- [Instructor] Let's introduce
ourselves, what is your name? - The academy, it's been
a little overwhelming. - It's emergency preparedness. Even though we
prepare, you know that, that doesn't get us
ready for everything. - They want you to
sit in these lectures that are kind of boring. - Utility failure, how
about if the power goes out? I want to see where you guys
are as far as this test. (suspenseful music) - Yup. - [Producer] What's going on? (radio chatter) - There's no power in 1A or !B. - [Officer] Let's go
guys, go into your unit! (clock ticking) - There's always a
sink or swim moment for anybody in any occupation. There's always that pivotal
moment where somebody's gonna say "Hey, this is
right for me or it's not". One of the biggest reasons that
the correctional staff leave is the environment that they
work in day in and day out. - This probably is
about the most negative, dangerous environment
a man or woman could choose to be in short of
active combat theater. - [Aaron] The smells. - [Inmate] Get the
(bleep) out of here! - The noise, the
yelling, the banging. (inmates yelling) Constant chaos and anarchy. - Things could go from
zero to 60 (snap fingers) in a flash. (dramatic, intense music) - [Ordonez] It feels like
war, that's how it feels like. I'm surprised these guys
don't fall down from fear. - We're not recruiting salty
homicide cops into our ranks. We're recruiting
young people who don't have near that
level of life experience. - If you do graduate
this academy, you're onto your
careers for the next 20 plus years of your life. It's overwhelming. The majority of them realize
that this is not the career. I don't wanna be in this place. It doesn't mean
you're a bad person. Just means you can't do the job. (suspenseful music) (knocking) - [Warden] Come in. - I noticed some, some
stuff on the video that I would like
to discuss with you while you were out on the Hyde. - Did you see where the
inmate signaled the camper? - Oh, (bleep). - One of those individuals
that went into the bathroom was in there for
about 12 minutes. You gotta remember, every
time that the inmate goes to the bathroom, you
gotta check that bathroom. - Over on the detail, it
maybe got a little relaxed. It does you know suck now
that I just talked about it. That I just heard about it. And that I didn't even
really know about it. - A lot of rookie officers that
do come in, they feel lost. It's like wow I made
a rookie mistake, what do I do, where do I go? They get to a point where, they can't handle it. They don't feel comfortable
to talk to certain people. Have I had that mentality? Yes I had that mentality. Luckily I had good officers
advise me and tell me that, "Hey you're gonna
get through this". I heard about what
happened at the detail. What happened man? - Everything was going
good and I actually uh, let my guard down
and I got too mellow. - You will make
mistakes, you know, it's how you learn
from your mistakes. - Yeah. - You will be a leader here,
I can see you as a leader. And you will be
mentoring the next officers that come in. And you will tell
them your mistakes. - Every mistake that I make,
I'm just gonna learn from it, using a learning experience. - Yes, always do that. - I do feel like this could
be my make or break moment. I missed something that could
be potentially dangerous. I gotta buckle down to make
sure that doesn't happen again. Even though I am a rookie,
I can help the guys that start fresh and that
are newer than myself, so they don't make
the mistakes I did. - I'll say this, nobody
grows up to be a CO, a corrections officer, you
just kind of fall into the job. - I'm approaching my
one-year mark here at PNM. Here at the level six, the
past few weeks have been kinda tense, we've had a
lot of angry outbursts. - I actually had an
inmate cut himself. You gonna be alright? It's been really tense. This job is actually starting
to wear on my a little bit. - A lot of 'em don't make
it through their first year. A lot of 'em don't. Do we think less of 'em? No we don't, we don't
think less of 'em. It's just not cut
out for everybody. - What's up Sarge? Is there anything
going on today? - Okay. I was gonna let you
know that I was here. - Okay, all right. I don't know what to expect
coming here working level two. Usually I work around 24
