Prison Police Officer Duties

But systems of power may fail for other reasons as well. Those who are in charge may not be willing to exert their power. There may be some corruption among the custodians. Custodians are in close proximity to the prisoners so there may be some blackmail involved in not taking action when supposed to. “In the second place, the guard’s position as a strict enforcer of the rules is undermined by the fact that he finds it almost impossible to avoid the claims of reciprocity” (Sykes, 1958, 56). Third reason is the constant infringement of the guards’ dominance by prisoners. Some of the inadequacies of prison officials have been said to be linked to the fact more than fifty percent of the guards are temporary employees. There is also the low salary for the guards. The job is not seen as very glamorous or worthwhile as well (Sykes,

Last, but not least are perimeter security and relief officers. They make sure that the perimeter around the prison is secure. Relief officers are there to relief officers and to help with officers who are sick and have to call- in for that day. Each officer is assigned to post order which is “the detailed description of the activities that are required to be performed throughout the day, often including the time hey are to occur” (Seiter, 2011).

Most of his time at Sing Sing was consumed being in close contact with the inmates, in dining halls and housing galleries, doing strip searches, searching cells, writing disciplinary infraction reports, and confiscating inmate contraband. In addition, because they live in an enforced state of near powerlessness, answering to inmates who required support with a seemingly endless range of personal complications occupied much of Conover’s time. Conover’s account of the correctional officer’s role is consistent with those opinions offered by others who have firsthand experience of prison life. Virtually all serious, firsthand interpretations of correctional work define a gap between the training and the realism of the job, official policies and procedures that require routine avoidance, poor associations between line officers and administrators, and the undermining power of stress on professional conduct and personal life.

Just as Conover explains and reveals, it takes years to become a professional in the field. Reading Conover’s text, gives a lot of important information and was something unique that I haven't read before. Before reading New Jack, I didn't imagine that working in a prisons could be so difficult. Hearing the information from someone that has experienced prisons in the United States and the ways facilities, corrections officers, and inmates function with one another, has helped me get a better

Conover’s purpose in writing this book not only to share his experience as a correctional officer but to also help readers get beyond the stereotype of the brutal guard seen on television and rumors but to see correctional officers as individuals, offering us a chance to understand

Correctional Officers are a very important part of the Justice System because it keeps high profile criminals off the street and locked up even before they are proven innocent or guilty. The Correctional Facility in many ways is a lot like a jail, from what I saw when I toured the new Pre Trial Centre in Port Coquitlam. There are large thick metal doors to

What type of jobs can an inmate have? Work is normally available within industrial workshops and land based activity units. Prisoner’s can also work around the prison, meaning within kitchens, laundries, cleaning crew, etc.

What the researchers found during this study was that both the behaviors and mentalities of guards and prisoners changed. Guards became more aggressive and prisoners became passive. A group of five prisoners had to actually be released from the study because of physical and emotional changes they were experiencing. Those prisoners remaining actually began acting as if they were truly incarcerated. By the behaviors they exhibited they had all but forgotten that they were free to leave at any time and not forfeit the money they had already earned. Guards, on the other hand, actually stayed at the prison longer than they were scheduled and were actually disappointed when the study came to a close while prisoners were very happy and expressed their luck at getting released early. These results clearly demonstrate that it is the environment that contributes to the behaviors observed. Those who were given the role of guard expressed the power and control they had over the prisoners. The prisoners began to become hopeless and bend to the power of the guards.

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

In spite of the fact that the situation is intricate, and some conflicting discoveries have risen, for the most part the literature supports the idea that the more coercive the jail environment the more prominent the potential for savagery becomes. This is particularly so where jail administration and treatment of detainees are seen by detainees as unreasonable or illegitimate, as this reinforces detainee solidarity contrary to the authorities. A jail approach that keenly consolidates situational and social counteractive action techniques upheld by fitting administration strategies and exploration based staff enlistment and preparing practices, is likely the most encouraging model for lessening interpersonal savagery in correctional facilities.

Equalizing the constitutional rights of prisoners and the functions of the jail or prison can create great strain on not only the correctional facilities’ staff but on the inmates as well. The treatment of prisoners is typically left completely to the prudence of prison administrators and other correctional officials. With that being said, this paper will discuss the differences between harmonizing those constitutional rights of prisoners and the functions of the facility. It will also explain the rights that prisoners are required to have, and how these rights are balanced within other aspects of the correctional institution.

In the book NewJack: Guarding Sing Sing, the book discussed the life of a guard. Most people feel that the guards are bad guys in the criminal justice system and with the politics of the criminal justice systems there are many assumptions of the way in which the stereotype of prison guard’s life should be. The author Ted Conover explains first hand on the experiences behind the scenes that many guards experiences throughout their careers that is an untold story of the truth in the prison system. Conover was curious about the subculture of the prison guards’ duties and wanted to know the truth about if the assumptions that most have about the prison guards is truthful. Conover entered the Academy with many other young men and a few women who wanted good jobs with security. The training was modeled after boot camp for the military. Those who had been in the military fared better than those who had not been so initiated. Once Conover crossed the training hurdle, he was tossed over to Sing Sing for his first assignment.

A prison warden is the chief executive of the institution and oversees the entire operation within a prison system. A prison warden needs to possess an array of skills that is capable of managing “large groups of employees, and to operate facilities in a way that keeps inmates, staff, and society safe” (Clear et al., 2013, p. 321). Studies from Clear et al. (2013) further indicate that today’s prison warden must function effectively despite decreased autonomy and increased accountability” (p. 321). The role and responsibility of a prison warden are comparable to a police chief’s because it requires extensive knowledge in administration, and experience in various areas within the department or institution.

A Corrections Officer has many duties to consider as they manage the activities of inmates. They are charged with the responsibilities of conducting head counts, monitoring recreational activities, and supervising their work assignments while maintaining a safe environment ensuring the welfare of those who are incarcerated in the correctional facility and employed there, as well as protect the safety of the public communities. They are investigators trained to search for illegal or prohibited goods smuggled into the institution, respond to riots, transport inmates and write reports. Although the job of an officer is challenging still the manner in which they ought to interact with the inmates should exemplify a standard of discipline that displays ethical professionalism, and respect at all times.

The next section we will focus on is the “police” and how they play a role in the early release of prisoners. Many police officers disagree with prisoners put back into communities without any supervision because it jeopardizes public safety, and these offenders are coming back into the community without help in transitioning back into society. Nowadays, most states have to release prisoners early because of overcrowding and budget shortages.