Assignment
Chapter 8: The Corrections Experience for Staff
Introduction: What Is a Profession? (1 of 2)
Work in corrections changed from old shire reeves
Security staff no longer called “guards”
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
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8.1: Compare what makes work a profession as opposed to just a job.
Introduction: What Is a Profession?
Work in corrections has changed from old shire reeves.
Security staff no longer called “guards,” as it is thought to reflect a more primitive role.
The new term, correctional officers, is perhaps a greater reflection of professional status.
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Introduction: What Is a Profession? (2 of 2)
Corrections work not seen as profession by public
Many correctional jobs not structured like profession
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
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8.1: Compare what makes work a profession as opposed to just a job.
Corrections work not generally seen as profession by the public.
Most do not identify work in jails or prisons as career goals, excepting the higher-paid positions in parole and probation.
Many correctional jobs are not structured like a profession.
Profession: Regarding the positions of corrections officers and staff, distinguished by prior educational attainment involving college, formal training on the job or just prior to the start of the job, pay and benefits that are commensurate with the work, the ability to exercise discretion, and work that is guided by a code of ethics.
Most corrections jobs fail to adequately meet the first three criteria.
Those that follow the last criteria often lack enforcement of said code.
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The State of the Work in Correctional Institutions and Programs (1 of 4)
Growth in Staff and Clients or Inmates
Number of employees grown astronomically in the last 24 years
In 2005, male staff exceeded female staff by 3:1
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
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8.2: Describe the effect of growth in staff and clients or inmates.
The State of the Work in Correctional Institutions and Programs
Growth in Staff and Clients or Inmates
Number of employees has grown astronomically in the last 24 years.
From the 1980s to 2008 there was almost a 600% increase in direct expenditures for all CJ agencies.
660% increase for just corrections expenditures.
Employment in corrections more than doubled.
In 2005, male staff exceeded female staff by a 3:1 ratio.
This difference exaggerated in federal facilities, where 87% of correctional officers were men and just 13% were women.
Private facilities had the smallest gender gap, with 52% men and 48% women.
Gender differences align closely with pay differences: federal correctional officers make the most and a dramatically more likely to be men, while private facility correctional officers, who are almost as likely to be women, are paid the least.
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The State of the Work in Correctional Institutions and Programs (2 of 4)
Growth in Staff and Clients or Inmates
Staff working in corrections stretched thin
Management attempts to professionalize and democratize corrections work
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
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8.2: Describe the effect of growth in staff and clients or inmates.
Growth in Staff and Clients or Inmates
Staff working in corrections stretched thin despite growth in numbers.
Prisons have a high ratio of inmates to staff.
Jail census and parole caseloads still hover at a high, nearly untenable level.
For most professions pay commensurate with job requirements and skills is clear indication of value, so management has attempted to professionalize and democratize corrections work.
A number of correctional institutions and programs are making much progress.
Continuum of professionalization in corrections: community corrections officers (probation/parole) and their work are more professionalized than prison and jail correctional officers.
In larger jail facilities, officers might be paid and trained as well or even better than prison officers and maybe even probation/parole officers.
Police officers make about $16,000 more per year than correctional officers and more than $7,000 than probation/parole officers in any given state.
Push toward privatization since the 1980s has not amounted to better pay, and in fact privately employed staff make less than public employees.
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The State of the Work in Correctional Institutions and Programs (3 of 4)
Perceived Benefits of Correctional Work
Five reasons why work is gratifying
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8.2: Describe the effect of growth in staff and clients or inmates.
Perceived Benefits of Correctional Work
Many reasons why work is gratifying:
It is a booming business.
Provides steady paycheck, if not lucrative.
Provides outlet for those who want to make a difference in people’s lives.
Working with clientele can enhance understanding of human psyche and how it operates.
Can be rewarding to engage in keeping seriously deviant and violent offenders off the streets.
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The State of the Work in Correctional Institutions and Programs (4 of 4)
Collective Bargaining
Correctional staff moved to unionize
Concerns raised over unionization
Benefits of unionization
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
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8.2: Describe the effect of growth in staff and clients or inmates.
