Stone Cold Sober

Today was REALITY in spades for me. First there was the specter of the Chino prison riots and the impact that had on some of my classmates who are working at prisons in the southern part of the state. Thankfully no prison staff were injured and northern and central prisons were not on lockdown, nor did they suffer any negative effects (that I've heard of) from this. Except of course that some will be recipients of some of the ~1100 prisoners being shipped out of Chino now. Our institution was quiet. We are a bit anomalous among prisons anyway, but a senior correctional officer (CO) told me it was unusually quiet today.

I spent most of the day perusing the charts of some of my inmate-patients to be. Damn. Just damn. Even though some of my Juvie clients committed similar crimes, it really did make a difference knowing an adult had done these things. I can't really say why it had so much more impact on me, though I do have a few theories. I'm still eager and excited to get started, but my emotional tone is definitely down a notch or three. I'm glad I'll have some time between reading the charts and seeing the people because I definitely need time to find the empathetic perspective I'll need to do the work.

On the lighter side, I managed to knock my water bottle over onto my phone and put it completely out of commission. By the end of the day the fan I pointed at it had dried enough contacts that all the buttons were working again. Sheesh! I also discovered that I've been bringing contraband onto the premesis every day since I began work! During a discussion about being issued a flash drive I realized that my personal one that lives on my keychain, was right where it belonged... on the chain next to my car keys. Wonk! Wonk! Wonk! No unauthorized electronic devices allowed! Thank heavens I realized it myself before it was pointed out to me. Off it goes to the less used set of keys that stays in the car all day. So easy to make mistakes with all those rules...