By Mike Urban
Reading Eagle
READING, Pa. — Raymond Moore’s life path has taken him from one rough place to another.
He grew up in the projects of Camden, N.J., served 20 years in the Marine Corps and is now in his 19th year as a correctional officer in Berks County Prison, a job he said he loves.
While Moore has the background and build of a tough guy, he said he uses means other than toughness to keep order.
He said he never forgets that inmates are still people, despite the bad decisions they’ve made to end up in prison, so he treats them as such.
“Everybody gets respect,” he said. “I build relationships with them. I build rapport.”
That respect is mutual, and could be seen one recent afternoon as inmates returning from Bible study passed by Moore, most looking him in the eye and greeting him as “Mr. Moore” while he returned the greetings.
Moore said his Christian faith allows him to be patient with inmates who need it, a philosophy that carries him through the 16-hour shifts he often works.
It’s not that Moore’s soft on inmates, he stressed.
When they go too far, he’ll come down on them, he said.
But he also realizes how tough it is to be jailed.
“I realize they’re stressed,” he said. “They’re locked up, they’re away from their families and they’re not getting phone calls or letters.”
So he lets them vent, knowing otherwise they’ll bottle up their anger and frustration until they explode, creating a much bigger problem for the prison, he said.
Warden Janine L. Quigley said that being a correctional officer isn’t a job for everyone.
The prison is not a glamorous workplace, and with one officer at times responsible for up to 96 inmates, the pressure is high, she acknowledged.
Guards are on the front line of the prison’s efforts to maintain care, custody and control of the inmates, and some find that constant struggle to be too much, she said.
But some thrive working in the prison environment, enjoying not just the pay and benefits but the work itself, she said.
Moore is among them.
He said his favorite part of each day is welcoming the inmates to breakfast, saying good morning to them as they pass in the chow line.
That’s where he takes the pulse of the unit, judging whether trouble is brewing and figuring out how he needs to handle things, he said.
Moore volunteers for every extra shift he can, and during many 80-hour pay periods works an additional 40 to 48 hours of overtime. As a result, Moore said he made about $105,000 in 2013, making him the prison’s top earner.
He doesn’t mind the long days, comparing his responsibilities at the prison with those he had as a Marine.
“You keep working until the job is done,” he said.
While Moore’s approach is successful, Quigley said, there are many other Berks correctional officers with different personalities who are also effective.
The key is for officers to be true to who they are because inmates can see right through guards pretending to be something they’re not, she said.
Moore agreed.
He is 61 now and said he’ll retire at 65.
He’ll miss the inmates, he said, and the camaraderie of working together with them.
His retirement plan is to teach Bible study.
Until then, he’ll maintain the same approach to his work, he said.
“You need to be real, be consistent and be respectful,” he said, “even in a moment of high stress.”