By Sgt. Barry Evert
Pelican Bay Supermax, Crescent City, Calif.
Survival of the fittest: Staying ahead of prison gangs
In the past, I have warned Corrections1 readers of the steps they can take to combat gangs on the job premises, now it’s time to address off-duty issues.
Imagine yourself a criminal for a minute. For some reason you feel some serious animosity towards correctional officers. The reason for your hard feelings is really irrelevant right now, all you know is that you have grown to hate your captors. So you decide to go back to the prison you stayed at for years, and take out a Correctional Officer.
Now imagine your facility, and the roads to the area. What would you, the criminal, see if you stood on the side of the road?
Chances are you would see a parade of cars streaming towards their next shift, most likey containing fully uniformed officers, sipping away at their morning coffee, listening to the morning news or their favorite songs. The officers are not “turned on” yet. Then you see your former housing unit officer approach in his car (the one you heard him talk about buying when you were still inside the unit). A sly smile breaks out on your face as you step out of the brush…
 Do everything possible to avoid stops on your way to work. Pack your lunch ahead of time, and make sure the car has gas.  |
I hope this raises your eyebrows; it should. I want you to ask yourself two questions now:
- How would you react if you were the target of a sudden assault?
- Are you prepared to deal with this attack?
Chances are you have not prepared for this scenario. We established in my original article that it is fairly simple for inmates to obtain information about you and your home life. What we did not discuss is how to best address these issues, so let’s get started.
The impact of a uniform
Chances are that your facility is not equipped with a large enough locker room for you to get dressed at work. That comes as no surprise, given the super-capacity prisons of today. With as many as 300 officers on duty at the same time, and over 700 over three shifts, it would have to be a big locker room. This forces us to put on our uniform at home.
What you need to realize is that the second you put on this uniform, you are on-duty.
The #1 thing you can do to protect yourself is come to terms with this right now. I shouldn’t have to tell you to wear some type of “cover” over your uniform, because you already know that. The problem with putting a cover shirt over your uniform when you drive is that it is easy to forget that you are “on the job.”
How many times have you seen your partners at the local “stop and rob” close to the prison wearing a flannel shirt with uniform pants and boots? Do you really think this is an effective way to hide your identity?
Don’t get me wrong, a cover should be worn, but we seriously need to consider the vulnerabilities of our daily routine. A cover is only effective when you are driving down the road with only your upper torso exposed.
The minute you stop to get something for lunch, you may as well be wearing a neon sign over your head. So the first step is to plan. Do everything possible to avoid stops on your way to work. Pack your lunch ahead of time, and make sure the car has gas. This will eliminate the need for stops.
Once you have planned for this, you can now truly be “on-duty” when you drive to work. Being on-duty requires you to wear all of your equipment. Many officers don’t want to hear this, but you should be wearing your duty belt and have your boots laced up the second you step into your car.
I understand that most of us don’t have our tools, such as a baton and gas on our duty belt when we drive into work. The main reason to wear your belt is to reinforce your mind that you are on the job. Second to that is the off-chance that you may have to get straight to work as you drive into the institution.
Neon sign above our head
Here’s a quick story about the importance of being ready to work before you even get out of the car.
I was driving into work several years ago when I saw an officer and a low-custody-level inmate talking at the car wash on prison grounds. As I stepped out of my car, I could hear that the conversation was not friendly. Next thing I knew, the fight was on.
The inmate lunged at the officer, and about four of us jumped in. Out of those for, only two of us had come into work ready to work. One officer lost a boot; another officer had pieces of his duty belt strewn about the parking lot. Do you thing those officers changed the way they came into work after that?
Back to preparing yourself, as you recognize that you are “on-duty” the second you put on your uniform, you will notice that your awareness level rises. How often have you paid attention to anything besides traffic on your way to work? Many of us are in denial until we hit the gate, and may have completely missed the bad guy standing on the side of the road on the way into work.
It is time now, more than ever, to start paying attention and having a plan.
Ideally you should be able to drive into work, without stops, being hyper-aware of your surroundings. I am not naïve enough to believe this is possible all of the time, as I myself have been in a fog going in to work after working overtime the night before. But you need to realize that one of the most dangerous times for correctional officers is when we are out in the public in our uniforms. It does not matter if we are on official business or on the way into work; you are a target.
