Tazina Lake High Security Corrections Facility - Chapter 1

Author: BuiltHard
Title: Tazina Lake High Security Corrections Facility
Date: 11 August 2010

Chapter 1 – I Apply for the Job
By Built Hard
As I read the morning adds I found a new listing from a company I had not seen before. Since I had been unemployed from my former Alcoa Aluminum job for almost 60 months I knew the unemployment and severance allowance was nearly at an end. I had to find a job and this one sounded possible:

Correctional Officer Trainee Wanted. Applicant will performs routine duties in accordance with established policies, regulations and procedures to accept maintenance in an orderly and secure environment. You accept assignment under the care and direct supervision in a facility of inmates and residents. In this position it is understood that regular corrections officers employ weapons or force to maintain discipline and order. This position reports to a Correctional Officer or above. The position requires compliance with specifically court posted orders for assignments which may include physical control, perimeter restrictions, segregation, controlled medical/feeding, central control, housing, pod control, intra-prison transportation, and intake. Assignment to prisons within the US may be random and rotated over time.


I went to the online job application site and filled out the normal information, then I found that the job had what I considered to be a lot of different questions for the kind of ‘security’ job I thought I was applying. They ask me if I had any allergy to latex and if I was willing to move to the prison site for initial training while I put my household furnishings in company paid storage.
I was also ask if accept assignment for a minimum of a year where I had no outside contact with my family or former friends. I really wanted the job so I answered the questions the way I figured they wanted them answered. I knew my friends would not really miss me and my family had all shunned me when I told them I was gay.
Since the application process was online, I expected the application to get to the human resources officer quickly, but in this down economy I had found their response was usually very slow. To my surprise they called me the next day and the process started to really speed up.
“Can you accept an assignment at our Tazina Lake High Security prison?” The human resources officer asked.
“Sure, I can move anywhere, I really need the job,” I said really acting to anxious.
“You will need to be here at this residence on site location in ten-days, can we arrange our free moving contractor to pack your belongings and store them nearby until you again need them?”
“Sure,” I said welcoming the unexpected paid service.
“We will arrange plane reservations to the site if you can give me a firm date for which you will be ready to travel,” he said making another free offer I had not expected. With my savings depleted this would save me having to borrow from my friends.”
“I can leave on the 15th is that too late?

“No, that is fine they will be delivered by Federal Express tomorrow. You should travel light, we will supply all the gear you will be wearing as well as food and personal hygiene items.”
The movers arrived at 8:00AM the next day and had my small apartment boxed and in the truck the next day. The Federal Express driver delivered my tickets by noon that day and I headed for the airport that night. As I looked at the ticked I realized something I had not thought to ask, the prison was in a remote area of Alaska. It would take almost two days to reach the small the small bush air field where a private prison plane would fly me to the airfield just outside the prison.
“Unless the plane is here it’s a 200 mile walk to get out and there are several large rivers you would have to swim that are barely above freezing year around,” the human resources officer volunteered as he met me at the plane.
“I can see why they would designate this prison as a high security prison,” I said as we walked inside in the setting summer sun.
“Yes, and this is the designated the Obama amendments to the Mann Act.”
“Oh, I didn’t know,” I said completely clueless of what the ‘Obama amendments to the Mann Act were.”
We went inside and the human resources officer took me to a temporary quarter’s area which he said were used for visitors, and ‘others’ that would later be housed on the isolated razor wire fenced facility.
“Tomorrow you will take your physical and we will get you on the job being trained as the law requires,” he said leaving me in the nicely appointed apartment with a well stocked refrigerator.
The room was windowless and due to the strange summer and winter daylight patterns of Alaska I could hardly believe it was time to go to sleep. I fixed a fast snack, showered, and fell off into a deep sleep no doubt enhanced by the many time zone changes my travels had taken me through.
“You about ready to start,” the human resources officer said as I finished washing up the breakfast dishes. “We need to get your physical and get you fitted for your stay with us.”
He led me down a long hall that had four separate pairs of bared doors that had to be remotely unlocked and locked as we went to the door that was market “Medical Intake.”
“This is our new arrival,” he said to the doctor in the hospital white scrubs. “Do the extended physical on him and if there are no problems prepare him for pod gear measurement.”
I followed instructions and took off my clothes and climbed on a cold stainless steel examining table with a thin throw-away paper sheet on it. The physical was thorough and took the whole morning.
“Ok, you have passed,” the doctor said,” and the people in the measurement department are just getting back from lunch. Let me give you one of our universal immunizations, roll over on your stomach.”
He gave me a shot in the back just above my ass crack then gently rolled me back and spread another disposable paper sheet over my body. He unlocked the wheel locks on the examination table and wheeled me down the hall to a door that said “Mann Act Intake.” As we got inside the sterile looking room, I realized that the shot the doctor had given me had numbed my whole body. I could not move!
To be continued…