The Role of Correction Officers

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Please see response attached, which is also presented below.

RESPONSE:

1. Address the roles of correction officers in the prison society.

The roles of a corrections officer vary across job position and location and are indeed multifaceted as seen below.

Roles of Corrections Officer -

· Correctional officers supervise arrested persons awaiting trial and convicted criminals serving time in penitentiaries, jails, and reformatories. One primary role of correctional officers is to avert attacks, escapes, and other disturbances, ensuring inmate accountability and security. Outside of the jail or penitentiary where they work, correctional officers have no policing duties.

· Correctional officers working in for sheriff and police departments in local and county jails and precinct holding facilities are also known as detention officers. Counties manage about 3,300 jails in the United States; 75 percent of those are operated under the authority of an elected sheriff. The population of these jails changes regularly as new persons are arrested and old detainees are either transferred to prison or released. Annually greater than 11 million people are processed through the U.S. jail system; some 500,000 people are in prison at any moment. The most dangerous time for correctional officers occurs when new arrestees are brought to jail-they may not know the identity or background of the new detainees; dangerous criminals may be placed in with the regular prison population.

· There are a few correctional officers who supervise foreign persons awaiting deportation or release by the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. A small number work for privately-held, for-profit correction facilities. The majority of correctional officers, however, work with government prisons and large jails, overseeing the nearly one million people incarcerated in the United States at any time. All work in correction facilities can be hazardous, though jail populations tend to be less stable than prison populations; in prison populations, correctional officers know more about the security needs of the people they are supervising.

· The primary role of correctional officers is to ensure order and security and enforce the policies and rules of the institution where they work. Officers observe ...