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Anybody work past or present as a CO for the state or county?

 

I've been testing and interviewing for state corrections the last 2 months and was just informed I have the job as long as I can get through the background investigation which should take 2 weeks-2 months to complete. I'm a little nervous about it as I have a few "blemishes" from 06 and 07. That's not counting my traffic tickets. I put down everything I could think of and let them know today that I will be as truthful as possible as I would really like the job. We have 10 facilities in our state and were told to pick our top 3 we would like to work at. I picked both level 5 max and 1 level 4.

 

I know it's kind of a thankless job, as well as dangerous and stressful but the pay is decent and the Benny's good. I need more schooling to get into LE so that's why I went the corrections route until I can

get enough credits to be eligible for LE in my state.

 

Anybody with any experience or insight?

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I've been doing the job for 23 years. You can PM me for any specifics. I'll help as much as I can. There are other members here that are C.O.s, whether they'll speak up or not......

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LOL ...... The only job I was ever fired from was corrections officer. Straight from the ARMY full of discipline, into the job with a bunch of little county lock up rats that thought they were all bad ass. I made it 6 months before I lost my cool in a cell block..... Last day I worked...... Hated it.


PS.... This country needs to go back to a penal system. Corrections don't work.

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The place I worked as a clerk in booking had a fairly military style command structure. Most of the COs just had to sit around most of the time, but hours can suck. They took home a lot of OT pay. A few CO jobs have to deal with scummy people all the time in a more hands on way. Booking COs and the isolation areas get the sort to throw milk bottles full of body fluids, and other nutjobs. Everybody has to put up with the hassle of babysitting manipulative lying scumbags, and the occasional risk of a personal attack.

 

Lots of politics.

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i work in RLU. A Restricted living unit. Mostly full of guys who get dumped out of seg to make room. I work at a medium and we don't staff assaults at my facility. If you assault staff you get bumped up to Maximum security and sent to other facilities. Not a lot of over time any more due to cost. We work 8 hour shifts. One big thing working in corrections is you have to have thick thick thick skin. If its not shit head inmates then its other staff with a Super Cop complex. Nothing sucks more then spending time to deescalate and inmate only to have some ass clown come in and spool him back up to the point where you have to lay hands on them. That just causes paperwork.

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You couldn't pay me enough to work in a prison. I have a buddy that did, and it took him hours to unwind after work.

He also said that the politics also sucked-ass. He has a permanent neck injury now (from training mishap) and the doc told him he was one "twisted neck" away from being paralyzed so he left the WA State Dept. of Corrections.

 

Glad you guys can do it. I see most things in black or white so, my version of a "utopian state" would bury the worst offenders and confine the rest to forced labor camps. Depriving people of freedom just isn't enough in some cases.

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Do you mean "not counting the traffic tickets" like more than one (1) ticket? Were they speeding tickets? Plus other "blemishes"? Even though the economy is supposed to be recovering from the "Great Recession", very few safety sector agencies appear to be hiring in any great numbers.

Why don't you just wait until you pass the background check? Remember, there are lots of qualified people who want that one job...no matter how much it may suck. Safety sector public employees are at the top of the heap with great $pay$ and $bennies$ compared with others.

They just might find enough equally qualified people who do not have any traffic tickets what so ever, (I have none) AND with no criminal or arrest records. When I got my FF job 40+ years ago, over 300 guys filled applicatons and they hired just three firefighters. HB of CJ (old coot)

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He's made it this far. It sounds like he's still in the last batch.

 

I wish you the best of luck!

 

Even a minor possession charge (many years earlier) would not have disqualified me from applying for the State Patrol in WA, back when I considered applying. I'm way past the cut-off now.

 

I wouldn't worry about the traffic tickets or other minor offenses but, I guess you'll find out in the next few weeks, if you get the job.

Edited by Sim_Player
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I wanted to pm you but iPhones are f'n trash and it keeps malfunctioning. I had several disorderly conduct charges as a kid and when I was 18 I lost my liscense for a year and a half over points. You just gotta be honest. You try bullshittin em and they will find out. I had no problems with my past. Good luck.

