There's something I've noticed more than a couple of times recently and this morning again, I witnessed it and decided to ask if any of you have seen this and what the heck people are thinking - You've all seen inmates cleaning up the highways, namely I40, correct? Can someone explain to me what the "guards" are thinking when they are in pairs, carrying rifles and you see one of them with about 3 inmates picking up in front of him, behind him are a bunch more and pulling up the rear is the last guard strolling along looking at his feet, or something else? I understand that these prisoners are likely deemed low risk, or whatever, BUT for goodness sake, it doesn't seem like these men with guns are paying too much attention to their own safety, nor for that of the public. The workers near the guy pulling up the rear today could have easily turned and overtaken him and the ones surrounding the other guy could have disarmed him without much trouble if they had anything planned. Anybody else bothered by this?
There are always three armed guards. Two with the inmates one of to the side with a great view to a kill. They are armed with three shotguns, three .357 magnums, and three Mini 14's.
plus these guys working on the side of the road, are not the 'hardcore' criminal's, and usually not a big risk......as a general rule
guess you are missing out.......was wondering if you would know what I was talking about......guess not
whether it is two or three guards to 10 inmates (or however many), the chance of a bullet hitting you should be scary enough to just focus on cleaning the road. :shock: :!:
There used to be three correctional officers, but no longer. Generally there are only two officers assigned to a medium custody road squad now, because of budget cutbacks over the last few years. By DOC policy, they have a Lead Correctional Officer and a Correctional Officer assigned to each squad, each with a revolver & shotgun. A third officer can be assigned, but it is rare in 2007. On medium custody road squads you do have "hardcore" criminals. By DOC policy if the inmate has a serious assaultive crime, then they must be within 12 months of minimum custody eligibility. All inmates on a medium custody road squad must be with 36 months of miniumum custody eligibility.
I always wondered if any of the inmates were actually ever shot. Are the guards actually authorized to shoot to kill if someone tries to escape, or are they just supposed to maim, or are they only allowed to shoot if an inmate attacks them? I'm also a little scared they will shoot, miss and hit me as i'm going by (or worse, one of my kids).
Yes, they are authorized to use deadly force to stop an escaping felon, to protect the public, or to protect themselves. Yes, I have known inmate to be shot when they attempted to leave a road squad. It doesn't happen often, but it has happened.
The most local shooting I can think of from a road squad involved the prison unit in Franklin County. That was back in the 80s.
When I started in '81, they had road crews at Bunn. They were a small field unit, but they were still medium custody and they had a medium custody road crew. One of the officers assigned to the road crew had worked with us at Triangle Corr Center before he transferred to Bunn and was one of the officers assigned to the crew when two inmates escaped. One was captured within an hour, the other was shot and killed later that night. (He wasn't shot running from the road crew, but escaped from it and was shot in the woods later that night).
