The Steel-Bar Motel

Rating:
Summary: A Clinical Read
Review: Very clinical view of CT Corrections
This books reads like a logbook entry, nice and safe. Most people who read this and know nothing about working in the Connecticut Department of Corrections will love this book. If you read only this book, you will be left with a small part of the real story for what it's like working as a prison guard in this state. I don't blame Mr. Fedorowich for playing it safe in his writings. He was a guard, and then Lieutenant from quite a while ago. He is what we call someone from the 'old school'. Never snitch, never tell all! I can assure you that what he did write was very true, but he didn't get into the office politics, the administration mind games, the administrative's untold policy of retaliation for those who do tell their stories of sexual or job harassment, such as Lee Dickerson, who DID tell all in his Connecticut Department of Corrections books, and suffered the consequences of a demotion from Lieutenant back to officer, and being sued on a few occasions, along with the job harassment for being brave enough to tell about the underground, down and dirty, illegal tacts of many of the administrators who got away with so many unlawful acts due to their positions in power from back then, up to including to this very day. If you think reading Fedorowich's book was intense, reading Dickerson's books, if you can even find any, will make you cringe and wonder how anyone can survive 20 years of service and retire with their health and integrity, after being subjected to years of bizarre and cruel managing tactics that would never be allowed in the 'real world of ' business. Even now, in 2004, sexual harassment, job harassment, and illegal business procedures continue to take place against subordinate staff though a strict sexual and job harassment policy is in full effect and keeps getting revised while a multitude of cases go unresolved and the cycle of abuse continues. If you think watching the inmates is the hard part of working as an officer in corrections, you'd be quite wrong. It's the archaic administrative business practices which has produced the number one sickness in this job, that of paranoia and stress. No wonder the statistics show that on average, an officer lives only until between the ages of 58-62. Retire and die. It's seems to be what the state wants so that the officers will not collect on their hazardous duty paycheck. Otherwise, the continued abuse and retaliation wouldn't continue. So, be advised that the book is quite a good read, but that it is merely a small part of what actually goes on in the Connecticut Department of Corrections.