inmates who are locked up 23/7. Here I've got 140
inmates that are free and able to walk around me. (tense music) - I'm third generation
here so I gotta do hard. Because my last name is
Mangin, if I mess up, everybody's gonna
know that I messed up, and I don't want to
let my family down. Because my family's
name is big here and I want to keep
my name going on. You have a sign
on his door saying do not give this
inmate the phone, the phone's in
there, wrapped up. - [Cohen] I think it's (bleep)
through that laundry thing right here and had the
phone in it yesterday. - Inmates, all they have
is time watching you. So anytime you make a mistake,
they look at your flaws. The inmates will notice
that and mess with you. - Those kinds of things is
what makes a sink or swim moment because you
have to persevere and move on because
if you dwell on it, the inmates will see that
and so will your staff, and they don't know if you'll
be able to make decisions. Let's go, hold on. This inmate has a history
of masturbating basically. Every time a female comes
in, he acts very vulgar, grabbing his private
parts and makes noises. Sit right there. So he's been on 72-hour
discipline off and on, and yesterday we had
a nurse come through, and he was doing the
same thing to her. Then we advised
our unit manager, and the warden will be
coming down to talk to him today to tell him what they're
gonna discipline him with. - Yesterday it was reported
to me that you were being disrespectful and making
sexually aggressive noises towards the nurse while she
was trying to do her rounds. (speaking Spanish) - [Officer] You already
have a past history of doing stuff like that. - Take him back to the
strip cage, not in his pod. Put him in there and
then get with your LT, he'll tell you exactly what he
is and isn't allowed to have. (door lock buzzing) - All this right here comes out. - Everything comes out. - [Officer] Last
time he did this, they had him wear a bunny suit. - Yeah I'm gonna go get him one. - [Officer] All right. - With all my mistakes,
the last thing we need is an inmate causing
trouble in my pod. - Level two is
different in many ways. Here nobody's locked down. Here, everybody has
basically free roam. Free roaming in
a dorm situation, you know it's actually
really nerve wracking. Hey, if you guys
are in the showers, you gotta jump out. - All right, well if
you work in the kitchen, you're alright. I'm still the fish
here in this unit, knowing that I don't
know the inmates, knowing I don't know
what their habits are, who does what,
why they go where. What's your purpose out here? - [Keith] All right. - No mail, no. In this kind of situation,
you have to show them that, hey, I'm not frightened
with you being behind me, even though deep down
inside, you are scared. All-righty, everybody
listen up for your number. If I call your number, you
need to go to property, in your oranges. 424, 432, 441, 414, hold up. - Just go to property. - Does there have
to be a reason why? - Yeah. - No, there don't. These guys'll actually talk back to try and push your buttons. There is no reason why I
have to tell you, just go. - We have to be very mentally
strong to do this job on a day-to-day basis. - [Keith] Bounce
out, go to your bunk. - Shut up! - What? - The majority of
'em just realize that this is not the career, I
don't wanna be in this place. - You think it's funny? - This is not the
occupation for them. - One goes and then like
50 of you guys show up. - You guys aren't supposed
to be leaving that unit. You guys are even lucky
I'm letting you out to use the restrooms. Here I am more forceful
with these guys, guys only because
they are in my face. Hey you know what? You really really
need to quit that. And there's definitely
a lot more of them than there are of me. Where are you going my man? Hey, I'm talking to you,
when you turn around and say, "I'll do it later". - [Keith] No no no. Stop talking and listen, okay? I don't take that. - A little bit. - You're here nonstop,
16 hours a day, sometimes 6-7 days a week. It breaks a person down. You say leave your work at work
and leave your home at home. Realistically, that's a
hard thing to do sometimes. - Recently something happened
where my kids had just torn the house apart,
my wife was upset, 'cause the kids
weren't listening, and all the sudden I
