COMPLACENT

This is a word that is thrown around a lot especially when administration or the department wants to prove a point of mistakes by an officer becoming too comfortable with his or her surroundings. So for me to continue I have to make sure I understand what the definition is.

Encarta dictionary: “Complacent (adjective) [kum-play-sant]; satisfied / eager to please – self-satisfied and unaware of possible dangers”. U.S. Thesaurus: Satisfied, self-satisfied, smug, unworried, content, self-righteous.

So, now knowing what the definition is, let’s look at how it is used by the department. To go into it a little deeper than stated earlier, the word complacent is used to describe the actions, or non-actions of an officer who has been on the job or in a position for some time and neglects to be as thorough in his duties as he should be. Does the departments use follow the definition of the dictionary?

How and why does an officer become complacent? Most commonly used scenario is about the officer with 18 years experience on the job (seasoned is the term used the most) who has worked in his current Bid position for 5+ years. He has supervised the inmates on his work crew for quite some time and they have become knowledgeable in his personality, routines, quirks even what he brings to lunch on certain days, if not every day. Now if you want to admit it or not, when you work or supervise anyone, including an inmate, you end up having a rapport (a working relationship) with them, but this is also why they will work for you and not bring or have issues while on the work site with you. It’s the respect and rapport they have for and with you. But is this truly the most common scenario? Are officers the only staff members who prone to become complacent? Are supervisors subject to become complacent? Once you become an administrator, are you immune to it? “Food for Thought”.

So what is the most common scenario for officers to become complacent as defined by CDCR? You tell me how many times you’ve heard this or something like it and tell me where the complacence rests:

1. Two inmates fight while playing basketball during night yard. Responding officers clearly reports that inmate Smith assaulted inmate Jones first and without provocation. After being interviewed, the yard supervisor does not send inmate Smith to Ad/Seg. The incident package is dropped to a 115 for mutual combat and both inmates sign a 'marriage chrono' because it’s getting close to the end of shift…

2. While conducting cell searches you find several contraband items in inmate Smith’s cell including a TV that has another inmates name and number stenciled on the side and a walkman that has been altered. You confiscate the items and leave a receipt for all the items taken including the TV and walkman. When the inmate comes back from work, he refuses to lock-up until he gets his ‘property’ or speaks to the Captain. You place the inmate in handcuffs and escort him to the program office. You are later requested to return the questioned TV and walkman until the property sheet for inmate Smith is checked…

3. You are the Ad/Seg floor officer processing an inmate who was just placed in Ad/Seg housing. The inmate refuses to submit to an unclothed body search stating that he was already stripped out in the program office and shouldn’t have to strip out again. After going over the policy, the inmate still refuses to strip out. The Ad/Seg sergeant tells you to put him in the cell anyway…

4. You work the entrance building and an Associate warden walks through. You’ve known him for years so you acknowledge and say hello before asking for his state ID. He looks at you like your joking and becomes irritated and gives you attitude because you still ask for his ID…

5. An Ad/Seg inmate demands his property and boards up his cell. An extraction team is formed while a lieutenant speaks with the inmate. After reviewing the policy for Ad/Seg inmates to receive their property and clearly sees that this inmate should not receive property yet, the lieutenant orders for the inmates property to be delivered…

Some of these scenarios are minor and could be understandable if far and in-between, but when it becomes a regular occurrence, most officers get fed up having their authority and correctional judgment questioned day in and day out without any backing by supervisors or administration.

It’s difficult not to become ‘complacent’ when the latitude is so much in the inmates favor. You always look like you’re doing too much and the administration thinks they have ‘problem officers’ because they will sit and listen to inmate complaints, with their jailhouse legalese, and take the side if the wolves instead of the sheepdogs. So what’s a C/O to do? I guess we should just continue on and have every write-up questioned or thrown out.

Maybe I’m wrong but it seems to me that it has come to the point where if we don’t do our jobs we are lazy and complacent. If we do our jobs we are mean, heartless and abusing our authority. But at the same time supervisors and administrators can circumvent rules and policies at will, when it fits their needs, but that’s not being complacent. That’s just being understanding…

So going by definition we all are complacent. If we do our job we are complacent by being ‘eager to please’ the administration and show that the rules and policies are being followed. If we don’t do our job we are complacent by being ‘unworried’ or ‘unaware of possible dangers’. So again I ask; are officers the only ones complacent even though we face issues and dangers every day just by showing up to work… or could it be possible that some supervisors and administrators are 'smug' and 'self-righteous' by not backing their staff or following rules and policies… Wouldn’t that make us all complacent?
I’m just sayin…

P.S. I have worked at a number of institutions so scenarios have been witnessed at more than one institution.