The only way to bring awareness on why it is so important to care about these people … is to open those prisons up to the rest of the world.”Among the newbies showcased in the premiere episode is 21-year-old Zach Chavez, who finds himself responsible for the oversight of 48 prisoners on his first day. Check local listings to confirm show time. Get season by season character and cast bios and more only on A&E. New TV shows offers glimpse of work at Penitentiary of New Mexico “It’s like chasing cats — you lose them out the back door because of how difficult the environment and the overtime is. This is our home.”Greg Henry, one of the producers of the program, said by phone Monday that few television programs have looked at the inner workings of prison life through the eyes of new corrections officers. “Anytime you are offered access to a piece of society that is outside of our view, there is drama.”The first episode airs on A&E at 8 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 6. Their starting pay is about $13.65 an hour, and the average pay for a seasoned corrections officer is only about $5 more per hour.For rookies working at the Penitentiary of New Mexico, overtime is mandatory because of a 19 percent vacancy rate. Courtesy Lucky 8 TV/AETVAaron Bell trains rookies on how to handle the duties of a corrections officer, as documented in A&E’s Behind Bars: Rookie Year.
Courtesy Lucky 8 TV/AETVRookie corrections officer Zach Chavez finds himself responsible for the oversight of 48 prisoners on his first day, as documented in A&E’s Behind Bars: Rookie Year. When Ariel Montoya pictured what she would be when she grew up, a corrections officer was never on the list. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue. Another inmate, referring to the corrections officers, says, “They just work here. They come to you.”They come to him right away, sniffing out the rookie and challenging him and his partner within a few minutes of the first show. Staffing rates are lower still at the Penitentiary of New Mexico, where just 238 of the 357 officer positions are filled.Marcantel wants the show to highlight the role these officers play while also revealing how challenging it is to keep them on the job.
Courtesy Lucky 8 TV/AETVAaron Bell trains rookies on how to handle the duties of a corrections officer, as documented in A&E’s Behind Bars: Rookie Year. Ariel originally moved to New Mexico in search of a Family Studies degree at UNM, but after listening to her brother’s constant stories about his job at the Penitentiary of New Mexico, she decided to take a leap of faith and give it a shot – much to the dismay of the rest of her family.The seemingly timid CO from season one admits she hasn’t taken the easiest career path, but she is determined to succeed.Sign up now to get email updates on your favorite A&E shows, like Beyond Scared Straight and more.© 2020, A&E Television Networks, LLC. That, in turn, can lead to exhaustion and burnout.And those circumstances don’t even include the dangers of working in a prison. Among other training rituals, she submits to being blinded with pepper spray before being forced to fight off an invisible attacker.Though A&E has only planned eight episodes of the series, Henry said he hopes it continues to follow the rookie officers as they grow into more seasoned professionals.“It is a closed world,” Henry said. When Ariel Montoya pictured what she would be when she grew up, a corrections officer was never on the list. “When you … “This isn’t the petting zoo,” one inmate interviewed for the show says. You see the difference between one officer who is more humble from another when they walk through the front doors of that prison and how their experiences shape and mature them. He said he took the job to help protect society: “I think more stuff happens in here than on the street. Henry said he and his crews are not seeking such conflict or looking to inflame it, but “when things evolve or escalate on camera, it’s really part of the world and surroundings that we are in.“The presence of the camera always impacts behavior.”Another rookie officer in the show, Tyler Yaryan, 19, believes he will connect to the prisoners because like many of them, he experienced a bad childhood.
At the end of the day, that’s all I can ask for. Courtesy Lucky 8 TV/AETV 1 of 3
So why would anyone want a job in corrections?The show follows nine rookies — eight men and one woman — as they try to navigate the various levels of the prison.
He said he was surprised to learn how many of these officers are 18 to 21 years old.“At a time when they are learning who they are as adults, they are put in charge of the care and supervision of a difficult group of adults,” he said.
But he is not happy to discover that prisoners working in the kitchen have access to knives and flame.Ariel Montoya, 20, is one of just four women in the cadet training program for the Corrections Department.