real horror stories in NYS. Some make the news cycle, then are dropped. Most are never reported on.
I think I've told you about when my younger son applied some years ago to work at a prison for youth. When checking his references, a friend mentioned he was even-tempered, and a state Golden Gloves champion. He was hired for one of those two reasons. He went through the training, including restraints. But on his first night on the floor, he witnessed two guards beat up an inmate. He tried to step in, saying that was not how they were trained to handle situations.
His co-workers laughed, and said he "would learn" how it was actually done. Due to the brutal nature he continued to witness, he would resign about ten days later. The next week, those guards beat a kid to death. Of course the state investigated, and ruled that it was the dead kid's fault. There have been similar incidents since, including perhaps the best known happened near Rome, above Utica.
I should add that the current lack of staffing -- plus the nature of most people doing that job -- has created a powder keg. The difference between a lot of guards and inmates is the guards get to go home, often after a double-shift. The deputy to shot my cousin & his son a decade ago, to express his frustration with the boy driving the speed limit, comes to mind. Although legally drunk before noon, he was in a hurry to buy more beer. And he had a history of being intoxicated on the job, as well as being fired from at least two other jobs for being drunk and a bully. Indeed, he had a history of threatening two other drivers with his gun, and of shooting over his teenage neighbors when he was annoyed at something or another.
= new reply since forum marked as read