New Correctional Officer

You were just notified that you will be a Correctional Officer soon. Congratulations! Now what? Have you thought about what you will need for gear? Hey, if you get lucky your agency will provide some. But, if you are like the rest of us, you will have to buy your own. Here’s the catch: you WILL need gear but you won’t be told exactly what you need.

Think about what you may be doing in a correctional facility. Its ok, you can think about all those episodes of prison shows that you are glued to. Are you going to be searching? If so, what will you be searching? Any dark nook and crannies that need looking into? Are you going to work in broad daylight or do you think that it may be nights? Are you ever going to have to restrain an offender? Use force on them? They answer to all these is YES!

Here are the items that, in my humble opinion, are essential to every Correctional Officer.

Kevlar Tactical Gloves – There is no doubt that you will be searching, searching and searching. The offenders hide contraband, we go looking for it. The chances of us getting injured as a result of a sharp instrument is high. According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Report 53,469 officers were assaulted in 2010. 14.1 percent of the officers who were assaulted with knives or other cutting instruments were injured. Think about this number…14.1% injured. And these were Police Officers. The number of assaults with knives or other cutting instruments is much higher for correctional officers. Offenders don’t have guns (At least I sure as heck hope they don’t!). Offenders have razors, shanks or anything else that they can cut us, or other offenders with. Kevlar tactical gloves work…get some!

Flashlight and flashlight case – It does not matter if you are going to be working during the day or night, you need to have a flashlight. Inside correctional facilities there are many areas that are not well lit no matter what the building design is. Ask anyone that works in this field and they will tell you the same thing…get a flashlight.

Handcuff case – You will be carrying handcuffs in many of the positions within a facility. There are some agencies that require all staff to carry them. Some agencies will provide you with the handcuffs and case while you are at work but you must leave it there (just remember that shared equipment does not last nor is it well taken care of). If you are working in an Administrative Segregation area, you will have handcuffs.

Pepper Spray Holder – Guess what you get to carry when you’re working? A canister of “Don’t you know any better?” We use this as a last resort (and it sucks when we have to use it) but it is very effective in most instances. You may be provided with the O.C. but not with the holder for it. Make sure that you know what size canister your agency uses prior to buying it and get the right one (MKIII or MKIV)

Latex Glove Pouch – The Kevlar tactical gloves will protect you from getting cut, but it will not protect you from body fluids You should have latex or nitrile gloves with you at all times. I would suggest you carry a minimum of 4 pair on you. If you ball them up nice and tight you can fit 5 pair into the “1 pair glove pouch.” You never know when you are going to have to lay your hands on a bloody offender (and hopefully not a bloody staff member) or any other body fluid.

Silent Key Holder – Although most officers I know like to attach the work keys to their belt, the keys rattle and let everyone know when you are coming. Might as well put that cow bell on and go into a pasture. Yes, more COW BELL! A silent key holder will allow you to keep that set of keys on your belt yet restrain them so they are not jingling all over the place. As for me, I found a second use for them. I simply removed the key clip from it and use it as a Kevlar glove carrier

Radio Holder – You may or may not have be carrying a radio on the job. I say that you get a universal radio holder so that you have a place to carry your radio. I would recommend one that is adjustable to fit many radio designs. And finally…

Duty Belt and belt keepers – Where did you think that you would put all these items? Around your normal work belt? Some people may do that but I want you to think about this: Most agencies search staff upon arrival which means that you will have to take everything off that work belt and then put each item back on. And when you take it off after you get home, what are you going to do? Leave 7-8 different duty gear items laying around and hope that you remember all of them tomorrow when you go to work? I don’t know about you, but I’d probably loose my head if it wasn’t attached to my body. With a duty belt you can have them located where you want them without having it slide around and then just have one thing to keep up with. The belt keepers will keep that duty belt and all your new gear firmly attached to your waist. I recommend a triple retention duty belt which affords the maximum amount of protection and security so that an offender can’t take it off (also works great if one of part of the buckle clip snaps off since the belt won’t come off).

