Respect

A former Correctional Officer told a wonderful story, today. He was reminiscing about his first day as a CO.  As he was making his morning rounds, an inmate asked him to get him a pair of socks, since the ones he had were all wet and full of holes.  The CO said he would.

The day was busy and the CO forgot.  Actually, not quite--he almost forgot.  As he was punching out, at the time clock, he remembered.  He went back into the prison, got a pair of socks, and went back to the inmate and gave them to him.

The inmate was shocked.  He said that he had seen the CO leave and thought to himself that he was like many of the CO's and just enjoyed jerking the inmates around. Some CO's think the inmates are less than human.

That inmate's opinion was turned around and he found respect for that CO.  Not only the inmate found respect, but the CO also realized that people are people, whether they are in prison or not, and deserve to be treated as such.  

Respect people and they respect you back.