SATF Lieutenant creates positive Facility E newsletter

April 29, 2024

The Substance Abuse Treatment Facility and State Prison (SATF) at Corcoran is saluting a lieutenant for creating a positive newsletter for Facility E.

Over the past year, Joseph “Joey” Brainard, currently the SATF Third Watch Facility E Lieutenant, created a weekly positive message he sends to all the population housed on the facility.

The messages have received praise from staff and the facility’s incarcerated population on the Facility.

Now staff, Brainard, and the population have turned the weekly message into a full-fledged Facility E Newsletter with inspirational messages and upcoming events.

Brainard has been with CDCR for over a little over 15 years. Those years have taught him numerous important lessons such as perseverance, goal setting, strength, compassion, and forgiveness. He said he is very grateful for what the department has brought to him and his family.

Meet Joseph ‘Joey’ Brainard, Facility E Lieutenant at SATF

How and why did you join CDCR?

This question has a lot of ins and outs. Prior to choosing a career in CDCR, I started at a young age in emergency medical services working for an ambulance company. My father worked as a police officer in a local city. Then I left the ambulance company and also became a police officer, following in my father’s footsteps.

Then, my wife and I had our first child. About this time, my father started a private investigation business. While I had some time off from my police officer job, I started helping my father with the family business.

While doing this, I knew I needed something more sustainable for my family, but I continued as a police officer while assisting my father. After our second child was born, I began looking at CDCR. I found an advertisement online and learned about the great benefits and career options within the department. After a conversation with my wife Raquel, and we decided I should apply.

Although the job is tough at times, my choice to join CDCR was one of my best decisions. Since joining CDCR, I have been an advocate for the department and hopes to have my son follow in my footsteps. I hope one day I can work alongside Andrew just as I did with my father.

What changes you have seen throughout your career?

That’s tricky. As with every job, there are good experiences and bad experiences. I can’t say every day was great at CDCR as that would not be honest. When you work in a prison, nice things do not always occur. While I have seen violence, I also believe every experience has made me stronger. There is no greater comradery than working with CDCR officers.

It’s easy in life to take a negative experience and dwell on it. What counts is when you take that negative experience and turn it into something positive through training or mental fortitude.

What would you like to do when you retire?

I haven’t really thought about this yet.

I really enjoy being a lieutenant on the facility, so that’s probably where I would like to stay. My wife and I are very dedicated to physical fitness and looked into obtaining a personal trainer’s certificate as a side hobby. Other hobbies I also enjoy are whittling, painting and the occasional tobacco pipe and glass of whiskey to wind down on my days off. We have discussed moving to Mexico which I believe is a possibility.

What are your future aspirations?

On more of a personal level, I would like to take what I’ve learned in CDCR and use it to train others who are interested in this career path. I would like to speak about the positives within CDCR, rather than the negatives and scary stories everyone wants to discuss. The negative stories are not what makes CDCR. I would like to explain about all of the people I have met and worked with and the amazing interactions between all staff. The comradery is what makes CDCR.

Seeing staff promote and retire healthy is what should be discussed. Also, we should discuss the incarcerated population successfully paroling and never returning to CDCR.

I am very fortunate to be where I am in life today. CDCR has been that catalyst.

Story by Lt. Brent Urban