I had a friend who was one of the sweetest people I’ve ever met. She told me she was going to police academy. I didn’t feel like she was the right kind of person for it because her family is full of drug addicts and she’s very bitter about it, which she has the right to be, it’s a rough life. I just worried she’d see addicts through the lens of her own issues, you know?

Well, somewhere along the way during police academy, she decided to become a CO for a bit. I had never told her about my own issues with addiction, but I decided that then was the time to do it. I thought that she would hear about my struggle and it would help to humanize the inmates a bit. Her response made me feel like I got to her. That made me feel better.

After a few months working there she started going on about those people as “animals”. She developed reputation for being a cruel and callous guard who reveled in the misery of the inmates on her watch.

She and I aren’t friends these days. She is a county cop now and I hope I never encounter her. I really do.

True, and this is why the system needs to provide mental health services for these caretakers too. Right now, you’ve got the overwhelmed and frustrated overseeing the overwhelmed and frustrated, which is a recipe for disasters like this. Add a profit motive, and now you’ve got yourself a stew going.

The CO I know is close to retirement and cant wait for it. Its rough though because hes conveyed to me he knows it's going to be a worse place when hes gone but the amout of pushback he gets from the other officers to the Brass just isn't good for him, simply for trying to do the job as it's writren in the book. He's got a family himself and as bad as the system has always been, he didn't sign up for what it's become. Its no wonder they cant find new recruits like they used to. The money's right, the hours arent, the work isnt, and the cowerkers can be as dangerous as the inmates. Plus from the stories I'm told, you're almost necessarily going to see some shit you can not un see.

Sorry to tell you, your close friend is already a bad person. Good people don't volunteer to oppress people and deny their needs, especially after being told it's going to make them worse.

Something something the company you keep..

It’s all about empathy. If you dehumanise a group enough they become “other” to your human subconscious, and you exhibit sociopathic behaviour toward them.

The problem is that it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you dehumanise someone to the smallest degree and feel guilt (because you’re still a good person), your subconscious will dehumanise them further in order to cope. (e.g they’re criminals so they’ve probably done worse). Then the next time you abuse them, it becomes easier.

This self perpetuating cycle keeps happening until you feel absolutely no sympathy for them, and consequently no guilt.

Now, the real question is whether or not you’re capable of dehumanising someone to begin with. I personally think that yes, we’re all capable, and all it takes is some bad influence (e.g bad preconceptions/media brainwashing), and in the case of police officers, a healthy dose of peer pressure.

The taxpayers are gonna lose millions while the cops responsible for this suffer no consequences whatsoever.

That's the really disgusting part. It's disgusting they designed a system like this, and that the system is working as designed. This is not an oversight. This is intentional.

Railing on the top bunk could be a hanging risk.

Depends on the type of cell they were housed in. May have been an observation or dry cell.

Only time I've ever heard of bunk beds having railing is for little kid beds.