Are you prepared for doomsday? Will you survive? We hear much about it these days. Someone said that doomsday is any catastrophic day. The dictionary defines catastrophe as “A final event; conclusion; generally, an unfortunate conclusion, calamity, or disaster.” Every day can be potentially catastrophic in corrections work and sometimes one catastrophe can lead to another. The key is preparation, and our survival depends on it. There are some things we can do to prepare which leads to knowing what to do next when the unexpected happens suddenly. Read More »

Joshua 6:1: “Now Jericho was straitly shut up because of the children of Israel: none went out, and none came in.” In our profession, we may find ourselves walled in just like the inhabitants of Jericho, not reaching out and not letting anyone come in to us. The fact remains that the people in our custody are noted for not being trustworthy. There is a familiarity of sort that comes from doing time with offenders, but it is the foolish officer that is not aware of them at all times. The awareness of their potential to strike out against us in many different ways, urges us to build walls. These walls are built for good reason, and they are high and thick. We build them as Noah Webster defines a wall as “a place of security, a fortified place.” A wall of distance is put up to protect ourselves from the inmates getting to us when they try to play on our emotions, compassion, pity, or anger. Read More »

I read an interesting account of Dr. Charles Brown written by L. G. Morony, it is as follows:

“He was on a ship off the coast of Labrador. Suddenly a powerful gale sprang up from the southward, the direction in which the ship was steaming. The force of the storm was so great that the ship was driven before it, in spite of the fact that the full power of its engines was exerted to keep it on its course. While the ship was struggling vainly, Dr. Brown’s attention was attracted to a huge iceberg which was moving steadily southward in the teeth of the storm, defying the fury of the wind to impede its progress. Read More »

We have all received emails or been given verbal about subjects in our custody or coming into our custody that are dangerous. Reality is that anyone in our custody has the potential to be extremely dangerous. Read More »

Any time we experience reorganization we have an opportunity set before us to truly dwell in unity. Unity is defined with the terms “oneness and uniformity.” It is also said about unity that it “is a thing undivided itself, but separate from every other thing.” Reorganization is painful many times, but full of opportunities. We can learn from others and others can learn from us. Our goal should be to promote our squad or shift to excellence. It will be done as we work together in every aspect of our job. Read More »

“Look on the ground by the wall. Your eyes are better than mine.” This statement was made to me as I strained to see what the inmate knew was there. He then pointed to an old railroad spike lying barely under the surface of the ground on an outside wall of our facility. When I saw it I questioned inside, “Why didn’t I see that earlier when I was over here?” Immediately I thought of the potential danger to officers and other inmates.

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I saw a poster in a facility that read “Every day you don’t work out someone does. Stay fit.” It is important for us to stay fit. Some situations require us to become physical and our body must be able to respond. As we stay fit physically, we should also stay fit spiritually. Our daily time in the Bible and in prayer exercises us. It prepares us for quick response. Spiritual fights happen daily and we must be prepared. Make no mistake about it the devil is “working out” right now. I Peter 5:8 says, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:” Are you fit for a fight today?

Psalm 38:21-22. “Forsake me not, O LORD: O my God, be not far from me. Make haste to help me, O Lord my salvation.”

Exodus 17:8-12. “Then came Amalek, and fought with Israel in Rephidim. And Moses said unto Joshua, Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek: to morrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand. So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side; and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun.”