Why Become A Correctional Officer

A lot of people hear corrections and they think of correctional officers. They usually think of them as the candidates that failed to make it onto the police force or as people who barely made it out of high school and needed a job. While this analysis of the job may be true in some instances, there a lot of people that go into corrections for better reasons. They are people who want to be able to help others turn their lives around and become a functioning piece of society. A correctional officer is one way someone could do this but there are plenty of jobs in corrections that really get into helping people. I have looked into plenty of jobs in the corrections field and have found a lot of interesting ones, I have found others that I never
knew about, and I have found just how involved these jobs get. The first job I looked at when I decided I wanted to go into corrections was the obvious job, correctional officer.
My first thought was that it was really just a babysitting job but watching over criminals instead of kids, but just like any job there is a lot more that goes into it than just that. It can be a very dangerous job and most people, me included, have probably never realized that. Depending on what kind of facility it is, there are plenty of stressful situations an officer will have to handle such as fights, riots, and inmates trying to kill one another or even the officers. Correctional officers have to be able to de-escalate any given situation and keep a calm composure while working which is very difficult. This job is not as hands on when it comes to really getting into helping people turn their lives around. It
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s a more retributive form of corrections, but that does not mean it does not help. This was the first job I looked into after deciding I wanted to go into corrections and not exactly as hands on as I would like, but I do plan on trying to get a job as a correctional officer in order to get the experience needed for other jobs in the field. The second job I came across was also a prison job but it was a little more hands on. A correctional counselor came up while I was searching and it was a very interesting position. Some of their work involves psychology which has the counselors assessing inmates and reporting whether or not they may be a repeat offender. The job becomes a bit more hands on in a more rehabilitation manner than most prison jobs in the aspect of the counselor finding job placement for an inmate once they are released from the facility. As a counselor, they help inmates with substance abuse and even mental health issues. This job has a lot of the opportunities I am looking for but it was not exactly what I was wanting. The third job I came across was probation officer or parole officer, which I had never thought of as a corrections job until I began looking into it.
A probation officer has a lot of the same responsibilities as a correctional counselor, but in a different location. Probation officers usually have their offices at the local courthouse and even drive out to the home of the offenders in order to keep track of what they are doing and keep them from becoming repeat offenders. I also never realized that a probation officer could be thrust into dangerous situations as well when driving out to check on an offender. Probation and Parole officers have to stay in contact with offenders on probation and with convicted criminals that are out on parole, which can cause them to stay on-call 24 hours a day. The job requires the officer to read situations and have people skills, to listen and to understand where an offender is coming from and help them, but they also need to be firm when working with the
offenders.

While going through these three jobs, I categorized them into a couple different groups. The first group is hands on jobs, meaning the jobs that are more inclined to help people get their lives in order. The second groups are jobs that are not hands on, which only the correctional officer job fell into. Probation officers and correctional counselors were in the hands on group since they are one on one interactions with the offenders and keeping track of them and their lives. Next, I categorized them into how dangerous the jobs are. Correctional officer and probation officer both are in a category of being more dangerous while correctional counselor is more on the safer side of the correctional field.