Switching Hats

My day started out exactly the way I didn't want it to. It was okay by the end, but the beginning really really sucked.

I had just gotten there, walking from the Admin building over to the control center to check out my keys and radio. Something caught my eye and I looked through the fence out into A-yard and I see alot of officers running. And I think "Oh snap, this can't be good."

Actually I think I said that out loud.

And I hear someone running up behind me and I hear their radio say "10-6 the 10-5 on A-yard."

I just shake my head and go on to get my gear. I can tell what kind of day this is going to be already.

For those of you who aren't down on the radio lingo, a 10-5 is "officer needs assistance right now" and 10-6 means "situation under control". In other words, they just had to wrestle or fight with an offender but it was over with now. A 10-5 call is bad news for everybody.

I get into central and I find out the inmate they had to fight with had just gotten out of the Hive maybe an hour prior to that. Nice. The Lieutenant says to me "You and Chuck got here early and we have all of the A-yard officers tied up in this and doing paperwork. You guys go ahead and start early and go on out to the yard." So we go on out there.

Now, I haven't worked the yard at all in close to a year. I don't know everything they do out there. I usually just go where the Sarge tells me to. But we had no Sarge for awhile so Chuck and I just prowled around and tried to look like we knew what we were doing. We probably walked ten laps around the yard. That's more walking than I usually do in a day. I really need to get back to my workouts in the mornings.

It worked, I guess. We pulled off the bluff, anyway.

We worked they yard until our shift crew came on and relieved us and then we trucked on down to the Hive and got our day going late. Mere moments later we got five transfers into the house and another PC lockup from another house. And then some inmate knucklehead going on suicide watch. Then another lockup. The two floor officers we got were two guys that were pretty good, but didn't know how to work the Hive. I felt like kind of an ass because every time they stepped foot into the office I was sending them off to do something else.

And in the meantime my desk was getting piled higher and higher with paperwork and files needing to be dealt with. And count was coming up quick and I hadn't the slightest clue what our numbers should look like. I wasn't sure count was going to clear at all.

Luckily, I got my head out and managed to get the numbers right and Chuck fed the whole house and the other two put the inmates into the right cells and count cleared. Hooray!

Whew! That was a close one.

Got all the files put away and the room moves done and logged all the meals and even managed to get a few rounds of rec done. Next thing I knew, it was ten minutes past the time for me to go home! Ran into the office, grabbed my Chucky and burned out.

At least I didn't leave a big mess for them to clean up.

I think I'm going to sleep good tonight.