As prisons become more crowded and internal problems arise, it is important to keep control and stability inside and outside of the prison. Although there are many security measures that can be put into place, it is hard to say whether it is the physical design of the prison or the skilled officer that makes the difference in safety and security. Both play a major role in keeping things running smoothly inside and outside the perimeters.
A correctional officer is responsible for the supervision, safety, and security of prisoners in a prison. These officers are in charge of the care, custody, and control of inmates. Most prison officers are employed by the government of the country in which they operate, though some are employed by private companies. A correctional officer's occupation is often considered risky with inmate confrontations, their working environment can vary greatly with some correctional institutions being modern, well lit, air-conditioned and ventilated while others are old, overcrowded, and noisy. Correctional officers often work on a rotating shift basis including weekends and holidays. Having to put in extra hours can result in fatigue, low morale, and family related problems. Correctional officers may also get burned out because their work is unpredictable, identity threatening, and tragic.
Prison personnel must be ready to react to all types of emergency situations, including a violent prisoner uprising. Because a correctional institution is a controlled environment inmates will often attempt to disorder that environment. Many remedies for such disruptions, including physical and less than lethal force, isolation and less lethal weaponry are often adopted depending on the type of correctional f...
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... factors previously mentioned like a correctional officer’s job satisfaction and staff burnout play a big role on the officer’s professionalism and proficiency in his or her job.
Finally, it is only logical that as the prison population grows so does the need for tighter security. This requires extensive training and education by the correctional officer and perfect design in physical security. No one aspect is more important than the other, but each has its own duty and responsibility for protecting the institution, inmates, officers, and the community. Similarly, neither the internal or physical factor of security is more significant. Both play a key role and depend on each other for backup. A detection system is no good without someone there to react to it, just as an officer cannot identify certain problems without being alarmed by a detection system.
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.
The jobs of correctional officer are some times overlooked. Correctional officers are playing a huge role in society because they need to perform important tasks. A correctional officer’s job is not easy and can become very stressful at times. Correctional officers are required to enforce and keep order, supervise inmates, help counsel offenders, search inmate cells for contraband, and also report on inmate actions. Correctional officers need to contain power over the prisoners in order to enforce the rules of the prison, or else the prison will not function correctly. In the book, Conover says, “The essential relationship inside a prison is the one between a guard and an inmate…the guard, it is thought, wields all the power, but in truth the inmate has power too” (Conover, p. 207). In the book, the importance of power the prisoner’s hold can be seen through the sudden increase of prisoners, the Stanford Prison Experiment and through the contraband they make.
Overcrowding is one of the predominate reasons that Western prisons are viewed as inhumane. Chapman’s article has factual information showing that some prisons have as many as three times the amount of prisoners as allowed by maximum space standards. Prison cells are packed with four to five prisoners in a limited six-foot-by-six-foot space, which then, leads to unsanitary conditions. Prisons with overcrowding are exposed to outbreaks of infectious diseases such as, tuberculosis and hepatitis.
Being a prisoner has more restrictions than one may believe. Prisoners are told when they should participate in daily activities and what they are allowed to say or do on a daily basis. This is not a life anyone is determined to experience during any period of time. However, all though for most prison life is just a depiction in a movie or on television, it is a reality for many. Their crimes and behaviors brought them into a world of being stripped of their freedom. Those who oversee the prisoners must control order within the brick walls. An article discussing the duties of a prison officer, defines it as one who “...has responsibility for the security, supervision, training and rehabilitation of people committed to prison by the courts”
A study concerning the causes of prison riots by Scraton, Sim & Skidmore (1991), indicate that most explanations of riots fall into two categories. The first explanation is the deprivation theory, a response to poor prison conditions. The deprivation theory explains that prisoners will revolt in the face of food shortages, overcrowding, oppressive custodial discipline, sadistic staff, racism or any other inhumane circumstances (Rule 1988).
