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The Prison Officer Podcast
The Prison Officer Podcast is a place where prison officers and correctional staff share their experiences, discuss leadership, cope with stress, and learn survival strategies for one of the toughest careers out there. Hosted by Michael Cantrell, this podcast delves into the lives, dreams, and challenges faced by those who work inside the walls of our nation’s prisons. It features interviews, insights, and discussions related to the unique and demanding world of corrections. Whether it’s overcoming difficult leaders, understanding rehabilitation, or addressing misconceptions about incarcerated populations, the Prison Officer Podcast provides valuable perspectives from professionals in the field.
The Prison Officer Podcast
89: New Perspectives, New Solutions: Insights from Missouri's Fall MCA/MPPOA Conference
Join us live from the Missouri Correctional Association and Missouri Probation and Parole Officers Association fall conference at the stunning Lodge of the Four Seasons in Lake of the Ozarks. Learn about suicide prevention from the critical support provided by the 988 national suicide hotline. Hear inspiring conversations with Major Ognenovski from the Chillicothe Correctional Center about managing a female correctional facility, and the innovative developments at St. Charles County’s correctional facility with Director Dan Keen. Learn about the Correctional Peace Officers Foundation with CPO Field Representative - Wayne Bowdry.
I also highlight the new correctional classes from Command Presence and discuss how we can educate and train your officers.
Kurt Dudenhoeffer
National Suicide Hotline: 988
https://www.saferhomescollaborative.org/
info@saferhomescollaborative.org
314-516-8400
Major Ognenovski
Chillicothe Correctional Center
https://doc.mo.gov/
Director Dan Keen
St Charles County Department of Corrections
https://www.sccmo.org/
d2keen@scmo.org
CPO Field Representative - Wayne Bowdry
Kentucky Field Representative
wbowdrycpof@yahoo.com
Missouri Correctional Association
https://mocorrectionsassociation.org/
Missouri Probation and Parole Association
https://www.facebook.com/ContactMPPOA/
Lodge of the Four Seasons
https://4seasonsresort.com/
Finding Your Purpose: Crafting a Personal Vision Statement to Guide Your Life and Career! by Michael Cantrell
Keys to Your New Career: Information and Guidance to Get Hired and Be Successful as a Correctional or Detention Officer by Michael Cantrell
PepperBallFrom crowd control to cell extractions, the PepperBall system is the safe, non-lethal option.
OMNI
OMNI is cutting-edge software designed to track inmates and assets within your prison or jail.
Command Presence
Bringing prisons and jails the training they deserve!
Disclaimer: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase, I may receive a commission at no extra cost to you.
Contact us: mike@theprisonofficer.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ThePrisonOfficer
Take care of each other and Be Safe behind those walls and fences!
Well, if you hear a lot of noise in the background, that's because they just let one of the classes out, so I have a lot of people walking by the table right now we're coming live today from Lodge of the Four Seasons in.
Speaker 5:Lake of the Ozarks, Missouri.
Speaker 2:We're at the Missouri Correctional Association slash Missouri Probation and Parole Officers Association, so we're going to be doing a few things. Today. I've got some people stopping by. This is the first live podcast I have attempted, so, after a few little logistical problems and you know, I've been trying to work on the sound.
Speaker 2:I'm sure it's getting loud in the background, but we're going to keep going. I think you guys will be able to hear me. Anyway, so I've been here for a couple of years now. Missouri Correctional Officers Association, or Missouri Correctional Association, has been around for a long time and you know this is the conference, the fall conference, where everyone comes together and I'm going to make a couple of little motions here and let people know that we're live on the air. But this is where they come together. We get to enjoy some.
Speaker 2:I had a nice breakfast this morning, a nice lunch. They had classes yesterday which I was in part. Of those classes I gave a couple. One of them was Essentials in Correctional Excellence, where I taught the classes and talked to about 70 people in there. So it was a really good class.
Speaker 2:Everybody was engaged and we talked about why being the best in corrections matters. That's the excellence in corrections. And then we also talked about Left of Bang. If you've never seen that book, it's a great book to reach out and get. If you work in corrections, it's probably one of the books I recommend the most, if you can get that. We talked about a little bit of staff manipulation. We talked about emotional intelligence, why you need EQ and why that's important. You know, a friend of mine, miles Cook, he mentioned it to me and I loved it he talks about. You know, emotional intelligence when you're a correctional officer is like a superpower. So it's great to get to talk to those people about that, and I really think I've got a lot of comments today. People have stopped by the booth and told me what they thought about the clash yesterday and how much they enjoyed it. So that always feels good.
Speaker 2:I'm kind of doing a dual role here this year. I'm kind of doing a dual role here this year. Not only am I here as the prison officer podcast, but I also came with Command Presence. You know Command Presence is John Bostain contacted me earlier this year and they've been doing law enforcement training for a long time and he reached out to me and he said look, I want to reach into corrections and I want to give them the same level of training that we're doing with law enforcement. And so he contacted me and we've been putting stuff together. I've been working with some of the other instructors and we've been developing classes that are going to be taught just for correctional staff and by correctional staff, and the class is designed for correctional staff. It's not a law enforcement class that we're just going to give to corrections, no, it's a corrections class that we're going to give to corrections. So I think that's wonderful and I'm excited for that and that's what I highlighted yesterday. I did a couple of the classes. One of them was leading without rank, and then the other one was essentials and correctional excellence. So that was a good way to kick this off. We had a lot of fun.
Speaker 2:Missouri Correctional Association has been around for a long time. I heard them talking, so it's been around for decades. I know that the Missouri Correctional Association and the Missouri Probation and Parole Officers Association have come together and now they kind of co-host this conference, which is great because you know, I wasn't exposed as a correctional officer, although I knew the probation and parole officers kind of took over. You know, once the offenders left, once the inmates left our prisons, but I didn't realize that. You know what all they did. So it's really been great the last couple of years to, you know, get to talk to them and understand a little bit about what they do and how important that is. And the interesting thing yesterday is I had a lot of them in class. You know a lot of the correctional classes that we talk about with leadership, dealing with the inmates, emotional intelligence, staff manipulation, those are things that our probation and parole officers also deal with. So you know, it was great to have them in class and great to talk to them while we were doing that.
Speaker 2:So I would like to thank Lodge of the Four Seasons. It's been. They have really stepped up and, you know, made this a wonderful conference for us. It's not done yet. There's still another day tomorrow, a lot of stuff left today. But, lodge of the Four Seasons, their staff has just been wonderful. I can hear them down there setting up now for lunch and I'm excited about that. As always, lunch is a great thing. Hey, it looks like I also have the ability to do studio chat. I haven't done that before, but if anyone is listening out there, I'd love for you to give me a chat. Let me know you're on there.