started talking to my wife, my wife looks at me and she
goes, "We're not inmates, "why are you talking
to 'em like that?" And she made me realize
that I was changing. That this place was
taking over my life. - It changes you as a person. It jades you almost,
you know, how you deal with people in the
streets, talk to people. - [Keith] No matter what,
in the back of your mind, this place is here. - I have been in and
out of the system over a number of years. And I've seen you know
officers come and go. The most keen advice I can
give to a young officer is that if you're here long enough,
you'll become a lot like us. (laughs) - I've been down 15 years
man, 2nd degree murder, attempted murder. I've seen a lot of officers
come in here and they don't, you know, adapt to this
environment, they get stressed. You know they get corrupted,
you know they quit or, you know they get fired. One year is something. One day in this prison
system is something. The time that you spend here,
whether you're an officer or a convict, you
can never get back. - It doesn't surprise
me that rookies quit. The CO's lives are in danger
cause you never know if you're gonna come in here and catch
one of us in a bad mood, and we just say (bleep) it and
try to take flight on them. I would never become a CO. - How can some of these officers
go a long time and retire with a peaceful life, how
come other people you know, drop out, they get tired
of it but I think that comes from the
individual's heart. And so I think it comes
with the determination, what are you determined to do? What is your objective? (tense music) - How many of you
guys need gloves? Come on man, you guys
gotta be prepared, no glove, no love
you know what I mean? (laughter) We're looking for anything that they're not
supposed to have. Any types of drugs,
any types of tobacco, any types of improvised alcohol. Anything that is pretty much against the rules and
regulation of the facility. - Hey if you guys see any
water bottles like these, take them and throw them away. Anything like this, take
¢em and throw ¢em away. - This is either one of two
things, either they are, snorting them, or
they'll get the capsules, empty them out so
they can put tobacco, or some type of
other drugs in them. Oh yeah, I got you! They use it to smoke, cook
down their heroin or suboxone, or whatever they're
trying to shoot up. Hopefully they don't get a
hold of anything flammable. And then you know, throw it on
one of us or try to burn us, or anything like that so, there's just a number of
reasons why they can't have it. Let me show you
where I hit it up at. - [Valdez] I gotta
see how you do this. - Andrew Cordova, I want
him to have my stripe. I want him to be a lieutenant. And I want him to say,
"Hey you know what? "The knowledge that Sgt.
Verrett passed on to me, "I'm gonna pass on
to somebody else." - [Cordova] See
that little hook? - [Valdez] Yeah. - [Cordova] See how
you can't see in there? - [Valdez] Yeah. - [Cordova] So you just
dip that (bleep) in there. Just scrape, bro. - Would have been the last
place I probably would have thought to ever search. - You can't get
lazy and complacent, you have to look
everywhere 'cause, the place you think,
oh I'm not gonna look, that's probably where it's at. (suspenseful music) - Oh my god, found a syringe. We were shaking down
the bunks in B dorm, and I actually found a
syringe in the windowsill. That was my first find ever. That's a good one. The coolest part about
it was being a rookie. Seeing all these guys
search everything, and they know exactly
where to look and, me out of everyone, I was
the only one that found something to that extent. - I'm not sure, how would
something like this get in? That's a good question. - You have a lot of
traffic crews that go out. They pick up trash along
the road and stuff. And sometimes they
smuggle it in. - [Valdez] I found a syringe. - Shut up! - But I think we both won
together, you know why? - [Cordova] Why?
- [Valdez] Because it was a trick you passed on to me,
- [Cordova] Ohhh! - That helped me
find the syringe. - Where did he
have it hidden at? - 149, 149, the windowsill. - Ooh, nice! - I like how he's taken
Officer Valdez under his wing. Even though both of 'em
rookies, that's what we want, we want a team effort. - That was my first find too. - Yeah. - [Cordova] That was good.
