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Watermen Behind Razor Wire
SOURCE: | By Richard Furno - The Washington Post - December 29, 2007 TOOLBOX
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But after eight years, Marshall seems at ease with the blustery interplay between officers and inmates. The inmates call her "Grandma Dynamite," she said.
On this night, for example, one inmate threatened to file a complaint against her.
"Just make sure you spell my name right," she told him, smiling.
Sergeant
Willard Marshall
In the parking lot of the Kent County Detention Center in Chestertown, Md., Willard Marshall, 45, held up his work belt, laden with keys, flashlight, handcuffs. A jailer's tools.
"Ten years ago," he said, "if you'd told me I'd be carrying this, I'd have called you a liar."
Ten years ago, Willard Marshall -- Janice's son -- was captain of the workboat Whippoorwill II out of Rock Hall. Then the oysters collapsed. Then the crabs started to go. Then, six years ago, he had a daughter.
"It's always job security" in corrections, he said. "You'll never run out of criminals."
He's now a sergeant on the overnight shift -- 7:45 p.m. to 7:45 a.m., plus weekend shifts -- at this small jail on the northern end of the Eastern Shore.
"I came so close to quitting so many times," he said. "Whenever it's a get-together, I've got to go to work."
Ex-watermen have similar problems in other jobs. At one tugboat company in Baltimore, six signed up last year, and all six left. They couldn't take being on somebody else's schedule.