The way correction officers are treated in prison is dreadful. “A corrections officer was seriously burned Monday morning in an attack by an inmate at the Green Bay Correctional Institution” (Roberts, 2016). This topic interest me because most of my life my brother has described the working conditions of correction officers in prison. I remember him telling me how one officer had his finger bitten off by an inmate. Correction officers are the guards who work in prison to enforce prisoners, so that inmates do not find themselves constantly in trouble. In addition, the officers ensure inmates’ safety. Despite the fact that the officers want to secure the inmate 's safety, people are unaware of the hardships officers face every day. A great deal of the rigorous challenges guards go through are never mentioned on the news or make it to newspapers. Correction officers are rarely mentioned within society, even though they are a huge part of the law enforcement. There is a
Prisons exist in this country as a means to administer retributive justice for those that break the laws in our society or to state it simply prisons punish criminals that are to receive a sentence of incarceration for more than one year. There are two main sub-cultures within the walls of prison the sub-culture of the Department of Corrections (which consists of the corrections officer, administrators, and all of the staff that work at the prison and go home at the end of their day) and the actual prisoners themselves. As you can imagine these two sub-cultures are dualistic in nature and this makes for a very stressful environment for both sides of the fence. While in prison, the inmates experience the same conditions as described in the previous
In the 1970s, prison was a dangerous place. Prison violence and the high numbers of disruptive inmates have led prison authorities to seek new ways to control prisoners. At first, prison staff sought to minimize contact with prisoners by keeping them in their cells for a majority of the day. As time went on, the prison authorities began to brainstorm the idea of having entire prisons dedicated to using these kinds of procedures to control the most violent and disruptive inmates. By 1984, many states began construction on super-maximum prisons.
There are two different kinds of influences on prison misconduct, there is the combined characteristics of the inmates themselves, and the combined characteristics of the staff in control of them (Camp, Gaes, Langan, Saylor (2003). Prison misconduct has been classified into significant fields related to drug use, violence, property offenses, prison accountability and escapes, security-related offenses, security offenses interfering with daily operations, along with a residual category (Camp, Gaes, Langan, Saylor (2003). Misconduct spoils the effective procedure of the correctional institution, detracting from its capability to present the intentional services to the superior society (Goetting & Howsen (1986).
A typical day for a Correctional Officer would be the preparing of inmates for court appearances. They also receive new inmates to the facility brought in by the Sheriffs Department. Each new inmate must be photographed and fingerprinted upon immediate arrival to the Pre Trial Centre. They are then stripped and fully searched inside and out. With that ...
Throughout history, changes have occurred all around us. More specifically, our correctional facilities. As community members commit crimes, our jails and prisons provide the deterrence, punishment, retribution and rehabilitation needed to become a successful member of the community again. When offenders enter into the correctional facilities, restrictive housing and administration segregation play a role in providing safety to inmates and to staff members. By looking at how restrictive housing and administration segregation was established, evolved, and how it plays a role in today’s society, we as citizens can learn about our correctional facilities and the tasks they use to keep inmates safe and correctional staff.
Unlike a menial position at your local Walmart, a position at your local prison is admirable and moderately difficult to land, hence one has to be prepared and qualified to take on the duties expected of them if they aspire to land a job as
Three walls. One toilet seat. Bars made of mild steel and a lock only accessible to men who government calls authority figures. Prison systems are known for three things: to protect the people, to punish the criminal and to rehabilitate the prisoner so that a crime will not be further committed. However, it has been causing ongoing controversy on whether or not it has been stripping away the earned rights of citizens or indeed helping them become “better” for society.
Firstly, in order to gain a better understanding of the problems that plague or correctional system we must fully understand the enormous overcrowding problem that exist in the majority of or state and federal prisons. Since 1980 the prison population has quadrupled and only the numb...
Prison was designed to house and isolate criminals away from the society in order for our society and the people within it to function without the fears of the outlaws. The purpose of prison is to deter and prevent people from committing a crime using the ideas of incarceration by taking away freedom and liberty from those individuals committed of crimes. Prisons in America are run either by the federal, states or even private contractors. There are many challenges and issues that our correctional system is facing today due to the nature of prisons being the place to house various types of criminals. In this paper, I will address and identify three major issues that I believe our correctional system is facing today using my own ideas along with the researches from three reputable outside academic sources.