Collective Bargaining
Correctional staff moved to unionize to equalize power balance with administrators.
Concerns raised over unionization:
Belief that a union restricts the ability of administrators to fire incompetent people.
Union contracts are too restrictive regarding permitted work.
In some cases, unions have worked to increase incarceration to increase job opportunities.
Benefits of unionization:
Provides for better pay and more benefits.
Attracts and retains more skilled workers.
An important check on administrative power.
Protects “contrarians.”
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Why Require More Education and Training? (1 of 10)
Most institutions and programs do not have prior educational requirements.
Many must have college degree or at least some college
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
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8.3: Explain the importance of education and training in the correctional field.
Why Require More Education and Training?
Most institutions and programs do not have prior educational requirements.
Many probation and parole officers must have college degree or at least some college.
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Why Require More Education and Training? (2 of 10)
Stanford Prison Experiment
Argument for value of formal education and training
Stanford prison experiment: 1971 experiment in which volunteer students divided into officers and inmates
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
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8.3: Explain the importance of education and training in the correctional field.
Stanford Prison Experiment
Argument for the value of formal education and training.
Stanford prison experiment: A 1971 experiment conducted at Stanford University in which volunteer students were divided into officers and inmates in a makeshift prison. The experiment ended with about one third of the “officers” engaged in the abuse of “inmates,” and other officers stood by while it was going on. The experiment was stopped after a few days and is often referenced as an example of how correctional work and the subcultures that develop as part of the job can foster corrupt behavior by officers.
Phillip Zimbardo was the lead researchers.
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Why Require More Education and Training? (3 of 10)
Stanford Prison Experiment
Volunteer students had no training
Divided into two groups, officers and inmates
Neither were told of any rules or policies
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
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8.3: Explain the importance of education and training in the correctional field.
Stanford Prison Experiment
Volunteer students had no training
Divided into two groups, officers and inmates.
Officers:
Outfitted in uniforms.
Given reflective sunglasses.
Given night sticks.
Inmates:
Given sacklike attire.
Neither were told of any rules or policies to guide or restrict behavior.
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Why Require More Education and Training? (4 of 10)
Stanford Prison Experiment
A few officers engaged in verbal and physical abuse of the inmates
Power: ability to “get people to do what they otherwise wouldn’t” (Dahl, 1961)
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
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8.3: Explain the importance of education and training in the correctional field.
Stanford Prison Experiment
A few officers engaged in verbal and physical abuse of the inmates; the rest stood on silently as it occurred until experiment was stopped after just a few days.
Choices may have been shaped by media depictions of corrections that perpetuated stereotypes.
Power: The ability to “get people to do what they otherwise wouldn’t” (Dahl, 1961).
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Why Require More Education and Training? (5 of 10)
Abu Ghraib
Abu Ghraib: military prison in Iraq where untrained “correctional officers” subjected prisoners to torture
Blame leveled on staffers, and extended up chain of command
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8.3: Explain the importance of education and training in the correctional field.
Abu Ghraib
Abu Ghraib: A military prison in Iraq where untrained “correctional officers” subjected prisoners to torture.
Reinforced lessons of Stanford Prison experiment.
Prisoners made to sleep naked, crawl on floor, pose for pictures in pyramids (naked), were deprived of food and basic necessities, and tortured.
Blame was originally leveled on the untrained and rogue staffers, but ultimately blame extended up the chain of command to the Army Reserve brigadier general in charge of all Iraqi prisons.
Some pushed for the blame to extend all the way up to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.
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Why Require More Education and Training? (6 of 10)
Abu Ghraib
Lesson: some people will not act professionally or even decently
Correctional work often does not resemble other professions
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
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8.3: Explain the importance of education and training in the correctional field.
Abu Ghraib
Lesson: some people will not act professionally or even decently.
This effect is more pronounced in uneducated and untrained individuals.
Although training does not prevent all abuses, it may substantially reduce instances.
Correctional work often does not resemble other professions due to the fewer hours and lower quality of most training.