- [Valdez] Awesome. - [Officer] F-Pod. (door buzzing) - No. Sometimes the inmates
think they can talk a certain way just
because of the way I am, and I've learned that I
have to be more decisive. I think every officer
comes to a breaking point, where it's either
make it or break it. I think it's time
for me to step up. - [Producer] What's going on? - There's no power in 1A or 1B. [beep] - [Officer] We need
the keys down here! - I'll get the emergency key. - I'm really not positive
what we're supposed to do. - Utility failure, how
about if the power goes out? - No (laughs). - Do you have the screwdriver? - [Officer] Yeah. - I think every officer that
hasn't been here for a while comes to a point where they
have to step up and take charge, even though they're not too
sure about the situation and how they should handle it. They just step up and
do the best they can. The guys in control can't open
or close any of the doors, so we have to do
it all manually. We had to put the bar into the
door to switch it back over - We need to get everyone
back in their cell, and start an emergency count. Let's go! Most inmates understand
they have to get back in their cell,
and if they don't, discipline will happen. Close the top. - We all worked together
and got everything done. - I actually think the situation
with the power going out was a turning point for me. I think I proved myself today, even though I wasn't sure
what I was supposed to do, I stepped up and took charge. I'm a lot more confident
than when I first came in. (door slams) (dramatic music) - I just got word
that an inmate has flooded his cell in level six. The same inmate that was
giving us trouble before by showing his private
parts to the nurse. He ripped his blankets up
and stuffed 'em in his toilet to where the whole bottom
tier is flooded with water. - A little bit, making me mad, but it's part of the job. Are you (bleep) kidding me? (inmates yelling) (Cohen coughs and gags) Disgusting! That stuff smells bad! - Hey, shut up! Is it your door? - [Valdez] Fix it! - I actually got
into corrections to use it as a stepping stone
to study criminal justice. Being that I'm 19 years old, I've got a lot of goals
that I'm working towards. I want to go further
with my career. I want to help people,
I don't want to tell people what to do
for the rest of my life. I don't think I could
see myself working in the prison system
for 15, 20 years. You know 25 years
and then retire. I don't want to be a part
time prisoner you know? All right, let's clear it up! - Why? - [Valdez] Huh? - Why? - Because they're watching
the cameras and you guys can't be hanging out
here a whole lot. I let you guys for a few
but after like 5 minutes, I clear it up, you
know what I mean? - I don't know why it's
like that but like, but level two though
right, we're listening, we're in level two. Less restriction, we're
here because we're good, you know what I mean? - You're not good, you're
not here 'cause you're good. You're in prison
'cause you're good? - Excuse me, sir. The guidance that Sgt.
Verrett had given me was, even though I am a rookie,
I can help the guys that are newer than myself. Hopefully they can learn
from what I've been through, that way they don't
make the same mistakes. Watch out for quiet guys
that keep to themselves. - Yeah. - It's not always the loud ones. The loud ones are
there to throw you off. - Then the quiet ones
are the ones that they take their stuff to to
have them hold it for you. - 'Cause the guys that are
quiet are either holding, or they're the ones
making something to hold. - I never even thought
about that, right. - Is there anyone in here
that I should watch out for? - This guy's an
idiot, he's stupid. - There's often one inmate
that usually tends to test you, to push you, see how
they can get you to quit. Resolve it professionally. Don't go in there gung ho, you know trying
to fight the guy. That's another stupid
mistake that I've made. Get off your (bleep) phone! - [Inmate] (bleep) you, bitch! - Get off your phone! - [Inmate] (bleep) you, bitch! - Get off your (bleep) phone! - What are you
trying to hide from? Henson, I saw you. Hey go back to your unit if you're not gonna
be doing anything. He's from unit four, and he
was trying to crawl around the cage to get to unit
six, to call someone, to get something from someone. You guys need to show
him how to do time. - You're gonna get
bullied you're gonna be verbally assaulted. And you're the one that's
