While I was in Prison...The NEO GEO Forums Port!
A few people here know of my thread in the KLOV forums about when I worked as a Corrections Officer for the Colorado Department of Corrections. By request, I decided to port the thread over piece by piece so members here can get a chance to read it without having to become a member over at the KLOV forums to read one thread.
I will port one or two pieces at a time as time allows. In between pieces, feel free to ask any questions that you have as that is what kind of drove the other thread. I have my stories that are the big ones, but your questions help me to know which stories you guys most want to hear about.
WARNING POST.....
This thread is based on a few requests to post what I experienced while I was a Correctional Officer for the State of Colorado. This is not going to be super fun and I don't recommend you read if you don't like disgusting details or hearing about the worst things people can do. This will cover all aspects of my career. Some funny, some horrible, some sad, some that are just interesting.
This is the warning post. DO NOT READ BEYOND THIS POINT...if you don't want to hear about the things that really go on in prison. It's not like the movies. It's not fun. It's a different and very real life changing situation...for both inmates and officers. No one comes out the same way they went in.
Until tomorrow, feel free to post your prison jokes to lighten the mood.
A little background information...custody levels and my position(s).
A little of this I mentioned before, but this is just the port over from the KLOV thread...
I worked for two years as a Correctional Officer for the State of Colorado in the largest MegaFacility in the state. 2500 inmates spanning all custody levels. These are the five custody levels...
Minimum
Minimum Restricted
Medium
Close
Administrative Segregation (different than "The Hole" and I will explain that now)
Ad Seg vs "The Hole" or Punitive Segregation:
Ad Seg means you have been deemed too dangerous to house with other inmates in prison and/or are a specific danger to staff members.
Punitive Seg or "The Hole" is where you go when involved in a violent confrontation or have been given that as a punishment for other infractions committed while in prison.
Ad Seg is a permanent custody classification and Puni is temporary. The only way to get out of Ad Seg is through a custody review hearing.
My basic position was (Correctional Officer I...lowest on the chain of command) however my other positions held along with this title included Laundry Officer, Canteen Officer, Intel Officer, a member of the Forced Cell Extraction Team, and a member of the E.R.T. which means Emergency Response Team...less lethal prison S.W.A.T....the other team which I wasn't around long enough to join is S.O.R.T. which means Special Operations Response Team and they are the more lethal team.
Not only did I love my job, but I was good at it. Very good. The unit I was assigned to was nicknamed "The Thunderdome" (a reference from the Mad Max movie). In the two years I was there, I never had an unplanned use of force. I was the only one who had this title and I was in plenty of situations were I could have used force, but because of my ability to talk and reason to people I never had to resort to violence to get compliance.
Why I retired at 24...Part 1
In November of 2009 I had to quit working due to an unknown ailment. About 8 months earlier I had started noticing that I was getting tired. I would get winded from going up the stairs. I went to the doctor and they said to excersize more and eat healthier. I did as instructed. I was already excersizing and watching what I ate as I wanted to keep up with the muscular strength of the inmates that I had to deal with on a daily basis. As time went on, I began falling down the stairs, walking like a drunk, seeing double, getting vertigo from driving, and had a 24 hour constant killer headache. I kept going back to the doctor to which they asked, "Are you depressed?" I told them I was not making up this problem. They did all kinds of blood work and everything was normal. Finally, I got tired of the run around and requested a new physician. I told him my symptoms and he immediately referred me to a neurologist.
The neurologist started off with an MRI and MRA of my head to check for signs of MS or an aneurysm. Everything looked fine. I then got an EMG and the results showed some severe neurological issues. Then I had a lower lumbar puncture (spinal tap) and things looked fine. After seeing this neurologist for a year, he said he was at a loss and referred me to the University of Colorado Research Hospital for testing.
At UCH, they did a full battery of blood work as well as another EMG and also a muscle biopsy. All this and they don't know what is going on. They sent me a letter in February of 2011 saying that there was nothing they could do for me.
At this point I travelled by borrowed wheelchair and no longer was able to drive. I petitioned to be seen by the top neurology clinic in the country (Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland). They told me that they would see me, but it wouldn't be until November of 2011...9 months later. It was going to be an expensive trip for sure. I had to get to Baltimore and stay in a hotel while being seen by the doctor and having whatever tests he ordered done. Luckily, I had a bunch of people supporting me through this. Johns Hopkins gave me 5 airplane tickets for myself, my wife and daughter, as well as my in-laws to come out to see the doctor. My church was able to raise the 7 thousand dollars for the hotel stay and doctor visits/tests. I was very grateful and lucky to say the least.