Corrections Compendium (Clayton, 2003) survey found 31 reporting U.S. agencies required at least 200 hours of preservice training.
Juvenile Justice Trainers Association found in 2004 that most new hires were required to undergo 140 to 180 hours of preservice, academy-like training.
Burton, Lux, Cullen, Miller, and Burton (2018) found that most of the states required between 100 and 300 hours of training for their new recruits, with one state requiring less than 100 hours and 12 requiring more than 300 hours.
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Why Require More Education and Training? (7 of 10)
Abu Ghraib
Rarely a specified degree mentioned
Garland and Matz (2017): those with insufficient education or training overly influenced by personal ideology, politics, or media
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8.3: Explain the importance of education and training in the correctional field.
Abu Ghraib
When degree is required, rarely is a specified degree mentioned.
One or more of the social-science degrees.
May not include any classes on corrections or criminal justice system.
Garland and Matz (2017) found discretional choices made by those with insufficient education or training were overly influenced by personal ideology, politics, or the media.
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Why Require More Education and Training? (8 of 10)
Ethics
Adoption of ethical codes serve as means for preventing abuses
Training workers at beginning and throughout careers cannot be overemphasized
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
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8.3: Explain the importance of education and training in the correctional field.
Ethics
Adoption of ethical codes serve as a means for preventing abuses.
Training workers at beginning and throughout careers cannot be overemphasized.
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Why Require More Education and Training? (9 of 10)
Correctional Work Is Little Understood
May not be seen as desirable work choice
Few people outside of correctional work know how institutions actually work
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
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8.3: Explain the importance of education and training in the correctional field.
Correctional Work Is Little Understood
May not be seen as desirable work choice.
Few people outside of correctional work (or academe) know how institutions and community supervision actually work.
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Why Require More Education and Training? (10 of 10)
Correctional Work Is Little Understood
Media often negatively impact views of corrections facilities
Academe partly to blame by focusing on the most extreme examples
Probation and parole rarely featured
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
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8.3: Explain the importance of education and training in the correctional field.
Correctional Work Is Little Understood
Movies and television often negatively impact views of corrections facilities and the work.
Academe has also been partly to blame by focusing on the most extreme institutions, programs, and labor practices of staff.
Maximum security institutions and metropolitan city jails (to a lesser extent) have been showcased in research, with a decidedly negative slant.
Probation and parole rarely featured by the media as it isn’t as “sexy,” violent, or controversial.
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Individual Level Factors That Affect the Correctional Workplace (1 of 5)
Race or Ethnicity and Gender
Hiring of women and minorities in corrections did not occur in most criminal justice agencies until after passage of Civil Rights Act of 1964
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8.4: Describe how and why demographic factors affect corrections.
Individual Level Factors That Affect the Correctional Workplace
Race or Ethnicity and Gender
Hiring of women and minorities in corrections did not occur in most criminal justice agencies to any extent until after passage of Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the 1972 modification that included gender.
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Individual Level Factors That Affect the Correctional Workplace (2 of 5)
Race or Ethnicity and Gender
Most agencies were homogeneous
Corrections is not yet fully integrated
Perceptions of job opportunities may be based on race of others in workplace
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
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8.4: Describe how and why demographic factors affect corrections.
Race or Ethnicity and Gender
Prior to, most agencies were homogeneous.
Still true in some organizations today, though to a lesser extent.
Lawsuits filed also forced hiring.
Corrections is not yet fully integrated.
Perceptions of job opportunities by different racial and ethnic groups may be based on the race or ethnicities of others in the workplace.
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Individual Level Factors That Affect the Correctional Workplace (3 of 5)
Race or Ethnicity and Gender
Female staff as capable as men
Female workers more likely to be harassed by male coworkers/supervisors
Female officers more involved in sexual harassment of male inmates
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
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8.4: Describe how and why demographic factors affect corrections.
Race or Ethnicity and Gender
Female staff as capable as men but have a different supervisory style in general.
Sexual harassment research finds female workers more likely to be harassed by male coworkers/supervisors than vice versa.
Female officers much more involved in sexual harassment of male inmates than their male coworkers.
