Sergeant James Booker
Appearances
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
You got a guy out there, a young lady out there, that has probably gone through something similar like you have, and because they heard your story, it gives them hope, it gives them direction, because a lot of people don't know which way to go or which way to turn in order to put themselves in a position to even start the fight.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
The main factor was I wanted a better environment because at the time I'm young. In South Florida, like I said, from What I've gotten was, hey, man, that place is really progressive. So coming out of, and I don't know if you're familiar with the location of where Florida State Prison is, but it's in Bradford County, which is right outside of Gainesville. Well, it's country.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
And so it's not a lot to do there for a young person. So the Sheriff's Department, Bradford Sheriff's Department was hiring. So I made the decision. I said, you know what, let me put an application in. And obviously the pay was a whole lot better. And so I put in and I got selected and I went down, I took the job. So that's how I ended up down in Briar County.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
Getting there, the Broward Sheriff's Office was in a transition where they just built a brand new facility. So they were in need of a lot of people because, like I said, because of cocaine and all those different things, everything was exploding there. And the facilities were, you know, bigger facilities were needed for, you know, to accommodate, you know, the arrestees.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
So coming in there, I came in with a lot of young people my age. And I also was there with some people that was a little bit older, but most of us are pretty much around the same age in diameter. But the good part was I had already had experience. So coming in from a prison system, coming into a jail facility was night and day. It was totally night and day where, you know, it was no discipline.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
It was no because these people were coming off the street. So they weren't like, you know, acclimated to being incarcerated. I should say, you know, it's not like they were like, OK, you know what? I know what to do when I get here. Some of these people are new to the system. Some of these people have been previously, obviously, you know, we arrested.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
But it wasn't the kind of structure that you would have in prison. Everybody know we eat at this time in prison. Everybody know we go do this at this time. Things in jail is fluid because people don't stay. You know, they come and go. It's transit. They bond out. They go to prison or whatever the case may be, you know. So it was always overchanging. And that's something I had to get used to.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
Because when I was at prison, at the prison system, I knew I had guys that were never going home. You know, their people was coming and going. It was always going to change, you know.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
But being in the jail system, it was quite different because you had a lot of laws that you had to learn, a lot of different rules you had to learn versus prison was basically set in 33-8, which that was the code that governed the prison at that particular time.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
I met Raymond... I was his supervisor. Okay. And, oh, man, I can't do not. I'm trying to think because that's been so long ago. Because, like I say, we were all young. Because I made a supervisor, like, the first two years I was down as a sergeant. And so Raymond worked under me, and I would say probably 87, 88. I'm thinking maybe the time frame that he was working for me.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
And Raymond, like a lot of the young guys who worked up under me, and at this particular time, now I'm becoming one of the older guys because I'm five, six years older than them. I'm much older now. So these guys, they would go out, they would party, then they called in sick for work. So I give them the talking to. Okay, they're not getting the talking to. Now I got to give them some paperwork.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
So now my thing will say, hey, press down hard, third copy yours. Take that one for yourself. And believe it or not, I wrote Raymond up. I disciplined him for calling in sick. And that, believe it or not, brought us closer together because he came to me and said, you know what? I'm so glad you wrote me up because you made me realize I have a family and I need this job.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
And that's how he and I became close friends. beyond the job. Because I looked at him and I thought, you know what? This guy want to be here. He understands what this means to have this job. Because his family was the most important thing. And unfortunately, some of the young fellas that came along, they ended up getting terminated because of the sick time.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
And he straightened that part of himself out. And Raymond was, man, let me tell you, Raymond was the type of guy at the job And you see the size of Raymond, right? You see the size. He's a massive guy. And back then, you know, guys in jail were big guys because we had weights in the jails at the time. And these guys work out.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
And now that they've been working out, they want to test their strength or they want to test themselves, you know, because they feel like, okay, I've been working out. I've got to see. I've got to put this to use. Let me see what I can do with style. So a lot of times Raymond was called in because of his strength and his size.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
