Staff on the Yard examines the complicated relationships between correctional staff and incarcerated people-and what can happen when professional boundaries begin to blur.
Michael Good takes readers inside the daily power structure of prison, where correctional officers, counselors, case managers, teachers, medical staff, supervisors, and other employees can influence nearly every aspect of an incarcerated person's life. The book explores the difference between professionalism and favoritism, respect and manipulation, compassion and compromise.
From ordinary staff interactions to secret favors, sexual relationships, information trading, contraband, selective enforcement, and corruption, Staff on the Yard looks at how familiarity can slowly become something more dangerous. It also makes clear that not every staff member is corrupt and not every incarcerated person is trying to manipulate the system. The reality is more complicated, shaped by authority, access, vulnerability, trust, and human behavior.
At the center of the book is one question: what happens when the line separating staff from the people they supervise becomes something it was never supposed to be? Through observation and personal experience, Good explores the people who respect that line, the people who test it, and the people who cross it completely.
