CORRECTIONS PERSONNEL

Corrections Personnel Roles and Functions



Corrections Personnel Roles and Functions

Introduction

Correctional officers are those who perform their duties in detention facilities. Therefore, they are also called as detention officers. They have the responsibility of having supervision over the inmates held in prisons. In addition, they also oversee inmates who are waiting for their trials or serving their sentences.

The population of the jail keeps on changing because prisoners may get bail or transferred to other units. On the other hand, new offenders make their way into the prison cells and come across the. Detention or correctional officers are responsible for admitting and processing more than 10 million offenders in a year. Furthermore, there are almost 800,000 criminals who are present in prisons at a given time. Part of the job of correctional officers is to oversee the State and Federal prisoners who make up nearly 2 million offenders.

Discussion

Correctional Officers

According to Gordon Hawkins, the correctional officers are the “other prisoners” (Gordon Hawkins, 1976). The supervisors, middle managers or the subordinates to the administrators consist of the correctional staff. The role of the correctional officers is of extreme significance because they provide front line services for the authorities which include overseeing and controlling the inmates. in addition, they also form the pool of officers from which correctional administrators can be selected. There are a number of applicants who apply for the position of correctional officers. However, they may have some or no knowledge and information about this job. A job position for correctional officer's position might look like the following:

“[They] must prevent rape among two hundred convicts enraged by their powerlessness and sexual deprivation...prevent violence among the convicts...shake down all cells for contraband...know what is going on in the convicts' heads and report it to their supervisors...account for all material entering or leaving each cellblock...maintain sanitation in each cell...give individual attention to all...convicts...[and] prevent the suicide or running amok of the raped, the depressed, and the terrified...and look out for their own physical and psychological survival”.

The correctional officers may have to undergo or experience a tough environment of the prison which includes hammering of food trays, doors clanging, and prisoners shouting. In addition, these officers may also have to endure an environment with a blend of urine, sweat, food, disinfect and paint.

Typology

According to Mary Ann Farkas, there are 5 categories of correctional officers along with 3 additional types (Farkas, 2000). These eight types of correction officers are as follows:

Rule enforcers

Hard liners

People workers

Synthetic officers

Loners

Lax officers

Officer-friendly

Wishy-washy

Rule enforcers

There are approximately 43 percent of correctional officers who are extremely common in the sample of Farkas's. Rule enforcers are rule bound, and they are not flexible. They ensure that there is order, and have esprit de corps with those who share their philosophy of enforcement. These officers have a better chance of being 25 years of age or younger as compared to other correctional officers.

Hard liners

The hard liners are extreme version of the rule enforcers or their subtype. The hard liners are extremely aggressive with their approach, ...