My Experience As A Correctional Officer

In today 's prison system of the United States, over 75% of the prisoners have the right to many luxuries while incarcerated instead of getting punished for the crimes committed. In fact, many inmates receive better health care than most people in the United States. Certainly, inmates have more luxuries than the citizens who work hard for them. With that in mind, inmates may consider jail better than the real world. No doubt inmates deserve treatment of an adult for the crimes they have committed. But also should get the punishment they deserve. In today 's world, inmates are not fully punished for the crimes committed.

There is no doubt that being in the profession of corrections is an exceedingly stressful and dangerous profession. Corrections officers are one of the highest rated for non-fatal on-the-job injuries, which usually result from confrontations with inmates. These confrontations are anything from riots, fights, and even having excrement being throw at them by inmates. When being confronted with these challenges on a daily basis, fraternity and brotherhood are crucial. It is vital for your fellow corrections officer to “have your 6”. Being a corrections officer is more than guarding inmates, it is protecting your fellow officers and protecting the inmates from themselves, even though at times the inmates wish harm upon you. We all must remember, corrections officers are cops without guns and a lot more criminals. To civilians, that it a nightmare that we could never imagine. It is of the utmost importance that the PSCOA operate as a “fraternal organization,” because it is impossible to trust and depend on one another. The ultimate goal for each officer is to maintain order and to get home every night in one piece.

The video focused on one prison in particular. In this prison, there is proper medication, psychiatrists, and nurses. The main issue with this is that most of the mentally ill inmates have never had that level of proper care, so the prison system is hard to leave. However, the prison system is not designed to provide mental health treatment. It is supposed to provide community safety and security. As the video progressed, it stated the routines of the staff that is employed within the prison. When acute care is required, the inmates are put into the infirmary where they can be given the attention they need. However, providing effective care in a prison is described to be quite difficult. Many mentally ill individuals become extremely depressed, hopeless, and suicidal. They may also result in self-harm acts, delusions, and hallucinations. The video stated that obtaining parole is quite difficult for mentally ill inmates. If they are lucky enough to be released, they are sent out with two weeks of medication. On the down side, most do not receive the services they require and that usually results in them committing another crime and ending back in jail or

There are several different categories an correctional officer an be assigned to. This is what a day of being an officer consist of.

Whenever you imagine prison, you think up ideas and violent images that you have seen in the movies or on TV.   Outdated clichés consisting of men eating stale bread and drinking dirty water are only a small fraction of the number of horrible, yet “just” occurrences which are stereotypical of everyday life in prison.   Perhaps it could be a combination of your upbringing, horrific ideas about the punishment which our nation inflicts on those who violate its’ more serious laws that keeps people frightened just enough to lead a law-abiding life. Despite it’s success in keeping dangerous offenders off the streets, the American prison system fails in fulfilling its original design of restoring criminals to being productive members of society, it is also extremely expensive and wastes our precious tax dollars.

According to the American Psychological Association, a 2014 article states, “Mental illness among today's inmates is also pervasive, with 64 percent of jail inmates, 54 percent of state prisoners and 45 percent of federal prisoners reporting mental health concerns” (Incarnation Nation). This statistic is appalling and should not be considered an acceptable number. More than half of jailers and prisoners report mental health concerns; this is static that should not be taken lightly and needs to be addressed. Mentally incarnated people and prison cells do not go well together; it creates a recipe for disaster for the individual suffering behind bars. The purpose of prison is to “retribution, incapacitation, deterrence and rehabilitation”

Prisoners are, by and large, people who have been failed. According to the Prison Reform Trust, 62% of male and 52% of female prisoners have at least one personality disorders. Many people incarcerated are people with mental health issues. According to the American Psychiatric Association, on any given day, between 2.3 and 3.9 percent of inmates in state prisons are estimated to have schizophrenia or other psychotic disorder; between 13.1 and 18.6 percent have major depression; and between 2.1 and 4.3 percent suffer from bipolar disorder (Holder). American jails have become mental health facilities. This is not what a prison should be used for.

The idea of prison has been around for thousands of years and seems to be an integrated part of the human concept. We remove the people that disrupt society and we put them away or get rid of them. We, as a modern culture,

At any given time, a single corrections officer, can expect to be outnumbered by upwards of 400 inmates (Conover, 2011). It can be chilling to work in the midst of hundreds of inmates, some of which initiate attacks and inappropriate relationships. However, other issues have impacted the psychological health and physical safety of the staff. Detrimental factors have included heavy workloads, the prisons physical structure, and a lack of support from both peers and superiors. Each workplace issue has been in addition to role problems, specifically role ambiguity and role conflict (Schaufeli & Peeters, 2011). It is believed that anyone of these undesirable facets of prison should be enough to deter the public from attempting to enter such

There are many inmates who are affected emotionally every day. When people commit a crime and go to prison they are still able to communicate with their fellow inmates and participate in physical functions. When depriving someone of their daily habits and routines you are changing their entire life. We as humans cannot function without our family and friends. People in solitary confinement are deprived of much more than family and friends. They are dehumanized, tortured, and punished beyond

The three gravest threats to officer safety: First inmates provide a direct source of stress

There are even worse scenarios that exist in today's prisons. The prison guards have little control and prison can be a violent place because again it is not a place that specializes in rehab. On television shows you see inmates stabbing each other and are quick to assume that it is a dramatization, but it really an occurrence that happens often, in prisons all over the world for that matter. In an article by Raphael Rowe he writes about how a part of him died in prison, and he had to be on his guard constantly, "Once, I was sitting in the television room watching football when someone I knew came in and told me to leave the room. I didn't ask questions: I just left and stood outside. A few seconds later, three other guys came running past me, pillow-cases with eye-holes cut out over their heads, carrying a huge cooking pot full of hot oil. I heard the screams long before some young black guy - a sex offender - came running out, his skin dripping from his face." Such horrid tales should let the general public know that we need to reevaluate

As we know, probation and parole officers play a major role in shaping an offenders perception of reality as well as changing their behavior. The question that many will ask is “is the role of the PO that of a social worker or cop?” In my opinion, probation and parole officers have a huge weight on their shoulders due to the caseloads that they receive. Since the recent police brutality cases the mentality of an officer needs to change with the times. I believe that officers should lean more towards being a social worker/cop because they should be able to gain common ground with citizens while keeping their best interest and public safety at heart. In short, officers have to play multiple roles depending upon the situation and the stipulations

When the average person thinks of jails and prisons, they typically think of horrible criminals being locked up in order to protect the rest of society. They think justice has been served, and those who did the crime are now doing the time. But what goes on inside a prison, and inside the minds of the inmates? What about after those offenders have served their time, and are now being released back into the general public? People don’t really think about how prison affects a person’s mentality, or how incarceration impacts both relationships the inmate currently has, or ones that will develop in the future. Although it isn’t something most people think of first, incarceration is an experience that can have a negative psychological impact on a person for quite some time.

What are some challenges that correctional administrators are faced with regarding the population of inmates? This may be a question that many people do not consider. Correctional administrators have to work very hard and be creative to ensure that all inmates, regardless of their challenges, needs are being met. The challenges of typical inmates are characterized by those that are mentally ill, elderly, and female inmates.