Speaker 2:And so we can take a look at you know I'd like to interact with some of you guys. I guess I have picked one of the noisiest places in the conference. It sounds like there's a lot of background noise, so I hope that you guys can hear me and hear what's going on. One of the people I wanted to talk to today and I see him standing over here, kurt Dudenhofer, and I'm going to get him in here. We're going to get him set up, so if you'll be patient, just a minute.
Speaker 2:About that far Okay.
Speaker 4:How are you doing today, kurt? I'm doing great. It's been a great conference, I know.
Speaker 3:Last year yeah.
Speaker 2:We were grant funded by the Missouri Foundation for Health, so we're non-governmental and we want to serve the community when it comes to corrections and probation and parole, as well as other first responders and veterans, of course, mm-hmm. So tell them who you're with. What's the company that you work for?
Speaker 4:So tell them who you're with what's the company that you work for. This is a grant that's funded by the Missouri Foundation for Health.
Speaker 1:It is called the.
Speaker 4:Safer Homes Collaborative, and we've been around for probably six or seven years. I guess we're doing a good job where we keep getting our funding increased and extended. My goal this conference is to present several different organizations. This suicide prevention class that we have is called Conversations on Suicide, safe Reforms on suicide, safer homes. It's an evidence-based program to where we teach you how to have a conversation with somebody that may be in crisis or experiences a lot of changes that may put them in a suicidal situation.
Speaker 2:Right, right. Well, that's what I noticed yesterday. I noticed you had the National Suicide Hotline on there, so tell me a little bit about that.
Speaker 4:Actually, if you call 988, press 1 if you're working with a veteran, press 2 if you're working with a Spanish speaker and press 3 if it's part of the LGBTQ community, okay, and they'll speak their language. So this is a national. 988 is the national hotline number that has been received very well. They do get a lot of calls, but you don't necessarily have to be suicidal to use it. I've been trying to express to people how easy it is to teach their peers or their children or their nieces and nephews how to use it with a speakerphone.
Speaker 2:And it's quite simple.
Speaker 4:Mike. You just say hey, mike, I know you're going to. Can I make a call? 988. Hey, this is Kurt. I got Mike here on speakerphone. Can you talk to us? That takes away the fear on my part. Sure, and then that operator will say hey, mike, just in case we get cut off, what's your phone number? That way they can check with you later on as well. Sure, and they are, I think, now all the major carriers. That 988 is coming back to the tower of the original column, whereas it used to be coming back to the area code of the phone. So that's been an enhancement in the system. And then they'll look up local resources and start asking questions and putting time and distance between that suicidal thought and that lethal means, whatever it may be.
Speaker 2:Okay, so you know, corrections. We suffer with suicide. There are a lot of suicides amongst our correctional officers. Some of them get very despondent because you know the dark side of the work and the kind of forgotten nature of the work, so I think that's a great idea for them. Tell me what you've heard about that.
Speaker 4:Mike, I sat in on one of your classes yesterday. You had an exercise in there about observational, observative, observation Intelligence. So it's like, okay, that's a skill that you can hone and be more and more observant. Situational awareness is another skill. It's a mental skill that you can get better and better at. Well, when these officers law enforcement, they have a lot of critical incidents or crisis that they encounter day by day by day by day and before you know it it starts spilling out on the floor and they need assistance, right. So one of my goals when I present this to a particular audience like probation, parole or correctional officers, I will kind of put the thought in there that hey, this is a skill that you can learn at home to help manage those crisis, or recognize that in one of your peers and get that assistance earlier and you'll get a better outcome. You don't want to wait until Mike is climbing off the wall, but he may give you signs or say things that you need to address and ask the question hey, are you thinking of killing yourself?
Speaker 4:By asking directly not only do I show you because it's scary, I show you that I care for you because it's a scary question. There's only one scarier question is honey, will you marry me? All guys laugh at that.
Speaker 3:Some women say what are?
Speaker 4:you talking about. But so that scary question also gives you the permission to tell me, because if I'm just saying, hey, you thinking hurting yourself, no, you're not thinking hurting yourself, so you can be totally honest and not answer that direct question. But if I ask you, are you thinking of suicide? I give you the permission to tell me and I can slow everything down, possibly call 988, because I'm not a professional. Okay, sure, and get that assistance to you. There's so many resources.
Speaker 2:Well, tell me about some of those resources that are available at 988.
Speaker 4:988,. What they'll be doing is looking up resources, asking you questions to where?
Speaker 4:they got a database on saying hey, mike, compass Health or Rural Health or one of the mental health providers, may have an opening next week. Can I call you back Tuesday to remind you of your Wednesday appointment? So now you're making a plan in the future. Right Now, as a state agency like Corrections, there are tons of employee resources available. I want to give that message to those officers that, hey, those resources are not doing good if they're not pulled off the shelf. And have the wisdom to check yourself, because you want to be working at peak performance for your fellow officer, right, right. And if you're not at peak performance, hey, I want you at peak performance because I'm your fellow officer, right, right. And if you're not at peak performance, hey, I want you to performance because I'm your fellow officer, right, sure. So I have to mentally check myself and get that assistant or that hand.
Speaker 2:What about?
Speaker 4:when the burden gets too big.
Speaker 2:Yeah, what about when that's going on? At that moment, is there someone there to talk them down, to give them someone to, or even if it's just someone to listen to?
Speaker 4:988 will provide that, and if it's a real critical situation, they may call law enforcement for a health check. Sure, and so they are trained in that. My program is to intervene earlier because you're going to get a better outcome.
Speaker 4:Also, a lot of times your peers will pick up on things before management. I'd hate, for the supervisor is probably the last to know If I can get the rank and file to look after each other and other agencies that they run into and build relationships with. I want them to work at peak performance. However, if they're not working at the job at peak performance, what kind of a spouse are they at home in those, those family relationships? Because their personality is changing. They may not realize it. So that mental exercise, that skill that you talked about yesterday when it comes to situation awareness and observation, it's like this fits right in there with what you were teaching yesterday, sure.
Speaker 2:Sure, well, I appreciate you stopping by. If people want more information, I know you've got some cards and stuff here, but tell them your email, tell them your website.
Speaker 4:The Safer Homes Collaborative is Missouri-based. It's granted by the Missouri Foundation of Health.
Speaker 3:And it is the.
Speaker 4:SaferHomesCollaborativeorg and it's SaferHomesCollaborativeCurt at gmailcom. If you want to reach out and schedule something. We have several presenters throughout the state and I would encourage anyone in leadership. We also teach people to do my presentation Right.
Speaker 2:You have some classes. If someone wanted to become an instructor, absolutely Another little value in their bag.
Speaker 4:That would be an awesome opportunity to reach more and more people, because when it comes to 988, it's a skill that we need to really get the stigma down.
Speaker 3:I'm not kidding.
Speaker 4:That assistance, because we all could use it.
Speaker 2:With all the trauma.
