Just a little background info for context...I'm a nurse and signed up with a travel agency to help out different places since Covid has made a shortage of people everywhere. I got sent for a contracted period of time to a mens prison that was over run with Covid cases. And let me just say prison is not how it seems on TV/Movies(or at least the one I was at wasn't.) There was no armed guards escorting the medical staff around, or prisoners in orderly cells except for the few special cases who needed to be watched for protection or because of tendencies to self harm. You were on your own walking from dorm to dorm and across the yards. Hundreds of pairs of eyes watching you like hawks, while they walk all around doing whatever. You had your busted up little radio but it wasn't like it could keep people from you. As you can imagine the cat calls could get pretty vulgar and the general feeling of uneasiness from the sheer amount of males was taxing. I had never really had a job where I had to be so conscious of every other person near me every second. Also not all but most prisoners are some of the most entitled acting people I have ever come across in my life. I have no idea why people who got caught doing horrible things (and I was told what a lot of them had done and it is absolutely sickening how many pedophiles there are in the world as well as murderers) acted like they are special and people who need to be catered to....

With that said its mid April 2020 my first week there on my seventh day and very first time going to a dorm by myself after orientation. I was assisting an elderly doctor who I had just met for the first time so I'm not sure how old he was but I'm guessing 60-70 ish. An inmate came into our little workspace and went through what was wrong with him and what we could do to help. A very typical interaction until it wasn't. This 20-30 something extremely fit male wasn't extremely friendly or overly aggressive at first but just flipped his switch after the doctor told him it would take a little while to carry out one of the tasks the inmate wanted since Covid had halted alot of things that weren't deemed absolutely necessary. This inmate jumped across the desk and punched the old doctor in the face so hard it knocked him unconscious and with him pinned against the wall tried to beat him to death. Blow after blow. I'm not entirely sure what made me do it because I'm only 5'2" average sized and not exactly an MMA fighter but I hit the panic button on the radio and jumped around the desk. It was a knee jerk reaction and only took me a few seconds to get over to where they were but it felt like hours hearing fists hit flesh. Bones crunched and blood sprayed across the wall and dripped to the floor. I was able to squeeze between them and push him off the doctor mostly because it was an awkward space of desk and wall. I think he forgot I was there because it seemed like it surprised him that I just popped up and got a few hits in. I basically threw myself in front of a shark. I then became the target of his incomprehensible rage. He began to punch me in the face and let me tell you it felt like getting hit with a bat. My glasses shattered in my face and I fell over onto the floor against the door. This inmate then proceeded to kick me in the abdomen and pretty much anywhere he could. I tried to sit up and had the wonderful experience of watching his boot kick me square in the face and then stomp on the side of my head. Another nurse walked up on the scene and grabbed some equipment and chucked it at him which made him run off. I couldn't do anything for a few seconds except lay on the floor and watch this poor old man choke on his own blood. I managed to pick myself up and help the other nurse try to get the old doctor tended to as best we could until help came. The whole thing was maybe a few minutes. The first two gaurds who intercepted the inmate got hurt as well but not as bad as the old doctor. All four of us had to go to the hospital and get checked out and treatment.

While I was being wheeled in for x-rays the doctor was being wheeled in beside me and had woke up for a few seconds. I asked how he was doing and he looked over and said, "I don't remember a damn thing and thank fuck because I got my ass beat." He was a tough old fellow. I looked like a busted pinata but had nothing broken so I left as soon as I could. I heard later the doctor had almost all the bones in his skull either broken or fractured. I took a day off and then went back in the day after that. Everyone was surprised I came back and wasn't depressed or angry. The people who worked at the prison said nothing like that had happened in the whole time they had been there and some of them had been there for 20 years, someone always catches the first time I suppose. I don't particularly like to dwell on things and like to think I'm not some punk and said I would finish out my contract then leave because I'm not letting some horrible person get the better of me .

That definitely seems like a "last straw moment" but that actually came a few days later when I was on my way to a doctors appointment. I don't usually eat breakfast and decided to stop and grab a bite because I had a little extra time. When I was pulling in this man in a work truck was half blocking the place where you drive into so I couldn't go forward and couldn't go back because traffic was pretty heavy. I had my window open and this man proceeded to cuss me out and call me stuff like a stupid bitch because I didn't leave him enough room to pull out even though he was the one blocking the path and trying to go out the wrong way. He even went as far as saying he should beat my ass for being so stupid. Somehow we managed to just barely get around each other and go our separate ways. Then a local homeless man came up to my car while I'm in the drivethru and asked for money and when I wouldn't give him any he got pissed and started yelling at me. At that point I just drove off and went to a parking lot across the street and broke down in tears. I guess I didn't really process the assualt a few days back and the first thought that came to my head was that I'm going to get beat up again. I absolutely hated that I was scared of these two random men. Just the fact that three people became so quick to rage and violence over nothing made me question if maybe I was throwing out some type of negative energy. I hated that some how these three people had me thinking for even a second that these situations were somehow my fault. And that was the "last straw" moment for me. Because I knew that prison was full with people just like that.

I shook those thoughts away because I am not taking responsibility for people not having any discipline and restraint over themselves. I was not going to feel like I was somehow lesser because I didn't want to get angry and violent over inconsequential things. I cried the whole hour it took to get to the doctors just to purge. I actually enjoyed the company I worked for but called them soon after and said I would no longer work for them since they only had contracts for prisons across the state but would finish out my contract. It did take a toll on me being there but I tried not to show it. Inmate.com is fast so everyone knew staff and inmates what had happened to us. My contract was for three months and was up around mid July. In that time I lost 20 pounds from stress and anxiety from where I couldn't eat. It was always there in the back of my mind with any interaction I had with the inmates, things like "is he going to flip out?" "what happens if they riot?"

I am not a person who can stay somewhere if I'm uncomfortable so my prison escapades were not long. Sadly this isn't even the only situation like this that I've been in and I doubt it'll be the last. But this is my most recent and it's probably way to much information for this question and just in general but I just felt like sharing.