gonna have to deal with it. - [Valdez] Henson,
go back to your unit! - If I know that they're new,
I'll give them a hard time, just to see more or
less where they're at. How far we can push them. - I was a predator
on the street, I'm a predator in here. If you ask any of these
predators in here, they show fear. They know how to attack. (Cohen gags) (inmates yelling) (Cohen gags and coughs) - [Cohen] Maybe he's
upset cause you know he's on lockdown
all the time 24/7. Um but other than that, I don't know why he did it. He doesn't only upset us, he's upsetting the
other inmates obviously. it's my first time
dealing with flooding and its not, its not fun,
you have a bunch of inmates um upset 'cause there's
water in their room. - We have to suffer for
everything that he's doing and stuff and that's
smelling the (beep), having the (bleep) come
in our house and stuff. If it's to achieve a goal that's in the best interest
of everybody in the unit, that's one thing but
he's being a (bleep). You know people that do
some stuff like that, you know that's
some real (bleep), you don't do stuff like that. Excuse my language, I
mean I don't mean to be using language like that
on the TV and stuff but, that's what it is. - People like that, the
reason why they do it, is because they know none
of us can get to them. - He'd be (bleep)
up, straight up. - It's hard to be an inmate. Whenever something
happens in a pod, if you didn't do and
another inmate does, you're affected with it. - The whole pod reeks,
and these kinds of things is what makes inmates
seriously go off. I don't know how we're
gonna handle this. - Well, I'll tell you. A lot of these
guys who have done a lot of time in
prison, like myself, we thrive on respect. When a young inmate
through ignorance of how he should act and
stuff like that disrespects an older convict or
something like that, it could be life threatening. - Just do your time,
do your number. Don't interfere with
the next man, you know, don't get into nobody
else's business. - You live one day at a time. Of course you think
about the past. But you gotta live
in the moment. It could all just
turn like that. - Oh as long as you don't
have (bleep) up charges and you're not a
rat, you'll make it. - A sink or swim in
this environment is growing up, maturing. I need to accomplish in prison what I wasn't able to
accomplish out there. - I got the rest of
my life in prison. And if you come
to prison forever, you can either make
it easy on yourself, or you can make it
harder on yourself so, now I'm focusing on my family, I'm focusing on myself, and making it better
for me in here. Because I could still
be somebody whether I'm in prison or whether I'm here. It doesn't matter, I
could still help myself. - [on radio] Unit four
for canteen, unit four. - [Valdez] Unit four, canteen! - Gotta watch the showers, gotta watch over here in the
restrooms and stuff like that. Watch their hands. Watch their pockets. You'll see them running
around like this, paying debts off. So that's when I'm
gonna be down here and I'm gonna catch them. - All right. Level two is a rough
place to start working for your first post. So it's cool of Verrett to come
and help me with these guys and show me the ropes. What are you doing? No? You guys are good? From what I've heard,
Sgt. Verrett is one of the few left
from his academy. So I give him a lot of
respect for still being here. - I'll be watching you. - [Inmate] Hey, come on! - Oh yeah, you
gonna be gambling! - Oh we like this! I'm gonna see what
you paying off! - Verrett is a great
role model for rookies. I'm sure he faced the same
challenges when he started, and he obviously
made it through. - No, dude. - Everybody got
a lot of canteen. Right, right right right. You need to do something
about that huh? I didn't hear you. - No it ain't against
the law to get store. - it's against the
law to barter, trade, or anything like
that, or gamble, yeah. Let me enlighten you on it man. There's no-- - [Varrett] Oh you
read the policy? Okay then you know, so-- - [Varrett] Oh
yeah, you gotta eat, but then everybody likes
to gamble too, man. - I don't know, who said it? I'm saying, it, yeah! You know you got people
out there to take. - Well, don't worry
about the cameras. Don't worry about the cameras. - [Varrett] If I was yellin'
at you, then you'd know. - I'm walking through the
day room to do my rounds, and I hear an inmate getting
aggressive with Sgt. Verrett. - Excuse me, if I
