Bob Walsh
Stockton, CA
Male, 60
I worked for the California state system, starting as a Correctional Officer and retiring as a Lieutenant in 2005. I now write for the PacoVilla blog which is concerned with what could broadly be called The Correctional System.
Couldn't really say. I have never been a street cop. It comes up fairly often in the prison setting, usually with female cops making the complaint, but we don't have to pull information out of the complainant under those circumstances.
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Like I said, I have never been a street cop. I suppose it might make a difference if they thought you were lying, or if they wanted to tell how solid a witness you were. Maybe he is a confirmed left-hand weenie wacker and if you say he was using his right that would tend to indicate you were lying. I very honestly don't know the answer.
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In my experience, neutral. Druggies still use in prison. Drugs are easy to get in prison. They are about 4X more expensive than on the street, but are still easy to get. A recent mainstream news report just released a report on that subject in fact. It said that, when tested in June of last year, 23% of the prisoners tested came up positive for illegal drugs and 30% of the sample refused to be tested, even though the sampling was anonymous and there was no way to connect the samples back to an individual person.
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Generally speaking yes, depending on the exact reason why you left. If you wait too long they have to do a whole new background on you. (If you quit because you don't like shift work or you "don't like other people telling you what to do" you are probably SOL.) However they might decide you are not worth the trouble, though after investing all that academy training in you they might give it a go, again depending....
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The system can not, and does not "correct" behavior. If all goes well, at some point in his/her life the prisoner decides to get their act together. At that point whatever rehabilitative programs may be available will have the opportunity to work. The idea that incarceration, in and of itself is a rehabilitative exerience is a myth. Most life prisoners do have the opportunity to get out, eventually. At that point they may be too old, too infirm, or too tired of the life and will go striaght. Or not. Prisons keep prisoners from committing crimes against the general public while they are encarcerated. That is all that can be realistically expected.
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The most noticable ones were within the profession. The academy lengthened from 3 weeks to 16 weeks. (It shrank back down to 14 after I retired). We started using papper spray and side-handle batons. Firearms polciies changed so there was fewer discharges of firearms at the institutions. Cell extractions are more controlled and less frequent. They are also video recorded now except in case of emergencies. Custody staff now have the right under the law to carry weapons off duty, before that was a department controlled thing. The entire medical operation is now run thru the federal courts. The overall level of violence in the system has lowered.
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I don't know if you will get a response from Virginia. I can tell you that, as long as that person is under the jurisdiction of the department (i.e. on probation or parole) it would be a serious no-no. The California rules (Title 15 of the California Code of Regulations) are available on line, I strongly suspect whatever they call the prison rule book in Virginia is also on line. You might want to do a little web surfing and you may be able to find it chapter and verse. Good hunting.
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