“I’ve been in and out of jail for the past 16 years, it’s because I work there,” is the go to line when someone asks Zachary Graham what he does for a living. He works the night shift as a sergeant security supervisor at the Larimer County Jail.
Zachary served in the military from 19 to 21 years old. He was honorably discharged but later joined the national guard. So handling difficult situations and people comes naturally to him, making it an easier decision to go into the field of law enforcement.
Zachary works at the jail 3-4 days a week, 13-14 hours a day. He has to get there an hour early to take over the day shift and be briefed on the events that happened while he was sleeping. His official work day goes from 5:45 pm to 6:00 am. Zach works Thursday, Friday, Saturday and alternates Wednesdays with the other platoon. Even then, sometimes Wednesdays are occupied by training that are 7-8 hours long. Being awake at night and sleeping during the day is less than fun for him. Spending time with family and friends is even hard on days off because he can’t mess up his sleep schedule.
What makes the long hours worth it? Helping people and problem solving. A big part of the job is working and collaborating with a team. Working as a sergeant means that you manage many teams of people. Four corporals and 3-10 deputies per corporal. Inmates and coworkers constantly need help or have a problem or a situation that needs to be solved.
“That’s also the difficult part, sometimes you have so many people to help and so many challenges to resolve, that it can be taxing,” Zachary said.
Even though working in a jail can be rewarding, challenges are inevitable. The stress and trying to just leave work behind and to be present at home is difficult. It’s also very dangerous, inmates who are angry and violent can be a danger to people trying to help the inside the jail. Having to get a restraining order because the neighbor got arrested and threatens your family is all set back to working in the law enforcement industry. Verbal and physical conflict happens everyday, learning and being able to deal with that is key.
Misconceptions are also what makes this job strenuous. Most people don’t know what it takes to work in a place like that, with relatively no understanding about the job and what people even do inside of a jail. It’s restrictive for those who do work inside because they don’t have the same social status or understanding from civilians as other law enforcement officers.
“I think people think that it is a lot more difficult for [inmates] in there than it really is. Are job is to provide safety and security in the building, in the facility. So that we can provide superior care in custody,” Zachary said.
Does Zach ever regret doing this job?
“No, it’s more subtle than that. To be able to accept the challenges that come with it, that’s the difficult part. You know you have to reconcile that sometimes not being there for birthdays or for holidays or having a normal sleep schedule or for not being able to do regular stuff that regular people do that’s the down side, the difficult side,” Zach says.” “But the rewarding side is that you do something that is actually of a great benefit to society but nobody really knows about it,” Zach said.
Working in a stressful environment makes it even harder to find people to do the job. In Zach’s experience most people work at the jail for 2-5 years before moving on to a new job. It does depend on the economy though. When the economy is better employees tend to leave sooner and when the economy is not so great people stay longer to the five year mark. Numerous people have stayed for 20-25 years before retiring and others get promoted inside the jail and stay for many more. He said older generations stay longer than the younger ones because they are used to putting in more work.
“Quite often you don’t see results immediately, the old saying ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day’ is true. It takes a while to develop the skills and trust necessary to progress in whatever field you’re going into,” Zachary said.
Life as a law enforcement officer working inside a jail is difficult, but it does have its upsides. If this topic interests you, consider reading the book Crucible of a Jailer. It’s a non-fiction book about life working inside the jail and offers many of these points in depth.
