Mandatory Overtime = Sleep Deprivation
Remember that one little question on your application process that stated, “Are you able to work mandatory overtime” and you marked yes because you were excited to get into the system and started on your chosen career? Looking back do you ever wish you would have marked NO? In no other profession is there such a high turnover rate requiring so much forced or mandatory overtime on its personnel. It was not uncommon for the entire third shift officers to be mandated to stay for the entire first shift 5 days a week making for an 80 hour work week. 40 plus hours of overtime a pay period was the normal not the unusual and after a while you began to hate telephone calls after 4:00 in the morning. I always wondered what the effects of the daily stress and forced overtime did to a body. Read more…
Thinking Errors are thoughts people exhibit or demonstrate during irresponsible behavior. This thinking leads to and brings on self-destructive behavior. This self-destructiveness leads to and brings on criminal behaviors. Remember, we have all demonstrated these thinking errors at one time or another, so we must keep them in perspective. For example, although everyone has fear, what is at issue is the nature of the fear and how we cope with it. 
So how well do you think you did? Let’s find out… Are you and the courts in agreement about what constitutes lawful use of force? Check your answers: 
Every day, law enforcement and corrections officers face danger while carrying out their responsibilities. When dealing with a dangerous or unpredictable situation, law enforcement officers usually have very little time to assess that particular response to resistance and determine the proper response. In this training article good training can enable the officer to react properly to the threat or possible threat and respond with the appropriate tactics to address the situation, possibly including some level of force, if necessary, given the circumstances. 
Depending on the agency size and department manpower you may or may not be working alone. The following are some keys to success that you can place into your mental toolbox that will assist you in making it through. Take everyday as a learning experience and allow your mistakes to be tools to your success. 
The history of the Gangster Disciples begins with Larry Hoover, who entered and rose through the ranks of the Chicago gang circuit in the 1960’s and took control of the gang in 1974 by leading a series of increasingly powerful alliances. He ended up running the gang from prison until he was transferred to a higher security wing in the 1990s. Hoover was born in Jackson, Mississippi on November, 30, 1950. He moved to Chicago with his family in 1955. At the age of 16, Hoover joined a gang of 50 older youths called the Supreme Gangsters. Hoover and his Supreme Gangsters hung around their neighborhood at the corner of 68th and Green Street in impoverished Englewood on the South Side of Chicago. Hoover was kicked out of high school on the first day of his sophomore year, in 1965, after being shot in the thigh by a rival gang member. 
We wanted to write an article on a topic that you might have thought that you never would read about in print. This article is going to discuss how and when to use deadly force in a correctional facility and most importantly how to defend your actions. Since most corrections officers are not trained or equipped with weapons designed to deliver deadly force the techniques we are going to discuss will need to be unconventional. The following information is the kind of stuff we talk about before roll call when we hear about an assault on an officer from the previous shift. This type of violent assault against a corrections officer could happen anywhere. It could even happen in your facility. These life threatening assaults could happen to a friend or someone who you went to the academy with or it could happen to you. Hopefully it’s doesn’t end up like the incident referenced below with an officer being killed. 
The Crips are a primarily, but not exclusively, African American gang founded in Los Angeles California in 1969 mainly by 16-year-old Raymond Washington and Stanley Tookie Williams III. What was once a single gang is now a loosely connected network of individual sets, often engaged in open warfare with one another. Through the years the gang has grown to be one of the largest and most powerful gangs in the United States, currently with over 30,000 gang members. The gang is known to be involved in murders, robberies, drug dealing, among many other criminal pursuits. The gang is notorious for its gang members’ flamboyant use of the color blue in their clothing. However, this practice has waned due to contentious police crackdowns on gang members.