Alexi Rodriguez

Professor Howard
ENGL 101A 31207
Profile Final
05/05/2016
Keeping the Order

A correctional officers job carries a great amount of safety concerns

when it comes to working in the criminal justice field. A correctional officer is
responsible for is the custody, safety, security, and supervision of inmates in
a prison or any other correctional facility. They have many responsibilities
which include maintaining order in prison, starting searches to make sure
that the inmates do not use contraband, and transporting inmates to other
prisons or the court house. Officer Alejandro Rodriguez is a dedicated
correctional officer who respects the law and is dedicating his life to keeping
the peace and order of the prison.
My stepfather Alejandro Rodriguez is a correctional officer that works in
dietetics at the Montgomery County Jail in Boyds where he is in charge of
the food and nutrition of other inmates as well as the other officers.He also is
in charge of the inmates when they are in the kitchen. He teaches them how
to prepare meals, makes sure that everything is being made by the book,
and everyone is following safety rules. He has currently been there for about
a year while still taking classes with UMUC. He is taking classes on criminal

justice and during the time of taking classes he found the correctional office
job and applied. He got the job and became really interested in the
correctional field and is now going towards a degree as a Correctional officer
or Police officer. Growing up Mr. Rodriguez was your typical rebel, growing up
in Argentina where the corruption had taken over, he didnt respect the law
or didnt care about the police. He was the person who you never expected
to be working in a field where the law and order was important, nor did he
seek any interest in it. He was a lead cook in the mini restaurant at a
government building for 6 years when he decided to go back to school and
major in criminal justice. He loves cooking but not for other people, criminal
justice was always something he thought was interesting but he never was
motivated to go to school because he thought he was to old. My mother
motivated him because she also decided to go back and the idea was to
finally get the job they both wanted and not be stuck at a job to just pay the
bills. He was pretty much open to many things in the criminal justice field but
started looking around and became interested in Corrections because
everyday would be different, he wouldnt know what to expect on the job and
thats what he needed. He applied to the Correctional Officer job and was
accepted he was very nervous at first but saw it as an opportunity to have
the life he wants.
Every day he leaves for work and prepares himself to be surrounded by
murderers, rapists, robbers, etc. Every day is something new happens and he
doesnt know what he needs to take caution for. As a Dietary Correctional

Officer he spends most of his time in the kitchen. He watches inmates,

teaches them how to cook meals, making sure that inmates stay separated
and dont interact with each other, and gets all the food prepared for the
next group to come in and help prepare. His day starts by going through his
checklist making sure everything is prepared for the day. All inmates are
required to work and follow all directions. Simple directions like going to the
fridge without an officer watching is not allowed. Once the inmates are in the
kitchen they stand in a staight line where he takes attendance and no one is
allowed to talk or move. Each inmate has a different job assigned to them,
one group is Lead Cooks, which is in charge of cooking another in Sanitation,
where they make sure everything is clean and produce is clean and Salad
Prep which are in charge of having food prepared for the officers and
Population Cooks are in charge of preparing food for inmates. Officer
Rodriguez decides what the inmates prepare for the day by looking through a
book that ensures that the inmates are getting the sufficient calories for the
day. His main priority in the kitchen is to teach inmates how to prepare the
food and motivate them to want to learn some new skills by cooking. The
officer is alone with the inmates in the kitchen and doesnt have any
protection only pepper spray, because if he were to have a gun it would be
so much easier for him to be taken down because the inmates would be able
to assault him and take the gun, since it would be 1 against 27. All utensils in
the kitchen needed to cook are chained to the table, like knifes and forks and
each inmate is spaced out the exact amount so that the utensils cant be