Speaker 4:That's out there. You might not realize it bubbling up.
Speaker 2:Oh sure, and right now you know, even with what they see inside, it's a stressful time. Just to be alive isn't it Absolutely.
Speaker 4:And you know, 20 years ago nobody even recognized what PTSD is. Well, it's a real thing. So if we can realize, hey, that piece of trauma that happened years ago, or what I'm seeing now, a lot of these people in corrections ago, or what I'm seeing now, a lot of these people in corrections, they see, hear, smell, touch, taste all their senses are involved to where, when they're outside of that environment, something may trigger that, to where it's like what did that come from? Right, right, Well, you might need to have a little assistance to break that down and get that skill Right. So that's what I'm really trying to encourage.
Speaker 3:Excellent.
Speaker 2:Well, thank you for stopping by. Kurt. For those of you out here, when I get back and get the chance to edit a little bit, check in the show notes and then I'll have all of Kurt's information in there, so that you can reach out to him and find out more about this?
Speaker 2:What is that number? National Suicide 988. 988, absolutely so you know. Put that somewhere in case you ever need it, in case someone that you know or someone in your family or someone that you work with you know we will run hard to a body alarm. We will bust our ass to get to somebody that hits a body alarm. But when they're having trouble at work we find it really hard to walk up and say how are you?
Speaker 4:doing and listen for a minute, and I really want to encourage you to put them on speakerphone, because Mike's never going to call. I'm not going to call, but I'll listen. So and then it's like, well, that wasn't so bad, right, right, right.
Speaker 2:So it's a wonderful thing it is, it absolutely is.
Speaker 3:Thank you so much for stopping by and giving us this information.
Speaker 2:And, like I said, all the information will be in the show notes. Awesome, thank you, Yep Headphones Perfect. Well, that was great. I'm super glad to have you have a great day no, you're fine.
Speaker 2:You're fine. Uh, super great to have him stop by. It's kind of neat to be able to do this. Uh, live. I know there's some noise in the background. I hope that's not too distracting for you guys, but it's just. It's cool to see what's here and I wish I could sit in there and go through every vendor. But you know, we'll see who stops by and who we get to talk to. So, are you Chilla Coffee? That's right, yep, how are you today Doing well, sir, so introduce yourself. Yep, put some headphones on here so that you can hear what's going on. Major from Chillicothe correct.
Speaker 1:Yes, sir Major Akhmanovsky, we work in Chillicothe Correctional Center.
Speaker 2:Chillicothe Correctional Center. Now, chillicothe is one of the correctional centers I've never been to, but still a female joint. Yes, sir, okay, I've never been to, but still a female joint. Yes, sir, okay, I worked at Missouri State Department of Corrections from 92 to 98, I think so. I heard about Chillicothe but I never worked up there. Tell me about it. What size institution is that? Tell me about the main missions that you've got going on up there.
Speaker 1:So it is the newest facility that, as far as the correctional facility that the department has.
Speaker 3:We are currently housing well, we have the capability of about 1,600.
Speaker 5:Okay.
Speaker 1:And as far as the mention, just like every other facility department, the goal is to rehabilitate the residents and send them home. Of course, with that, we have responsibilities to do to keep them safe.
Speaker 2:With the female offenders. I mean, when people think about prison, I don't think they normally think about the female offenders, and that's a whole different world. They have different needs, different programming.
Speaker 1:And the majority of my career has been in the male facility and I've been in my current role role about a year and a half now. Yes, I'm still adapting to the changes. I feel like the needs for the females are different. I agree with that. I think they're more goal-oriented on themselves as far as participating in the reentry programs and getting their degrees and doing their hard work. Really, that's interesting, yeah, do you think?
Speaker 2:the opportunities may not have been there on the street. So once they get in here and they see these opportunities, they didn't have.
Speaker 1:I believe. So I know that some of the programming that recently I've been just seeing happen is more about getting themselves better and who they are and what their motives and lives are. And getting the confidence and they're practicing like mock interviews and to listen to who they are and what they've worked. They take pride of that.
Speaker 2:Sure, sure. So how many of the female inmates would you say, have some type of family unit? Because in male penitentiaries, you'll see, the family isn't the main focus. But I think for, maybe, female inmates, is it more of a focus getting back to the family instead of just getting out? I believe so. Yes, for the majority of them. Yes, any percentage that you know.
Speaker 1:Is it most? I'd say most, yes. Okay, most of them have a child or something.
Speaker 2:Yes, how's visiting? That's got to be different In my mind and I've sat in visiting rooms for years it's easier for a kid to come see their dad Dad's in jail. Now we're going to see him on the weekend we leave. I can't imagine at the end of visiting now I'm going to pull you away from your mom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's harder. I never really personally had those conversations Okay. I never really personally had those conversations.
Speaker 4:Okay, I know sometimes you know the felony crisis and that's the thing being separated from the kids, which?
Speaker 2:is a hard thing, yes. So what's some of the specific programs that maybe you guys are doing there? Anything new, exciting, so?
Speaker 1:yes, patch visiting. It's a program that we have volunteers that organize what does that stand for? Okay.
Speaker 2:I didn't mean to put you on the spot as parents.
Speaker 3:I can't tell you the thing from this but this patch is very much organized for the kids to come and spend some time one-on-one with the moms.
Speaker 1:And I think it's very beneficial. I really do. I think it gives them an extra motive to be good and look forward to getting released Right.
Speaker 2:Wow, yeah, it's just always fascinated me. So you know the media does a horrible job in representing corrections. So everybody knows Orange is the New Black or whatever that show is. I watched like the first episode and I was like this is not real life. How far removed from real life is that for a woman?
Speaker 1:I appreciate you recognizing that we not always get looked as the brightest department, which we are. We really do change lives. The government said we all focus in not just the apprentice but the staff as well. As far as the no one just knew you. But yes, it's a good entertainment show. People fall for it. But no, again, it's just not life.
Speaker 3:We are humans.
Speaker 1:We work with humans. We all make mistakes. They make bigger mistakes. They pay for that. Again, we're. I don't know if you're focusing the question. As far as the Just your opinion, you've walked in there.
Speaker 3:It's not like a movie, you know, even prior to me starting this career.
Speaker 1:you watch movies and you think like what I'm getting at? It's just a small society that's segregated. And you know again you work with human beings sure, sure.
Speaker 2:So I'm going to give you a little chance here to to do a little recruitment. I know that you want to get some officers there, some good officers, so tell them why they need to come to work for the missouri department of corrections and chillicothe yes, absolutely statewide.
Speaker 1:you're more than welcome to come to the coffee that works with living arrangements, but it is a great place to work out. It's a job that I truly fell in love with.
Speaker 2:What is it about it that you love?
Speaker 1:I think that you create a camaraderie with the staff. You become that team. You work for mission and goal. You're changing lives. I mean, you might not realize it, but you do change lives every day. Just the impact you're making people and, you know, being a role model for a lot of them.