And especially when he worked for me, I won't call any names, but I had this particular inmate. He was disrespecting one of the females. And he was saying all kinds of derogatory things to her, saying whatever he was saying to her, vulgar, you know, it was really nasty stuff.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
So when I came back to work, she said, hey, Sarge, listen, this guy, he's been disrespecting me, you know, and why you been off? I said, okay, no problem. Let me talk to him. So I called Raymond down. I said, hey, I need you to come down. Come down here to the unit. Because we always use strength in numbers whenever you work in that environment. It's never one-on-one.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
In this normal situation where you really don't want to use force, that's the last thing you want to do. But you always want to show a use of force. And most guys will back down when they say that use of force or when they say that use of force. So this particular guy, he decided he wanted to go ahead and he wanted to put some work in. Okay, well, you know what? Let's get at it.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
And subsequently, you know, it didn't go well. Yeah. It did not go well for him. Yeah. And Raymond was always that guy that, listen, man, loyal, first to come in, always treating these guys fair with respect because he could have hurt a lot of guys. He'd be the big guy. But that wasn't his demeanor. His demeanor was not to come there and be a bully. That wasn't who he was.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
And the thing about it, Raymond was the type of guy, he would help these guys. He would talk to these guys. Because a lot of these guys, he knew because he was from the community. I wasn't from the community, so I didn't know any of these guys. He knew these guys. He grew up with a lot of these guys. So he had their respect. And then a lot of times, I can call Raymond down, he can talk to a guy and
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
kill the situation for him. I ain't even got to deal with it. He just talked to the guy because he had that relationship. And that's the thing about working in that environment that most people don't understand. At that particular time, there was no taser. There was no shield. There was no mace. There was no stun gun. It was none of that. It was your verbal and it was hands-on.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
And no one really wants to go hands-on because, you know, even if you win the fight, you still can get hurt. And no one wants to get hurt. You know? So he was very, very, very good at his job, man. The man was good. In fact, I don't know if he ever shared with you, this particular lieutenant, they was finna throw this guy off a top tier.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
Raymond, I don't know if I ever told you the story or not, but Raymond broke his index finger, saving his lieutenant from getting thrown over the rail. Wow. Yeah. That's the type of guy he was. You know what I mean? He was that type of guy.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
And, I mean, any time that they had an issue with a person that they thought was going to be physical or be a problem, he was one of the guys that they called on. Wow. They called on him. Yeah. And the guy was always there, man. You know? And his uniform was always impeccable. He made sure his dress was where it needed to be. Because me being his supervisor, listen, that's something I enforced.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
If your uniform wasn't right, that is a problem for me. And at the time, we had a scoring system. If your uniform was not what it's supposed to be, I'm going to give you the score you deserve. So whatever that score is, if you get a one, you got a one because you didn't maintain your uniform. That's why you got a one.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
And I set the example because I wanted you to see what it's supposed to look like. You know, look that way every day when you go to work because people are respect. You don't have to know anything. But if you look the part, they'll respect you right off the bat because you look professional.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
Absolutely. And it's the other thing, just like doing the legal documents that we had to do when something occurred and we had to write what was called an event report or a medical report or something like that. I literally would take a red pen and I would write on the report because I needed you to understand that this report can't go in.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
You cannot misspell words because these documents are going to court. These documents are going, people are going to read these. And I always just say, when you put your name on something, You want that document to reflect who you are. So when people see me, they say, man, Sergeant Booker, man, that guy's squared away. You know why? Because his reports reflect that.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
He took the time to write it right. He took the time to make sure the words he used were spelled right. You know, that's important, especially from a legal standpoint. But you want people to identify with you saying, hey, he takes pride in his job. He goes beyond what needs to be done when most people cut it short. You go beyond that. Read your policies. Know your policies.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
Know how to lead men and women because it's important. Most people, they don't know how to lead men and women. The first thing they want to say is, hey, it's my way or no way. No, that ain't how it go. I'm going to show you what's wrong. I'm going to tell you how to fix it. And together, we both learned from it, and we're going to be better for it.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
