Most people who go to prison don’t get to leave at the end of each day, but DIT employee Jay Salmon does.  Jay is a Tech stationed at the St. Louis Correctional Facility in St. Louis, Michigan.  His job consists of doing “anything and everything,” he says.  Jay and the other members of his team are responsible for networking, desktop services and other technical services for a 10-county area in central Michigan.

A typical day for Jay starts at 5:30am (yes, he comes to work that early!).  He changes server tapes, ghosts PCs and provides support to various offices depending on what comes through Remedy.  Jay does a lot of work for FIA and DCH offices in his area, as well as the three correctional facilties.

Working in a correctional facility isn’t too different than for other DIT employees, says Jay.  The main difference is security.  Though his office is separate from the prison, he often has to go inside the prison walls to work on computers.  In order to this, Jay has to have LEIN clearance, and go through metal detectors to enter.

Jay says he really loves his job, especially the networking portion of it.  He enjoys the people he works with, and his manager.  The biggest challenge he faces is the lack of funding available.  For instance, he is trying to upgrade some servers from 10-Base T to 100-Base T, but there is no money for him to purchase parts for the upgrade.  Needless to say, Jay is really looking forward to October 1 and the lift of the purchasing freeze!

Jay worked for Corrections for 10 years as a Corrections Officer before he made the transition to computer tech for the MDOC.  When DIT was formed, Jay was moved into the new department.  He syas the biggest change has been that there is simply more to do and more agencies to serve.

Jay holds a two-year degree in Criminal Justice with a computer background and 28 semester hours in Computer Science.  He is Novell certified and is currently working on his CCNA.

Away from work, Jay enjoys fishing as a way to wind down.  Be sure to say “Hi” the next time you see Jay!