Families of SOs Community Group
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I finally get to visit my son Saturday and I made sure I left my house by 3:00 a.m. to make sure I got there on time for 8:30 to see my son. What makes me so mad is that these people just take their own good time and did not bring any of the inmates out until 8:55 a.m. You would think that they would let us all stay the extra 25 minutes longer since they did not bring them into the room on time. I kind of want to file a grievance but I am afraid that I would cause some problems for my son in there. It just makes me mad that I spent about 5 hours driving there to get gypped out of 25 minutes visiting my son. And it was not only me, there were other families there too. I just had to get this off my chest because it is not fair, but wait, THE SYSTEM IS BROKEN! How could it be fair, right??? Grrrrrrrrrr
Yes, it is pathetic and just disrespectful with the manner in which the visitors are treated on the visiting yard. I witnessed it and it bothered me---and it still pisses the hell out of me when I hear it.
Nothing makes me more angry than a mother or a wife struggling out there on the yard and then have some cocky CO harass her.
BUT, the bottom line is that they hate visits. The COs all hate to work the visiting yard; the system does not really like visits as it requires more work for them. All this nonsense about "we encourage visits so the inmate can still be part of his family" is just a lie. The DOC does not feel that way at all. They just say that because it sounds good.
The DOC would abolish visits if they could. So what do they do? They make the visits so cumbersome and burdensome on the families in the hope that it will discourage visits in the future. Dragging their feet on getting the inmates out there on time, being asses by disallowing anyone whose clothes---shirts, shoes, the correct color etc,----do not adhere according to their strict dress code, and cutting visits short are all subtle methods they use to discourage the families from wanting to visit.
Hang in there.
rewdiazepam
No, don't file any grievances or ANY PAPER on anything that goes on in the visiting room unless something egregious happens.
Filing a grievance would be indirectly attacking the officers that did not get the inmates out there on time, either the officers at the desk or the officers working in the visiting room. They would take it our on your son and YOU when you went to visit.
You can call the captain and ask him "can anything be done to get the inmates out there earlier?" and that is OK, but don't create a big stink here. Explain that you drive five hours and your situation. The important thing is to appear concerned and not appear to be bitching or critical of them---even though you have a right to gripe.
Then just leave it be. No paper complaints.
Family members can call the prison if they are concerned about their loved one, but if you question prison policy, you ask for trouble. You are getting into what I call "prison politics" and that never bodes well for either the family who wants to visit or the inmate.
If your complaint resulted in a couple of the officers getting pulled in and talked to by the captain, you can bet that these officers have other CO friends who work the yard that would harass your son----needless shakedowns, confiscation of property, a write up or two, etc. So many things in prison have unintended consequences and this is one of them.
If you don't drop it, you will no longer be known as the "mother of your son" or "that nice lady who drives so far to see her son, but the "bitch that complained" that caused us a lot of problems.
You can see where that would go.
rewdiazepam
HB