Well, I grew up in Pensacola, Florida. I as well come from a law enforcement background. My mother, she was in law enforcement. She retired as a major with the Escambia County Sheriff's Department. My sister, she retired as a lieutenant with the Escambia County Sheriff's Department. And my older brother, he worked for ATF and he also worked with the
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
But if I don't give you the right direction, guess what? We all lose. And then when you leave me and go to someone else, know what they're going to say? Hey, man, Sergeant Booker had this guy for a whole year. Man, this guy can't write. He don't know how to do reports. He don't know who to call. That's important. That's a reflection of who I am.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
I can't let that be a reflection on me that's negative. I can't do that. Yes, sir. I can't do that.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
Absolutely. Yes.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
Well, the thing is, I don't really know what all led to Raymond's accusations. But I tell you this, because all that's in a whole separate department where they do the internal affairs investigations and then they bring charges or whatever they do. So, you really don't know what's going on until it happens.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
So it's not like you hear anything because it's all in a separate building and it's all internal with inside of that organization. So when the situation happened with Raymond, like myself and many of us, totally shocked because I know his character. I know the man, I know the person. And Raymond became, he became a friend just as well as a co-worker and someone I supervised.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
Because like I told you earlier, I saw a lot in Raymond. Because women is the type of person, and anybody who knows Raymond and will speak the truth on Raymond, if they know him personally, they know Raymond to get you the shirt off his back. That's the type of person Raymond is. Raymond has a big heart. Raymond is a God-fearing man.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
A lot of people don't even know that, that the man is very spiritually bound. He is. And when he went through that situation, it was, like I say, alarm bells went off. Because I'm like, no, that ain't my guy. You know? And it was like, no, that's not him. That's not him. You know? And so it was quite shocking, you know, when it came down. But no, no one, like I said, I didn't hear any whispers.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
Like I say, 99% of investigations like that, they're going, no one knows anything. You don't know anything.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
I tell you, my wife and I, we, um, when Raymond had, when Raymond had came home, um, And got an opportunity to sit down with his wife and his kids and everything. And actually, the man was destitute. I mean, you know, there's two years that he was away. And I guess whatever legal expenses that he had, it's chewed up whatever finances that they may have had.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
as an investigator for the state's attorney's office in Pensacola as well. So that kind of got my path going because once I left the Marine Corps, you know, I wanted to stay in service. I wanted to do a part in service. I always liked to serve. That was my whole thing. And then coming from that background, seeing it as I was a young child, I said that was something that I felt
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
And obviously, with that being said, you know, that puts you in a financial bind with credit cards and everything else. And the man pretty much was destitute. So my wife and I, we said, listen, let's do what we can do to help them. So we were able financially to bless them and try to help them somewhat from where we could do to help them as a family.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
Because I could only imagine, I know if I was going through something like that, someone who knows me as an employee first, someone who will supervise me secondly, and someone that I call a friend would be there for me. Because as we know, most times when it's time for someone to help you row that boat, they ain't there. You're riding in the boat as long as the motor running.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
If you got to get out and row, I don't know if I can help you. Or I'm afraid to deal with you because I don't want something blowing back on me like you asked me earlier. Well, I know I'm an upstanding guy and I know I've always did everything to the best of my ability with the Sheriff's Department. And I don't see where it's a conflict for me having a friend. This is a friend. This is not me.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
This is not someone that I don't know. And let's be clear. He went to court. He was exonerated. So why wouldn't I have a friend? Why wouldn't I help his family if I can? Why wouldn't all of his friends help him? Because he helped so many. See, that's the thing.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
You know, if people would, like, totally be honest, and this is why, like, I always tell Raymond, I don't associate myself with only a few people. And I learned this in life. I learned this in life. And I always say if I took my jacket off and you could see my back, you'd see knives, lies, spoons, forks, bricks, shovels, trucks, you name it. It's all been in my back.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
So I've learned, and like I share with Raymond, learn to separate yourself and only feel yourself with people who can feel you. You can't give yourself to the world because the world don't appreciate you. If you're a person that's always giving, a person know a giver, they'll use you up. Don't take advantage of that. So you got to protect yourself by saying, you know what?
