the staff,jack on the female staff all actions were appropiriate for the situation.these so called friends and family members are bringing in contraband every weekend keep these cons so doped up that we can hardley do our job i could go on and on but im a law abiding citizen that wishes to let these animals have this prison crap so have no mersy on these animals"

Les Blough
Feb 15, 18:08:19

Well, "guard at macon state", some people in your prison committed the crimes for which they were convicted and some did not commit the crimes for which they were convicted. That's been made very clear by the many who were proved innocent by DNA testing and other evidence withheld by state prosecutors, and then released, after having been locked up for years, some for decades. So first of all, you are incorrect to say "these peole have murdered, raped,kidnap ped,sotomized so on." (btw, the words are spelled, "people" and "sodomized"). Your statement is also false because a great many prisoners are incarcerated in the United States for non-violent crimes such as possession or use of drugs.

Second, by naming visitors, "so-called friends and family" you are implying that they are not "friends and family." If this were true, the prison visiting lists would be at fault. You are also accusing all those relatives and friends who have a legal right to visit their loved one in prison of bringing drugs and contraband into the prison. It is obviously untrue to say that all these people bring illegal items into the prison. But even if that were the case it only tells us that you are not doing your job in the visiting gallery. Moreover, it is a fact that most contraband is brought into U.S. prisons by guards but I am not suggesting that you are one of those corrupted guards.

Third your description Macon State Prison, "this is not a countryclub nor a holiday" sounds like a broken record ... words that you've heard over and over again and now you are repeating them. Perhaps you've learned these words from your father or uncle who worked in prison. I say this because many guards come from families who work(ed) as guards in prison. When an inmate, whether doing 1-3 for petty larceny, a nickle or dime for more serious crimes or life or 99 for a capital offense, he is, whether you like it or not, a ward of the state. While in state custody, the state (that means you) is responsible to provide them with a safe environment, 3 hots and a cot and to educate residents of your prison, assisting their return to a productive life in society. (continued in following comment)

Finally, your comment will be revealing to many readers simply by the level of your education. You really are incapable of writing above a 4th or 5th grade education. Now that's probably not your fault. My guess is that you grew up in a poor, underprivileged family, surrounded by criminal activity, without the opportunities enjoyed by the wealthier classes. As a result, you obtained the highest possible paying job available to someone with your background and education. That's not your fault either. That error is the responsiiblity of the State of Georgia. The state violates its responsibility every day by hiring people like you and then brainwashing them into thinking the way you think. This results in the abuse of prisoners, the high recidivism rate, a country with the highest prison population in the world and a society that is ever more plunged into violence and criminality. It also results in a society that is more and more subjected to a Police State where citizens are losing their constitutional rights faster than snow can melt on a sunny day.

Now please do not make the mistake of thinking that I am speaking down to you. I came from a poor background and I worked in 2 state prisons (Tennessee and Pennsylvania) as a prison guard, transportation officer and counselor for a total of 8 years. I have been eye-witness to guards humiliating, beating and even murdering prisoners simply because they didn't like a particular prisoner or the prisoner didn't do their bidding - even when the guards' demands were illegal. During those days, I visited Georgia prisons to transfer prisoners between them and Nashville. As a matter of fact, I feel badly for anyone in your situation, having to work in a hell hole like a Georgia state prison or in any U.S. prison. You say that you are, "a law abiding citizen that wishes to let these animals have this prison crap so have no mersy on these animals." Who is it that gives them this "prison crap"? You? This statement is just as sad for you as it is for those inmates who are in your custody. Animals. Do you think it's your right to humiliate, degrade, curse or beat a dog, a cat, bird or any other animal? Have you no "mersy" on animals in your care?

