Interview Correction Officer

My last and final source was the interview. His name was Seth Mugleston badge number 67231 who works for the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation at Folsom Prison. I ask Correctional Officer Seth a number of difficult questions. One of the questions I ask Seth is “why do convicted criminals continually use drugs in prison if drugs are the main reason they are being institutionalized?” He said, “most addicted offenders have a sever case with drugs and alcohol use before they come into the institution. So it is hard for them to be rehabilitated, but we have many substance abuse programs to help the repeated offenders. Drug addiction is a mental escape for most of the criminals. Many of the violence that we have in prison are drug related. Drugs can be used for money almost exchanging goods like prostitution, cigarettes or even money and those three things go hand and hand with each other. It is almost the code the inmates live by, it is sad but true. Money of the drug related problems come from debt that builds up with the prisoner. There is a so called game called hide and seek the inmates and correctional officers play. It is not a fun game every time we crack down and find out how and where the drugs are coming from. The inmates already have another way of smuggling the drugs into the facility. It gets very frustrating when your think that you job has some sort of significance that day and then you find out the next week or two that so and so got popped and put in the ADSUG.” He explained to that ADSUG is a administrative segregation to allow the individual to think about what crime he has committed. He goes on with “there are a number of ways that drugs are smuggled in to prison.

One way is called “Kestering” it is when a female or male put drugs or other criminal objects in their anus of vaginal area.” Then I asked “why do prisoners use violence toward each other?” He said they form their own society. You have youngsters. Grandpas and shot-callers” I was very confused when he said shot-caller so I asked him to define, he said it is someone in charge, leader like almost like a judge. They have similar ranking system like the American military. He stares up again, “prisoners have their own set of rules it is like a code. The prisoners have to follow the law of the code that has been passed down to generation to generation. But they also have to follow the institution codes and regulations.” He continued on about that topic for a bit but then he says something that really got my attention. He said, “it is a very unnatural way of living after a number of years in prison and their mind changes almost like they don’t even know who they are any more when that process happens they become institutionalized” After the interview I had a much better knowledge of problems and procedures that correctional officers deal with day to day. When he talked about how the inmates forget about who they are, it was mind blowing.

I would have never thought that peoples personalities actually change and they became a different person. Another situation that Officer Mugleston talked about that really took my interest was when he said that the inmates have their own code that they go by. I knew that the prisoners had regulation for themselves but I would have never thought that these codes of inmates go back from generation to generation. It makes me think about the number of fathers and sons who are in prison together. It is a very sad thought that son and father are institutionalized together.

Work Cited
Interview -Mugleston, Seth. California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation at Folsom Prison. Badge # 67231. Correction Officer