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
I'm only going to be around people. I know if I pick up the phone and I call you and if I need $1,000, there's no question why I need it. I know the money coming. I know it's coming. And there's no question. And there's no question, hey, when you going to pay me back? No, you get it back to me when you need to.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
So, I mean, that's the world that I try to let Raymond share in the fact that look at my life. You see why I don't deal with a lot of people. And I did that on purpose to get you in a place with your story that you're dealing with and what you're going through. Everybody don't need to be a part of your journey because everybody don't know what you're going through.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
And like I tell him all the time, I said, Raymond, a lot of people are trying to attach themselves to you. Your story is only unique to you. And I said, people cannot help you. Because they don't know what you're going through. A lot of people, they criticize them. Oh, you've been going through this for so long. And I always told them, I said, Raymond, it's your life.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
And you have to fight for your life. And when you feel you was wronged and you feel like you need to get yourself vindicated in your family, then you fight for your life. It doesn't matter what the next person say. And I said, think about this, Raymond. Think about the journey that God has put you on. You became an author of a book. You ran for public office. You got your degree.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
you know, I could transition into, and that was something I felt I would be good at. So when I got out of the service, um, I looked for an opportunity to, um, get into law enforcement. So I actually kind of a short story. I was. Didn't know where I was going. I was on my way to Miami because I heard a lot of things was progressive of African-Americans in Miami. So I said, well, you know what?
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
You became a part of eternity. You've been on all different types of podcasts. You do a backpack drive every year in the community. I said, look at all the things because of what happened to you. Look at all the great things that God continuously blessing you with.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
And I said, and as long as you understand that it's all a blessing and because your story is so unique, you're able to share that story with so many And I told him this just the other day when I spoke to him. I said, Raymond, I said, think about this. You got a guy out there, a young lady out there, that has probably gone through something similar like you have.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
And because they heard your story, it gives them hope. It gives them direction. Because a lot of people don't know which way to go or which way to turn in order to put themselves in a position to even start the fight. That's right. So think about the reason you went through what you went through. And maybe God said that reason, it really wasn't for you.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
It was for you to help someone else, a lot of someone else. Because I'm going to take care of you. I'm going to make sure you're fine. But I need you to go through this so you can help a lot of people. Because a lot of people go through a lot of things in law enforcement. Law enforcement is a job that you can go to work today on top of the world.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
And by 3 o'clock this afternoon, the world can be on top of you. And it probably has nothing to do with anything you did. You just could have been present. You could have just been in the area. And now you're fighting for your job. You know what I mean? And that's what happens. That can happen. And just like with Raymond, this man basically was fighting for his life.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
And so as a friend, and somebody who tried to be a person that he could come to for For for I don't use the word comfort but come to somebody for guidance and some correction and understanding because let me tell you something I tell Raymond a lot of things he don't want to hear because I myself a big brother to him That's it. I consider myself a friend. I'm not I'm not a yes, man.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
I've never been there so and I've always lived my life man, I'm gonna tell you what's on my mind and sometimes I I shouldn't. But for me, if I'm your brother, man, it's all gas, no brake. I'm going to tell you just what I'm thinking. You're going to get it. Even if it hurts. And even if you don't speak to me for a week, you know what? I'm still okay. Because you're going to come back to me.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
That's it. I told you what was right. That's all.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
I would tell anybody, never change who you are. Never compromise your values. And if something is wrong, just know it's wrong. Nobody can tell you it's right when you know it's wrong. And don't fall into what is wrong when you know what is right. I would tell any person that because it all starts with your character.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
Because at the end of the day, that's all people can judge you on is your character. Nothing else. It's your character. I love that.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
I loaded up my car after three months of being out of the service, didn't know where I was going. Didn't have any family. I jumped in my car and I headed south. So I actually stopped in Gainesville, Florida. And I was at this restaurant called Wags Swags, and it was a breakfast place. So I'm sitting there and I'm going to age myself for a second. I'm reading a newspaper.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