Speaker 3:Yeah, Just a satisfying job. It really is.
Speaker 1:It's kind of hard to explain if you don't work it, if you're not in the field, but it's not something that it was a dream to work there, just something that happened in my life. Sure, I got employed. I never thought it would be a career, but it's something that, like I said, is a satisfactory job and I look forward to going to work. Yes, there are stressful days, like any other job, but it's something that I enjoy doing.
Speaker 2:I like any other job, but it's something that I enjoy doing. I think the hard part is, you know, with most jobs you go out there, you hammer and nail, you build something. You see it fixed right there when you get done. And with our job you may have to wait some years to see the effect that you have, or you may not even see the effect at work. But when you drive out that gate and you look around and we live in a safe, you know your family's safe, your neighbors are safe, there's not crime rampant because of what you're doing, then you get to see those things that make it a good job. But it's not always immediate satisfaction. I think that's the hard part for people when we start. It was for me.
Speaker 1:I want to go back to the creating. Sure, people think that this is not for me. You don't know, unless you try it Especially within the last few years well, not few late last year. In the past years, sure, I feel like the department has taken a lot of initiative, taking care of staff, our many raises. I believe we're in a very good stance right now. You can always have more. I think the director spoke this morning. That's his goal, which I appreciate, but not only that. As far as training changes how we do training. We expect people to do the job, but we need to train them how to do it right. That's some of the steps we've taken Self-care for staff, things like that.
Speaker 1:So yeah we have a lot of benefits.
Speaker 2:I can tell you care and that's always good to see. You know, I love meeting our correctional staff. They're amazing people and it was a pleasure to work with them. Now it's a pleasure to serve them in other capacities. I kind of miss it. Thank you. I appreciate you stopping by and talking to us. Have a great day and enjoy the rest of the conference. Thank you.
Speaker 2:He mentioned Governor Parsons was here yesterday. I forgot to mention that I can't believe it because he stopped and gave us a real nice talk yesterday. And I forgot to mention that I can't believe it because he stopped and gave us a real nice talk yesterday. And for those of you that don't know, governor Parsons was in law enforcement. He was a sheriff and this is his last year as governor and I really think we're going to well, I don't think I know we're going to miss him as a governor.
Speaker 2:I think he's done some great things and I know that he has cared for the Department of Corrections, has implemented a lot of stuff, has got pay raises, so it was really good to listen to him yesterday. He just wanted to stop by and give his respect to all the people that were here and the job that they do until he understood, which you know as a sheriff, he ran into jail at one time, so absolutely so, yeah, that was good. I didn't get to listen to the director this morning, but I'm excited to he may stop by, so hopefully we'll get him to stop by. I'm trying to get the hold on just a second while I get some. I think our next guest is going to be Daniel King.
Speaker 3:Mr King, everybody is looking at me but nobody is looking at me is looking at me, but nobody is looking at me when I need them, so he's going to be on here next.
Speaker 2:He's from St Charles County.
Speaker 1:We'll talk to him and go from there.
Speaker 5:So, another thing that was interesting is I see the student group from the University of Central.
Speaker 2:Missouri University. Yes, so it's they. Their professor is part of the Missouri Correctional Association and so they got invited here their criminal justice students and so they've been going around the conference and learning about corrections. I talked to some of them yesterday and a really great group of kids. We need people like this in corrections.
Speaker 2:I talked to a young girl who she wants to get into psychology and maybe forensic psychology, and so since I worked at the Federal Medical Center in Springfield, missouri, I kind of told her give me a call and I'll hook her up with the right people and see if she can't get an internship down there when it's time. Because I know from working there that for people that want to work in forensic psychology because of the mental health mission there, that those internships are very highly sought after there, that those internships are very highly sought after and there's only a few of them, but we get people from all over the country that put in for that because you know that's a unique place to work on that. So it was good talking to them yesterday and listening to their stories.
Speaker 2:The conference here has a vendor bingo. So when you come in they give you a card and if you go to each of the vendors and get it checked off, you get put in a drawing for some stuff, and so they're doing that. I actually need you over here just a little. All right, there you are. So about this far. So I've got a friend stop by here. I've got a little bit of information on him. It just happens to be in the Missouri Correctional Association and PPO, but a conference booklet.
Speaker 2:Mr Daniel Keene is currently serving as the Director of Corrections for the St Charles County Department of Corrections. He's back with 24 years of experience in the corrections industry. His expertise lies with improving correctional facilities in the area of operations, administration, procedures, policies, functionality, implementing new programs, policies and the proper training of his staff. I'm going to save the rest of this for him to tell us, because we spoke just for a minute yesterday and I want to learn some more about him and how his path took him. How are you today? Good, how are you? It's good to see you, you too. So let's start back a little bit, because I always have people on my podcast. I always want to find out how you got in corrections, so kind of give me your path. When you were younger, what did you see? What did you do? What was those steps that led you into the corrections?
Speaker 5:Man, I can tell you I don't know what led me to corrections. I think that's the word for everyone, because it wasn't a dream. Right, you know.
Speaker 3:Right.
Speaker 5:I started corrections back in 2000. Okay, and for the first six months you love it. This is a good job, this is fun. And then, from six months to a year and a half two years you're like I'm not sure what I'm doing Right. I don't know if this is what I want to do. Yeah, but it takes a little bit of something. There was a trigger that hit me. I think it was a combination of my warden at the time. He's still my mentor today that put me on the right path. Plus, just in a little bit of a year and a half two years, how interesting and funny and some of the stories you can put together just in that small amount of time, and also seeing the opportunities of advancement that's what started driving me. I was hungry, so that's kind of what kicked me off to keep going.
Speaker 2:We did a class yesterday Leading Without Rank, and that was one of the things we talked about was finding your why, Because I was the same way. I came in there for the job, for the money, for the insurance, to start a new family, but I didn't really have a why and it took me a few years. Sounds like you were the same way. So what was that? Where'd you first go to?
Speaker 5:work at Clinton County Crushing Facility in the middle of Pennsylvania.
Speaker 2:Okay, and what was that?
Speaker 5:like the first day you walked in, I'll tell you the first time I was fresh out of college. I played college football. I was a nose guard for college and I was a big boy. But when I walked in, there and I remember that today working in the F unit was a max unit for Clinton County and there was 32 inmates in there and they're all just eyeballing you, they're sizing you up, they're going to test you. I can tell you the first day you're like man I don't know what's going to happen today.
Speaker 3:Is this it.
Speaker 5:But you know you always revert back to your training. You know, and the biggest thing was respect. You know you give these individuals respect for the most part. You're going to have one or two knuckleheads try to test you, but for the most part, the unit as a whole. They were all right, yeah, but it was that first day or two. It was kind of what am I doing? So how long did you stay there and what was the next step? Man, I was all over the place.
