Are Prisons Really Dangerous Places to Work?

Are Prisons Really Dangerous Places to Work?

by Stan Moody

June 21, 2010 @ 01:17PM PT
Topics: Prison Reform

What do you think the most dangerous job in America is? If you answered 'being a prison guard,' you'd be wrong. Though the corrections industry has sold the public on the danger of being a prison guard, the truth is that prisons are crushingly boring places.

That's because they're designed to be efficient, unchanging systems that maintain order while both staff and prisoners do their time. (That might explain prison guards' high rate of addiction and divorce.)

I should know — until recently, I worked as a chaplain in a Maine prison.

During a recent interview, I was asked if I thought the spate of deaths within Maine's solitary prison cells (three within the past year) would prompt future reforms. My answer was a categorical “No.” Unfortunately, the public has already spoken. Mental hospitals have largely been closed, leaving psychiatric wards, jails and prisons as the remaining option for many in need. Meanwhile, thanks to urban renewal, those without mental, financial or family resources to defend themselves have been rendered disposable.

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