A woman brave enough to walk out on an abusive husband then enters a paramilitary culture
of mostly male prison officers in order to support and raise
their infant son.
At twenty-two Susan Jepsen found the strength to walk out on an abusive husband with
twenty dollars in her pocket and their infant son. For the next twenty-seven
years, Susan had a successful career in the Department of Corrections and achieved four
separate promotions — despite her continuing struggles in this male dominated world of
sexual harassment and political retaliation. Guarded is the true expose of an environment
that fosters manipulation and nepotism, where your most dangerous enemy is not the male
prisoners you guard, but your fellow staff. In that stress filled world Susan wanted to rely on
her fellow officers to watch her back and while that sometimes was possible in the cells and
prison corridors with the inmates, it was not always possible in the back offices and
casework rooms with her fellow staff. Susan had to learn the hard way to watch her own
back against the unwanted sexual advances of her fellow male — and sometimes female —
staff. Guarded gives an intimate, insider’s view of the hidden world of prison staff, a world
society does not want to think about, a secret world in which mainstream society is not
welcome.