used to hurt anyone. The only utensils allowed to eat with are spoons,
because anything else is a weapons. The inmates are also in charge of
counting the spoons after the inmates finish their meal. The inmates cannot
throw spoons away because they can be taken as a weapon which is
contraband. Officer Rodriguez checks the count and if something is off he
checks the inmate in charge of the count and eventually does a strip search.
Officer Rodriguez isnt allowed to have a friendship with the inmates.
Personal information isnt to be shared with each other. Many inmates have
tried to ask my stepfather personal questions, like where is he from and each
inmate that asks him will always gets a different answer, because Officer
Rodriguez doesnt want them to feel as if they dont know him on a personal
level, he would rather confuse them by just telling them something different.
The less an inmate knows about an officer the safer he or she is. There have
also been moments where an inmate looked at my stepfather and admired
his judgement and wanted more guidance. My stepfather would sometime
hear an inmate out on what's going on in their court cases or simple things
on how depressed they are because they can't see their family, he gives as
much advice as he can give. The inmates notice that and most of the time
appreciate it, they know Officer Rodriguez can not do much for them.
Sometimes Officer Rodriguez I have to cut them off without explanation
when an inmate gets to comfortable regardless how much personal help they
needs, its not my job to be their counselor. (Rodriguez) Most of the

inmates respect my stepfather, but there are a couple who arent very fond
of him.
When the inmates are in the kitchen there are strict rules about taking
food out or any of the supplies. There was an inmate who felt threatened by
Officer Rodriguez and thought he was racist because he was always keeping
an eye on him. Which wasnt true, the inmate had a record for taking things
that were contraband and Officer Rodriguez wanted to be sure it wouldnt
happen again. Shortly after the inmates shift was over, my step dad noticed
something was missing. He also noticed the inmate had a sort of bulge
through his pants, the inmate then tries to go to the bathroom to retrieve
what he stole. He went after the inmate and asked twice what did he take.
The inmate told him only a mayonnaise packet. Officer Rodriguez had to take
him to his office and had to strip search him and found him hiding different
types of condiments that are contraband. He now was fired which affected
his sentence. The perks of working in the kitchen is it written down as good
behavior for each 1 month of working in the kitchen 10 days are removed to
give you a shorter sentence. The inmate who was in trouble for stealing was
originally sentenced to 8 month in jail if he had continued working in the
kitchen he would have had a reduction to his sentence since he helped and
worked but had that opportunity taken away .
Officer Rodriguez has definitely had his bad days in the kitchen. One of
his storage workers was in for 8 years for fraud but Officer Rodriguez still
described him as a diligent worker and did whatever was asked without any

problems. The inmate had just came back from a visit with his lawyer where
he was found guilty of another offense which added 8 more years to his
sentence. The inmate was frustrated and upset, he stole vanilla extract from
the kitchen and drank it which intoxicated him. Later on he came across
another inmate who was in for child abuse and he threatened him. Another
inmate had calmed him down and told him to sit and made him fall asleep.
Officer Rodriguez saw this and looked at him to then realize he had been
intoxicated and took him to medical care and handcuffed him. The inmate
was patted down, he yelled at Officer Rodriguez saying, Don't touch me you
spic, no spic will touch me! he then tried to attack Officer Rodriguez with his
elbows. He had to be tied down where he couldn't move his arms or legs and
needed a spit mask to prevent any other assaults.
Officer Rodriguez definitely has a very tough job that has very intense
days that result in unexpected situations but he still enjoys his job, he loves
his everyday responsibility, everyday is different and he doesn't know what
to expect next. He enjoys the feeling his uniform gives him he feels
respected and entitled. The inmates look at him as an important figure and
are intimidated by him. He really hates his schedule, there are 3 shifts a
11pm-7:30am, a 4am-12pm, and a 12pm-9pm. He doesn't have a consistent
schedule, he is always chosen to work the 12pm-9pm shifts which means he
misses a whole day with his family and misses time with his children.
Alejandro Rodriguez is dedicating his life for the time being to corrections
while he still in school. He will soon be going to the Police Academy to

prepare to become a Police Officer. He has chosen to do a job that others

flee, while he on the other hand looks at this as a challenge. Not everyone
thinks that an inmate deserves the chance to learn something new to help
themselves in the future but he does. Officer Rodriguez sees that some
inmates want to better themselves and turn their life around. In the kitchen
he can see that some inmates enjoy cooking and sometimes have more
motivation to do something with cooking when the inmate gets out. He
teaches life skills in the kitchen that will help them become better people
when they are released into society.