Episode 1: Introduction to The Shakedown

Well, greetings, everyone.  My name is Aaron Dawson, I’m the Warden at the Morgan Corrections Facility, and let me welcome you to the first ever episode of The Shakedown. 

What is The Shakedown? I’m glad you asked!

The Shakedown is a podcast by corrections, about corrections, for corrections! 

We're going to look at trending topics, we're going to look at logistics, we're going to look at day-to-day operations, equipment, how to use equipment and how to do our jobs more effectively.  We're going to look at the challenges that we face individuals, and challenges that we face as facilities, as jails. We’re going to look at policy and procedure.  We're going to look at gear.  We’re going to look at specific jobs, and specific tips about those jobs.  We’re going to look at mindsets, personnel, and leadership skills.  

You can summarize it with, pretty much, we're going to look at corrections. 

We're going to do this weekly, and we're doing it because it matters—because YOU matter, and what you do matters.  Corrections is a unique career, in unique environment, requiring a unique skill set and mindset. Unlike any other career field--it's an enigma to the culture, and in some cases, to the rest of law enforcement. 

How do we do our job most effectively--in a way that gets the results that we're after? How do we succeed on a broad scale, as well as individually and personally? Well, that's what this is about. 

So without further ado, welcome to The Shakedown.

1:50

All right, well, as I said before, I’m so glad to welcome you to the first episode of the shakedown. I'm Aaron Dawson, currently serving as the Warden of the Morgan County Correctional Facility in the great state of Alabama, and I’m so excited to be here with you during this first episode of The Shakedown.   

To get things rolling, I thought we’d start with something very basic—something very foundational.  And to do that, I want to consider two questions.  The first is, “What does it mean to be a corrections officer?” What does that mean for you and I to pursue a career as a corrections professional? What do we do? What do we look like?  What does that career look like?

The second question I want to ask today is, “What does success look like?”  If I’m a corrections professional, what does success look like.
 
 But, let’s go to that first question—let’s get that hammered out first—what does it mean to be a corrections professional?  What does that job entail?

Now, two mottos or slogans that we often hear in the corrections profession are “safety and security” or “care, custody and control”.   Those two slogans, those two mottos, often we hear as indicative of what it means to be a corrections officer.  And, though it’s very familiar--it rolls off the tongue-- really it does encompass what it means to be a corrections professional.  So, let’s pull that apart, and let’s think about that and see if what we do, and our view of what we do, lines up with those mottos—those slogans.  

3:23

Let’s take the first one—safety and security.  What does it mean if we’re all about safety.  When we think about the corrections profession, primarily our primary responsibility is for the safety of the community.  You know the courts have deemed that these people need to be in our correctional facilities, in our jails, in our prisons.  These people are deemed to be a threat to our society or accused of being a threat to society—to the community at large.  We are tasked with keeping the community safe and making sure these people stay in this facility until the courts deem that it’s time for them to go somewhere else, or to be free.  So, that’s on a basic sense—that safety is a priority to us.  But, let’s think about within our facilities now.  We’re responsible for the safety of each other—the safety of our fellow officers.  Whether or not we like these individuals, whether or not we get along with them, whether or not we want to cook out with them on the weekend, bottom line is—we are each other’s lifeline.  We’ve got to be about each other’s safety. We’ve got to be about the safety of the inmates-- whether that be protecting them from other inmates,  or protecting them from a catastrophe or a weather event, or whether that be protecting them from other staff—we are tasked with keeping those inmates safe.  We are tasked with keeping the facility safe—whether that be the equipment that we use, whether that be the facility itself like the doors, the keys, and the components that make up a corrections facility.  We are tasked with checking on and observing and seeing that our facility is safe.  We’ve got to be about safety.