Now you may be asking yourself where you can get all this and how much is it going to cost you. You can check your local police supply store and see what they have or you can go online and look it up. If checking online, I would suggest typing in corrections duty gear or corrections duty gear packages in your browser and go from there. On the average you can be looking at a cost of $134.99-$200+ depending on the manufacturer and where you get it from.

Now, stay safe and CONGRATULATIONS on your new job!

NOTE** This article appeared in Corrections.com (1/30/12)

Welcome to a new year!

I hope that everyone had a great and safe Holiday season and that you didn’t gain so much weight that your pre-Season pants now look like sausage casing around a stuffed pork chop (like what happened to me!)

Now most of us made some type of New Year’s resolution: loose weight, stop smoking, exercise more (or start doing it), etc and hope to follow through with it if we haven’t given up just yet. But do we know how this tradition began?

Let take a little trip back in time to pre-Christian times. Although it started off with the Babylonians, it was moved to January by the Romans in celebration of the god Janus (a two-faced god that looks back to the past year and forward into the new one). Janus was also the patron and protector of arches (Ianus in Latin), gates, doors, doorways, endings and beginnings as well as bridges.

The custom of setting New Year’s resolution during this time in which people would make a resolution to treat each other better (I wonder if this was inside or outside the gladiator arena??)  As the Roman Empire took Christianity as their official religion in the 4^th century, these moral intentions were replaced with prayer. The Christians chose to celebrate the Feast of the Circumcision on January 1^st instead of the revelry that was taking place by those that did not believe in the faith.

As the 17^th century rolled around, Puritans chose not to celebrate holidays and even went as far as calling January “the first month” in order to not name the pagan god Janus. The Puritans urged their children to avoid the revelry and instead spend their time thinking about the past year and making commitments for the new one.  It was the great American theologian Jonathan Edwards that adopted the old culture of writing resolutions and took it to an art form (Edwards had been brought up in the New England Puritan culture).

Edwards’ first set of 70 written resolutions took him 2 years to write and reviewed them every day (I can’t keep up with one, never mind 70!) Now we have all been educated J

Here at Dydrostorm are looking at making some great changes this year.

First off, we are working on a new layout for the website. We want it to be easier for you to find the products that you are looking for.

Second, we are doing monthly drawings on the 1^st of the month for a $25 e-gift card. Our first winner was Curt (curt@tx######.net) Congratulations Curt!! There are no limits on how many times you can win (Your name will go right back into the drawing for the next drawing as well). The only ones that are excluded from winning are those of us here and our families. All you have to do is make sure that you register with us/sign up for the newsletter so tell your friends and family to sign up!

Third, as you may have noticed, we are now offering Duty Gear Packages for Corrections, Security, Police and Military. These are some of the best prices around (I haven’t seen it better anywhere else…and I’VE LOOKED!)

Fourth and last, we have entered into communications/negotiations with the manufacturer of Bianchi, Safariland and Uncle Mike’s in order to have our own duty gear made. If you’ve been in this line of work long enough, or just a little, I don’t need to tell you the quality of their gear. That’s why I chose them. However, and needless to say, it’s going to take some funding. What we are going to be doing is looking for people, either in these lines of work or have family members in them and ask for a $75 donation.

Now, it’s not just you making a donation. I don’t believe in something for nothing. Therefore, for the $75 donation, I will send you a complete Duty Gear package that contains Kevlar Tactical Gloves, Duty Belt with belt keepers, Molded Handcuff Case, Molded OC Case (MK3 or 4, your choice), Latex Glove Pouch , Silent Key Holder, Small Flashlight Holder (will fit the Mini Mag), and a Universal Radio Holder. The retail price for this Duty Gear Package will be $175-$200 so think about the great deal you will be getting as well as being one of the first people to own one!

You can visit us and look at the Corrections / Security Ultra Deluxe Duty Gear Package for a visual representation. I will be sending out another email out soon with the pictures of the actual items as well as information on how and where to make the donation.

We hope that you have a great day, week, month and year. If you have any questions or just want to send us your comments, email me at dydrostormsales@gmail.com