RAPID CITY, S.D. (AP) - Ever since she was a girl, Peggy Severson wanted to become a law enforcement officer. She idolized her grandfather, Gus Neubauer, former police chief of an East River town, whom she saw as a community protector.
There was just one thing standing between her and her ambition, she did not like guns.
“I was scared to death of guns,” Severson, 54, told the Rapid City Journal (https://bit.ly/2sNzqwu ). “I didn’t really think I would ever be able to pursue anything in law enforcement.”
But in early 1990, while she was working as an office clerk at Ellsworth Air Force Base, the solution appeared. A female colleague told Severson she was resigning to become a correctional officer at the Pennington County Jail.
After asking the woman about the little-known job, Severson remembers thinking: “Oh, my gosh . I need to apply for that.”
She could become a law enforcement officer who didn’t have to carry a gun.
Twenty-seven years later, Severson retired as a captain, the second highest rank at the Pennington County Jail.
Her goal from the outset - when she started out in April 1990 as a jail-booking technician and control-room operator - was to become a supervisor.
To prove herself as a correctional officer, the following year she asked to be assigned to Cell Block 9. Housing 48 state inmates who were known to control the cell block, it was then considered the toughest and most dangerous assignment.
“No one liked working there,” Severson said.
One of her first directives was to shake down the cell block. The search, she said, yielded three big laundry carts filled with contraband, such as makeshift weapons.
Anonymous notes threatening her with murder and rape followed. Severson said she didn’t dwell on any feelings of fear.
“I’ve never felt to a point that I was scared to come to my job,” she said two days before her retirement.
In her almost three decades with the jail, she got assaulted by an inmate only once. One day, while she was booking an inmate, Severson said a female inmate yanked her hair back. It took about four officers to extricate the inmate from Severson, who said she had sparse spots on her head for days.
And the only time an inmate ever challenged her was when a man refused to return to his cell. She threatened to use her pepper spray if he did not follow, and the inmate backed down.
Severson said she introduced the carrying of pepper sprays among the jail’s correctional officers in the early 1990s to reduce the incidents of assault on officers.
Severson, who is married to an Air Force veteran, said her husband always supported her radical career choice. The couple’s two daughters were around 5 and 9 years old when she became a correctional officer, and the 24/7 job meant having to work holidays and miss family affairs.
She believes being a woman in her line of work has distinct advantages despite the ever-present risk of being assaulted by inmates.
“Females are less likely to be confrontational and are better with words. We naturally show more empathy, and in certain situations are frequently more successful at calming down situations,” Severson said. Some colleagues have nicknamed her “mother.”
The Pennington County Jail has 22 female correctional officers, a quarter of the total number. The county sheriff’s office is encouraging women to join the law enforcement agency, said spokeswoman Helene Duhamel.
Severson, who began training new recruits within three months of becoming a correctional officer, believes the key to being successful at the job is to treat people the way you want to be treated.
A correctional officer, she said, should never allow his or her ego to take over.
She considers her most rewarding accomplishments helping mentally ill inmates recover enough to work and contribute to the community, as well as stopping several inmates from committing suicide.
As Severson cleared her office desk last week, among the items she packed to bring home was a plastic envelope. It contained old photos with co-workers, newspaper clippings about the jail and poems given to her by inmates.
___
Information from: Rapid City Journal, https://www.rapidcityjournal.com
Please read our comment policy before commenting.