It was always my impression that the lifers were USUALLY the best behaved. We had an incident between a life guy and a small time drug charge kid, and the lifer beat the shit out of him. Upon questioning him, he said "I'm in this bitch for life, I have to live here, I don't want this punk kid coming in my block starting shit with people." They seriously want there peace, and just to finish their life out without some bullshit. It's usually the short term gang bangers that cause the most/serious problems.
It's not as bad as some say, but its no cake walk. Ususally as long as you aren't a dick to them, and treat them with SOME respect, you won't get shit. I worked there for a little over 2 years and was only in 3 fights, one of which I could have walked away from. But then again, you don't walk away from a fight in prison, NO inmate will respect you after that. And that was a fight that landed me and the inmate in a hospital.
Also, you have to have some ethics. Inmates WILL offer you BIG money to bring in dope. Some do have it, and they will pay. I'm talking $500 for a cell phone, $500 for a quarter sack, insane shit. SO many officers get wrapped up in the dope game, then when the heat is on, they can't get out, b/c the inmate will blackmail them to keep them bringing shit in. Since I started until now (father and step father still work there) I've known about 12 that have gone down for it. That's a class b felony, mandatory 5 years, no good time. Some people are just weak. And inmates know when you are having problems, they can see it. That's when you get appproached, and the money is tempting, believe me. But eventually, they all get caught.
I was at a level 5 max sec prison, and also on the CERT team. Running the shield is fun, especially when it's the stun shield. I hate being the spray guy, or getting the legs. But 8 out of 10 times when we came up in gear for an extraction, they would just come out, they know we're coming in heavy and oc/cs gas is nothing to laugh at.