5:06

What about that second word, security?  That's a word that often, when we think about that as a task or a role, that the culture often really doesn't understand. I mean, what is the deal with all the doors, the locks, the keys, and the cameras, the counts, and the walkthroughs or visual inspections, or welfare checks (or whatever they may be called in your facility).  What is it with all the constant movement and the constant checking and the constant looking? Well, if I'm going to make sure that my facility is safe, if I'm going to make sure that my fellow officers are safe, if I'm going to make sure that the inmate population is safe, I've got to make sure, in the end, that the facility is secure.  I’ve got to make sure that people can't go out, when they're not supposed to be going out, that other people can't come in, when they're not supposed to be coming in, that people can't get things or introduce things into this facility that are not supposed to be in here--whether that be an officer carrying in, whether that be an inmate carrying in, whether that be somebody on the outside trying to throw something over a wall or a fence.  I’ve got to make sure that the inmates don't have access to things they are not supposed to have, whether that be some kind of foreign substance, whether that be some kind of weapon, whatever that may be.  I've got to make sure that the facility, that the place that I work is secure, that it is a place that meets the security requirements, for me, for my staff, for the inmates, etc, to be safe. 

So, we’ve got to be about safety.  We’ve got to be about security. And then we get to that other motto, that other slogan, “care, custody and control”. And this is the one that that me personally, that I really focus on when I'm talking about the role of a corrections officer.  What does it mean to be a corrections officer? 

6:52

Let's think about those three words.  The first word care. Now, for many people, especially those that work in the field of corrections, it's very easy to come into this with the mindset that we can have a detached view, as far as our interaction with the inmates.  You know, I can do security checks, I can do welfare checks, I can do headcounts, I can, I can see what's going on with the inmates, I can see whether or not they're injured, or something's going on, and there's a fight or somebody has been assaulted or somebody's under the influence of some foreign substance, I can do that. And I can just stay detached, and not become involved with these people. But, I found that if that is someone's mindset, if that is someone's way of approaching their job as a corrections professional, they're not going to last.

7:45

For you and I had to be successful as a corrections professional, (I know we're getting a little ahead of ourselves there), but, for you to be successful, we’ve got to care. We’ve got to care about who we are, we got to care about what we do. We got to care about our task of, of seeing after and taking care of these inmates. We have to care --it cannot be simply punch in punch out and "I'm here for a paycheck, some insurance, and some state retirement.”  We've got to care. And I'm not saying we’ve got to hug and slobber all over these people, like they’re our long, lost relatives. But, when we're doing those walkthroughs, we're doing those visual inspections, if we see something that just doesn't look right, do we take the time to investigate? That inmate, it looks like he might have a bruise or he might have something going on with him? Do we check it out? Do we make sure he gets to see medical?  That inmate that is usually out and about, and is social and is interacting with people, is standing by himself, and he's not out and he's not interacting? Do we investigate that? We've got to care. And the reason we've got to care is because we provide care for these inmates.  We've got to see that they have the medical care that they need. We've got to see that they eat when they're supposed to, and what they're supposed to, and that that meal is nutritional and beneficial to them. We've got to see that the temperature is the right temperature in the building, that they have access to water, they have access to the hygiene products, that they have access to the courts, that they have access to, to whether it be classes or reading material, all the things that make up a normal human life. It's our responsibility to make sure that the inmates have access to those things. And for us to do that and do it well, we’ve got to care. 

We have to care about our fellow officers. Now if you've been a corrections officer for longer than five minutes, you've interacted with somebody that, yeah, you may wear the same uniform they do, but you don't get along--your personalities are not jiving, and they're not gelling. As a matter of fact, you’d be okay with it if you've never had talk to him again. Well, guess what?  We wear this uniform, we work alongside each other. I've got to care—I'm not like you, but I’ve got to care about you. So, to be an effective corrections professional, I’ve got to care. 

