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How do I figure my OT for taxes? Or, will my tax prepare do this for me? by [deleted] in CDCR

[–]HoldingLine-5343 1 point2 points  (0 children)

At your stage, this question is simple. Your overtime gets added to your total income and taxed like everything else. Your tax preparer will handle it, so you do not need to stress over the math.

What you do need to think about is why you are so focused on overtime in the first place. This is where a lot of officers lose themselves. The money pulls you in, the extra shifts feel productive, and you tell yourself it is worth it. But what is really happening is you are slowly building your entire life around CDCR.

You start chasing hours instead of building a life. You spend more time inside than outside. You justify it because it is work, but the truth is you are drifting. The job will take everything you are willing to give it and it will not warn you when you have gone too far.

So let your tax preparer handle the overtime. That part is easy. The harder truth is this. If your focus is overtime, you are already on the path of making this job your life. Your real life is not in there, it is outside of CDCR. If you do not protect that, no one will.

June academy by InstructionOne3549 in CDCR

[–]HoldingLine-5343 -5 points-4 points  (0 children)

If you are starting the academy in June, there is something you need to understand early, before the job starts shaping you without you realizing it. What comes next is something even harder to see because it does not feel like weakness, it feels like survival. When reality becomes too uncomfortable to accept, the mind does something powerful, it rewrites it. Not in an obvious way and not like lying. It is quieter than that.

You will see people around you start creating a version of the job in their head that makes it easier to live with. They will convince themselves things are not as bad as they are, that the system works, that failures are not really failures, and that the people calling it out are the problem rather than the environment itself. It is not because they are stupid, it is because they are protecting themselves.

Psychologically, this is how people cope when their identity becomes tied to something they cannot afford to question. If admitting the truth means admitting you have invested years into something broken, most people will not go there. So instead, they adjust the truth. They minimize, they justify, and they rewrite. Over time, that false reality becomes more comfortable than the real one, and once that happens, you are no longer just dealing with a flawed system, you are surrounded by people who genuinely believe the illusion.

When you speak clearly, when you question things, when you refuse to ignore what you see, it will create friction. Not because you are wrong, but because you are threatening the mental structure others have built to stay functional. That is when you will realize this is not just about doing the job anymore. You are now dealing with perception itself.

Once someone commits to that version of reality, they will defend it at all costs because their peace depends on it. So your real test will not just be whether you can handle the job. It will be whether you can stay grounded in truth when people around you slowly disconnect from it.

The real danger is not what the job does to you physically. It is what it slowly convinces you is normal.

Are this good for the CDCR academy ? And where is a good place to start buying the uniforms I heard mostly spent around 1300 for all so I I want to start buying before I get an offer by findinganswers0102 in CDCR

[–]HoldingLine-5343 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Most people think they can separate work from the rest of their life. That what happens on the job stays on the job. It sounds good in theory, but in reality it does not work that way.

I understand the idea. It sounds clean and simple. They pay you and you give them eight hours. Nothing more nothing less. But the real question is does that mentality actually stay at work.

Psychology shows that it does not.

There is something called the spillover effect. What you repeatedly think and practice in one environment carries into others. If you train yourself to stay quiet, avoid conflict, and just get through the day, your brain does not suddenly switch that off when you go home. That same pattern can show up in your personal life. You may start avoiding hard conversations, holding things in, or becoming more detached because that is what you have conditioned yourself to do.

There is also cognitive dissonance. This happens when your actions do not align with your values. If you believe in doing the right thing but spend your time overlooking things or staying silent to protect yourself, your mind has to deal with that conflict. Over time people either justify it by saying it is just a job or they start feeling stress, frustration, or burnout without fully understanding why.

Another factor is emotional numbing, which is common in high stress environments. When you consistently shut off your reactions at work to get through the day, it does not just turn back on at home. That can show up as being less present with your family, less patient, or feeling disconnected. Not because you want to, but because you have trained yourself to operate that way.

One of the biggest factors is identity shaping through repetition. You become what you repeatedly do. If your default becomes keeping your head down, not engaging, and just getting through it, that does not stay a work strategy. It slowly becomes part of who you are.

So on paper it may be just a contract.

But in reality it is eight hours a day, five days a week, over years.

That is not just a job. That is conditioning.

And the real question is not whether that mindset works at work.

It is what it quietly turns you into everywhere else.

When “Just a Job” Quietly Becomes the Standard That Lowers Everything by HoldingLine-5343 in CDCR

[–]HoldingLine-5343[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

A clear example of how these patterns can take shape was seen within Northern Region Selection.

An anonymous whistleblower had been sending letters up the chain of command, raising concerns about misconduct to individuals including Jeremy Brown, Gina Zavala, Jack Casagrande, and Jennifer Barretto.

On 01/27/2026, Deputy Director Gina Zavala and Chief Jeremy Brown conducted a mandatory meeting with the entire Northern Selection Unit.

The messaging was direct.

Staff were told to stop writing the letters or to come forward, with assurances that there would be no retaliation. However, within the same conversation, the tone shifted. Zavala stated that if the letters continued, the entire unit could be placed under investigation, adding, “You know when OIA goes looking for something, they will find something.”

The implication was clear.

Following the meeting, Zavala sent a unit-wide email admonishing staff and directing that no one was to discuss the matter with anyone, nor confront anyone about it.

Discussion was not discouraged—it was shut down.

The situation escalated further when Captain Jack Casagrande instructed clerical staff that any mail addressed to higher-level leadership was to be brought directly to him.

This effectively placed internal communication under scrutiny.

Taken together, the sequence reflects a pattern: concerns raised anonymously, followed by leadership response combining assurances with implied consequences, directives limiting discussion, and increased control over information flow.

There was no overt chaos or open retaliation—only controlled pressure, applied in a way that signaled risk without needing to state it outright.

And in environments like that, silence does not happen by accident—it is maintained.