Stan Moody

POB 240
Manchester, ME 04351
207/626-0594
www.stanmoody.com

Help! I Just Don’t Get It!

April 3, 2010

As do all new employees, I had the good fortune of receiving 8 weeks of orientation
before assuming my role as a prison chaplain at Maine State Prison in Warren.
Sprinkled in among the good information was a litany of well-worn horror stories that
have become common prison lore. As these stories of guns, blood, feces and urine bore up under
repetition, I began to wonder how many years had transpired between these events. It is almost
as though working in a prison involves waiting for the next shoe to drop while running through
your head what you are supposed to do when it does.
These stories are very familiar to the press, to the legislature and to staff, so much so that
when something serious happens, like the hostage-taking incident in the library, the public just
yawns, thinking that it is business as usual. You cannot be heard to object to lack of press
coverage if you create the impression that every day you go into the prison you take your life in
your hands.
The stories are decidedly one-sided. They omit references to the kind of medical and
security neglect that led to the death of Prisoner Weinstein and injuries to a parade of others over
the years.
Somehow, we have created a fear culture of them vs. us. Fear leads to playing defense
instead of offense. Playing defense leads to protecting yourself instead of those you have been
hired to protect.
Is it any wonder that morale among guards is rock bottom? They have been indoctrinated
with fear and put in uniform on their first day at work only to be coached by others taking great
pride in having stayed the course while walking a gauntlet. Does it not seem logical that if you
do your job with respect for human dignity, are consistent and fair, are blind to a prisoner’s
crime, are willing to listen, you can work miracles while assuring your own safety? The problem
is that respect for human dignity, fairness, objectivity and willingness to listen are in short supply
from the top down and therefore are not characteristics well respected.
The stories of trouble within school systems that have been making the news lately may
be helpful in understanding this crisis of authority. A recently immigrated Irish girl in South
Hadley, MA, Phoebe Prince, was so brutally bullied at school and on Facebook that she hanged
herself. The bloggers say, “She was probably mentally and emotionally disturbed.” Well; she
certainly was attractive. She smiled a lot. She talked funny – differently from MA kids. Maybe
she got the idea that she was alone with no support from those in charge, including her parents.
One blogger, hiding behind the pseudonym “clinteastwood.com,” suggested that teachers
are afraid of the parents, parents are afraid of their kids, and the kids are afraid of nobody, so we
should just lock the bullying SOB’s up, and they will learn what punishment is all about. Who is

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the anonymous clinteastwood.com afraid of – his own identity or those SOB’s who are afraid of
no one?
Applying that rationale to a prison culture that winks at bullying, guards are afraid of the
public, the public is afraid of criminals and criminals are afraid of nobody. So we should just
keep the SOB’s in solitary indefinitely?
Alexa Gonzalez, a 12-yr. old girl from Queens, NY, wrote something about her faith and
friends on her desk with a washable marker. She was handcuffed, driven to the police station,
booked and sentenced to community service. Her treatment was justified as standard procedure
for a graffiti ordinance violation. Standard procedure is expected to cost the school district
somewhere around $1M.
The image of frightened people in uniform treating every school kid like a ticking bomb
or a prisoner like a caged tiger makes one wonder where our culture is going. You cannot expect
people to love their work if respect, fairness, objectivity and a willingness to listen are not held
in the highest regard from the top down. How long will it be before good teachers and honest
prison guards begin saying, “I’ve had enough. It’s time for change!”?
Here are a few suggestions: Make Deputy Wardens line managers out on the floor,
working directly with the divisions under their command and with the prisoners. Tone down the
guard uniforms. Test guards for psychological fitness for the job. Train them in the psychology
of human interaction, and pay them better. Set up a system to receive tips from staff
anonymously either through a third party or through a numbering system. Conduct exit
interviews and compile the results for adjusting the training program. Place a high priority on
doing what you say you’re going to do and doing it when you say you are going to do it.
Maine State Prison loses upwards of 100 officers a year through its revolving door.
Many of these have been harassed by seasoned guards. Most of these are just bored out of their
skulls from playing defense in a system that fails to respect creativity or initiative. Meanwhile,
officials from the Department of Corrections, miles away, issue statements that have little
relationship to reality because the only thing they know is what they are being told by people
who have gotten out of touch.
I just don’t get it!