The Green Wall

by D.J. Vodicka

The career of Donald "D.J." Vodicka encompassed the rapid expansion of the prison system. For sixteen years, he was a prison guard in California's highest security prisons, serving meals to gang leaders, serial killers in lockdown cells, and patrolling exercise yards filled with violent felons while unarmed and outnumbered 1000-to-2. He belonged to an elite unit called the Investigative Services Unit (Internal Affairs), responsible for solving horrific crimes inside the walls. He was a decorated veteran officer. He became the largest "whistle-blower" to uncover a group of rogue prison guards who called themselves "The Green Wall."The Green Wall is a real-life drama of one man's courage to do the right thing against the California State Prison System. It is an unblinking look at what can go wrong when only one person is willing to stand up and speak for what is right, against almost insurmountable odds. Vodicka's televised state senate testimony exposed a scandal that led to resignations, transfers, sudden retirements, and reforms of the system that are still underway. The story is a classic tale of the triumph of personal integrity in the most dishonest place imaginable.

152 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2009

Reviews

[Joe Pranaitis · Rating 5 out of 5]

Author D.J. Vodicka brings us his account of the part of his life when he was a California Correctional Officer. D.J. began his carrier as a correctional officer in 1987 when he attended the CDC Academy and became one of the top students that once he graduated was assigned to one of the new prisons that was opening up. There he meet and worked with people who would later stand up for him. Then later on when he and his first wife where expecting he had transferred to a prison where everything changed as of 2001. At that prison he did his job like he was supposed to and like any decent officer would. But when he took pictures and were asked about certain things that were going on he was stone walled with the code of silence otherwise known as the Green Wall. They did everything that they could to scare him to not bring everything to light and all this was happening while the Govenator was running California. But everything came to a head to where he had to leave the job that he loved and had to bring this truth to light. And for that he should be commend. I highly recommend this book to everyone. We need to see what goes on in the prison system and this book sheds light on it as well as how far a brave person will go to stand up for what they believe in.

[Larry H. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Heard about this book on a podcast called 247 Real Talk with Julian Perry. A very quick read (less than 150 pages) but Vodicka, who risked so much to expose this bit of viciousness, packed a lot of punches in those pages. Sobering read about our correctional system and also very frightening (heaven forbid you are one of those that are wrongfully sent to prison). Troubling behaviour for those that are supposed to represent the law, and I suspect that there are more of these throughout the nation.

[Nate Hendrix · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is an interesting story, but at 130 pages it is a little lacking. I want to know more about the lives of prisoners and guards. The author didn't really do much and the threats he received did amount to anything. This book is obviously self published and I lost count of the grammatical and typographical errors. If Vodicka paid someone to proofread this book he deserves his money back. I'm just glad is was cheaply purchased on Amazon.

[Pam · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was a bit dry, and had lots of typos, but it was good for me -- an activist for prisoner rights -- to know that at least some correctional officers have a moral compass and are willing to speak up. I applaud D.J. Vodicka for paying the price exacted on whisteblowers.

[Nicole · Rating 2 out of 5]

First half, interesting. Second half, boring.

[Janette · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was ok. The typos and grammar issues were incredibly distracting in the last half of the book. Interesting read, though.