ECN Forum Forums General Topics of the Trade General Discussion Area Prison time in my future :-)

You may want to look into working at night when the 'locals' are in lockdown, it makes it easier to get around because the secutity is slightly lax.

"a heads up that the fixtures need 1/4" rods(4) from the structure above to hold them. These are labor intensive units and I hope that your estimator accounted for them."

John,

We encountered all sorts of problems that we were not prepared for, it may pay to contact elektrikguy before your visit, we ran into more then just 1/4" rods, and i would say 4 hours, out of 8 were productive, due to a lot of waiting time.

Yep, I'll second, or third that. A LOT OF WAITING/ DOWN TIME. Every tool must be counted and accounted for. Other than that, I haven't encountered any problems. The staff is usually very cooperative, although sometimes a bit too talkative.

Don't forget the "No Hostage" Policy.

I spent an hour locked in the main electrical room because of not enough escorts.

The women are more vocal with catcalls than the men, and the women like to show off - enough said.

Not trying to get into the politics of it...
But I find it odd that so many have worked in a prison before?

Who said they were working there?

I see rules in US prisons are much tougher than here. I have worked in an Austrian prison for some time and it wasn't that bad. We only got as far as the garage, so we didn'T see much of the inmates.
In the morning we had to hand in an ID or drivers license, got a visitor badge we had to wear visible while inside, dragged in our tools all at once (no tool counts or anything, we just dragged in our tool boxes, bags and buckets of stuff). In theory we'dhave to be accompanied all the time, but in fact we worked alone most of the time.The correction officers are a kind of people on their own...
The company I worked for does all service work for the local prison (which is quite large given Vienna's 1.6 million inhabitants). Small things like changing fluorescents are done by the inmates.

I've been with the federal prison system for 10 yrs. and agree with what everyone else has said. These comments pertain to where I work, and may or may not help you. Each person you have going inside the fence with you, will have to have a N.C.I.C. background check done beforehand. Anyone with a past record will not be going in. Make sure you all have your picture ID with you. Evey tool will be itemized on a tool inventory sheet. If you have tools and tool boxes, they are inventoried and enter/leave through the rear drive in gate. This gate is only open during the dayshift, 7:30 to 3:30. The inmates are not allowed to converse with you, or you with them. If an inmate approaches your work area, the officer should tell the inmate to leave. Our fixtures open with different size torx bits, and some with a #2 security phillips bit with a hole in the center, and some with the security allen with the hole in the center. And as said already, you'll have some that will strip out. I always keep extra screws and cage nuts on hand. We have many different styles of fixtures here. Some are better than others. If you're lucky, you'll have an escort that will have access to the mechanical rooms and breaker panels. Not everyone has access to these areas.

The Florida Corrections system is a little less structured than the feds. Inmates will be doing most of the electrical work. I never saw an electrician who didn't have blue pants with a stripe on the leg.
One piece of advice, if you see a little dissagreement or people acting in some determined way, move toward the gate. I did see a guy get killed in the yard once. Two big guys just sidled up behind him, picked him up and rammed his head into a concrete curb. Everyone just walked away and left him bleeding on the sidewalk. The COs hustled me out the gate before the place got locked down.
Make sure your contract specifies you are on the clock when this happens. I have been stuck in a sally port for an hour or more.

They always took anything pointy away from me when I went in but the inmates were carrying tool belts. ;(

I'm at Coleman Fed. in Sumter County. We have 5 prisons here at our complex. I'm in our new U.S. penn. right now. Since Sept., we've had inmates from Louisiana, that were displaced after the storms. We started shipping them back a couple of weeks ago. Now we're getting some of the bad boys from Atlanta penn. since it's being shut down. I've heard a few war stories from the La. inmates. Some of them were in Angola.