Correctional Officer

Correctional Officer

Bob Walsh

Stockton, CA

Male, 60

I worked for the California state system, starting as a Correctional Officer and retiring as a Lieutenant in 2005. I now write for the PacoVilla blog which is concerned with what could broadly be called The Correctional System.

SubscribeGet emails when new questions are answered. Ask Me Anything!Show Bio +

Share:

Ask me anything!

Submit Your Question

454 Questions

Share:

Last Answer on February 10, 2022

Best Rated

Greetings, is there a list of approved visitors that is given to the inmate for them to know?

Asked by M Guzman about 11 years ago

I don't quite follow your question.  Visitors must be approved to visit inmates.  Background checks are done on visitors, at least in California.  The visitor obtains a visiting form, usually by mail from the inmate.  The visitor fills it out and returns it and it is processed.  The visitor is approved (or denied).  If I remember correctly if the visitor is approved the prison notifies the inmate and it is up to him to notify the visitor.  If they are denied the prison notifies the visitor directly.

My boyfriend quit after 1 week after the academy as a C/O if he changes his mind later is he rehirable?

Asked by Mel about 11 years ago

Probably, though they might be uninterested in investing a full 14 weeks in someone who bails after only one week.  Depends a lot on why he left and how hard up the department is for people.  Presumably he already passed the background or he wouldn't have been in the academy.

How long does it usually take for a contraband watch

Asked by Jay Jay about 11 years ago

Back when i was working, it usually ran three shifts.  If they were absolutely positive the guy had something it could run as long as nine shifts.  That was unusual, it gets expensive.

Hello. I am a student doing research on prison overcrowding and its effect on drugs. In your experience, how does a prison environment affect one’s relation to drug use? Is it positive, negative, or neutral? And what do individuals abuse most?

Asked by Rosalie about 11 years ago

In my experience, neutral.  Druggies still use in prison.  Drugs are easy to get in prison.  They are about 4X more expensive than on the street, but are still easy to get.  A recent mainstream news report just released a report on that subject in fact.  It said that, when tested in June of last year, 23% of the prisoners tested came up positive for illegal drugs and 30% of the sample refused to be tested, even though the sampling was anonymous and there was no way to connect the samples back to an individual person.

what are the standard questions asked to a victim when the perp exposes himself to the victim and masturbates what are normal questions an officer would ask that victim the perp got away btw

Asked by Victimized almost 11 years ago

Couldn't really say.  I have never been a street cop.  It comes up fairly often in the prison setting, usually with female cops making the complaint, but we don't have to pull information out of the complainant under those circumstances.

Do you think the courts have been too intrusive in the operations of jails?

Asked by lily almost 11 years ago

Yes.  Very much so.

how are stauatory rape and sexual offenders in general usally treated..are they housed seperatley or general pop at first..can they request PC ? and what is PC like as far as privlages etc

Asked by steve over 10 years ago

In days gone by sexual offenders were treated very badly by most of the population.  There are now so many of them that the only ones who have a very hard time are child molesters (baby rapers).  Anybody can request PC for pretty much any reason.  They may, or may not, get it.  There are a couple of housing units around the state that house only sex offenders, they mostly get along with each other.  PC is mostly called "special needs" now days.  The department often changes labels to pretend problems no longer exist.  The main problem with PC is that they can not mix freely with GP prisoners.  Most of them like it just fine that way.  Other than that they have the same privileges as other inmates with the exception of some jobs, depending on the nature of their offense and the nature of the job.  (This is a bit of an oversimplification.  Custody classification and job assignment regulations is actually fairly complex and my knowledge base is stale.)