John, 61
Prison psychiatrist
Los Osos, California
I moved to California from Texas at the behest of my wife, who pretty much said, “I’ve had it — I wanna move to California.” I’d planned to set up a private practice when I got here. It’s a lot more varied and a lot more gratifying. But it also tends to be all-consuming.
I needed some cash flow, and I started working at a men’s prison. I found that it was a lot easier: I didn’t have any overhead. I wasn’t on call every night. I had paid vacations. I found myself sleeping better. My mother and my wife — the two people who know me best — said, “We can’t believe how much more relaxed and easy you are to be around!”
When you work at a prison, you have to go through a lot of security checkpoints. It takes me a good 20 minutes to get to my office. There are guard towers everywhere, and they have people who have guns. The compound is surrounded by two 20-foot chain-link fences with coiled razor wire on the top. In between the two fences are electric wires, to make it so nobody’s getting out of there.
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