Nothing coming…

In another season of my life, I worked at a male maximum security prison. And for a geed stretch of that, I worked the segregation unit, also known as “the hole.” It was fascinating. I learned so much about people, how their minds work, and their motives or intentions. Being a female officer in an all-male facility brings a whole other dynamic also.

I’ve had my name smeared on the wall in feces, was spit on, nicked by a razor blade (and had to do all the tests for exposure that follow), and had urine thrown on me. Most days weren’t bad. But the bad days could be really bad.

Some officers didn’t manage those bad situations well. Over time, the stress could get to anyone. And a few officers treated our job like we were there to punish the prisoners. That wasn’t really true. While there were some administrative punishments prisoners could receive due to bad behavior while in prison, their punishment was awarded by the state. Incarceration was the punishment for their crime, however heinous. And some were extremely heinous. Our job as correctional officers was to ensure the safety and security of prisoners, staff, and the general public during their period of incarceration.

When an incident happened with a prisoner on shift, it was NOT unusual to later hear the phrase, “They’ve got nothing coming…” That meant that other than the absolute bare minimum requirements of the law, that prisoner was going to receive nothing else from staff. I fully admit that I adopted this mind set as well. With one important difference.

Some officers carried this mindset permanently, especially when it came to certain prisoners. We’ll call them the “repeat offenders”. Like the amputee who would remove his prosthetics and use them to break the sprinkler head in his cell and flood the unit all because he didn’t get his way. During certain periods, this happened on a monthly or even weekly basis. It could be extremely difficult to treat this prisoner (and some others) respectfully.

Personally, I adopted the “Every Day is a New Day” mindset. If you act a fool and incite an incident, you’ve got nothing coming for the rest of the day. But who doesn’t have bad days? Can you imagine if God looked at us and said, “You guys keep sinning, no matter how many times I’ve warned you about that. Now you’ve got nothing coming….”

Thank goodness our God is a merciful God. It feels like this verse should be our waking prayer and our last whisper at bedtime.

I am not worthy.

Cleanse my heart.

When I start to fall away from You, renew my loyalty.

I am so thankful that even though there were times I knew certain prisoners had “nothing coming,” I always approached each day as a new slate. But I am even more grateful that God is always willing to wash our slate clean as well, thanks to the blood of Christ Jesus.