As I said, I need to learn a lot. I have the upmost respect for Mr. & Ms Swattie, so when I learned that they were in the prison system, I began to change my attitude. After reading these posts, my attitude has undergone another change or two!!

What I think--on the outside looking in--is that it seems like the administration is made up of pencil-pushers, bean counters and clock watchers. No one knows what your job is all about except what it says on some form that has to be filed. My guess is that the prisons get money from somewhere based on the number of prisoners they have. And that the pencil pushers, bean counters and clock watchers don't want to upset a prisoner cause they think he might complain and who know where that might lead? They treat it like a business, that is--bottom above all!!

We had a situation here along that line. A guy was hired to be in charge of one of the state police agencies. He was extremely well qualified--on paper. He was a doctor of The Psycology of Police Work. (Sort of like Political Science, only in police work.) Unfortunately, he had never been in a patrol car, never spent one second on the street. His beat was the classroom. He had never been in charge of anyone except a classrom full of students. It didn't take more than 6 months for the whole department to fall apart. He couldn't keep order, his directives were laughable and un-followable. He never left his office and didn't know a single man in his department. He was asked to look for work somewhere else by the government at about the same time that the narcos suggested that he should leave. He resigned and bolted for the border.

Yep, just because you have an education in a field doesn't mean you know better than the field guys.

I thought I'd contribute to this thread by pointing out some good news!

I met a dispatcher for the DuPage County Sheriff's Office. I am hoping to apply for a position at that exact agency about 1 year from now.

He informed me that all new deputy-wannabes are put into corrections for at least their first year. Upon hearing this, thanks to Swattie and some of you guys hootin' and hollerin' about corrections, I got excited!!

Corrections sounds like a good place to get some hardcore experience before hitting the beat, eh? Usually after that first year or so, said the dispatcher, you can elect to hit the street, which is what I want to do.

(Who knows, though? Maybe after I hit corrections I'll find that I love it!)

Good for you Tim. Glad I could influence your mind set.