Giving Soldiers a Second Chance

What are prisoner instructors?

It’s important to emphasize something- we are prisoner instructors, not commanders. In the course for prisoner instructors, unlike civilian prisons, we really define ourselves as counselors, whether it’s to provide tools for conduct within the prison or to provide tools for the future. We are in fact the ones who interact with the prisoners on a daily basis.

In the end, the prisoners want to leave their prison with something more than just the time they spent there. There are personal conversations, like the ones I have with the instructors as their officer, that the instructors have with their soldiers in order to make sure that they really understand the system when they finish.

How do the prisoner instructors handle the difficulties that come with the job?

Handling this population is a very, very difficult thing to do. We deal with reservists in prison frequently, and they’re usually much older than the prisoner instructors. In the prison, dealing with a major, for example, is something that can be overwhelming in the beginning.

Prisoner instructors are in charge of when prisoners wake up and go to sleep. The prisoner instructors take care of the prisoners’ food, privileges, family visits, and phone calls. The prisoner instructors learn to understand and assess the prisoners in a positive way, and in my opinion this is the most beautiful thing about the job.

How are prisoner instructors trained?

The commanders course is 6 weeks long and they learn how to command prisoners. In the end, they undergo professional training and are then divided into their assignments.

During the course, there’s a 48 hour period where we split everyone into two groups for a workshop, where they see the prison and learn about the day-to-day routine, the prisoners, and the heirarchy.

What is the most difficult part of the job?

First of all, one aspect is the physical work because the commanders are on their feet from the start of their day at 5:30 A.M. until the end of their day at 9:30 P.M. Everything the prisoners do, the instructors do with them, and they do them in unairconditioned rooms nor are they in shady areas when outdoors. This work is done all day long.

The second difficulty, in my opinion, is the psychological difficulty. When 18-year-old instructors see a prisoner’s suicide attempt, a soldier who came to jail under the influence of drugs, or a soldier who comes and cries about personal problems, they need to know how to respond, even though they were taking orders just one month earlier.

What was your life like before and after enlisting?

Up until the age of 17, no one close to me, not even my family, believed that I would enlist... I was a very problematic child. Let's say that if I wasn’t in this position, I'm sure I would have been in a worse place.

The first reason I went to officers school was really the feeling I got from being a soldier and the sense that I could give back to people as an officer. I enlisted to the Military Police Company and I was assigned to be an intelligence coordinator in the Military Police. Because I wasn’t familiar with the system when I enlisted, I was sure it was a bad place.

When I got to the unit as a commander, I said, “Wow, there’s so much kindness here. The unit does so many good things for those that are in their command. It’s so different from what I thought until now.”

What’s the most important thing you think prisoner instructors do?

You can make changes in this life, especially positive changes if you have the right tools, and maybe the best tool the prisoner instructors give their soldiers is a motivation boost.

It's good to make a change for others. I know that changes are good for those who make the changes and for those who are benefiting from them.