@ MK: It is "safer", in parentheses, to stage and keep a pod outside because there is a greater space to manage the group. The tower might not have a clean shot but they can maintain line of sight and call for support if the need were to arise. In a pod setting, your control room CO can't manage the entire fray because he or she can't see through them all. If your officer disappears into a cell, good luck getting them out without some harm. On the other hand--turning in 4 cells at a time, there are not enough carrotsticks to block even the slowest weakest CO from line-of-sight by your control--if, that is, they stay off the f*cking phone and watch them.
@Sexygrl: I'm sorry for your experience at a sister unit. I doubt that the captain, ADW, or DW knew what was taking place. I certainly hope you reported it; and if not to them, then certainly to someone else that could receive the information. Whatever you do, don't just "let it go": part of the problem of our collective agency is that people assume an inmate's mentality, thinking that to report is to "rat" or to "snitch". We are PAID OBSERVERS and we are PROFESSIONAL in ALL that we do and say. When we are faced with the improbability of that professionalism or ethic, it is our duty and our obligation to report it.