Corrections Officers Roles

Roles of Corrections Officers
CRJ303: Corrections
January 12, 2015

The role of a correctional officers, also known as detention officers play a very vital role when it comes to their duties inside the penitentiary or in a detention home. The Department of Corrections is an agency of the United State government that have been around for many of centuries. The correctional officers and the prison administration are an essential piece to our Justice System. The correctional officers has the power of speech over the welfare of the prisoner’s in they care. The correctional officers and the prison administration makes sure that the community is safe as they provide for the care, custody, and maintenance of prisoners.
In order to
be an correctional officers and the prison administration you are require to be at least eighteen years, have a high school diploma or its equivalent, have no felony convictions, and must be a United State citizen.
The Federal and State and local department of the correction systems provide rigorous training for correctional officers and the prison administration to maintain their physical health capabilities in case of an attack amongst the prisoners. The training are based on the standards and guidelines of the constitutional laws of our Justice System. The correctional officers and the prison administration undergo many training for that can be able to understand and be aware of the prisoner’s verbal and nonverbal methods of communication; the culture, the colloquial language, the gang sign, to be aware of the prisoner emotional state of mind, and much more. For examples, if a prisoner do a gang sign or use colloquial language, it’s the correctional officers duties to notices and understand this action so they can remove the prisoner before a fight break out amongst the prisoners. The correctional officers
must remain aware of everything and their environments to maximum any opportunities for violence behavior against prison administration, prisoners, and themselves. The correctional officers is accountability for all the prisoners in their care. For example, if a prisoners show signs of melancholy, anger, or hopelessness, it’s the correctional officers’ duty to recognize these signs before the prisoners become violent towards or kill himself. If the correctional officers notices these sign he must notify the mental health guidance counselor and place the prisoners under suicide watch. It’s very important that all correctional officers and the prison administration undergo many training to manage and to recognize these type of behavior.
The correctional officers go on protocol around the penitentiary or in a detention home, to observe the prisoners and to make sure others correctional officers and the prison administration are never left defenseless to attack and that other correctional officers are always there for immediately within penitentiary or in a detention home. As the correctional officers is on protocols this is a great way that correctional officers develop an working and sometime trusting relationships with the prisoners this will allow the correctional officers to be aware of the signs of emotional distress and their the prisoners background. The correctional officers are also charged with supervising, caring, and controlling the prisoners who have been arrested, who are awaiting for a trial, hearing, or who have been convicted of a crime or crimes and need to be sentenced to time penitentiary or in a detention home. The correctional officers maintain security, control, and observer the prisoner behavior and activities to prevent any disturbance or any prisoners who escapes from the penitentiary or in a detention home. The correctional officers and the prison administration have other duties as well, to communicate, supervisors, direct prisoner movement, hand out authorized items (examples: toilet paper, soap, and clothing) to the prisoners and helping them keep up their health, safety, and hygiene within the penitentiary or in a detention home.
The correctional officer’s first line of duty is to protect and confine criminals from the general public; just like a police officer. The correctional officers are the first line of communication for the felon, administration, medical, mental health, and much more. The correctional officers must have the skills of a police officer, guidance counselor, educator, and a social worker. Most of the correctional officers are weaponless, however, they seem to have control over the prisoners. The environment of the correctional officers have some similarities and differences from the police officers. The “differences between police and correction officer job functions that precluded an exact comparison with the past studies. Specifically, the opportunity to help people and fight crime (police officer) may not be directly comparable to the opportunity to keep the community safe and help the inmates (correction officer). Future research should investigate additional correction officer samples, which can be compared with the current data set to determine the relative importance of these motivations for seeking a career as a correction officer” (Schlosser, L. Z., Safran, D. A., & Sbaratta, C. A. pg. 42, 2010). However, there is one big difference that the correctional officers do not capture or arrest the inmates, that’s the police officer line of duty. Both of these jobs are very dangerous, if they are not careful as they must maintain control over the prisoner. Correctional officers and police officers are important part to our correctional structure in our Justice System.
The duties of a correctional officers consist of preparing prisoner to be transport to court appearances, they process new prisoner, assisting in victim’s advocates, oversee prisoners visitation, escorting prisoners to their prison cell, handing out meals to the prisoners, inspected all incoming and outgoing mail, conducting safety check, handling control room operations, aiding in the rehabilitation of the prisoners, and much more.
“Correctional officers as change agents can involve three separate roles: providing goods and services to prisoners, acting as a referral agent or advocate for inmates, and helping inmates with institutional adjustment” Stojkovic, S., & Lovell, R., 5.6 Correctional Officers at Work 2013). The correctional officer’s work is done under the supervision of the Sergeant, Lieutenant, Warden, or the Captain. The correctional officers must keep a daily log of all activities that happen during their shift. The work of correctional officers is highly stressful. Correctional officers have to create a regular schedules of their daily routines as they have to go examining prison cells for weapons, contraband drugs, and other items that the prisoners should not have in their prison cell; this is done to protect the safety of the others correctional officers, the prison administration, and prisoners. The regular schedules of an correctional officers is going around counting the prisoners, locking down the prison cells, work call, and making sure the prisoner
go dining hall for meal times. The correctional officers have put in place these routines for the prisoner will know what going through the day.
The role of a corrections officers is very dangerous and stressful, however, they help the keep the murderers and other individuals that break the law behind bars. The corrections officers work different rotating shifts and holidays, because we all know that crime never stop in American. They put their lives on the line in order to make these American street are safe for you and me. We all know that they do not make any arrests like the police officer we see in the blue light in some of our neighborhood due to a call of disturbance. However, the role of a corrections officers is very important as they do some of the behind scenes work that some of us do know about.

References
Schlosser, L., Safran, D., & Sbaratta, C. (n.d.). Reasons For Choosing A Correction Officer Career. Psychological Services, 7(1), 34-43. Retrieved January 11, 2015, from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.proxy-library.ashford.edu/eds/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=d891d5c1-72be-4107-b4e5-8776db5814dd@sessionmgr4005&vid=5&hid=4203

Stojkovic, S., & Lovell, R. (2013). Corrections: An introduction. San Diego, CA: Bridgepoint Education, Inc