Particularly in minor and “consensual” versions of sexual harassment.
Note that inmates are not capable of consent to an officer due to inherent power imbalance.
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Individual Level Factors That Affect the Correctional Workplace (4 of 5)
Age
Correctional agencies consider age of applicant
Can be influenced by job requirements
May bring human experience and wisdom to client management
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
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8.4: Describe how and why demographic factors affect corrections.
Age
Correctional agencies consider age of applicant in hiring decisions.
No correctional agency hires below 18 years of age.
Many require applicant to be at least 21 years of age.
Correctional agencies typically do not have an upper age limit.
Age considerations can be influenced by job requirements such as prior military service.
May bring human experience and wisdom to client management.
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Individual Level Factors That Affect the Correctional Workplace (5 of 5)
Prior Military Service
Usually considered favorably
Tends to shape correctional environment
Unsure if service better prepares individual for work in corrections
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
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8.4: Describe how and why demographic factors affect corrections.
Prior Military Service
Usually considered favorably:
Some agencies state such a preference.
Some provide extra points for service when assessing applicants.
Tends to shape correctional environment.
Matter not settled as to whether service better prepares individual for work in corrections.
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Correctional Roles (1 of 5)
Role: what a person does on the job every day
Can be determined by number of factors
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8.5: Identify what correctional roles are.
Correctional Roles
The Role Defined
Role: What a person does on the job every day.
Can be determined by number of factors:
Job description.
Assigned duties.
Type of organization.
Type of clientele.
Various other factors.
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Correctional Roles (2 of 5)
Street-Level Bureaucrats
Street-level bureaucrat: public-sector workers in entry-level positions in criminal justice system
Not only criminal justice workers
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8.5: Identify what correctional roles are.
Street-Level Bureaucrats
Street-level bureaucrat: The position of public-sector workers in entry-level positions in the criminal justice system who often have too much work, too few resources, and some discretion on how to do their work.
Everyone who wants to work in a criminal justice agency starts here.
Not only criminal justice workers.
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Correctional Roles (3 of 5)
Street-Level Bureaucrats
Clients often in great need of public services
Concept encapsulates struggles correctional staff face
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
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8.5: Identify what correctional roles are.
Street-Level Bureaucrats
Their clients are often poor, uneducated, and relatively powerless, in great need of public services.
Clients are often involuntary in the correctional environment, but still need assistance.
Concept of street-level bureaucrats encapsulates the struggles correctional staff face.
Have discretion but often have to make Solomonic choices.
Demand will never be met by supply, putting an SLB in untenable position.
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Correctional Roles (4 of 5)
Hack Versus Human Service
Professionalization: enforcement of professional standards for their new hires
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
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8.5: Identify what correctional roles are.
Hack Versus Human Service
Professionalization: Includes the enforcement of professional standards for their new hires, such as a required college-level educational background, pay that is commensurate with job requirements, training that sufficiently prepares people for the job, and a code of ethics that drives the work practice.
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Correctional Roles (5 of 5)
Hack Versus Human Service
Hack: correctional officer who is violent, cynical, and alienated
Human service: provision by a correctional officer to help inmates adjust
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
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8.5: Identify what correctional roles are.
Hack Versus Human Service
Hack: A correctional officer in a prison who is a violent, cynical, and alienated keeper of inmates.
Believed by the public to be a common occurrence in corrections, which creates public resistance to professionalization.
Human service: The provision by a correctional officer of goods, services, advocacy, and assistance to help inmates adjust.
More frequent than hack-like behavior in corrections.
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The Subculture and Socialization
Staff subculture varies by facility and type of organization
Distinct subculture more evident in past
Subcultural values
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8.6: Describe the influence of subculture and socialization on correctional officers.
The Subculture and Socialization
Staff subculture varies by facility and type of organization.
Distinct subculture more evident in past.
Staff lived on prison grounds.
Prisons not open to public or media.
Less likely today to be as strong.
Subcultural Values
Likely to have an effect on what staff do in correctional setting.
Shared intense experiences likely to bind staff together in “us vs. them” mentality.