10:13

Second part of that custody.  Custody--it is my responsibility to make sure that people stay where they're supposed to stay, that they don't have free movement to do what it is that they want-- to go from this place to that place.  I've told many inmates, in conversations with them, that—

On the outside, you have the opportunity to exercise self-control, you have the opportunity to make decisions, and go places, and do things and participate in things, or not participate in things, you have the opportunity to make decisions and exercise self-control. But, apparently, you weren't able to do that, or allegedly, you were not able to do that, and so it was the necessary to place you here with us, where now we have taken that self-control. And instead of it being an inner control or self control, now it's an outer control.  I tell you when to get up, I tell you when to go to sleep, I tell you when to eat, I tell you when to shower, I tell you when to go outside, I tell you when to come back inside, I tell you where you can watch TV, and what you can watch on TV.   I tell you how bright the lights are going to be, I tell you what temperature it’s going to be-- and the list goes on and on and on these outer controls.  Why? Because while you're here, you need to be in an environment that is controlled. So that maybe, maybe, it'll give you the opportunity to reflect and to think about what got you here, and how you can correct that--so that when you have the opportunity to be back out, back under self-control, maybe you'll do a better job.

11:48

Now, custody--those that have proven that they do not have that self-control enough to be around other people, we may have to isolate him. That person that that cannot control themselves when we bring them from the housing unit to medical, or from the housing unit to go to court.  We may have to restrain them-- that person that gets angry with another inmate and they get involved in an assault, or they get involved in an altercation, it may come down to the fact that I've got to restrain them--you've got to restrain them—it may be that, we have to use force.  Why? Because we got to be about custody. 

12:23

And the last part of that care, custody, and control.  Now, it is interesting to me in my years of corrections, how many times you have people that are corrections officers, they come to work, and if you were to look at their personal lives--if you were to look at their lives on the outside, their life is completely out of control. There is no control going on. Maybe that's financial or emotional or relational, their life isn't out of control, and they come into this facility, and I expect them to control others for living. Well, if I'm going to be effective at my job, if I'm going to be effective at controlling a facility, I have to have an element of that in here (pointing to head), and then in here (pointing to self/heart).   I've got to have an element of that in my personal life., so that I'm not a hypocrite.  I'm not trying to get these guys and these ladies to do things that I'm not even going to do. But, it is our responsibility to maintain control in our facilities. That's why they made handbook is so important. It establishes guidelines for these inmates--they can see, they can read, they can hear that these are the things that are expected, these are the things that you need to do, these are the things that you don't need to do.  If you do these things, here are the privileges that you can enjoy because of that.  If you don't do those things, here are the consequences for those actions. That is control at a basic level. But, if you if that doesn't work, and you're not able to use those controls and thrive, then then we can tighten that control. We can change your classification, we can change your housing assignment, we can change the amount of free time that you have to interact with other people or be out on the day room, etc., etc. We can limit those privileges, we can tighten that control until you get into an arena in which you can be successful--you can interact, you can exist. Safety, security, care, custody. control. 

Second question we said we want to answer is--What does success look like? Success does not always result in a victory. There are going to be times when we do it right--our mindset is right, our actions are right--we're checking the boxes, we're doing the things that we need to do--we care, and then, it falls apart and chaos happens,  and we're dealing with all kinds of nonsense. We're dealing with fights. We're dealing with alarms going off. Maybe we're dealing with a fire, or we're dealing with some kind of medical crisis, or, heaven forbid, we have an inmate that that passes away. At our best, that stuff's still going to happen. So, what does success look like? Success looks like when we come to work every day, or every night, as the case might be, and we give it our best. We give it our best. We hold nothing back. We give it our best. We work our full shift with everything we've got. We're serious about safety. We're serious about security. We're serious about care. We're serious about custody. We're serious about control. We give it our best. That's what success looks like. 
 
 

Well, guys, I hope that, as you think about this and you ponder this, and Lord willing, in the future as we continue to talk about different topics. This is a great foundation to get this this podcast rolling. I happen to love quotes. I've got them all over the place. And one of my favorite ones is by Abraham Lincoln, and says, 

“Whatever you are, be a good one.” 

So guys, whatever you are, if you're a corrections officer, be a good one. Be the best one you can be. Well guys, I appreciate you taking the time to be with me. I look forward to being with you again. In the meantime, stay sharp, stay safe, stay vigilant. Godspeed.