FARMINGTON – Irene Greenwood said she was a little hurt when she heard about a party to be held for one of her co-workers Saturday night.
Greenwood, a corrections officer at the Franklin County Jail for more than 16 years, retired that day and couldn’t quite understand why she was asked to invite the jail’s cook out to dinner in an attempt to get her to a surprise party. She said she was surprised when a group of about 20 law enforcement employees greeted her instead at Fortune Fountain to celebrate her retirement.
Sheriff Dennis Pike said the 5-foot-tall Greenwood kept a half-gallon tin can on a string to stand on so she could see in cell windows for cell checks. Her co-workers decorated the can and presented it to her as a memento.
Greenwood, of Farmington, has lived in Maine for more than 20 years. Encouraged by her husband, the New Hampshire native joined her spouse as a corrections officer at Hillsboro County Jail in Manchester, N.H. The couple moved to Franklin County in 1981. She joined the staff at the Franklin County Jail in 1988 and was promoted to sergeant in 1990.
She said it takes a certain type of personality to work as a corrections officer. Although most of the inmates treated her respectfully, she said she knew not to take their comments personally. Most saw her as a mother figure or a grandmother figure, she said, and she earned their respect by the way she treated them.
“I treat them the way I want to be treated,” she said.
She used to joke around with them, she said, remembering one inmate who used to mimic her hands-on-hips stern posture through a locked door. And if one of the inmates went after her, the others would come to help her out, she said.
“They really respected me,” she said.
Pike agreed, saying that she was so polite she commanded a great deal of respect.
“If they got rowdy, she crossed her arms and said, You better stop now before you make me mad.'” he said. “She never raised her voice.”
He believes her calm manner made the inmates nervous, wondering what she would do if she really did get angry.
According to Greenwood, the difficult inmates were those who came in drunk and unruly. If they didn’t calm down, they were put in a cell until they did, she said.
When she started at the jail there were between 12 to 25 inmates in custody at any given time, she said.
“Now you’re lucky if you get below 35. It was getting too hectic,” she said.
Celebrating her 62nd birthday Sept. 29, Greenwood said she retired so that she and her retired husband, Charles, could travel while they were still healthy enough. They were planning to take their mobile home to Florida to visit relatives in Orlando, but decided to wait until the situation there stabilizes in the wake of the hurricanes.
She likes her new freedom.
Now, she said, “I can do whatever I want, when I want.”
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