Dad talks about working as a prison guard on death row
A little backstory:
My dad, a two-year prison guard on death row, shares how the everyday anxiety and constant stress, without a psych break, finally caused him so much mental anguish and turmoil that he couldn't take it anymore.
When he finally demanded his promised psychological leave after watching one of his fellow corrections officers, a 40-something mother with two kids, get shanked to death, then more or less blamed by the prison for not following proper protocol (Dad said, "It's not like she MADE him stab her,") his supervisor was hostile about his request.
He had been promised 12 counseling sessions which he was never able to use, and an intermittent leave every six months was highly recommended by the State of Missouri for corrections officers working on death row (ADSEG – Administrative Segregation). After his firm request for time off to get his head together, his supervisor fired him. He says the whole experience was the straw that broke the camel's back when it came to his mental illness.
A few years later, after finally being seen by a judge after numerous applications for mental disability and a years of living in his car, the judge asked him, "I only have one question, please tell me you weren't in a Level 5 institution."
He replied, "I was, and I was working in ADSEG the whole time."
"I don't need to hear anymore," the judge replied. "You're approved. On behalf of the State, I want to extend an apology for what you were put through. It was unnecessary, destructive to your mental health, and, frankly, shouldn't have ever happened in the first place."
If you guys are interested, I recorded an audio track of him explaining some other fucked up shit he saw in there (one of his inmates claimed he was a demon – he had raped and murdered seven different women. He also routinely painted his cell walls with his own feces, and then proceeded to lick it. He was sent to the psych ward once, and they sent him back after commenting, "We'd just have to keep him strapped down and drugged up all the time, at least in his cell, he has a few feet to walk around in.")