John entered the Federal Prison Service at Ashland,
Kentucky in the spring
of 1954. In the fall of 1954 he was transferred to Alderson as a
Correctional Officer. He became a Counselor in 1970. In 1975 he
transferred to the federal prison in Petersburg, Virginia as the Staff
Training Coordinator. Because of the nearness to Washington, he was often
called to fill a post in DC temporarily. He also did a lot of traveling to
other institutions around the
USA
doing audits of their training programs. He was an Adjunct Instructor at
the FBI National Academy in Quantico, as well as the US Navy in the
Norfolk area and the Prince George Police Academy in Virginia. He returned
to Alderson as a Lieutenant in early 1978 and I retired in January of
1980.
Shortly after retirement John was asked by Pinkerton's Detective Agency to
design the program for guarding Federal Prisoners who were confined to
public hospitals. He supervised the Program for them for about 7 years and
after a years hiatus started the McCurdy Security Service and bid for the
contract with Alderson Prison, which he kept until the prisons mission
changed to a camp. While doing it he was asked, if he worked on locks, and
that seemed like something he would enjoy and so after a few
correspondence courses and buying some tools John began a new career, one
that continue on a somewhat limited scale twenty plus years later.
As you can see, this was more than long enough to document
some history and develop opinions of what was going on in the prison systems
during that time. In this series, John may state opinions that some may
not agree with. It is not the Aldersonian's purpose to present articles of
disagreement, but to present one of interest to the community. |