What do the writers at Connected Internet do when we aren’t penning articles for you to read? Some of the logical guesses would be:

A) IT guys. Whether working for a big service provider or a corporation, we are somehow involved in keeping the hardware and network up and running. The classic way for a unix geek like me to make an honest living.

B) Writers. Between all the sites we write for we somehow manage to eke out a living doing it.

C) Web guys. We’re in the design end of things. The other way for chronic computer/internet junkies to make a legitimate career out of their inability to stay off a computer.

D) Web moguls. We all have a collection of web sites out there that make enough money from ppc and other types of advertising that we are financially independent.

These would be the likely choices. In my case, nope, nope, nope and nope.

Many of you know that in addition to contributing to Connected Internet I maintain the audiophile and home theater equipment news site AV Enthusiast. That’s the extent of my internet fixation, and it eats up all the time I can afford to share. My day job: I’m a Corporal at a 1400 bed county corrections facility.

A county corrections facility functions as a detention center for all the people incarcerated in a county awaiting the dispositions of their court cases. This means that a county facility like mine holds everyone from people who got caught drinking and driving to the murderers, rapists and pedophiles. The one thing all these people have in common is that they all have a history of not being able to adhere to the laws of the community, and I personally feel they are all, to one degree or another, sociopaths.

The main functions of a corrections officer are to:

A) shield the public from the predators in the community

B) provide an environment where the inmates are not victimizing each other

C) enforce the rules of the facility

A typical six month rotation for a corrections officer where I work looks something like this:

• Housing unit officer- you are assigned to a particular housing unit on your shift for 60 days. Your job is to conduct formal flesh counts, feed the inmates, oversee medication pass, make sure that inmates get out for court appearances, attorney visits, doctor’s sick call, law library, ensure that the rules of the facility are being adhered to, sanitation of the housing unit, and all appropriate documentation. If it isn’t on paper, it never happened where I work, so there is a considerable amount of paper work involved.
• Escort- for 60 days you are assigned to a floor containing X number of housing units. You are tasked with transporting the inmates to and from court appearances, attorney visits, doctor’s sick call, law library, anything that would take them out of a housing unit. If there is a fire somewhere, you are the one that gets to put it out, and by that I mean that fights and combative inmates are your responsibility. If searches get conducted, you are on the team.
• Float- for 60 days they fill holes in the schedule with you. You are likely to find yourself in a different spot every day for 60 days. In my case, I have a specialized job, so I don’t generally float. Instead I get to be:
• Administrative confinement housing unit- for 60 days you work in a housing unit that contains all the inmates in the facility that have assaulted staff or are otherwise unsuited to be in general population. This is a hand-picked team of volunteer officers. Your chances of having to put out fires rises exponentially in this assignment.

Corrections is a stressful occupation. The turnover rate is probably somewhere around 75%. The reasons for such high turnover: X percentage of young officers use corrections as a springboard toward other law enforcement jobs, so once they get on a department somewhere they leave. Many officers do things that compromise themselves and find their corrections careers terminated prematurely. Mainly, it takes a special person to go into a housing unit full of 64 people who are incapable of following rules and impose their will on them, and the stress eventually does in officers not suited to it.

Corrections is an important link in the law enforcement chain in your community. It’s also a thankless job because people have no idea what goes on behind our walls. Take it from me, it’s a tough job, and a necessary one. I find it rewarding because I know I fulfill a necessary role for the citizens of my community. The media usually casts corrections staff in a less than favorable light. There are a lot of good people in this field, and if you knew the job we did for you, you would be glad that someone was stepping up to do it. If you know anyone in your community that works in corrections, take a moment to thank them sometime. They put their safety on the line for you every day.

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Categories: Michael, Misc
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Posted: 25th Mar 2008 by Michael Lankton

10 Comments on “Connected Internet Staff Day Jobs: Corrections Officer”

• 1
  
  gk
  March 25th, 2008 17:14 GMT

  Wow, I can how it can be a very stressful job. It certainly is essential, but shouldn’t one consider (although perhaps difficult in practice when faced with repeated evidence to the contrary), that some of these people are as yet, innocent until proven guilty? Also, those with a minor offense, might not necessarily warrant the sociopath label? But I can honestly see why and how one might come to think otherwise in practice… fascinating to find out not everyone is born with a keyboard and mouse lol
• 2
  
  mlankton
  March 25th, 2008 19:57 GMT

  That’s why I stated “to one degree or another”. They are almost without exception concerned with their own comfort to the exclusion of the consequences their actions have on others.

