Detailed Analysis: Role and Responsibilities of Correctional Officers

This essay provides an in-depth analysis of the role of a correctional officer within the prison system. It emphasizes the officer's responsibilities, including monitoring inmate behavior, maintaining order, and promoting rehabilitation. The essay highlights the importance of ethical conduct, professionalism, and adherence to legal and societal obligations. It explores the need for correctional officers to act as role models, providing guidance and support to inmates. The essay also examines the officer's rights and the importance of treating inmates with fairness and respect, ensuring access to basic necessities and opportunities for self-improvement. The conclusion reinforces the significant impact a correctional officer's professional attitude has on the lives of inmates, underscoring the importance of their daily actions in facilitating rehabilitation and a return to normal life. The essay draws upon multiple scholarly sources to support its arguments.

Running head: ROLE OF A CORRECTIONAL OFFICER
ROLE OF A CORRECTIONAL OFFICER
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1ROLE OF A CORRECTIONAL OFFICER
Introduction
The role of a correctional officer is to monitor and supervise the actions of the
inmates within a prison and positively influence them to the harmonious aspects of life. This
job profile requires immense amount of verbal skills as well as leadership guidance approach
towards the inmates such that they can reconstruct their mind-set through a daily set of
activities and recover themselves from their past (Høidal et al. 2018). A correctional officer
should possess the professional attitude while maintaining their duties and adhering to the
rights assigned to them. The profession of correction officer requires immense amount of
courage and honour from the inmates who they deal with every day.
Importance of the Professional Role of a Correctional Officer
It is expected of a correctional officer to follow the ethical codes and maintain a
conduct of professionalism and thus in this process act as a figure of role model for the
inmates or the prisoners. They should possess the morals of a good human being that the
inmates will look up for reconstructing their own morals. While effectively discharging their
duties, the correctional officer should abide by their moral instincts and thus create an impact
on the fellow inmates of the prison (Tangen and Briah 2018). Within this code of ethics,
many rules and regulations are applicable for different situations or for different cases of the
inmates. It is not possible to follow the exact rules for the given real life scenarios within a
prison. Hence, the correctional officer should construct his or her own decisions while
dealing with the prisoners with moral and justice and make sure that the decisions are fair
enough towards the inmates.
The duties of the correctional officers are obligated to the law as well as the society of
the nation. By this obligation, it is meant that the correction officer should have an attitude of
fulfilling their duties with just and moderate actions that will also abide to the laws of the

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nation and never mishandle them under any circumstances. The correction officer should
maintain their duties with optimum quality of service and follow the policies entitled to their
job profile. Firstly, he should maintain a peaceful and harmonious environment within the
prison as well as amongst the inmates residing within the prison. Doing so, he will be able to
strictly order them about their regular duties and monitor whether they are carrying out their
actions properly or not. Based on the action of the inmates of the prison, the correction officer
needs to prepare a document and present it to his higher officials (Bruhn, Nylander and
Johnsen 2017). In the document, he should analyse about the performances of the inmates
and evaluate them thoroughly. He should highly motivate those inmates who have no
performance issues in their activities. However, he should strictly deal with the ones who are
still not performing well. He should be providing them with rehabilitation services such that
the non-performing inmates improve their daily activities on a regular course (Drake, Earle
and Sloan 2016). It is the duty of the correctional officer to look into this matter in depth and
follow each inmates’ attitude in the prison for their own betterment and rehabilitation. He
himself should adhere to all the policies and the laws and enforce them in his actions all the
time.
The correctional officer should be well aware about his own rights such that he can
exercise them professionally in his duties. According to Ferdik (2018), he has the right to
treat the inmates with fair and just treatments and services and can employee the inmates
according to his assessment of them. He can order them to do activities with a prison area
such as gardening or washing clothes and other regular activities. If the inmates violate to
follow his orders, he can take strict actions against them and arrange for punishments
accordingly. However, he should be just in his dealing towards the inmates of the prison and
be professional in his actions while providing services to them. He should never discriminate
between the prisoners based on any aspect such as colour, creed, race, religion, sexual

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orientation, religious beliefs and so on (Nowakowski and Gajewski 2018). He should make
sure that he treats everyone equally and be moderate while punishing them if they are nor
meeting up the performance expectations.
It is also the professional duty of a correction officer to look whether the inmates of
the cell are getting the basic facilities like food, water, clothing and along with that a decent
living condition. Here too, the correction officer be just in treating the inmates and never be
biased on any aspect. He should make sure that every inmate, irrespective of their gender,
caste or religion is facilitated with the basic amenities for a healthy living and thus be treated
as humans (Schaefer and Williams 2018). They have all the rights to access these basic
requirements even though they are prisoners and should not be deprived of that under any
circumstances. The inmates of a prison also has the right to corrections and need to be treated
with self-respect and dignity in their process of rehabilitating themselves (Laskov and Timor
2018). Thus, a correction officer should never be biased in his treatment and provide the
inmates with proper correction procedures in their prison life. A professional correction
officer should behave professionally with the inmates such they he can help them to get back
a positively energized life and forget their past actions by these ways.
Conclusion
A correction officer in a prison is solely responsible for the daily activities and the
living conditions of the inmates. Hence, it is significantly important for him to maintain a
professional attitude in his own activities and exercise his own rights such that he is able to
help the inmates rehabilitate themselves and get back to the normal course of life like other
human beings. He should also be professional because he has to report his higher officials
about the regular courses of actions about the inmates daily within the prison. Hence, in

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conclusion it can be said that, the professional attitude of a correction officer creates a great
impact on the lives of the inmates in a prison.
References
Bruhn, A., Nylander, P.Å. and Johnsen, B., 2017. From prison guards to… what?
Occupational development of prison officers in Sweden and Norway. Journal of
Scandinavian Studies in Criminology and Crime Prevention, 18(1), pp.68-83.
Drake, D.H., Earle, R. and Sloan, J. eds., 2016. The Palgrave handbook of prison
ethnography. Springer.
Ferdik, F.V., 2018. Correctional Officer Risk Perceptions and Professional Orientations:
Examining Linkages Between the Two. Criminal Justice and Behavior, 45(2), pp.264-285.
Høidal, A., Vatnar, S.K.B., Friestad, C., Bjørkly, S., Seim, I., Øster, M.K., Rokkan, T.,
Kristoffersen, R., Iversen, J.S., Phillips, J. and Lulei, M., 2018. Normality behind the Walls:
Examples from Halden Prison. Federal Sentencing Reporter, 31(1), pp.58-66.
Laskov, R.P. and Timor, U., 2018. Working Bars: Employed Prisoners' Perception of
Professional Training and Employment in Prison. International Journal of Criminology and
Sociology, 7, pp.1-15.
Nowakowski, P.T. and Gajewski, M., 2018. The importance of work in prison isolation
conditions: the Polish aspect. Labor et Educatio, (6), pp.117-128.
Schaefer, L. and Williams, G.C., 2018. The Impact of Probation and Parole Officers’
Attitudes about Offenders on Professional Practices. Corrections, pp.1-18.
Tangen, J. and Briah, R.K., 2018. The revolving door of reform: Professionalism and the
future of probation services in England and Wales. Probation Journal, 65(2), pp.135-151.