was yelling at you, then I'll yell at you. - You're yelling
at me right now, you're raising your
(bleep) voice at me. - No, my voice is loud already. You tryin' to show
off 'cause you a fish. You a fish. - This is my number but I've
been doing time since I was 13. - I can't tell! - I been doin' time since
you was a baby, okay? - [Inmate] You don't
know what time mean. - Time means I been
workin' here, okay? - [Inmate] That
ain't doin' time. - Okay, so you
comin' up like this, you ain't doin' nothing. I'm like this all the time. So if you wanna step, step! You wanna step, step! I'm like this all the time. So if you wanna step, step. You wanna step, step! - [Varrett] Step,
there you go, step. Give me some gloves, let me shake this
room down right here. - My house is right there. - [Varrett] I'm gonna
shake this house down. - My house is right there. - [Verrett] I'm gonna
shake this house down. - Shake my house down. - [Verrett] No no no no,
you said you wanted to step, you stepped, you walked off. So now let me do my business. He was just showing
off, just to show off. That's what he was doing. So that raised
alarms right there. Then when he was trying to
direct me to go to his bunk, then I know something's up. - [Valdez] This one here? - [Verrett] Yeah, shake it
all down, I want it all. - [Valdez] Here's that Verrett. - [Verrett] Huh? Oh, where you find that at? - Shoe. - Excellent, whose shoes? - [Valdez] Uh, I don't
know whose shoes they are. - Which shoes was it? Those shoes right there? - [Valdez] Yeah. - Put it back in the
shoes, take the shoes. Take the whole thing. We confiscate the whole thing. Gonna bump one of his gums, we got his buddy lit up. That's a good one dawg,
that's a good one. That's a good one. - [Valdez] I would never
have thought to shake down the neighbor's bunk
but that's just the knowledge you
gain from experience. - [Verrett] Don't
sit on my table, sir. - The way way Verrett
dealt with the inmate was eye opening. He wasn't afraid to get
in the inmate's face, but at the same time, he was
in control of his emotions. I honestly don't know if
I could keep my composure that same way if an inmate
was mouthing off to me. - A lot of these inmates
have personal stuff in there. So when that inmate
flooded like that, he got everybody's
rooms destroyed. They could've just been
sitting there taking a nap, and they wake up to
water coming in the room. Even though inmates break
the law and they get sent to prison, it's obviously
important to clean it up right away because I care
about their well-being. - I'm gonna put you
in the shower okay? Got to the top, come this way, cause I don't want you
to step in that (beep). I decided to take the
inmates out of their cells, so that they didn't have
to sit in a flooded cell. Once we get this all cleaned
up, we'll get them back in. - He came back like
he was supposed to and got them out of the cells. Mangin, he's a straight
up CO, he's a good CO. He knows respect. - Wow, that's a flood! That's a river! - This is the life
of a CO, right here! Doesn't get any
better than this. - Mangin handled it excellent, for his being a new
officer on the line. With them seeing you do this, that builds credibility. Because you're gonna see
these guys through the system. These are human beings. And just a little
compassion goes a long way. And what you're doing
right here goes a long way. - Yeah. You know coming in the first
day you got butterflies, and you're nervous and not
knowing what to expect. Its one of the
roughest prisons in the whole entire country
you know what I mean? They're gonna remember me
helping out that inmate clean all that stuff, putting
disinfectant on their floor, being a human, being just
caring about the fact that, you know, I wanted to help out. - This is what young
officers need to know, this is corrections 101. (suspenseful music) - [Valdez] What were
you doing in there? - I just saw you,
I just saw you. Hey, don't keep the
door propped open! It definitely is getting
a little bit more tense. - Being a rookie and running
your unit for the first time is uh, it's overwhelming. - [Valdez] Henson, Henson! - You have the say of
where they're going or what they're doing. - I wrote you up the other day, dude and I threw it away. And that was just because
I didn't know how to fill-- - I was just trying
to get an address! - I didn't know
how to fill it out. And now I know how
to fill it out, so you're (bleep) out of luck. - All right, well just