Speaker 5:I worked there for about a year and a half, and then I was bored. Okay, so I was like man, I need something else. Yeah, so I went down to Maryland, just outside DC, worked at a facility down there for about four years.
Speaker 3:It was hopping down there.
Speaker 5:We had some great things going on. I worked my way up to the rank of the corporal and then Clinton County again reached out to me and said hey, we have a lieutenant's position. I was like, all right, I'll take a shot at it.
Speaker 3:So it's my hometown.
Speaker 5:I went back to Clinton County lieutenant. I'm kind of a big stud now on campus.
Speaker 5:I've done this before we got this and that's where I really started growing. Okay, you know I started signing up for all this training. I became a circuit manager. I've been a circuit manager since 2005 to this day Doing the central booking, building central booking. I was a project manager for central booking for Clinton County. The opportunities just started flooding. Running a shift and looking at your staff, looking up to you, has given them the guidance and it would be unheard of for us to two hours before shift started and everyone showed up with pizza and Pepsi and roll call. We watched a movie together, just building that camaraderie. It was great. It was fun. That's what really got me going In 2008,.
Speaker 5:I had the opportunity to become a warden at Bedford County. It's still in Pennsylvania. It was a smaller facility. I just walked in there and called my mentor at the time like I don't know what the hell I'm doing. So you know I used to talk to him every day. He walked me through everything and then the phone calls started dropping, maybe once a week and then about once a month. But I started getting the hang of it and what the expectations were. So being a warden there for about a year and a half and then the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections reached out to me. They wanted me to become the director of county prison inspections. So in Pennsylvania we have standards state-led standards on all county jails that they have to meet, and I was going to be the director, then I had to go around to all the county facilities to make sure they were meeting all the standards for state law.
Speaker 5:And that was a good gig. I went around and checked out everything, had some battles with some jail administrators. It was a good run. The thing was I missed being back inside the jail running it. Instead of telling the jail administrators or wardens at the time what they should be doing, I wanted to be the one doing it, that of telling the jail administrators or wardens at the time what they should be doing. I wanted them to be the one doing it. That's a tough step. I went back to being a warden.
Speaker 4:There was an opportunity at Franklin County in Pennsylvania.
Speaker 5:It was about a 470-bed facility. It was a state-of-the-art facility. Actually, the warden prior to me was Secretary Wessel. He was the secretary of the state for about eight years, okay, so following his footsteps was tough.
Speaker 2:High standards, already High standards.
Speaker 5:And you know they were. I mean, I followed his footsteps for a little bit. Then I started putting my own tracks in the sand. You, know, so we did some good things there. Then I was recruited for Northampton County as the director of county jail.
Speaker 3:So I went there.
Speaker 5:That jail was built in 1871.
Speaker 2:I think we had Robert Greenwood. Yeah, he was from there and he's been on the podcast.
Speaker 5:So that was an 1,100-bed facility. Wow, that was wild, that was an awesome facility.
Speaker 2:So jail what's the smallest jail you worked at?
Speaker 5:The smallest jail I ever worked at, I would say, was when I became a warden at Bedford County. It was 185 Bedford City.
Speaker 2:So you've seen 185 jail and you've seen 1,100 prison. Yeah, tell people, because not everybody knows. Some of us have been, and I was one of them. I worked nothing but prisons. What's that main difference and what do you have to change from one to the other?
Speaker 5:Well, I'll tell you for the jail? We don't know anything about these guys coming in. Yeah, typically when I go up to the prison setting, we already have them kind of trained, getting them institutionalized a little bit and we have a little bit of a portfolio to hand off to the DOC. So they know everything about this guy. They know all his write-ups and whatnot. We're getting them right out of the gates, you know, and dealing with what his behaviors are. What's he coming down on? Is he detoxing? I mean, these guys are on so many drugs these days that, detoxing, they fecal matter and vomit all over the cells.
Speaker 5:You know and we're every day is a challenge, you know, because we just don't know anything about it.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know. So Jails used to have one drunk cell. Yeah, now you go into a jail and there's a whole wall full of drunk cells because you guys get that many people that are strung out, or alcoholic.
Speaker 5:We can hold up to 40 in our bookie center right now. You just never know. We've got two padded cells just because we might be fighting with somebody to get into the cell. So I'd say the main chance I mean prison's obviously a larger scale and we're dealing with more of the individual but we're getting something we don't know anything about. You know, detoxing drugs. Sometimes we don't even have a clear understanding what their charges are, and then we get them. I say from a counter perspective, we get them institutionalized. For what?
Speaker 5:jail role is, and when they come up to you guys, it's a prison setting. They have an idea. I have an idea that makes sense when they come up to you guys at the prison setting they have an idea. They have an idea of what it's going to be. That makes sense yeah. So, high school to college you know, what I'm saying, yeah.
Speaker 2:And then we criminally educate them once they get to us. Yeah.
Speaker 5:It's college for crooks, right, it really is, yeah right too.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you see them. The minute somebody comes in the door they grab a hold of. You need to be doing this is you know it's kind of sad, yeah, right. So what was the next step?
Speaker 5:From there I came out here to St Charles County. Okay, St Charles, I've been here since 2018. Facility was built in 1989. Good facility. It can hold about 516. We're on the threshold of being up to 600 here shortly. We're under a $40 million plus million dollar renovation going on Nice, so we're actually putting in a new warehouse and kitchen, in addition to switching some of our linear housing units to direct supervision. Okay, so, getting officers out of the pods yeah, you know, and getting them in the units with the inmates, and that's where correction starts.
Speaker 2:And that's where I started. I've seen it come both ways. But yeah, we talked about that yesterday. You know, in order to have good observation and to understand and build situational awareness, you've got to be there with it. And not only that, you've got to build those relationships with inmates and that's a word that scares some people, but I'm talking about appropriate professional relationship. If you haven't talked to an inmate before, when something bad happens, you can't just start talking to them. Then You've got to have that connection. They have to know they can trust you, that you can trust what they're going to do and be able to work with them.
Speaker 5:One of the things, too, when you work direct supervision, you're on that housing, you can feel it. You can when you walk on that you can tell something's on. Yeah, inmate Billy, over here, you're a little off today. What's happening, sure, you know, and I think the biggest thing is what people understand is good treatment, good corrections, good corrections is good treatment. Yeah, so you treat them with respect, you're going to have a good day, you might have the one off.
Speaker 5:Everybody has a bad day, yeah, but so, but yeah it's. It's been a model of the Fed since the 76, I believe, for direct supervision, and why not? Now we have the opportunity with the funding. Let's go to what the model is, you know, to make sure we're a more efficient facility than what we were and we know our inmates and we're hands-on and we're out there.
Speaker 2:I think it's wonderful. So let me ask you so what brought you to this, the first year at the Missouri Correctional Association?