Even with a cover, most bad guys have enough brains to figure out that a majority of the 70 or 80 cars heading down the road at 10 o’clock at night are probably officers coming into work.
Your uniform is more than just the piece of cloth you wear into work every day. Most of us can pick a fellow officer out of a crowd: The haircut, the stance, the way we talk and act are all part of the uniform we wear everyday. The reality is that we are easily identifiable targets.
Bearing that in mind, how are you going to plan for an off-duty confrontation? Do you carry a concealed weapon on the way into work? Is your cell phone charged? Are you ready to fight for your life or the lives of your partners?
Defending yourself
The second step to preparedness, after recognizing you are on duty, is to plan to fight back.
In California, as many states, there are storage units for off-duty weapons at the institution. Most are filled with dust, rather than guns. The common line of thinking seems to be that if you pack your weapon in with you, you are trying to be “super cop.”
We need to stop this way of thinking right now. There is nothing wrong with being prepared to defend your self. There is a discipline that comes with this though. You need to realize that the only reason you are carrying this weapon is to protect yourself, or come to the aid of a fellow officer on the way into work. It is not there to stop a shoplifter, make a traffic stop, or talk to suspicious looking people on the side of the road. This is why we have our street counterparts.
You are not carrying the weapon to play street cop! I know there have been incidents in the past, but we need to move beyond that and recognize the importance of preparedness. How nice would it be to have a sidearm available when some maniac is taking crack shots at you when you are driving into work or approaches you at your door step as you get ready to leave for work?
(A word of caution to those of you not in California: make sure that you are properly permitted to carry the weapon, and that there is appropriate storage for the weapon at your facility. Leaving a weapon locked in your car is not an option.)
So now you have your uniform on, with a cover, your duty belt, and your “ole faithful” sidearm within reach. Are you ready now? Chances are you have received little to no training on how to deal with threats outside of the walls of your institution. It will be up to you to seek out the proper training. There are numerous instructors in most larger cities that are more than happy to take a little money from you to teach you the basics. Make it a point to learn from these instructors, and also to pass on your new knowledge to your coworkers.
Injury to the institution, not the officer
Lastly, someone asked me if we can protect ourselves on the outside by doing anything different on the inside. Obviously referring to our “on the job” attitude and behavior. I thought about that question for a long time, but have to refer back to my last Q&A article when an officer asked me how he could best prevent being a target of our prisons gangs.
The fact is, you made yourself a target when you took an oath to fight these evil gangs; and someday, somewhere, either at work or at home, there is a chance it may come back to haunt you. Obviously if you are someone who is untruthful and unprofessional at work, then your chances of being singled out are higher, but most of the off-duty officer shootings we have seen in the last year have aimed to cause injury to the system, without regard to the individual officer.
In other words, the crime is being committed with the intent to send a message to a group of people, not necessarily to the fallen officer.
It’s game time, folks
I wrote this to make you think, not to tell you what you should do. But the bottom line is this: “Are you ready to fight?” Are you ready to defend your family, your coworkers, the public and even our way of life? Honestly answer these questions for yourself, and if you don’t like the answer, take it upon yourself to change.
I could not possibly cover everything here, but I did want to wake you up. If you have specific questions for me, feel free to email them to Corrections One, and I will answer as many as I can. I don’t pretend to be perfect, and surely don’t know it all; but what I do know is that I refuse to go down without a fight.
Are you ready to fight?
About the author
Sgt. Evert started his career in 1999 at Pelican Bay Super Max in Crescent City, Calif., then transferred in late 200 to High Desert Calif. state prison where he worked until returning to Pelican Bay as a Sergeant in 2006, where he is currently. Sgt. Evert has 10 years experience in dealing with both street and prison gangs. His book, “Scars and Bars” is due out anytime, and is dedicated to helping new Officers efficiently survive their first two years on the job, both on the job and at home. To Sgt. Evert, correctional officer safety is paramount, and is the core of what he writes and teaches.
Photo Credits: Associated Press