Shortly after my approval to be seen in Baltimore, I received my power wheelchair from my insurance company. It was a huge relief because I could not push myself so for the previous year, I would need to be pushed everywhere if I left the house.
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Why I retired at 24...Part 2
Finally, it was November and I got to Baltimore. I got there the day before my appointment so I could recover from the airplane ride. I went to a preliminary appointment the next morning. The doctor did the usual check up on my muscle and nerve reactions. No leg strength and no reflexes at all. He then ordered an EMG to be done in the afternoon.
The EMG at Johns Hopkins was the worst thing I had to endure in terms of all the testing I have had done to me. An EMG is where they take pads adhered to the skin at different parts of the body and then they use a probe (a lot like a stun gun) and they shock the surface of your to see how long it takes for your nerves at one end to know that the other end has been shocked). They did that to my arms and legs and were able to determine that the problem was not just in my lower extremities like the previous doctors had thought. Then came the horrible part. The second half of the test required that they insert and electrified needle into different muscles to shock me from the inside to see my nerve's reactions. This part of the test was done everywhere...feet, legs, GROIN, arms, back, shoulders, neck, and TONGUE (through the upper neck into my mouth)!!! They had to stop on many occasions because my muscle that was being shocked would seize up and cause excruciating pain. After all of these tests were done in the lab, they took them to the doctor I had seen in the morning and he said the tests were not correct and to do them AGAIN! When they finished round #2, the doctor came into the lab because the results were not able to be duplicated from the first time. So for round #3 the doctor had an idea. They did the normal first test on my hand (stun gun to the skin). Then they had me make fists for about 60 seconds. Then they repeated the first test. Apparently there was a 400% increase in my nervous response. The doctor repeated the test on my other hand and said he needed to do one last thing and that it would be worse than everything I had already done that day. They needed to continuously shock me for 10 seconds at a higher voltage than what was used before. They had to have 2 nurses hold my arm down while they tortured me. It left burn marks on my wrist when they were done.
After 4 HOURS of EMG testing, the doctor said that he had a good idea of what was ailing me. He said that he was positive that he knew my issue, but for clinical purposes, they needed to have a particular blood test done that if it came back positive then they would have a confirmed diagnosis. My blood work was sent to the Mayo Clinic to be completed.
2 weeks later my results from my blood work came back positive and the doctor was able to confirm his diagnosis. I have Lambert-Eaton Myasthenic Syndrome or LEMS. What that means is that my body is making an antibody that is attacking my nerve endings. At the end of your nerves there are channels. There are also receptor channels on your muscles. When your brain wants your muscles to do something, it sends a chemical out of the end channels of your nerves. When the muscle receptor channels receive the chemical released they react. Well the antibodies that my immune system creates attacks and closes the channels in my nerves, preventing the chemical from reaching my muscles. So when my brain says to lift my foot to take a step, most of the signal was not being received so I would trip and fall down the stairs, or walk like a drunk.
LEMS is the cousin to Myasthenia Gravis, or MG. The difference between the two is that MG attacks the muscle receptors and LEMS attacks the nerve endings. MG is far more common than LEMS. LEMS occurs in about 2 in a million people. There are an estimate 1,200-1,900 people in the SU with it and around 7,000 in Europe.
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Why I retired at 24...Part 3
LEMS is commonly associated with Small Cell Lung Cancer and generally shows up prior to the cancer being discovered. The first thing my doctor ordered after the confirmed diagnosis was a full body PET and CT scan. I got the results after a very long week of waiting and I am all clear. No cancer. Now onto the treatments...
The good thing that has come of all the testing and the confirmed diagnosis is that there's a medication that helps. It doesn't fix the problem, but aids against the effects of the disease. It is an FDA Orphan Drug because there isn't enough people with the disease for proper FDA required testing.
This experimental drug has a long crazy name, but it's short title is 3,4 DAP. I was able to go back to the University of Colorado and see the doctor that I had seen previously to take care of my treatment. That was an interesting coincidence. When I was in Baltimore ad the doctor told me there was a medication available if I got accepted into the study. However, not just any doctor could get the meds. He told me there was a doctor who has was friends with (that he met while skiing in Aspen) that might be willing to see me. It turned out that it was the same doctor who had already seen me. They asked me if I was comfortable going back to him as the diagnosis was so rare that it was not uncommon for most doctors to miss it...one of those text book illnesses they mention once in med school, but is never heard of again. I was fine going back to University of Colorado so my appointment was set for January of 2012.
January came and I went to sign my life away for a bottle of pills. The only way to get the pills was to agree to be part of the clinical trials. It means that they can order whatever tests they want and I need to do them...but the pills are free. SWEET!
