Hard Time: A Look At The Law Inside The Walls

SGT Jake Welder and ex-SGT team up with a former Ohio CO to talk about a state prison in South Dakota that seems to be crumbling on all sides: the inmates' aggression is escalating. Officers were recently attacked so severely attempted murder charges are on the table; lockdowns have increased, and most recently an active Correctional Officer has put his job on the line to speak out to the medi...

Jon is dying. Seems like he does that a lot lately. SGT Carli joins the show to save the day, and she and SGT Jake both discuss their work in Juvenile Corrections, and reflect on how California is dumping off their trouble children on the counties to manage as state juvenile corrections is ending altogether. Fugitive/Shawshank References: 0 Jake Joke: F minus MINUS

Jon and Jake take a break from the news to educate and inform on some commonly seen tattoos found in jails and prisons today in America. Want to know who an inmate usually rolls with, who they might have a beef with? A picture or a word... is worth a thousand words and inmates are not very secretive about their ties to organized crime.

Jake and Jon are back to cover a string of "not major" incidents which occurred across the country in correctional facilities over the Christmas holiday. Albuquerque, Sioux Falls, Boise and Lauderdale County, Mississippi each have entries in this news round up. Family is always first and that is why you have to listen to Jake's daughter screaming sometimes. She is being put on a plan...

Jon's back for his filthy revenge, and Jake is angrier than a boiled owl that Jon plays for keeps in this podcast.  In this episode the precocious pair breakdown a case of international drug trafficking in China, Italy, and lil ol' Cleveland Ohio.  It seems like the newsreel summation of all the dirty work of a Denzel Washington movie, but it all started with some CO doing their damndest,...

Due to listener demand, Jon has been removed from this show. Jake and Abby are the dynamic duo this time. Eerie, Pennsylvania: A Mercer County inmate escapes from two hospitals in consecutive days.  Is he going for the record? (8 hospitals and a veterinary clinic in 5 days, Inmate Moritmer Shelton, 1988) Alex Rabold surrendered at the Mercer County Jail last Monday after spending the previous thre...

ELVN.   What does it stand for? The cryptic letters drawn in the blood of an unknown man shot dead in an apartment complex hallway in Alexandria Virginia on October 4th, 1996.  That would be a hell of a thing if it had basis in anything other than a misremembered fourth season episode of  The X-Files. In reality, it stands for "Exit, Loyalty, Voice and Neglect" and each is a way that a p...

The Bibb Boys are Back in Town. Jonifer and those other three no good scofflaws that run off from Bibb County jail in October are all back in custody. It was a daring escape we first covered with Abby about a month ago but now the long saga of the four men that escaped from a jail in Georgia is over and done with.  The sheriff, David Davis, had speculated the reason for the escape had been about t...

Remember when you were young? We don't.  In this episode Jake and Jon talk to a correctional officer who is just starting out.  Reagan came from the corporate world, working with clients personably in warm and comfortable corporate environments.  Now she is doing Hard Time in the booking office in a jail in California.  She's here because we can already tell she is going to be a good offic...

This episode Jake and Jon break down the cases of Jake and Jon, and the hardships with mental health they've both had being in corrections.  Some frank conversations about what the job can do to you, what it takes out of you, and the damage it can leave behind.  If you are struggling in corrections or wherever you are find help however you can get it, because you are worth it. Poop references:...

Washington County, Oregon: Edi Villalobos, accused as a murderer, was on the loose for several hours after eluding his guards at a court hearing and sprinting out of the building.  While going through jury selection for his trial over the stabbing death of a man in 2021, Villalobos decided things weren't going too well and made a break for it.  He went full FUGITIVE.  He got past the officers...

Jon is dying.  Upper respiratory infection and a day burning refuse in the cold has taken its toll.  Jake is sick of the shit as well, and is not "doing well sir."  The result is too unhappy middle aged white men (Jake may be a black silhouette with a question mark on it) giving their conservative takes on things.  So they are bringing a lot of innovation to the talk/podcast field.   The...

Abby's back.  And sheeeee's pissed.  After months of trying to break the case of that Philadelphia Eagles guy that escaped and wreaked havoc all over Pennsylvania, and her requests to return being denied by Jake (Jon claims ignorance), she has come for her 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘵𝘩𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦. Withstanding the 𝘧𝘪𝘭𝘵𝘩𝘺 𝘳𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦 as always is Jake "MF" Welder, whose last name at this point just adds to his...