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I had to take the same profiles and tests. They don't care too much what you admit to. What they care about is whether it is still going on and whether you will lie about it. Be honest. They actually seemed to be a bit surprised that I didn't have anything to admit to.

 

For WA state, they don't care about a past with even some recreational drug use, so long as you never sold, didn't use heavily or get busted, and haven't used recently.

 

One thing, State usually pays a lot less than certain counties, and small towns will hire people other places won't. If you want the work, and are having a hard time getting hired apply with the podunk towns. after a couple years you can get a job most anywhere.

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-Summer 05 speeding ticket on motorcycle.

 

-Summer 06 misdemeanor possession. They found half a joint in my work veh coming into the US from Canada. I just said it was mine so I wouldn't have to wait over the weekend for judge. Paid fine and was gone within the hour. My company drug tested me, I passed and continued to work for them for almost 5 more years.

 

- Summer 07 arrested for DUI my bac was .08, right on the legal limit. I went to court, represented myself. Judge had mercy on me and knocked it down to a Careless Driving.

 

-Summer 08, parking ticket. I parked my motorcycle in between handicap spaces at a bar at 0100 in the morning, NOT DRINKING. Judge threw it out just made me pay $25 court fee. ($400 ticket!)

 

-Summer 2011. Speeding ticket, car

 

-Fall 2011 caught driving in the carpool lane, ticket

 

Summer 2012- speeding ticket car

 

Not too bad lol.

 

I did ace the tests and interviews plus I have good work experience, and references. They saw all this before inviting me to the interview. I'd say I have about a 30% chance of making it through. The job is mine if I can get past this last part

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12 years for me. ive been everything under the sun here. worked as a c/o been a sergeant currently working in unit management. i see me being here awhile.

Edited by Guest
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I think the drug thing will be the factor

 

They seemed to be dissappointed that I didn't have any personal drug experience. He'll probably pass. I'd actually be more concerned about the DUI ish stuff.

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It's been 7 years and 1 month since the MJ thing and 6 years 2 months since the careless driving, I know lots of PDs who will take someone who hasn't had any drug or drink related problems within reason within the last 5 years. Doesn't mean they will get hired because they have 20 other people who have just as good work experience but with no background problems. At the beginning they told us that they accepted 200 apps, and all those people will take the math, reading and REACT video tests( basically a what would you do sort of thing plus some counting tests ) that knocked more than half of the people out. After that comes the interviews, more people get cut. A few days after my last interview I got a call saying I made it through everything and I have the job if I can pass the background. I'm not sure how many they are hiring all together but I'm proud I made it this far.

 

Yesterday I just took another math and reading comp test. After that they interviewed everyone (around 40 guys 2 girls) and whoever made it through that got to take a psych test. I took the psych test with around 25 other people. They told me within 2 weeks ill get a call for a second interview if I passed the psych test.

 

This was for a armed nuclear security officer position. It would be a pretty cool job.

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I took the psych test with around 25 other people.

Was it the MMPI test? That was as 981 questions of bullshit!

 

Lol yep that's the one

 

 

 

If you passed that, you're golden. That weeds out the unstable, not the liars, slugs, or cowards.

 

 

Oh.... See my status update. LOL

Edited by Yeoldetool
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I had a teacher back in high school that tipped us off to multi-question tests. He maintained that it was just a few questions asked over and over again, but in a different format each time. As long as you can recognize the format and answer the questions the same, you should pass the test. ie. Most of the questions are the same. Just worded different, or placed in different scenerios. At the time, this did not include any real world test administered by companies, but I have found it to be an invaluable helpful tool when taking any test. Just watch out for the same question posed in different scenerios. and answer accordingly. I have found in the past, that most mental evaluation tests are based like this. There might be 150 to 200 questions to answer, but only 15 real questions asked. Good Luck.

Edited by coronet
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Folks. Lets leave the psychological exams to the experts . The shit is getting pretty deep around here. On second thought we seem to have a wide range of experts floating around here from nuclear physicists to navy seal snipers . Frankly if someone here doesn't cure cancer I will be shocked.

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