Yes, same here. And thank you for the opportunity. And like I told you earlier off mic, I really appreciate the work that you do. The podcast is something that I think will reach many and I really appreciate you giving me the opportunity to speak.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
So in the newspaper, they said they was hiring for correction officers. So I'm like, okay, you know what? Let me look into this. Not knowing that the place I applied for was Florida State Prison. And when I went and I did the application, they hired me the same day.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
Not knowing that they was quite desperate for staff, quite desperate for someone with a background coming from the military that they were looking for. So that started my journey into the correctional process. And that was back in 1983. So that's when I started. So I stayed there, transitioned from Florida State Prison to Gainesville Road Prison. And then from Gainesville Road Prison, I then
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
I transferred into the Bride County Sheriff's Department, and I got to the Bride County Sheriff's Department in 1986, I believe, 1986. I retired recently. I've been retired now 12 years now, this September.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
Well, I love to tell this thing. Most people think in Florida that there's like, you know, multitude of prisons. It's only one prison in the state of Florida. It's only one. And that's Florida State Prison. That is the only building that bears the name prison, which is Florida State Prison. Everything else is a correctional facility or it's a work camp or something of that nature.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
So I actually worked at the only prison in the state of Florida. So at that prison, it was like, the very, very hardcore. And I'm like, again, I'm gonna age myself. These are guys that, as we say, stood on business, these guys, yeah, they, they were not snitches. These guys would kill you at the drop of a hat.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
You know, they weren't meant something they, they, they, they truly lived by code and their, their code was serious. Um, and being a young man coming out of the military, And going into such a place and coming from a disciplined place, believe it or not, that place has real discipline within the prison community. And I don't think a lot of people understand that.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
You can't do a lot of things because you're an inmate. You can't do certain things like you want to do unless you get permission. If a guy want to stab a guy, he got to get permission. He just can't go stab this guy. It doesn't work like that. I think people, when they see TV, they think, oh, this guy, You know, you see a movie and a guy stabbed a guy. No, it's not like that. It's politics.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
It's big politics. And if you're from a certain part of Florida, then you're basically in that bus with those guys from Miami. Are you in part of central Florida or wherever you are? And if you're a guy coming in from another state. You got to pick a bus. And it's totally different. And I think people don't really know the dynamics that goes on there.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
Because if you think about it, you got some of the most ruthless guys that you would ever know. Every guy you see on Channel 6, 7, and 5 on the 6 o'clock news that did a heinous crime, most of them ended up there. And they're all in one place. Just think about that for a minute. You got a lot of predators, a lot of psychopaths. You got a lot of mental health. You got all this in one place.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
So you got to have order. And the order, they basically set the tone for what the order would be. And I know that may not sound right, but honestly, they basically ran the prisons. We just managed it. They ran it.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
Absolutely. Because the cocaine thing blew up during the early 80s. It was like a wildfire. The prisons actually couldn't handle it. And I'll tell you another thing, too. Same thing when AIDS came about. The prison system wasn't ready for it. And it blew up. And I mean, it blew up. But that's a dynamic that you don't even think about that guys coming in and they're sick and they get AIDS.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
And it's like, OK, how do you deal with this? Because it was like crack cocaine. It took off like a wildfire, you know. But and I tell you a quick little story. When I first got there and in Florida State Prison, I was going to age myself. I'm young. Most of the guys who work there, these guys were bricklayers. They were mechanics. These guys had jobs. They were older men.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
So I'm basically a kid when I walked in there. And so it was one of those situations where when you're coming in, being a young guy, it was very few of us. We were looked down upon because it's like, okay, you're here to take our job. No, I'm here to work.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
So a lot of the older guys, they were very threatened by younger guys coming in because we could relate to the inmate population because we weren't much older if we were not the same age than most of the guys who was incarcerated. So it wasn't that adversarial thing where we were in conflict with them because we listened to the same music. We knew the same people.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
