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Stressors unique to corrections officers
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The Green Mile
For this assignment I decided to watch/write about the movie The Green Mile. To sum up the movie it starts off as the story of Paul's (Tom Hanks) life as a death row corrections officer during the Great Depression, at the Cold Mountain Penitentiary. One day, John Coffey, a giant black man who was convicted of raping and killing two young white girl. He arrives on death row. John comes off as shy and soft-spoken, from this point I couldn’t imagine that he committed this crime. John reveals powers by healing Paul's urinary tract infection and give live back to a mouse. Percy Wetmore, has recently begun working in the death row inmate’s block; his fellow guards dislike him. Before the final scene of the execution John takes Paul’s hand to show him what really happened to the two little girls. As an elderly Paul finishes his story, he notes that he requested a transfer to a youth detention center, where he spent the remainder of his career. Transitioning this movie into what we have learned in class, I decided to talk about how correctional officers acted in the movie and comparing it to what we have learned in class. I will mention how stress among inmates and staff were shown, personnel matters, and staff vs inmates not relating to stress.
Though there were many things that could have been compared to what we had spoken about in class, I decided to focus on correctional staff. I learned from watching this movie that it showed the difference in some of the correctional staff’s behavior and the issues that come into play with the inmates and each other. In the beginning I realized their security is much more different than how ours is, they mainly showed where the “high security” inmates stayed and the three main offic...
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...he execution of John they all were touched by it. This actually made most of them move to a different facility. It is awful watching an innocent man and such a great one also being executed for a crime that no one gave him a chance to explain. While watching the movie I would want them to see how the security levels are/were. It seemed to be that the high max inmates were segregated in a different wing than the rest of the inmates. They were brought in chained, single, and through a truck looking vehicle. The other lower level inmates were able to go out and work and seemed to be walking around the prison yard. Lastly I would like for them to pick up on male inmates and how they differ from the female inmates. We did not see female inmates but seeing how they treat the male inmates and the kind’s behavior difference between the two if they are not the same already.
Unable to get official permission to interview and write about correctional officers, Ted Conover, author of the book Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing, “got in" by applying for a correctional officer position. After training, he and his fellow rookies, known as "newjacks," were randomly assigned to Sing Sing, one of the country's most famous -- and infamous -- prisons. Sing Sing, a maximum-security male prison, was built in 1828 by prisoners themselves, kept at their task by frequent use of the whip. Today, the chaos, the backbiting, the rundown building and equipment, the disrespect and the relentless stress that Conover experienced in his year at Sing Sing show, quite well, how the increase of prisons in the U.S. brutalizes more than just the prisoners. Some of the individuals in Conover's entering "class" of corrections trainees had always wanted to work in law enforcement. Others were ex-military, looking for a civilian job that they thought would reward structure and discipline. But most came looking for a steady job with good benefits. To get it, they were desperate enough to commute hours each way, or even to live apart from their families during the work week. Their job consists of long days locking and unlocking cells, moving prisoners to and from various locations while the prisoners beg, hassle and abuse them. Sometimes, the prisoners' requests are simple, but against the rules: an extra shower, some contraband cigarettes. Other times, they are appropriate, but unbelievably complicated: it can take months to get information about property lost in the transfer from one prison to another. Meanwhile, the orders officers give are ignored. Discipline -- even among the officers themselves -- is non-existent. And with the money and benefits of this "good" job come nightmares and family stress, daily uncertainty about one's job and duties, and pent-up frustration that, every so often, explodes in violence -- instigated by staff as well as by prisoners.
...they want to be not only respected but also being able to survive in the prison environment. In prison, there are so many inmates and not two inmates are the same. The inmates will disrespect the officers by calling them names, giving officers difficult times, but it goes the other way around too. It is disturbing image after learning that sometimes it is the officer’s fault and not just the inmates’ wrongdoings. There will be times when officers and inmates will engage in a conspiracy crime and times when the female staff is engaged in sexual actions with an inmate. Conover wrote this book to allow the audience to see the prison society from many different point-of-views and give future officers an early insight to becoming a correctional officer.
After reading the book I have gained a new understanding of what inmates think about in prison. Working in an institution, I have a certain cynical attitude at times with inmates and their requests. Working in a reception facility, this is a facility where inmates are brought in from the county jails to the state intake facility, we deal with a lot of requests and questions. At times, with the phone ringing off the hook from family members and inmates with their prison request forms, you get a little cynical and tired of answering the same questions over and over. As I read the book I begin to understand some of the reason for the questions. Inmate(s) now realize that the officers and administrative personnel are in control of their lives. They dictate with to get up in the morning, take showers, eat meals, go to classes, the need see people for different reason, when to exercise and when to go to bed. The lost of control over their lives is a new experience for some and they would like to be able to adjust to this new lost of freedom. Upon understanding this and in reading the book, I am not as cynical as I have been and try to be more patient in answering questions. So in a way I have changed some of my thinking and understanding more of prison life.
Understanding the organization of prisons and how the are can is a very complex mechanism. In “Stateville: The penitentiary in Mass Society”, Jacobs seeks to understand the organization in the Stateville prison system, one of the world’s toughest prisons. Giving the history of the prison does this and how things ran under different wardens, and how things were coupled throughout different organizations. When looking at these things Jacobs also points out issues in the prison and how they happened under what type of organization. By doing this, Stateville is easily relatable to understand leadership and authority.
