When male prisoners intentionally expose themselves to females

Specialties Correctional

Published

Hello, I have been working in a medium security state prison for the past month. So far, I love correctional nursing. However, I was very recently assigned to a section of severely mentally ill prisoners where they do MANY inappropriate things. I knew this would happen, and it's not the last time, but a prisoner in segregation began to masturbate when I approached his cell door to give him his meds. I acted as if nothing happened, but still wrote him a misconduct. I also wasn't shocked or traumatized by the incident, but it's also not my favorite part of the job. What are some witty comments that you female nurses make to male prisoners who intentionally expose themselves or masturbate? I will say "is that it?"to someone who exposes himself. Any other ideas?

Our facility requires confinement officers to announce "Nurse on the wing.". To some of the inmates, this is a call to get ready....here she comes. They have plenty of time to put their toys away.....or whip them out. Nurses at our facility are on each wing for approximately 15 min. Twice a day. They have 23 1/2 hrs per day available for masturbation without my presence.

The only reason to "gun" a nurse is for a reaction. It rarely happens to me, and then, only by recent transfers. I make an announcement to the entire wing... "somebody should tell him those come in adult sizes" or "I'm calling your gramma"....and keep moving. It doesn't happen again. The other inmates on the wing take it from there. "You don't disrespect Nurse xYZ*!! She takes care of us!" (Appologies usually come the next day) Disciplinary reports are written, and sometimes outside charges are filed. If found guilty in outside court, they leave prison as a sex offender, plus whatever they did before.

This pity party that some of the previous posters are having for inmates is very sad. Please, save your pity for their victims. We don't have traffic violators. We don't have guys that made little mistakes. We have repeat offenders. We have people violators, who have done horrible things to other people. Rapists, murderers, torturers... One guy violated his 20 lb dog... to death. That wasn't why he was locked up either... he is free now.

4 Votes
Since I work with acute psych patients I too find this topic a bit offensive. Many moderately mentally ill with sexual behaviors are what we call Axis 2 or attention seekers. Therefore any response you give achieves their goal of getting attention. I have found that simply ignoring the behavior completely shuts it down pretty quickly. People with frontal lobe involvement such as the results from meth use often lack impulse control and may not actually have the impulse control to stop once the idea gets in their head. The only time I have ever said anything to a chronic masturbator is when assessing a very chapped and tortured member. The patient was very upset because it was painful to pursue his favorite pastime. I sent him down to his room with a tube of Vaseline and gently suggested he give it a rest for a few days.

Once you make a comment that is anything but clinical you have lost the battle.

Hppy

This is good advise for a community psych hospital, but in prison this response will have you looking "overfamiliar", which is a cardinal sin in prison. Any wind that you are aware of and ignoring a masturbating inmate or coaching an inmate to use vaseline to masturbate will land you in some serious hot water with custody and management.

3 Votes

I worked forensic psych. Call them out on their BS, write them up or whatever it is you're supposed to do, don't engage them. Did they train you on what you're supposed to do?

2 Votes
Specializes in IMCU.
This is good advise for a community psych hospital, but in prison this response will have you looking "overfamiliar", which is a cardinal sin in prison. Any wind that you are aware of and ignoring a masturbating inmate or coaching an inmate to use vaseline to masturbate will land you in some serious hot water with custody and management.

Agreed. We have an RN from a State Hospital who works with us at the State prison. She is a super resource but we handle some things quite differently.

As for giving a "warning" before a conduct report. This would not be some obscure rule requiring a earning. They know the rules. Usually they know them better than we do.

this is not a mental illness issue, these individuals are sexual predators/offenders who have been discharged from PAMIO programs because they are narcissistic and anti social, they are no longer in the program so they do not care. the max security where I work the security does nothing to curb this behavior, the offenders are sly and clever enough to position themselves where you can see them but the officer cannot and therefore does not write them up for it . it is also the common attitude form security and even nursing staff that "boys will be boys".

