The Green Wall
An Interview with DJ Vodicka, an ex-Correctional Officer from California Prison System and his incredible experiences standing up for what is right.
A whistle blower is a person who raises a concern about wrongdoing occurring in an organization or body of people. Usually this person would be from that same organization. The revealed misconduct may be classified in many ways; for example, a violation of a law, rule, regulation and/or a direct threat to public interest, such as fraud, health/safety violations, and corruption. Whistle blowers make their allegations internally (for example, to other people within the accused organization) or externally (to regulators, law enforcement agencies, to the media or to groups concerned with the issues).
I wouldn’t call DJ Vodicka a ‘whistle blower’, or a snitch…I call him a Hero and my friend. It takes a certain kind of person to stand up and speak out against corruption/wrong doing in any line of work. The person must be strong, not just physically, but mentally, emotionally and morally. So when I got the chance to read ‘The Green Wall’, I took it. I had heard various ramblings about the “Green Wall”, a gang of correctional officers inside the prisons who took it upon themselves to hand out punishment, and their own justice.
People, whom he thought were his friend, grew distant. Once during at riot at the prison he was assigned, not one of his fellow correctional officers came to assist him…they allowed DJ to go into the riot alone, a practice totally unheard of in this type of situation. Correctional Officers are quite proud that they have each others backs, as there is a huge camaraderie amongst all law enforcement. Luckily for DJ, he came out of that altercation unscathed, but very aware of how things inside had changed.
The more DJ tried to do his job, remaining professional and ethical, the greater the retaliation became. The environment was truly hostile and not because of the prisoners. I hold law enforcement to higher ethical standard than you or me. Law enforcement has oaths like doctors to uphold and carry forth. When these oaths and ethics are not adhered to and broken, who do we trust? Whom do we turn to for help? DJ lost everything because he stood up to a system that was/is ripe with corruption, all the way to very top of the chain of command. We need more people like DJ Vodicka, and we need our law enforcement agencies to stick to their policies, ethics and truthfulness.