throw that one away, and I won't go-- - No, next time you need
to go somewhere, you ask. - If I get another write-up
its gonna be a major so, if you throw that
away, I'll stay-- - No, you're getting
another writeup. So it is a major,
you know the rules. You know them better than I do. - (bleep) you! - All right. - (bleep) you! - Ah. - For every CO there's
a sink or swim moment. It could be the first time
they're engaged by an inmate. There's always one inmate that
is going to try to break you. - Henson! Why are you so dumb? Go back to your unit! Henson! - What's up? - What's up? That's one guy I can't
stand in here man. I find him suspicious. Just the way he always
runs in and out of units, he's always trying to hide. I'd like to find stuff on him. I'd like to catch him slipping. - Do not get in a confrontation
or match with them, because that's what they want. Give your directives, walk away. - Hey. Dude, don't keep
going into the units! - (bleep) you! - Hey. Dude, don't keep
going into the units! - (bleep) you! - I had trouble with
a couple of inmates when I was a rookie. Don't take it personal, 'cause
this is not a personal job. It's just business. And that's the one
thing I wanna make sure Valdez will understand,
this is not personal - Shakedown. - This guy. - He's outnumbered. Every inmate will see how
that officer handles himself. And if the officer
starts being loud, then that's when you have
all the other inmates in that dorm wanna be loud, "Why you yellin' at him, why
you treatin' him like that?" - Are they dirty? - These are clean
socks, these are clean. - [Valdez] Go over
there, go over there. Go, I asked you to go
over there and you didn't. - Dude, stop
complaining, I didn't, my bad, I apologize for
that, I won't do it again. You're good. - Officer Valdez
handled it excellent. That's what he's supposed to do, to stand his ground,
to let the inmate know that is his unit, he
takes control of his unit. - It's definitely a cat and
mouse game with these inmates. You just gotta keep one
step ahead of these guys. As a rookie, I'm real
fortunate to work with the veterans here, helping you
out, showing you the ropes. - These young men
and women who accept these positions and walk
into these institutions, walk into some
extraordinary challenges. It takes a very
special human being to make it a career, working inside these prisons. - Fears and pressures
of the job are a great factor of why our
vacancy rate is so high. And the ones that
stay with the job, grind it out, they
become leaders. - I know I made some mistakes, and I'm sure there's
gonna be other mistakes. But uh I don't see it
breaking me because, I do see myself eventually
becoming a sergeant. This is what I'm going
to continue doing. And there's nothing that's
gonna get in my way. - Every rookie in their first
year comes through crossroads. And I feel like I'm
on the right path now. - I see corrections as
being a career for me. We'll just have to see what
the future holds for me. - [Aaron] But on the
other side of that, there could be a moment
when they realize that this job is
just not for them. - Coming into this place
working lots of overtime, trying to deal with violent
criminals every single day, is actually starting to make me wonder about myself and wonder
about my career path here. - The pressures that the
correctional officers face every day affects
them tremendously. At any moment,
anybody could realize, that this is the moment that
I don't wanna be here anymore. - Making it to my one
year as a CO has always been important to me. But so is my family and
my mental well-being. Working in a prison
isn't for everybody. Because here, this place will
suck the life out of you. Arms up, tongue out, turn
around, squat, cough. (inmate coughs) Every day when I walk out
of this place, I ask myself, how's this place changing me? What is it doing to me? And honestly, I don't
see myself coming here and working the line every
single day, day in and day out. I think I need a change. (sirens) - About 1:30 this afternoon
we had a walk-away from a work detail. - [Carlos] It's go time. - [Marcantel] When
I'm asked what makes a good corrections officer, the first thing that
I say is character. It's a tough job. Not everybody can do it. - (bleep) yeah! - [Gonzalez] This
is a shank, man. It's a pretty good one too! - Here it is you know,
almost a year later, and I think I need a change. - The only thing I know
how to do is be a CO.
