Disclaimer: This is somewhat personal so you might want to pass. I will try to keep it short, but probably won’t be able to.
As most of you know, I am a correctional officer sergeant for the state of Florida. My job is interesting, boring, terrifying, and sometimes sad, all at the same time. It has been two days of soul-searching for me. For the past two days I have sat at the hospital with another officer and an inmate. When the judicial system incarcerates an offender, the state assumes full responsibility for the inmate including medical care. When an inmate is hospitalized there will be two or three officers, depending on his custody level, assigned to sit at the hospital with the inmate.
This particular inmate was diagnosed with a metastasized tumor (cancer) in his colon, cancer in his lungs, cancer in his bladder, and cancer in his liver. I was there when the doctor came in and told him he had two months to live without (chemo) treatments and maybe six months (maybe) with chemo. The doctor also told him that the possibility of a colostomy was slim to none because of his weakened condition. He has AIDS. He is 45 years old. Tomorrow the inmate will be transferred to a state medical penitentiary unit.
The inmate is incarcerated by the state of Florida because he is a sex offender – the worst kind. He has multiple charges of sexual battery on victims under the age of 16, several charges of lewd and lascivious on victims under the age of 16, and many multi-county charges of possession of child pornography.
The Bible (Jesus) teaches us in Matthew 7 – 1″Do not judge so that you will not be judged. 2“For in the way you judge, you will be judged; and by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you.…, but the human (in the flesh) side of me wishes a long, lingering death on this POS. On the other hand, you can’t help but feel compassion for another human being who’s just been told he is going to die, and the human being has no one; no friends, no family that even communicates with him, either in writing (mail) or phone calls. He just had two correctional officers to share the news with.
Sometimes I really don’t like my job.
Against The Wind 