Wecoome to Mr. R’s website. Please feel free to look around.
They Walk The Walls Of Stone
Correction Officers walk daily on walls of cold, gray stone.
They sit in dark, dank towers for hours all alone.
On the prison grounds, they walk amongst the inmate’s naked hate
And out in public being shunned is their one common fate.
Disliked by society, ridiculed by the press,
Working in a world where all those living inside are a mess.
It’s full of Psychos, Sickos and Sociopaths.
So the Officers train with guns, batons and how to "kick ass".
No one wants to know them or give them the time of day.
No one will forgive or forget them when some murderer gets away.
They’re told they’re at the bottom of the law enforcement barrel
And at the top of the budget cuts when their Legislators quarrel.
No one wants them, but everyone needs them around.
No one else wants to walk those walls or the beat they pound.
The public cries they’re stupid, evil, violent and cruel.
Despite all this, the Officers accept this daily duel.
All they have is each other when they lose one of their own.
Only their feelings of being a family can breach those walls of stone.
They can’t let their feelings show while they’re on the job,
So they gather after hours to ease their hurt, trying hard not to sob.
Then the next day dawns and they start over again.
Walking on those walls of stone, concealing their pain.
They can’t take it out on the inmates, even those to blame.
They continue to act professionally in the midst of an insane game.
With all this on their minds and weighing heavily on their hearts,
I think it most amazing they continue to act their parts.
How do I know all of this? Well, I have a secret of my own.
For nineteen years, I also walked along those walls of stone.
Daniel Ettinger
Former Corrections Officer
Kansas Department of Corrections