ECN Forum Forums Safety Discussion and News Occupational Safety Discussion OSHA and large breakers

I can see you guys have strong feelings about this subject as do I.

The boss has not brought this up yet. I noticed we are scheduled for OSHA training in Jan and my plan is to keep my mouth shut till then.

The biggest maint call out cost is plumbing by far.

George: we follow Texas Commisson on Jail Standards see this link www.tcjs.state.tx.us/
The standards are under general information.
Not much if anything on worker safety, most of the stuff involves inmate treatment.

BuggabooBren: There is in fact a procedure in event of fire and smoke. Because we do not open the jail if theres a fire, we must provide a smoke purge system. The link above will have info under general information then standards then Life Safety.

Thanks again folks

Drillman,
Yeah, we had our problems with all things being geared toward inmate problems, but we did manage our way through with some of the other regulations out there. If ya need, e-mail me, I've got more experience than anyone oughta have in this area, wish I didn't.

Bren,
I got up one Monday morning, I only live about a mile from work when I was at the prison, so you can understand mornings were a lot more leisurely then, I'm listening to the radio and hear that we had a riot overnight, and it was caused by a power outage.

Curious say I, no one called me. I get to the office, and ask everyone if they got called in, yup, says one of the guys, came in around 7pm, reset a breaker, left around 8 after securing, why?

The radio said the riot happened around midnight, at our maximum security section, can't be the outage.

Rode over to Max. Most folks think of jails/prisons as individual cells, they're really expensive, so it really doesn't happen much, but this institution it was the norm. Let's just say we did NOT keep our boy scouts in there.

There is an emergency procedure that in the event of catastrophe, major fire, you slap the mushroom button that says "All Release". Yep, that means we open ALL doors at once. In the event of an outage written procedure is to switch system to manual, switch back to auto on restoration, this is posted over the guards station, and they all know it.

But NEVER think an inmates dumb, just cause he got caught, THAT attitude can end your career.

The guard never switched back to auto, all the inmates heard the locks pop, they never said anything, cause a guard they did not like was gonna take over at shift change in 1/2 hour.

Old guard never said anything, new one starts his log, then goes to take count, means he leaves the control point, and walks the block for a physical count. He gets half way down the block, when he gets lots of company, nearly is beaten to death before the rescue team (aka: goon squad, think about 30 of your closest friends in full riot gear, protective shields with an attitude) come in and join the party.

In short, guard forgot to follow procedure, but no one ever said anything to change the medias reporting power outage. Yup, I took it personally, but who cares.

YIKES!!! My ex-#1 is a dept head at a Max unit but started his career in the custody position and said you wouldn't want to lose the upper hand for a split second so I can't imagine having events and inmates coincide to set up the conditions for such a lapse.

George: that is an intresting story, it cannot happen here however. All the control boards are on generator power, they are also on UPS power. When the lights go off the control board does not even notice it. The generators come on within 15 seconds or so. They are tested every week.

One thing I have learned from this job is that criminals love the dark. Example, the law states that a "night light" shall be provided. It is usually a 5 watt biax CF. Now the purpose of this is NOT so the inmates can see at night is is so the guards can see the inmates during counts.

Also about fires. we are required by law to have fire alarms with automatic smoke purge. What that means is if the smoke detector goes off in a unit, then a exhaust fan turns on, a makeup fan turns on, dampers open or close as needed. The AC ductwork is sometimes used to remove the smoke, it just has more air moving than during normal operation. The best part is how the State tests it. They set off a smoke bomb, yes really a smoke bomb, in the jail. The inmates are usually taken to the rec yard for this.


All in all it is an intresting job to say the least. I can take two hours to change a light bulb. First I got to drive to the building then I got to get buzzed in then got to get buzzed into the unit then got to find a spare guard to escort me then I get to the cell and find the tamperproof screws clogged up and stripped so I need to use a hammer and chisel on them. Change lamps and put new screws in to replace the ones I broke off. Oh and make damn sure I find all the broken pieces on the floor.

Just another day.

Yup,
The rascals can make shanks outta a toothbrush... seen that one before. My son makes custom knives, he has one of the best "shank" collections going......... wonder where he got those?????????

Our gensets were on line prior to 15 seconds, it just so happened this fault occurred downstream of the genset, Murphy's law don't ya know?

We used blue bulbs for our night lighting. We did not require escorts, they made us all correctional officers prior to going to work, so we got to do the work, and keep an eye out for an inmate with an attitude. Always loved Max, when I went there, there was no death penalty, so an inmate with triple life had nothing to lose. Killing you was only a diversion in his day.

Sometimes I miss it, sometimes I don't.