Mattingly named Deputy Jailer of the Year
Chuck Mattingly thought he was joking around when he got up to accept the 2023 Deputy Jailer of the Year award as Daviess County Detention Center Jailer Art Maglinger was about to announce the recognition Wednesday morning.
But it was Mattingly, a 20-year veteran, who got the surprise when Maglinger read his name as the recipient of the honor.
“I’m not the awards kind of guy,” Mattingly said. “I don’t need it. I just do my job every day, and I don’t expect to be rewarded for doing my job. But I do appreciate it.”
Mattingly, one of four nominees, was selected through voting by the command staff.
Maglinger was pleased with the outcome.
“I think it’s a good choice,” he said. “Chuck is a standup guy — very tough, dependable and reliable. He supervises the community road crew, and he has really been flexible. He’d come in on a day off for overtime and work just to get stuff done. So he’s always stepped up above and beyond. And he’s in his 20th year, when some people would fizzle out, but he’s still going strong. I’m very proud of him and the work he has done.”
Mattingly joined the U.S. Army after graduating from Apollo High School. He had settled in Indianapolis working for a Ford dealership after leaving active duty, before family concerns brought him back to Owensboro.
“I was looking for a job that would be a good retirement, good benefits,” said Mattingly of what led to him becoming a corrections officer. “The benefits were decent. The pay wasn’t outstanding when I started, but as I progressed the pay got a little bit better. It’s mostly about the benefits and the retirement here. You don’t see a lot of 20-and-out retirements.”
While his tasks as a corrections officer have been different from his work in the military, he soon appreciated that it had the same rhythms and daily variance that he had missed after getting out of the Army.
“It was totally different than what I did before,” he said. “But the constant change, every day is a different day, I got used to that in the military. I realized after I got out of the Army a lot of the things I missed are the things I complained about when I was in. A lot of things here reminds of military life.”
Mattingly said while he still enjoys his job most days, much has changed since he began working at the detention center, including the interaction with inmates.
“Inmate rights have changed a lot, which can affect the way we have to deal with the inmates, the way we have to talk to the inmates or what we’re allowed to do,” Mattingly said. “You have to be so much more cautious about everything you’re doing, because at times it feels like these inmates in here have more rights than we do as the deputies.”
Mattingly said you can never be complacent or let your guard down while working corrections, with the motto being “keep your head on a swivel.”
He said listening is also critical.
“I’ve learned here to do a lot more listening than you do talking and you’ll learn a lot more,” he said. “You have two ears and one mouth, so you listen twice as much as you talk. You’ll listen and you’ll usually catch on and you’ll start to hear them say something. That’s how I approach most inmates.”
Mattingly said he can be rough and harsh when the situation calls for it. But he tries to treat inmates as he’d want to be treated, understanding the situation.
“I try to give these guys respect first,” he said. “If you treat them with a little bit of humility and a little bit of humanity and try to treat them as a person and give them their time to vent and rage, then say, ‘OK, look, it’s over now. This is what we have to get done and this is what we have to do and this is the way it has to be.’
“You have to kind of finesse your way through every situation, feel every inmate out, because they’re all different, and you really don’t know what you’re getting with people.”
Mattingly reached his 20th anniversary last Saturday, but he plans to wait until August to retire. From there, he’ll weigh his options, with a second career in corrections if possible.
“It’s s double-edged sword, the thought of leaving here,” he said. “I’m going to be 56 years old. Too young to really fully retire and not do anything. An idle mind will kill me. I’m so used to the controlled chaos in the Army and here; I would lose my mind sitting at home.
“I’ve seen a lot of people retire here and come back months later and ask the jailer for another job and come back. That is definitely not off the table. He’s kind of made it sort of an invitation to where if I decide that might be what I want to do, he’d more than welcome to the idea of it. I’m going to find something to do.”