When I mean knowing the same people, like people who were in the music industry, that type of thing. We knew them. So in a lot of the older guys, they were disconnected and all they knew was pounding ground, you know, guys like, like dogs, treat them like, you know, mess, you know, found on them if they had the opportunity.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
So, you know, a lot of that went on, you know, because they couldn't relate to these guys. It was a different environment.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
Well, like I said, we won't name any names, but this particular fellow happened to be out of Miami. And this guy was in there, if I recall, he was in there for a trip of murder. And this guy had huge hands, big hands. And what they did when I was working there is guys, if you had a beef with a guy, we would actually have boxing where guys could actually box.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
Well, this guy was like the champ of the prison. He was the champ of the prison. So when this guy went to take a shower, he went with an entourage of people to take a shower. I mean, this guy was like a kingpin, basically, in prison when he called the shots. He was a shot caller.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
And if it was food, if it was drugs, if it was hooch, whatever moved through that bus, it had to go through him in order to move. And us working there, we knew who was who. But that's actually his question. If he can't be there, where would we send him? That was the worst of the worst. It's not like we can say, okay, we're going to send you to another camp. No, this is it.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
There's no other place like this place. And I mean, that place is an amazing place. And I think you never see any documentaries on it. You never see people telling stories about it. You never see cameras there because the thing is, society really doesn't want to know.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
There's more rapes, more assaults, more murders that happen at that prison than all of Bradford County, which is where the prison is located. It was assaults every single day. Every day. But it was never reported. Nothing ever got to the newspaper. Nobody never knew about the assaults. Because basically nobody really wanted to know. Right. Nobody really wanted to know.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
They're already there. At that time, there was no reporting system to say, okay, well, we had 80 assaults this month. It was just assaults. Yeah. you know, and we clean it up and we go on to the next day, you know, but it was, it was a serious environment, you know, very serious. Yeah. But they ran, they, like I said, they ran everything.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
I mean, you know, and the thing was like certain officers, like if they say, Hey, I don't want this guy working here, we couldn't put him down there. And it's not because they're telling us what to do. We need to protect this person. Because we don't want him getting killed. Because I'll tell you this. I'll never forget this story, man. When I was working there, we had this officer.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
He was coming on shift. Prior to him coming on shift, it was visitation day. Where back then, an inmate only got one visit per month. So they had to shave. Well, you know, Black men, they suffer from shaving problems. Their face gets swollen. So this guy said, hey, I can't shave. So if you don't shave, you can't have your visit. Okay.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
So he said, the next officer come down here, I'm going to kill him. We changed shifts. The officer came down. Disinformation wasn't passed on. He got killed. He got killed that day. He had a wife and two kids. I'll never forget it. I'll never forget it. I'm into some stories, man. And I'll never forget this story. When I first started working there, it was Christmas Eve night.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
These teammates had an argument from back in 1978. They got a vent system. Now, I remind you, I told you I didn't start working there until 83. Right. It was a five-year buildup. Yes. And what they would do is they got this thing where they talk through the vents, where you can be on a whole separate area But the vets, they travel. So I can have a conversation with you and not even know you.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
And we can get a beef going because there's nothing else to do but have a beef, right? So these two guys ended up getting housed together. Staff didn't know they had a beef. And this guy took a homemade knife that looked like a sword. And he ran it through this guy. On Christmas Eve night, that is the first time I ever seen someone get killed in prison. Blood flew out of him like it was water.
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
I'd never seen anything like that. Now you're talking about something that looked like a movie and you want to see how fast blood goes out the human body. Get the right organ and see how much blood come out of it. He killed right there on Christmas Eve night. I'll never forget it. That was my awakening to the prison system. And it was something to see because it was like, man,
Mick Unplugged
Sergeant James Booker on Integrity, Prison Politics, and Leading with Character
He just killed this guy like it was nothing, you know, and he was never getting out anyway. Right. Where else is he going? You know, so it's a lot of stories, man. I mean, I could load you up with stories that I saw, man, that things happen in that place, man. And it was just like just like business, normal business, you know, like it was nothing.