Correctional Officers are the ultimate first responders: policing the population,  enforcing the laws, dealing with both perpetrators and victims.  They also have to respond to emergency medical situations-- controlling bleeding, performing CPR.  And yes, they have the be the first to respond to fires inside the facilities.  Fire can and do occur inside prisons, especially in older facilities, or...

Bobby Kicklighter, an 88-year-old Korean War veteran and town historian is murdered in his house.  The investigation uncovers a massive a conspiracy of racketeering, felony murder and other egregious crimes.  The Ring Leader? Nathan Weekes-- already incarcerated at a Georgia Department of Corrections facility.  The murder was a hit-gone-wrong: Weekes had ordered an assassination on a correctional...

The failed Rumble pilot.  Jake is in jail this weekend paying his debt to society (He racks up debts at local libraries, printing off memes and dad jokes and never pays the front desk), so this week we're playing an episode that almost got off the ground. Drew Breasy came to me with a proposal: bring Hard Time to Rumble.  "They're desperate for content on that platform.  That kind of...

In this episode Jake and Jon break down the ABC Kiefer Sutherland drama "Designated Survivor," and they do a deep dive on this past weekend's riot with a lowercase R at Stillwater Prison, a state facility in eastern Minnesota.  The media can't get to the truth and wouldn't tell it anywway, so they dig up crybaby hugathugs and disgraced former employees to sell the next best t...

Somehow evading release in the original Patreon run, this OG episode talks about an attack on the Prison in Juarez, Mexico that left 14 people dead. In the United States, correctional officers usually look at prisons as the threat from within-- it's a whole other story when you're attacked from the outside. Also in this episode, the world's most dangerous prisons, and some fast facts a...

Last night Jake, Jon and Carli all sat down just to shoot the shit.  No agenda.  Yeah they talked about being correctional officers, but they also talked about Halloween, football, hockey, Beignet, plans for the future, their first jobs, the moment they "became" COs, and the 1995 Oscar Award Winning  Sean Patrick Flanery  film "Powder."  Just something to have on while you do c...

In this episode, Jake and Jon discuss spontaneous emergencies, improvised weapons, and how some officers just make things worse; How sergeants undermining officers can cause problems with long lasting repercussions; how officers have to be in charge but also choose their battles; the big topic is allegations of sexual abuse at federal illegal immigrant detainment facilities, how the government can...

This one is the tough one, the one Jon has been avoiding successfully for 18 episodes-- a listener request at that-- TRANS POLICY in jail and prison.  Now, Jon left corrections in 2015, just slightly before the rational thought in the universe decayed, and so that he doesn't sound like an ignorant asshat, he brought along two friends still in the CORRECTIN' BIZ to tell him what it's li...

In this stunning return to the second of the two kinds of episodes we do, JAKE ABBY and JON join up to chit chat about another daring escape-- this time, Michael Burham jumped the joint in Warren County. But how does this happen? Negligent officers? Deficient processes? Dilapidated facilities? A smuggled spoon and a Rita Hayworth poster? Burham disappeared like a fart in the wind and even though h...

Jake and Jon talk about the line of duty murder of Marion County Deputy John Durm, who was strangled to death by an inmate inside a vehicle sallyport in June of 2023. Durm was a deputy for 38 years-- and his wife and son work in the same department. Emotions break a bit when discussing the tragic loss of life, and the potential failures of proper tactics and staffing. Durm was by himself when he r...

Jake and Jon jaw-jack about working on vacation; culturally appropriate names for wanton acts of roguery; some random downbeat filthy implications; Jake reviews "Sound of Freedom," acudetox as a treatment for mental health problems for inmates; how to save face; what actual science is like; EMDR as a treatment for mental health problems for inmates; finally revealed-- why cats are always...

In this downbeat episode, Jake and Jon discuss some of the high personal costs that can come with being a CO. They also break down what is the realistic role of a correctional officer in rehabilitation compared to what the public expects. No discussion of corrections would be complete without mentioning how problems get paperwhipped and performance is punished.