Correctional Officers – Life with Armor

Correctional Officers – Life with Armor by Carl ToersBijns – making a video on this but not ready yet ~

 

Life inside the darkened corridors and artificial sunlight places is not without risk or danger of death. There are those that believe that entering such a dungeon like setting resembles the old crusader days where knights wore armor to protect themselves from injury or death but also in many ways served a purpose to hide their true identities to avoid retaliation or harm to their families.

Such conditions still exist within maximum custody prisons and metropolitan jails that serve as containment places for those evil doers that seek out the weak and destroy those that serve justice in any shape or form.

Living a life without armor is reckless and ill-advised when you are assigned to these death chambers or dungeons of ill repute and snake bit venomous individuals preying on any moving object to strike and harm them without cause or just to heighten their social or predatory status among those that share the cellblock or pod they live in. When assigned to work inside a detention unit, behavioral medication program or death row requires the wearing of armor to compensate for the serious injuries and other harmful acts sustained while doing this job.

Body armor was designed to maintain and protect the officers from harm. It also serves a psychological purpose of exuding an air of intimidation and control designed to send a message that this is a zero tolerance violence zone and offenders will be dealt with accordingly.

Wearing body armor is what warriors wear whenever on duty inside these corridors of darkness. Although some adorn themselves with such heavy armor the purpose for such construction was to serve the need to prevent injury or death when walking the beat without a weapon depending purely on physical and mental strength and personal vitality.

You might say the armored suit provided a level of confidence that serves much like a life support system. You are relatively free of movement and it upgrades your personal safety to a higher degree while allowing you to move around to do your job. It is a low maintenance item that can be donned on rapidly and taken off easily to resume normal movement and duties outside these danger zones.

Although partially encased and protected it gives the officer a level of protection that allows no skin to be burned, no flesh to be cut and no projectile to enter. It is an effective way to cope with this situation inside these darkened chambers. With helmet and goggles donned, the vest is somewhat claustrophobic but is serves the purpose well to protect you while engaged with dangerous and violent offenders.

Not comfortable to wear in 110 plus desert temperatures they do not breathe as easy as you sweat off about ten pounds in an eight hour day. Being dependent upon this armor, there are times when they are left off and making the officer vulnerable to predatory beings looking to harm or kill someone.

Stab vests and armored suits are designed to be intimidating and fearsome. Donned with a black helmet and shield the officer is a highly profiled individual that embellishes the look from the Darth Vader era and coming in from the dark side. Underneath the helmet some wear a balaclava that hides their identity like a ninja fighter but serves the purpose to protect them from personal retaliation or attacks on or off duty. Thus the neck, face and eyes are protected as a precautionary measure to be injured in the line of duty by those caged individuals that serve the only purpose of harming others while incarcerated.

The vest is padded and designed with ribbed materials to deflect potential energy blows onto the body and thicker part of the upper torso. It serves as a protective skin layer to avoid penetration of needles or other sharpened objects, projectiles or biohazard liquids thrown to inflict a communicable disease or virus such as Hepatitis, HIV Aids and many other forms of diseases that fester inside these joints.

Machine washable, they are assigned and designed to individuals that risk their lives daily while walking some of the toughest beats inside a jail or penitentiary. In some cases, officers wear respirators and other breathing devices to cope with smoke, chemical agents or other hazardous vapors or gasses. Combined with the helmet, the armored vest and other protective gear, the officer is encased in a partial protective layer that gives the appearance of a dark knight ready to engage in battle.

This interface makes them less vulnerable to harm and keeps them focused on the tasks before them to remove, extricate or restrain violent non-compliant offenders from their cells, their housing area or their chosen stage for battle with those who have chosen to enforce the laws and institutional rules and regulations.

Sometimes the breathing is labored under certain conditions including heat. There are no evaporative heat dispensing units attached and filtered tubes implanted into the vest to allow easier breathing under duress conditions. Likely not for everyone, wearing an armored vest and interfaced equipment requires a highly conditions body and mind. It is not for the weak and meek as it impairs breathing to some serious and uncomfortable uniform choices.