Speaker 5:Yeah, the first year I'm here, I'm a co-chairman for the Missouri Sheriff's Association, for the Jail Committee, and you know I was like we have two great organizations but we have no one trying to build a bridge or come together. So I took it upon myself to say you know what? I want? To reach out to this organization to see if I can get on the board of directors I'll find out tomorrow but to see if we can start building this partnership between the two organizations, because we're all doing the same thing. It's true, we're all doing the same thing, we're all talking the same way, we all have the same problem.
Speaker 5:Let's do what we can to help each other out, especially from a county perspective, trying to expand the trainings. You know and learn from the DOC and what they offer to the inmates, and maybe we can start picking some of that up too Sure, sure.
Speaker 2:So as a jail, you guys don't get as much training, do you? How long is?
Speaker 5:your academy. Well, I'll tell you from my perspective we do a lot of training.
Speaker 3:Do you?
Speaker 5:Yeah, okay, I'm a big believer in training. If you fail to, train you train to fail. That's true, you know. So. In our budget, I mean I push for, you know, close to $100,000 every year.
Speaker 1:Oh nice you know and. I try.
Speaker 2:What's some of the stuff you're getting them into?
Speaker 5:Well, you know what? It's not only the basic stuff, but we're doing the mental health first aid, the self-defense, pbct, cit, cit. We've got about 60% of our staff training CIT. Right now, 100% staff are training mental health first aid Leadership. I had a speech in here earlier today. I spoke about you can have the best or even a mediocre administration, you can have a mediocre line staff, but if your middle management is not passing the message, they're the dam of the facility. Yeah, so I really push to get my middle management in as much leadership training as possible so they not only communicate down, but they're communicating up and side to side. You know, and for myself, even I go to leadership trainings every year. After a while they all kind of repeat themselves a little bit, but there's going to be at least one or two notes you write down Always. So the push is getting them better the way they were, because someday I'm not going to be there. Who's going to replace me? Who's going to replace them? And we want them to be the best that they can.
Speaker 5:Corrections is changing daily. You know that. How much did it change from 2020 when COVID hit to today? Crazy, everything's changing. I really put emphasis on the leadership. You want that next promotion. You want to be a captain, you want to be assistant director, but you haven't done any training since 2019?. Tell me where you're at Now, if somebody is hungry. I can't done any training since 2019.
Speaker 5:Tell me where you're at Right. You know now somebody. Somebody is hungry. I can't. Well, there's nothing, that's a pet peeve. I can't stand status quo. You know, if you're sitting there, you're just a leaf in the water. You're no good, right, you know you need to be able to change up and move up and go hungry. And if you're an individual and not hungry for the next step or not hungry just, the everyday.
Speaker 2:What are you doing? Sounds like you guys are really leading with training. I talked to Gary York on this podcast a couple of episodes ago and him and I were talking about you know. Everybody's talking about recruitment and retention and I believe, and he believed too, training is retention. When you've got officers who feel like they know their job, like they know what to do in a crisis, like they have the skills to deal with the inmates when something happens, those are officers who'll come to work. You don't have to worry about them being nervous or coming in there and feeling lost and not wanting to be at work. So I'm guessing you guys have pretty good retention there.
Speaker 5:Actually, yeah, I can say when COVID hit, our retention dropped like 83%. Everybody's did. But I actually ran their retention numbers this week prior to coming here and we're at 96%. Isn't that something? Yeah, so we're doing good and training builds confidence. Yes, when you build confidence, you've got to secure an individual when that unit's working. It's going to be pushing that message. They're not going to let anything go. They're going to be able to fall back on their training and take care of business when it's time to do it. That's great.
Speaker 2:I'm super happy to hear that If we did more of that, I think our retention and recruitment numbers would. We wouldn't be having the problem. Some places are, but you've got to take the. You've got to have somebody like you. You know that's out there, that's pushing for that, that's making sure that they have not only training in their job but it sounds like they have a place. You know the vision of where I can go. You're kind of showing them that. So what else are you doing there? Tell me about St Charles County. What's some of the stuff you guys are doing specifically?
Speaker 5:Man, we're always moving. We recently just put in body cameras for all the staff. Nice. All the officers are wearing stuff, and that was met with a little bit of resistance, because they all are watching us. Now, everything that's come out of those body cameras has protected the officers. Everything that's come out of those body cameras has protected the offices. That's a great thing.
Speaker 2:I remember the first day at Missouri State, penn, in 1992 that they brought a video camera in for use of force. We were like, whoa, this is crazy. I wouldn't do a use of force now without a video camera. They'll get used to it.
Speaker 5:We've got that going on. The renovation is taking a big part of our time right now just because we have you know we're five stories and, uh, we got the fifth floor being activated right now with renovations. Come november they're going to start demolition on the third floor. So really trying to move inmates around and we're not going to send anybody out, we're going to do everything in-house. So just planning in the head right now as to where am I going to move these guys? Right, logistics, wow, and finding the right place for them. That's really the heartbeat of the jail. So we have a lot of great things going on Loving our staff.
Speaker 5:And I don't say it enough, but I know our middle management, our supervisors, are always taking care of my staff and, um, deep down, I, I, when I go to to muster, I see staff and you know you communicate with them and so forth, but taking the time and and I, like I said, I got to do it more, but take the time to because it's a tough gig, because there's not a lot of people telling them that.
Speaker 5:No, but you don't want to overdo it, that's true, because you tell them every day and then it just becomes stale. It just becomes another trash can in the corner. You tell them enough that they can feel it. But I can't say enough about the staff. They're the ones making this facility run. I'm just helping keeping in the guidelines. Sounds good. Yeah, making this facility run. I'm just helping keeping in the guidelines.
Speaker 2:Sounds good. So, yeah, well, uh, if you're listening out there, I'm sure that, uh, that would be a wonderful place to apply.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, we're hiring. Uh, the salary is great. It starts a little over 48,000. And if you have experience, you can typically bring in advanced starting salaries. So so opportunities are there. We have corporals positions, sergeants positions, lieutenants, assistant directors. So we have availability for individuals, with plenty of advancements and so forth to move up.
Speaker 2:I'll be up there next week. I'm kidding. I got three jobs. Now I'm working harder in retirement than I did. That was a correctional offer Right on. Yeah, so if somebody wants to get a hold of you, you got an email that they can.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's D for Dan Keen, k-e-e-n at sccmoorg. That's my work email that you shoot me. I'll listen and review anybody that sends something in. Depending on what they send, I might have to delete it. No, it's available and you can go to our website at sccmoorg and look at the job opportunities and the county as a whole. St Charles County is a great county. It's a great benefit. It's a happy place.
Speaker 3:The county as a whole is very proactive. We're going.
Speaker 5:the county as a whole is very proactive and we're going to continue that through our department being proactive.