The doctor at UCH did a battery of strength and reflex tests first so it could be documented. hey gave me my first pill and waited 30 minutes to make sure I didn't have a seizure or heart attack. Everything looked okay so they sent me home. As soon as I got into the vehicle my face (from my nose down) went numb and tingly. I had a rush of saliva come back to my mouth (for the previous three years I was not producing any saliva so I had the worst dry mouth ever...water bottle with me everywhere I went). I went to get dinner with my wife at the Chipotle on the corner of the Hospital campus. After dinner, in the car, almost 2 hours after my first pill, I could feel my strength coming back a little. I told my wife to check it out as I was able to lift my knee and foot off the floor without the use of my hands for the first time in almost 14 months. When I got home things just got better. 4 hours after my first pill I walked up the stairs to the second floor of my house without needing to use the rail. I hadn't been up there for more than 6 months (our bedroom had to be moved downstairs because I was tumbling down the stairs too much). The next day I was able to drive a car again...REDICULOUSLY AWESOME!
I have been taking the meds for a year and a half now and I can get around for my normal daily activities without needing my wheelchair. I still need to take it just in case on long trips or if I am travelling somewhere that would require a lot of walking. My activity level is a tiny fraction of what it was when I was healthy, but I can take care of my kids during the day and work on arcade games and consoles in the evening. I have to take a pill every 4 hours to continue to be able to function, but that's not a problem. My pills have to be kept frozen so I take a cooler with me everywhere I go. If I didn't take a pill I would quickly regress back to the way I was. here's why...
The 3,4 DAP, as I mentioned does not do anything to fix the problem. Here is what it does. 3,4 DAP causes my body to mass produce the chemical that my nerves send out to my muscles and at the same time it causes my channels to remain open so that the few channels that are not blocked are continuously pumping the over-produced chemical out to my muscles. This means that when my brains sends out a signal there is a much higher chance of the proper amounts of the chemical making it to my muscle receptors. With this pill, I have not had a fall down the stairs in over a year.
The other medication that the doctor put me on to help the 3,4 DAP is an immune system suppressant. With the dosage I take, it causes my immune system to shut down as much as possible in order to slow the production of those nerve attacking antibodies. I take as much as I can without getting poisoned by the pills.
I can only work for short periods of time. I get stronger the more I work until I hit a cliff and quickly lose all strength. That is why I cannot work a regular job anymore. I have been on disability for 2 and a half years now. I'm not proud to be on it and it is less than half the amount of money I was making when I worked for the Department of Corrections. If I could, I would gladly go back to having a real job and make real money. It's not all bad though. Like I said, I get to take care of my kids (3yo daughter and 11mo son) and work on gaming stuff in the evening. I don't spend any of my house budget on gaming. All my gaming is funded by my working on arcades and consoles. Everything I have has a price tag to it. It allows me to fund my habits without adding any undue stress to the bank account. When I worked, I had been collecting lots of games and arcades. After I couldn't work I sold most of it off to pay my hospital bills. I kept just enough to buy more broken crap to fix and have something to keep me occupied and sane. That has grown over the last three years and I have yet to use house money for games. When I want to get something, I sell off something else. That's what I do now.
With all that said, I will get started on the Prison stories this afternoon...
Totality of Circumstances...
The totality of circumstances is the standard that says each individual event to is to be judged based on all of the facts and the context of the incident and not to be decided on any one single factor. In prison, for Officers, this is generally referenced when force is used on an inmate. The level of force is dictated by the whole picture, not just the inmate that force was used upon.
For example...
When I was really sick, right before I stopped working, I could not walk a straight line. I had to keep one hand on the wall while I walked so I didn't look like I was drunk. However, inmates did notice something was wrong with me (they notice everything...they spend all day studying officers so they know who they can exploit). I was on the third tier of a pod (30 ft drop from the side rail down into the dayroom) at the top of the stairs. I had an inmate walk up to me with his chest puffed out and said "What would you do if I jumped you right now?" with 6 of his friends behind him and next to me (I never let inmates get behind me when one comes up at me the way this one did). I told him "I'll kill you. I will grab you and throw you off this third tier and your friends will watch you hit the ground below. Otherwise, I will push you down the stairs." His face went from friendly messing with me to totally serious and it made it all the more real for him when an inmate behind him said "Don't mess with him. You know he will do it. There's something wrong with him." That's as far as it went but the Totality of Circumstances would have justified my actions had I done anything. I was alone on the third tier and 7 inmates were surrounding me and it would be at least 30 seconds before I got back-up officers in the pod.