The group of inmates, without the presence of Irwin, wasn’t very cohesive and though they were classified as a single group in the eyes of Colonel Winter, the prison’s warden, they acted as individuals and only looked out for themselves. A scene that really exemplified lack of cohesion between the inmates was at the start of the film when the inmates began fighting over a game of basketball over a petty argument. They really didn’t like ...
The debate over prison systems in the United States has been a long controversy. The question as to; if stuffing a facility full with convicted criminals to be guarded by a flock of civilian employees will foster progress. But a main factor that contributes, is the line between guard and civilian. A guard, while trained, is not a military personal. The power given to them over the lives of others when they are simply a citizen is not normal for everyday citizens. This is one of the things Dr. Phillip Zimbardo wanted to test in his prison experiment at Stanford University, working on staff. Zimbardo created a mock prison in the basement, drawing psychologically fit young gentlemen to see what would happen. In a short
When we talk about the correctional system we are talking about it as a whole. This includes jails, prisons, the inmates, and employees. Whether we agree or disagree with our own personal thoughts most of us haven’t seen it at first hand like the interviewee I had interviewed. My interviewee, was the Lieutenant for the Jefferson Country detention center. Now this is different than a prison, in the sense of length of stay, but the similarities are endless. According to the textbook Corrections an Introduction “one way in which jails and prisons are extremely similar is the importance of professional staff.” (Seiter, 2005)
Within the film, prison culture illustrates the subculture within Shawshank State Prison. Prison culture and the Inmate Code dictate the typical rules and values that have emerged in prisons (Clear, 2006). The aggression of both prison guards and inmates, as well as the punishments and sanctions imposed for deviant behavior highlight the prison subculture. Throughout the film, the inmates showcase certain distinctive markers of the subculture that set the group apart from the dominant culture because they use cigarettes as currency, engage in violence, establish specific roles and identity, and share similar goals and values, such as
The career of a correctional officer has always captivated me in a way that is difficult to explain. Even as a child, I recall tuning into shows such as Lockup and Lockdown. In fact, my earliest, most vivid memories consist of me sitting in front of a TV screen with my eyes mesmerized by the hardened criminals visioned on the screen before me. It may seem peculiar, but I’ve always pictured myself inside the prison walls. What’s even more peculiar is that I’ve seldom visioned myself as a correctional officer; in fact, I’ve almost always visioned myself as a prisoner.
The idea of experimentation of prison life achieved by the Stanford University students was intriguing and the results were interesting. Haney, Banks, and Zimbardo’s study due to a result of their curiosity of the reactions of subjects when placed in prisoner or prison guard roles. Their inspiration for the study was somewhat unclear; however, hypothetically reasoning was placed on determining aspects of the actual reality of incarceration. The experimenters also strived to test the theory on whether prisoners face abhorrent conditions due to their interpersonal evils, or do to the aggressive and deviant behaviors of prison guards (Haney, Banks, Zimbardo, 1973).
There is roughly 2.4 million people locked up in the United states. This statistic surprises everyone and automatically makes them think about the conditions of the prisoners. Even though prisoners have to deal with harsh conditions, most people do not think about the effects of prisons on correctional officers. Even though some may argue that prison conditions are too harsh, correctional officers still have to endure the same conditions as prisoners even though they are not the ones that are locked up. Correctional officers have to endure violence from inmates, intense stress that can cause psychological problems, and stress on families.
In this critic, I will be analyzing and comparing two books. The first book is “A question of Freedom a Memoir of Learning, Survival, and Coming of Age in Prison” by R. Dwayne Betts. The second book is “Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing” by Ted Conover. In this comparison will first give a short summarization of both books. Second I will be answering the fallowing questions, what prisons are discussed? What types of prisoners are there- age, race, sex, level of crime? How current is the information? What are the conditions of the prisons? How are the prisoners treated? How are the guards and their viewpoints represented? How are the prisoners and their viewpoints represented? What forms of rehabilitation are there? What are the social relationships with other inmates? What opportunities are available to occupy prisoners? What point of view is the author taking – critical, Positive, does she/he write from the viewpoint of a guard, a prisoner? What evidence is/are the author’s points based on and how is the evidence presented - for example, first hand observations, Statistics? Also what changes, if any, are proposed or discussed by the author? How does the information in this book compare with what you’ve read in the text and articles and what you have observed on a class trip? Lastly what is your opinion of the information and viewpoint expressed in the book?
The mass media uses prison life as the source for movies and television shows. Over the years there have been many movies written about prison but the most prominent in my mind is Frank Darabont’s, The Shawshank Redemption. Throughout the film there are many examples of the falsities of prison life. There are some elements of truth but they are out weighed by the misconceptions. Numerous prisoners are allowed to walk around the prison and the prison yard with no guards in sight. In actuality there are always guards around, especially on the inside. The prisoner’s movement through the prison is highly restricted.
Correctional staff are the “heart and soul” of any facility that determines the success or failure of a correctional organization (AJCJ; Spring 2006). The duties of correctional work have been depicted as the most stressful job than any other occupation in the criminal justice system. Nevertheless, most of society knows little about the daily routine of a correctional officer or facility. With that said, I will identify the roles of correction officers, how they engage with the inmates and how the deal with the institution itself and the prison administrators.