  Also, people make mistakes. Society recognizes this. That’s why we have probation and lenient sentencing for those who don’t have criminal records. By and large the people in jail have criminal records that are pages long. If I have a jaded or anti-thug attitude, it’s because I see over and over that left to their own devices these individuals harm people in the community with the choices they make when they aren’t incarcerated. If anything we need more jails and stiffer sentencing.
• 3
  
  Brecht
  March 26th, 2008 00:46 GMT

  I figured you were web-geeks. Checked out the av site. What’s the platform? Doesn’t look like wordpress. Drupal?
• 4
  
  mlankton
  March 26th, 2008 13:48 GMT

  Can’t speak for the rest of the guys, that’s just how I pull a paycheck.

  It’s Joomla!
• 5
  
  Brecht
  March 26th, 2008 14:01 GMT

  Great looking site! That Joomla is nice.
• 6
  
  gk
  March 26th, 2008 14:12 GMT

  I see what you’re saying…and not accusing you of being some kind of reactionary… I guess one thing that strikes me, is that as you mention “people make mistakes and society recognizes this”. Beyond incarceration and the punishment side of things, the one angle that is missing in your description of the job, is the rehabilitation aspect.

  Now I know that is an iffy one, particularly when faced with the realities in terms lack of space etc, but in my opinion societies need to be more clear about what they try to do with their convicts. In other words we have to choose whether rehabilitation is really part of our criminal justice philosophy. If so, and this is generally the case in most industrialised countries, then we need the means of making that a reality. It seems we are stuck in a position where lip service is paid to rehabilitation and reintegration, yet we by no means have the resources in place to achieve this. If it is not to be part of our philosophy, then perhaps it is time to send people to isolated islands again… :)?

  btw: Had a look at your AV site, which is nice…I use Joomla as well, and am always curious to see what others are doing. One thing I noticed is that you are not using the sef patch, which lets you handle the meta for each page. Have used it on other sites and can only recommend it - I would just buy the component as it has some useful extras and installs well…it’s only a few squid.
• 7
  
  mlankton
  March 26th, 2008 14:24 GMT

  The whole rehabilitation thing is something some liberal politician came up with to make themselves feel noble. There is no rehabilitation. Let me ask you this: what is the motivation for a 19 year old drug dealer to get a GED so they can get a job making $7/hour when they can make $2000/day on the street selling drugs?

  There is a Sudanese officer where I work. He thinks these guys have it way too easy in our jails. He said something really quotable, which I will never forget because it makes me laugh. “In Sudan you go to jail, they beat you with stick, you cry, nobody care”
• 8
  
  Stanley
  March 29th, 2008 01:15 GMT

  Your articles are quite informative! Keep it up.
• 9
  
  Sean
  April 2nd, 2008 09:37 GMT

  I just wanted to let you know that i see the comments on this site for some strange reason. I’m using IE7 and my operating system is Vista. I assume its a bug.
• 10
  
  Jeff Davis
  April 15th, 2008 15:52 GMT

  There is no rehabilitation in jail. Prison, possibly, due to the lengthy time of residence that can wear down and change those who are less set in their ways. Jail? Not a chance.

  The guys making $2000 a day are working one or two days out of the month. They don’t go to the doctor unless they’ve been shot. They don’t go to school. They don’t register their cars if they don’t get caught, they don’t buy insurance for them. They steal when something catches their attention and are surprised when someone rats them out. They sleep until noon and go to bed at 2 or 3 in the morning, after playing a lot of PS3 and watching a lot of TV.

  In short, they live the ultimate life of a teenager, until they either get sent to prison for a long time, they get shot, or they die of old age. They do not change because there is no need to change and no desire to change.

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