On 4/16/2018 at 9:53 PM, hppygr8ful said:

Since I work with acute psych patients I too find this topic a bit offensive. Many moderately mentally ill with sexual behaviors are what we call Axis 2 or attention seekers. Therefore any response you give achieves their goal of getting attention. I have found that simply ignoring the behavior completely shuts it down pretty quickly. People with frontal lobe involvement such as the results from meth use often lack impulse control and may not actually have the impulse control to stop once the idea gets in their head. The only time I have ever said anything to a chronic masturbator is when assessing a very chapped and tortured member. The patient was very upset because it was painful to pursue his favorite pastime. I sent him down to his room with a tube of Vaseline and gently suggested he give it a rest for a few days.

Once you make a comment that is anything but clinical you have lost the battle.

Hppy

When I worked in corrections, Vaseline was treated like a controlled substance. Only enough was given to treat the affected area. Giving someone a tube of Vaseline could get them beaten up and robbed (for the Vaseline).

2 Votes
Specializes in Corrections, Dementia/Alzheimer's.

What about things they say? I find it strange that because over familiarity is so bad, it seems more acceptable at times for the inmates to be hateful and call you bad things than it is for them to be nice and call you something good. I was taught I can't accept a complement from an offender, so "You're my favorite nurse" and "You're on time! I'll nominate you nurse of the year!" is frowned upon and should be reported. Where, at the same time, if you reported every offender that called you something bad, you'd be doing it all day, so you must pick and choose the worst.

It seems like a bad thing to always be telling the ones who respect you and have your back that they can't say nice things. This all just strikes me as weird. And what about the ones that call you "wife"?

On 4/16/2018 at 5:32 PM, traumaRUs said:

I have visited several max facilities in the state. The SMI (severely mentally ill) population that are chronic masturbaters are housed in separate units with separate rules. When our legislature decided to close all the state run mental health institutions in the early 2000's these men and women were then sent to "group homes", halfway houses, homeless shelters or the street. Because of the severity of their mental illness they didn't take meds, didn't take care of themselves and many found themselves in jail and then prison.

This is not a humorous topic at all. Its not witty and it is offensive.

I agree. It might also be dangerous.

I think ignoring them is best. Or just "Close up" or "Put yourself away". Nicely but firmly.

On 4/29/2018 at 2:35 PM, sorificett said:

This is good advise for a community psych hospital, but in prison this response will have you looking "overfamiliar", which is a cardinal sin in prison. Any wind that you are aware of and ignoring a masturbating inmate or coaching an inmate to use vaseline to masturbate will land you in some serious hot water with custody and management.

I think she gave the V as treatment and advised him to not masturbate for a while.

I'm not sure how a clinically appropriate procedure such as Hppy suggested is overly familiar or wrong.

I think making fun of a man's size is totally wrong and could provoke violence.

2 Votes
Specializes in IMCU.

When I was new to corrections I thought that a good one liner/snarky remark was ok for this. I was like water finding my way to the lowest level. After a couple of months I came to realize I sounded crass and unprofessional. They are patients and we are staff. So I stopped with the one liners and they get written up. No warning. Every time. They know the rules. I also learned to ask them to place both their hands on the door if I had to speak with them cell side. Of course this doesn’t stop the guy in the cell behind from gunning. That’s why we are always escorted. What a job! LOL

2 Votes
14 hours ago, Trampledunderfoot said:

It seems like a bad thing to always be telling the ones who respect you and have your back that they can't say nice things. This all just strikes me as weird. And what about the ones that call you "wife"?

Im not sure if there are differences in jail culture among regions or between state/fed. In my system, inmates who call a staff member "wife" or tell them they're a great nurse know they are breaking rules and are possibly grooming the staff member for misconduct. I would 100% shut down any kind of talk like that. People have gotten hurt physically and financially by ignoring the rules. Its just not like a clinic or hospital (which is why it may seem weird), and you have to know the culture of the institution. Please trust the staff if they tell you to nip that stuff in the bud.

3 Votes
Specializes in ICU/CCU, OR, Corrections.

We can spray them, there is Zero tolerance for sexual harassment

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