Speaker 5:One of our goals is to be better. We still got a ways to go, but I can tell you I would put my staff against any other county staff today against any other counter-staff today. Soon we're going to be the ones that people want to come to to look in the state how to do corrections for Missouri. Then we're going to be the ones in the Midwest where people come to see how we're doing. Eventually, the nation will be coming to see how we're doing, because that's the vision and that's the drive that we're looking for. We're going to make it happen. It's one step at a time, but we're not going to be status quo. We're not going to be set here as a leaf in the water.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:I believe you, I truly do, and I want to come up and see. I'm going to come visit you, yeah, but I appreciate your passion, appreciate it. It's good to see an administrator with such passion and I think you guys are going to make a difference up there. Good For you guys that want information. Of course, when I get back and get to editing, I'll put that in the show notes so if anybody wants to get a hold of you, they can do that. Roger, that, yeah. Thanks for stopping by today and telling us your story and telling us about St Charles County.
Speaker 2:All right, I appreciate it, thanks sir, have a great day you too. Okay, I'm back and Okay.
Speaker 2:Get a few things Put away here. Okay, well, those have been some great conversations. Yeah, have you seen the director? Oh, did he? Okay, I wasn't sure. Okay, john had mentioned. Okay, well, thank you so much. Uh, so this has been really cool. I've got to talk to those guys and, uh, man, the passion with Mr Keene there, that that's just exciting. I almost want to go back and go to work for him, but, like I said, I've got, uh, I've got a lot of stuff that I'm getting to do now and I'm really enjoying that.
Speaker 2:I want to thank, of course, pepperball Pepperball's, the sponsor of the Prison Officer Podcast. So, as always, they help make this podcast possible and I'm always excited. You know when that happens and when I get to do this and mention them in the podcast. Of course, I'm a master instructor for Pepper Ball, so if you want to get a hold of me and you want to talk about a Pepper Ball class, we can do that also. I was trying to bring up here. I wanted to say thank you to somebody, let's see who. Thank you to somebody, let's see who. I can do this live. All right, thank you Maybe. Oh, nope, it's anonymous. Okay, someone bought me a cup of coffee on Buy Me a Coffee, which is the way that you can support this podcast. Laurie Ann bought three cups of coffee. Thanks, laurie Ann. I'm happy that you did that. I appreciate the support.
Speaker 2:I also wanted to mention if you have been on Buzzsprout recently, they started a where you can text the host, and so I signed up for that and allowed that. But I'm gonna undo that because I've had a few people who have texted me that way and I don't have any way to text them back. It's a one way text and I can't see who did it and the only thing I can do is answer those questions on the air, and so that's not something I'm going to do, because these were people who were trying to contact me for different types of business stuff. So if you see that, go away from Buzzsprout and from an option when you listen to the podcast. That's why and it's because I can't I can't respond to those. So if you want to get ahold of the podcast, you know the best way to do that is Mike at the prison officercom. I watch that. It's my regular email. I answer it all the time.
Speaker 2:I do get a lot of you know feedback through that email and I always appreciate that. I recently got some feedback from one of the classes I taught. I really appreciate hearing from everybody. I also got some feedback from a father of a couple of inmates. He wanted to be interviewed and I had to tell him you know, this podcast is for correctional officers.
Speaker 2:I don't do it for inmates or inmate families or anything like that. If somebody's on this podcast, it's because I think they have something to bring to your job that you do as a correctional officer. That was why I started. It was to improve the lives and give knowledge, skills and ability to correctional officers in the way that I could after I retired. So I'm always excited when I get to do that. Which takes me to another one of my sponsors, which is Omni RTLS, and Omni RTLS is a company I've been involved with for quite a while. Rtls and Omni RTLS is a company I've been involved with for quite a while Dusty, nick, allie, linda and Rick and we've been working hard the last few years coming up with a great way to do inmate tracking, real-time locating of those inmates with Bluetooth and so I can tell you two times a second anywhere in the institution where your inmates at. We've already got that in several jails and I'm looking forward. We're expanding every day. It's been a very busy time. So if you get the chance, reach out and look at OMNIRTLScom and that's OMNIRTLScom. They are a sponsor of the podcast and I appreciate what they do and happy I get to work with those guys.
Speaker 2:And then, finally, I want to also talk about Command Presence. As I told you the sorry I'm going to reach over here. As I told you earlier, we've got some classes that we've been working on. Command Presence is moving into the corrections arena and I would love to bring some of these leadership classes to you and to your agency. There's many different ways that we can host. Haley is our salesperson and she can walk you through that, whether you want to do a dedicated class or if you'd like to do one that's a combined class with the community. But we have several options for that. You know. One of them I talked about was Essentials and Correctional Excellence, and so that was one of them I gave yesterday.
Speaker 2:Another class that we've got is leading when it hits the fan. I did this class last week over in Tennessee and it is really. You know, that class is meant for the intermediate supervisor, you know, so that we can talk about how important those first decisions in a crisis are. You know, most of the time you don't have the big wigs when crisis hits. Most of the time, when something happens at the prison, you've got a large disturbance or a riot or you know, maybe a killing or something. You're going to be a lieutenant or a sergeant or someone like that on the scene. So those initial decisions are so important and so we talk about that. We talk about emergency planning, initial response skills, the different stages of crisis. You know all crisis in prison follow certain stages. We talk about human performance. Those supervisors can learn to make decisions in a situation that's continually growing and changing, being affected by not only decisions you last made but by the actions of the people involved. So a lot of that could change moment by moment.
Speaker 2:Sorry, another one of the classes I did yesterday was leading without rank, and this is classes you know individual leadership, not only leading yourself, leading your peers, but being able to lead your bosses, leading up the chain. So we talk about all that. We talk about problem-solving tools that you can use, ways to care and connect for others, and we talk about different strategies for being a team player, yep, come in and join me here. And then finally, and for those of you that might want to check this out Ottawa County Sheriff's Office in West Olive, michigan, I'll be giving a class up there on October 29th on report writing and testimony, and that's strictly for correctional officers. You know, lieutenants, captains, parole officers, investigators, everybody that needs to learn and be able to write really good reports and possibly give testimony. We're going to go through depositions, we're going to go through clear and concise writing. We'll even learn to understand the role of the witness in the courtroom and the importance of ethics and testimony. So that's another one that is coming up. October 29th, that'll be eight to 5 pm at the West Michigan Criminal Justice Training Consortium and uh, so I'll be teaching that. If you'd like the information on any of these and I'll have it in the show notes but if you'd like us to come to your agency and give you leadership training, we have several options. But you can contact us at 833 L-E-TRAIN and that's 833-538-7246. Or, if you want to on the web, you can go to info at commandpresencenet and you can see not only the classes that are offered to corrections but all of the law enforcement classes that we offer at Command Presence. So I encourage you to go check that out.