Some values are “positive,” or facilitate ability of officers to do work well.
Others are negative:
Sound exactly like those of the inmate subculture.
Serve to isolate the work and the workers and reinforce negative attitudes.
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Staff Interactions with Inmates (1 of 6)
The Defects of Total Power
Gresham Sykes (1958): relationship between staff and inmates in maximum security prison
Much has changed since Sykes’ research
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SAGE Publishing, 2022
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8.7: Discuss why correctional staff might abuse power and experience stress and burnout.
Staff Interactions with Inmates
The Defects of Total Power
Gresham Sykes (1958) describes relationship between staff and inmates in maximum security prison.
Staff need inmates to comply with orders as much as inmates need staff assistance.
Use of force would be inefficient, impossible and counterproductive.
Gaining compliance is not always easy as staff have little to give inmates to motivate them and cannot reward inmates with what they want most: freedom.
Realities cause staff and inmates to engage in “corrupted” relationships, where inmates comply with staff in the interest of staff later overlooking violations.
Much has changed since Sykes’ (1958) research; however, informal side of relationship is still there.
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Staff Interactions with Inmates (2 of 6)
The Defects of Total Power
Lipsky (1980): formally, staff control inmates, but informally, clients have some power over staff
Factors that force staff to adjust their behavior
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SAGE Publishing, 2022
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8.7: Discuss why correctional staff might abuse power and experience stress and burnout.
Staff Interactions with Inmates
The Defects of Total Power
Lipsky (1980) also recognized that formally, staff control inmates, but informally, clients also exercise some power over staff.
Not complying with orders, failing to review information, or complaining about services received can force staff to adjust their behavior.
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Staff Interactions with Inmates (3 of 6)
The Correctional Role When Supervising Children
Example of variability of correctional role
Inderbitzen (2006): study of staff members supervising juvenile training facility
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SAGE Publishing, 2022
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8.7: Discuss why correctional staff might abuse power and experience stress and burnout.
The Correctional Role When Supervising Children
Example of variability of correctional role.
Inderbitzen (2006) performed a 15-month ethnographic study of staff members supervising a cottage of boys in a juvenile training facility.
Staff who were most successful took on “people worker” or human service role.
Officers had to be flexible and energetic, using tactics ranging from joking, reasoning, or cajoling to more punitive disciplinary actions.
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Staff Interactions with Inmates (4 of 6)
Abuse of Power
Plenty of instance of correctional staff abusing power
Risk factors for abuse of power
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
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8.7: Discuss why correctional staff might abuse power and experience stress and burnout.
Abuse of Power
Plenty of instances, both historically and currently, of correctional staff abusing power over inmates and clients.
Abuse of power more likely to occur in environments where:
Staff behavior is not supervised close enough.
Inmates have no or little contact with outside world.
Staff are not sufficiently trained.
There is a higher concentration of young and inexperienced staff.
There is a higher concentration of disruptive inmates.
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Staff Interactions with Inmates (5 of 6)
Use of Force
Actual use of force part of correctional work
Correctional administrators interested in appropriate and legal ways ensure staff are trained
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SAGE Publishing, 2022
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8.7: Discuss why correctional staff might abuse power and experience stress and burnout.
Use of Force
Actual use of force, or being prepared to do so, is part of correctional work.
Correctional administrators interested in appropriate and legal ways ensure staff are trained on when to escalate or deescalate based on situations.
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Staff Interactions with Inmates (6 of 6)
Use of Force
Use depends on agency or institution, clientele, and management
Juveniles generally call for less force
High use of force in a given facility can be a product of geography or culture
Stohr, Corrections: The Essentials 4e
SAGE Publishing, 2022
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8.7: Discuss why correctional staff might abuse power and experience stress and burnout.
Use of Force
Use depends on type of agency or institution, the clientele, and the way they are managed.
Less call for force in probation and parole work.
Call for force increases as one proceeds up the correctional security ladder.
Juveniles generally call for less force than adults.
High use of force in a given facility can be a product of geography or culture, but could just as easily be a management tactic adopted by the warden of the facility.
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