Please try to escape your own mental prison and remember that you have a responsibility to treat those men in your custody as human beings with all the respect and care that all human beings deserve, regardless of what they may or may not have done. Are you aware that sociological studies show that most police officers and prison guards come from the same backgrounds and family histories as those whom they arrest and imprison? Despite your background and education, you can still be a man of honor by finding who you truly are within and by doing your duty. But it won't be easy, I know from personal experience, when the guards around you demand the code of silence as they beat, rape and murder inmates.

guard at macon state
Feb 16 (unedited)

wow miss blow miss blow im not gonna give these convicts the satisfaction to talk about them any longer.but since you are such a good judge of character well its my turn and im done.you miss blow are a middle aged fat im sure low self asteem that got caught up with one of these criminals.i see this really really touched you and im so very sorry for that miss blow.miss blow just remember this they got what they deserved period point blank.you continue to be the all mighty prison activist because thats all you could possibly get.you miss blow were sold a dream.have a blessed day oh and by the way all forget it many blessings

[3] The Georgia DOC requires guards to take a "Post Entrance Exam" for employment. "Post Entrance" suggests there is a screening process before the test is taken. They administer either the ASSET or COMPASS exam and require guards to achieve minimum scores of 38 on the reading portion and 35 on the writing portion of the ASSET exam or scores of 70 and 23 in the COMPASS exam sections of reading and writing, respectively. Alternatively, an applicant for employment as a guard can submit a minimum overall score of 430 on the SAT exam.

[4] In practical terms it is difficult to know the functional performance of those achieving the minimum ACT and COMPASS scores required by the Georgia DOC. However, their minimum equivalent of SAT/430 does give us an idea of their standards for employment as a prison guard. According to College Board, in their senior year in 2010, "college bound" Georgia high school males achieved a mean (average) score of 503 in Critical Reading and a mean (average) score of 486 in Writing. At the University of Georgia an applicant's SAT score of 500 in reading and 490 in writing means he/she was in the bottom 25% of those who applied for enrollment. The State of Georgia requires an overall score of 430 on the SAT for employment as a prison guard.

[5] The American Bar Association Standards for the Treatment of Prisoners:

Standard 23-5.1 Personal security and protection from harm

(a) Correctional authorities should protect prisoners from physical injury, corporal punishment, sexual assault, extortion, harassment, and personal abuse, among other harms.

(b) Correctional authorities should exercise reasonable care with respect to property prisoners lawfully possess or have a right to reclaim. A remedy should be reasonably available to prisoners if correctional authorities negligently or intentionally destroy or lose such property.

Standard 23-5.2 Prevention and investigation of violence

(a) Correctional and governmental authorities should take all practicable actions to reduce violence and the potential for violence in correctional facilities and during transport, including:

(i) using a validated objective classification system and instrument as provided in Standard 23-2.2

(ii) preventing crowding as provided in Standard 23-3.1(b)

(iii) ensuring adequate and appropriate supervision of prisoners during transport and in all areas of the facility, preferably direct supervision in any congregate areas

(iv) training staff and volunteers appropriately as provided in Standard 23-10.3

(v) preventing introduction of drugs and other contraband, and providing substance abuse treatment as provided in Standard 23-8.2(b)

(vi) preventing opportunities for prisoners to exercise coercive authority or control over other prisoners, including through access to another prisoner’s confidential information

(vii) preventing opportunities for gangs to gain any power

(viii) promptly separating prisoners when one may be in danger from another

(ix) preventing staff from tolerating, condoning, or implicitly or explicitly encouraging fighting, violence, bullying, or extortion

(x) regularly assessing prisoners’ level of fear of violence and responding accordingly to prisoners’ concerns and

(xi) preventing idleness by providing constructive activities for all prisoners as provided in Standards 23-8.2 and 23-8.4.

(b) Correctional officials should promptly and thoroughly investigate and make a record of all incidents involving violence, and should take appropriate remedial action.

[6] One, Two, Three Plus Four - a poem by Les Blough

Related Reading: The Barbarous State of U.S. Prisons

Bio and More Essays and Poetry by Les Blough

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