Speaker 2:I see I just got another friend who stopped in here. What did I do with my? Anyway, welcome, thank you. How are you? Thanks for having me? Yeah, absolutely, we got to talk yesterday. Give me your name and who you work for. My name is Wayne Bowers. I work for the Correctional Peace Officer Foundation Very important If you have not heard of the Correctional Peace Officers Association. Throughout my 30 years, I can't tell you the number of times I've seen where they've stepped in and helped families. Tell me a little bit about what you guys do.
Speaker 3:Well, we're a nonprofit organization and we have officers and staff members that get hurt, killed and on duty. We have a catastrophic assistant, have families that are in need. We also do nice disasters like hurricanes, tornadoes, floods We've got one hurricane that's ready to come up. Five.
Speaker 5:In Tallahassee.
Speaker 3:Yep, and we do house fires, bereavements. The program carries a $75,000 death benefit paid off to your beneficiary in two years yeah, after you're in the program a year, we have a scholarship program which is a benefit to you, your spouse, your kids and your grandkids. Minimum payment to join up is maybe $60 a year tax deductible Nice.
Speaker 2:I've seen them. Luckily, I've never had to use CPO, but I've seen some of the things they've done with the officers that have been hurt. Like you mentioned even some of the natural disasters, because you know, you remember when Estill yeah, when Estill got hit by the hurricane, you know everybody watched the news and everybody's worried about the inmates. What are we going to do with the inmates? What are we going to do with the inmates? Well, the officers still have to go to work and they Well, the officers still have to go to work and they've got families in this affected area. You know they're affected, more, even so, than the inmates. You know the inmates are taken care of and removed, but people forget about the officers sometimes.
Speaker 3:Well, you know when that happens, like hurricanes and floods, you know banks are closed and you can't go to the ATM machine and pull money out. You don't have cash and in your hand, you know, and you know, then people need to be taken care of. Sure, Because everything's closed down. You know, right, you have transportation to get to it, right, you know. So we come in and try to put a Band-Aid on until, you know, things start rolling.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I guess I should tell people you know you have also been a correctional officer, so tell me a little bit about that. How long were you a correctional officer? Where did you work?
Speaker 3:I did 24 years in the correctional field. I did four years in state Kentucky and then I went to federal FMC Lexington Right, I did 20 years there. It was federal time.
Speaker 2:So yeah, this is a correctional officer that's now still helping correctional officers, so that's so important. How long has CPO been around?
Speaker 3:It started in 1984. Okay, five guys sitting in the garage, because when you have a death, everybody passes their head around. Once you get that money to that family, then that's it. They took it a little bit farther and they kept in contact with family members that got killed, even to this day. Some of the kids that grew up, didn't have parents.
Speaker 3:you know parents, sure sure they do. You know Christmas time and we give them gift cards, you know, and stuff like that, you know. And the kids get a chance to be ready with other kids when we have our memorial service. Oh wow.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah. I hope for the day when we don't have to even use CPO, but it seems like we've had more deaths recently. The news is just full of officers who are getting either severely injured or killed at work. It seems like a really. I don't even know if it's a bad time for corrections or if corrections is so big, but it seems like a really tough time for that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's always an assault. You know, we got I think we honored six members last year, wow, and it might be more this year, because you know we had a guy in Arkansas, we had some people in Kentucky and just had one in Georgia that was stabbed multiple times in the neck.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's not something. You go to the emergency room, they patch you up and you go home and you're done. I mean, there's a lot that goes into getting injured that way.
Speaker 3:And most of the families are overwhelmed, you know, especially when they get to have a death. You know you go blank, you know. So we come in and try to help you. You know we don't try to take over but we try to help you, you know. Do the funeral arrangements. You know we have an honor guard system, honor guard members that go into the funeral, and they do that stuff they don't try to take over. They just come there to be supportive yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, just so important what you guys do. So if people want more information on the CPO they want to join, where would they go? They go to correctionalpieceofficefoundationorg want more information on the cpo, they want to join. Uh, have you got? Where would they go they?
Speaker 3:go correction pieces, press the peace office, foundationorg and once you log in, until the log in, you go to the application and you can sign in that way. Uh, if you need assistance, you got application, okay, um, you know anything you need to go? You can just go to the, you know CPOF.
Speaker 2:Okay, well, I will make sure that that gets put in the show notes here. Uh, so, absolutely, guys, it is a great foundation. Uh, I, I would hope that everybody will take a look at that and it does some great stuff. I've seen it throughout my career. Great stuff. I've seen it throughout my career. These guys have stepped in A lot of times. We think, well, I've got life insurance and work will take care of me when those things happen. The agencies they do help for a little bit, but that goes away pretty quick. You guys are still there after. If you don't mind me saying that.
Speaker 3:Our motto is take care of all.
Speaker 2:I know a couple officers who were killed in the Federal Bureau of Prisons and you guys are still part of those families' lives. It's been years. That's so important what you do. Thank you so much for stopping by and telling us about it. Everybody stop by their website and take a look at that. Thank you, have a great day.
Speaker 2:Appreciate it, and so everybody stopped by their website and take a look at that, appreciate it. Okay, well, I think we had a really good bunch of conversations there. I really enjoyed that and I hope you guys learned something. This was our first live podcast from the Missouri Correctional Association, slash MPPOA Missouri Probation and Parole Officers Association and I'd like to thank those guys for inviting us today. They called me up and they said we'd love you to be part of this again, and it's always just a wonderful time here to see corrections. I guess I'm going to say corrections, growing corrections, you know, coming together.
Speaker 2:This conference is about making network connections for each other. It's about growing. It's about learning. You see people, and I talked to so many yesterday. I think the first class we did yesterday, I had 70 plus people in and then I had almost 50 people in the afternoon, and so we had a lot of good conversations about what they're dealing with, the challenges they're dealing with, how they're looking to overcome those, how everyone in corrections is a leader.
Speaker 2:You know whether you're a correctional officer and you're leading the inmates of a housing unit, whether you're a sergeant and you're leading a shift, or a lieutenant and you're leading a shift full of people. So, or whether you're a warden or an administrator I mean we talked to Mr King there. He is so passionate, it was so exciting to hear from him and I'm looking forward. Maybe we'll get him on the podcast and we'll have another conversation and see if we can't learn a little bit more about him and what they're doing up there in St Charles County.
Speaker 2:I do encourage you to reach out to the CPO and to be part of that, the CPO, and to be part of that. Also, if you get the chance, you know, reach out to Safer Homes Collaborative and I will get all that information put up on the website. For now, I think that's it from Mike Cantrell. Live from the Missouri Correctional Officers Missouri Correctional Association, missouri Probation and Parole Officers Association fall conference at Lodge of the Four Seasons in Lake of the Ozarks. I thank you, keep listening and I'll talk to you soon.
