When I read your article on Gary Garrison’s book Human on the Inside [“McCauley Author Pens Book About Befriending Prisoners” by Leif Gregersen, March 2015], I was rather take aback by your statement about inmates: “The guards hate them.” This is a rather narrow viewpoint and tends to stereotype all prison guards as people who hate the very people they come in contact with daily.

This remark could not be further from the truth. I worked for several years as a guard, a counsellor and even as an Intelligence and Preventive Security Officer. I experienced two major disturbances and one large riot. At no time did I “hate” inmates. I may not have approved of their behaviours, but I certainly didn’t hate them.

For the most part, people are drawn to this line of work because they want to help, not hinder. Your lumping together of all these fine people who do society a just job, as haters, is uncalled for, narrow thinking and totally inappropriate. But consider yourself forgiven for this generalized slander of prison guards; at least by me.

– Budd Holmans

Editor’s Response: When I first read that line I assumed that it meant that the inmates believed that the guards hated them. After receiving your feedback, I confirmed with the article’s writer that this was indeed what he meant to convey and that the line should have read something like “The inmates feel the guards hate them” to make that more clear. I apologize for what came across as an incorrect generalization.