Letter by Jerry Mosier
Prisons – November 1997 – Colorado Central Magazine
Prisons don’t work, so let’s build more of ’em
Editor:
I turned 22 in prison, a member of the first group of guards hired in 1961 under Kansas Civil Service; prior hirings had been a tradition of political patronage.
And, until I typed this, I had not taken into account that I was there at the beginning of the trend toward bureaucracy, professionalism, and protectionism that has seen salaries of correctional officers increase tenfold from the $267 per month that I received before taxes for six-day weeks.