Since criminology is a major I’m hoping to pursue, I obviously take a few criminology classes. This past week, my CRIM100 professor was nice enough to have two correctional officers speak to our class. At the beginning of their presentation, they simply asked how many people in the class were criminology majors. Over half of the class raised their hands. Then, they asked how many wanted to go into a field of corrections. One other person and myself were the only ones with our hands raised. This is a good presentation of how under-respected or how overlooked these positions in law are within our society.
When you simply google, ‘what do correctional officers do?’ you get the simple answer of ‘enforce rules and supervise the activities of inmates’ as found on CorrectionalOfficer.Org. But correctional officers end up doing so much more than that. Although recidivism can be fought outside of the prisons, the connections built within the system are extremely influential to the inmates. As they spend most of their time alone and away from any support groups, the officers can play a large role in turning the lives of convicts back around to a place suitable for integration into civilization. The only way that a progressive reformation of the prison systems can be enforced is if the people on the inside, the correctional officers, share this same growth mindset.
The speakers stated that Pennsylvania is actually one of the more progressive states in terms of how we handle incarceration and criminal punishment as a whole. This can be backed up by some initiatives highlighted by the Department of Corrections as they are following the Liman Project to reduce time in prisons for convicts.
With the correctional officers being the closest contact to outside forces of the system and the ones having high power to fight recidivism, it is extremely important that the people who fill these jobs are able to fit these roles. There are countless jobs within the Department of Corrections (DOC) that are often overlooked (job opportunities can be further explored here: DOC Employment). Personally, I hope to become a correctional psychologist in the future or something in that realm.
Although a job within the DOC may not be for everyone, I encourage you to look into these opportunities. The area allows you to build your own career path and to be more involved in the revision of our prison systems and criminal punishment methods. With more people involved who have growth mindsets, the systems would offer better rehabilitation and overall decrease recidivism.
