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From The Inside Looking Out
Glen R. Reed Jr.
Copyright © 2020 Glen R. Reed Jr.
All rights reserved
First Edition
Fulton Books, Inc.
Meadville, PA
Published by Fulton Books 2020
ISBN 978-1-64654-518-6 (paperback)
ISBN 978-1-64654-886-6 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-1-64654-798-2 (digital)
Printed in the United States of America
Table of Contents
Neither Judge nor Jury: Be Fair but Firm
Snitches, Bitches, and Stiches
Danger Ahead! The Dining Facility
When to Hold Them and When to Fold Them
The Mole in the Hole: Segregation
The Dirty Officer: The Inmates’ and the Convicts’ Best Friend
Boys with Deadly Toys: Weapons of Self-Destruction
Choose This Day Whom You Will Serve
Ramen: The “Oodles of All Noodles”
Due Process and the Rule of Law
Turn Them Over and Shake Them Down
Don’t Smile; You’re Paying the Bill
The Revolving Door of the Correctional Officer
Politics in Prison: Just Because Your Shirt Is White Doesn’t Make You Right
Preface
One could ask what goes on between the thick walls and the razor concertina wire fences of the penitentiary. What actually goes on is not what you have been told, heard, or have observed on most movies or television programs. What goes on inside the penitentiary will stay within the penitentiary. I personally believe the most accurate portrayal of the penitentiary life is the classic movie The Shawshank Redemption in 1994 with actors Morgan Freeman and Tim Robbins. But remember, this classic screenshot is only a movie.
Your imagination compiled with outside influence can give you a general perspective of what goes on the inside walls of the penitentiary. However, nothing on television or anything that has been told is further from the truth concerning the life in the penitentiary.
It is evident that to fully comprehend the entire picture of the inside of the penitentiary, an individual would have had been incarcerated at some point in their life and had been employed by the system to fully understand. In the following pages of this book, I will spell out what I have observed with my own eyes over the many years I was employed as a correctional officer on what takes place on the inside of the penitentiary. Sit back, take a deep breath, and let’s take a journey down this dark and dreary road of “looking from the inside out.”
Acknowledgments
I thank my Christian wife for her vast amount of godly wisdom, counsel, and extreme dedication in raising our two boys. Without her amazing advice and her God-fearing criticism, the ability to write this book would have been impossible. Thank you, my wonderful wife. You are the apple of my eye.
I thank both of my sons, Steven and David, for giving me the opportunity to be your dad, although I feel I let you down several times over the years for not being there when I should have been. I want you to know that I did my best. I love both of you very much.
I thank David May, my brother in Christ, for sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ with me. Due to his love of Jesus, I accepted Christ into my life, and until this day, the Word of God has allowed me to fully understand what is important in this short span of life on earth.
I thank Don Francisco (Flute4Jesus), who spent thirty years of his life in the military serving God and country. His steadfast belief in Jesus Christ is the strongest of any individual I have ever had the opportunity to know.
I thank Art Garrett, my friend who is also retired from the United States Marine Corps and who understands the reason I am writing this book due to his career within the Department of Corrections.
I thank Officer Steven Cobb, Officer Danielle Wrencher, and Officer Alina McCray, three of the finest correctional officers I had the opportunity to work with on a daily basis. Without their everyday support and protection of one another’s back, it would have been impossible to handle the unexpected on a daily basis and have the assurance we went home safe to our families.
I thank Officer Richard Wilkie, who walked more miles on M-N-O yards during the past twelve years than I have on my Toyota pickup truck—tremendous endurance for an individual who made the safety of all staff his main priority
I thank my wonderful parents, Thad and Barbara Baker, for raising me right and always being there when I needed them. I surely miss them both every day.
I thank the Department of Correction and the Department of Public Safety for their support. I was associated with some of the finest correctional personnel, I believe, in the prison system.
And finally, I must ultimately thank this great country of ours for allowing me the privilege and honor to serve and protect it for over twenty years as a member
