no more pencils, no more books
09 July 2009
Here at the prison, there is an inmate-to staff-communication system set up utilizing “kites,” or written messages. The majority of kites I receive are from inmates in the segregation/solitary unit asking me to bring certain books on my weekly rounds, although I also occasionally get notes from inmates interested in working in the library. For each kite, I am required to make a copy for my records and also mark it down in my Kite Log, which lists the name of the inmate, the date I received and responded, and the topic, before sending it back to the inmate.
Earlier this week I came to work to find a message from our internal investigator (the same one, some of you will recall, who brought the drug dog in a few weeks ago), asking me for a copy of my Kite Log, for the months of May, June and July. No big deal: recently I’ve been asked for copies of various documents for accreditation/audit purposes, and I figured this was no different. In fact, there was such a big issue with the interlibrary loan forms used by the previous person in my position that I completely revamped it to make it a cleaner more comprehensive documentation system, with the idea that it would immensely help our next audit and accreditation renewal.
Today I had to go up to the Administration Building to sit in on a Finance meeting, and as I was leaving the meeting I ran into the Investigator. I asked him if he had received the memo and copy I left in his mailbox last night, and he said he had, and had his reply in his office if I wanted to come by. As he handed it to me, the only thought that ran through my head was “I haven’t seen that much red ink since I was a creative writing major.”
Turns out, he wasn’t asking for my log to merely keep it in a folder until it was needed for an audit or reference. Oh no. I was being graded on my kite log keeping abilities. Luckily (would I be blogging about it otherwise?) my kite log got both a “Very good!” and a “Good job.” His notes indicate he was looking for several things, including that I was within the five-day required response day (90% of the time I respond same day, with next day at the latest). The one thing that was missing was really circumstantial: if the inmates don’t ask for legal documents or have any law questions in their kite, there’s nothing I can do about it.
Oh, how naive of me to assume all tests would end once I got my Master’s degree.
Earlier this week I came to work to find a message from our internal investigator (the same one, some of you will recall, who brought the drug dog in a few weeks ago), asking me for a copy of my Kite Log, for the months of May, June and July. No big deal: recently I’ve been asked for copies of various documents for accreditation/audit purposes, and I figured this was no different. In fact, there was such a big issue with the interlibrary loan forms used by the previous person in my position that I completely revamped it to make it a cleaner more comprehensive documentation system, with the idea that it would immensely help our next audit and accreditation renewal.
Today I had to go up to the Administration Building to sit in on a Finance meeting, and as I was leaving the meeting I ran into the Investigator. I asked him if he had received the memo and copy I left in his mailbox last night, and he said he had, and had his reply in his office if I wanted to come by. As he handed it to me, the only thought that ran through my head was “I haven’t seen that much red ink since I was a creative writing major.”
Turns out, he wasn’t asking for my log to merely keep it in a folder until it was needed for an audit or reference. Oh no. I was being graded on my kite log keeping abilities. Luckily (would I be blogging about it otherwise?) my kite log got both a “Very good!” and a “Good job.” His notes indicate he was looking for several things, including that I was within the five-day required response day (90% of the time I respond same day, with next day at the latest). The one thing that was missing was really circumstantial: if the inmates don’t ask for legal documents or have any law questions in their kite, there’s nothing I can do about it.
Oh, how naive of me to assume all tests would end once I got my Master’s degree.
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