We wonder all the time: why do so many inmates feel compelled to go sideways on their case manager?
When it comes to individual positions and authority, the warden and the captain of any given prison might have the most power and influence over day-to-day prison life.
But, it’s your case manager who has the most direct impact on your life.
When Congress passed the Second Chance Act (SCA) for inmates in federal prison, they included something called a Five Factor Review.
This review is extremely subjective, and the case manager is who administers this review. It looks at inmates’ discipline record, their adjustment in prison, and behavior overall.
If you score low in any of these categories, and then you give your case manager a bunch of attitude, even if it’s warranted, they’re going to give you the lowest score they possibly can. And there’s nothing you can do about it.
This directly impacts how much halfway house/home confinement time they’ll give you as per the SCA.
Case managers are humans too, with emotions and grudges. They shouldn’t be able to have this much subjective power over your life, but they do.
You’ve seen this before in real life. If you’ve ever worked in any kind of service or client-based environment, when you have a pain in the ass customer, you don’t want to do anything for them.
So if you’re giving your case manager a bunch of attitude, why be surprised when they don’t want to do anything for you?
Yes, it’s prison. It sucks. But you need to be humble and respectful to your case manager. Their decisions carry too much weight on your life to treat them any other way.