Confessions of a Female Corrections Officer, Part 2.
The lies we tell ourselves. “Sgt. Green” is the man.
Working in corrections, I meet so many oddballs and eccentrics… no wonder I fit in so well. However, this job can draw some of the most cynical and annoying individuals that ever lived. Anyone who wants to work with Level III Inmates must need their head examined, right? One person that stood out for me was… let’s call him Sgt. Green (using a pseudonym). He and I had a like/hate relationship. He was good at his job, but he let that go seriously to his head. We got into several heated fights, one in which my Supervisor had to stand between us, holding me back. I wanted him to know so badly that I wasn’t afraid of him just because he’s a 6-foot-tall guy who was good at his job. I mean, so was I!
He had made so many arrogant comments, I just couldn’t take it anymore. And of course, there was a sexual element to all of this… he was the type that if you (as a woman) don’t fall in love with him at first sight, he sees you as some “Nazi lesbian” not worthy of any respect. Jumping to the present day, he and I were thrown together to work the same post for a while, so I knew we had to find a way to get along. Especially since this would be a mental health Level III dorm full of inmates who try to kill themselves and each other regularly (gobs of fun). We began talking and trying to put our complicated past behind us.
His way of doing this was to talk about how great he was… in every single way. He told me that not only is he a correctional officer but he’s a registered nurse and when he’s not working at our job, he’s playing a dual role full-time at a hospital. He even went as far as to pull up some school’s website in Florida that he claims to have a degree from. He then said that his parents are rich and helped him get his first house when he was 18. He has several children and he claimed that one of them is a famous Professional Basketball Player, though he neglected to provide a name. He says that he speaks perfect Spanish — though I’ve heard him only use Spanglish — and brags about having been in the Navy. The Navy thing made me want to break out and sing the Village People’s song. He’s also rich, of course, and dating or married to (confused on the details) a high-ranking Army Officer, even though he’s hit on virtually all the female C/Os.
Finally, he said that everyone in the Dept. loves him because he’s so good at what he does. Yes, he’s good at his job, but from what I know about him everyone does not love him. Quite the opposite! He’s been written up more times than I can count and suspended due to his attitude. I walked away from our conversation attempt wishing we had just stayed enemies. However, it dawned on me, to his credit, that corrections is such a dark career field to work in. You see humans at their worse very often; you see officers getting attacked, blood and other body fluids, etc. I think that the experience has spawned a certain breed of an officer who must lie to themselves to remain hopeful amid such a challenging career.
