Correctional Officers
Supervise and control the activities of inmates in prisons and other correctional institutions.
An afternoon on the unit
You are a correctional officer supervising a residential unit, responsible for the safety, routine and wellbeing of the people in your care. It is 1pm. Lunch is over, counts are done, and there are two hours before the next movement. You are one of two officers on the unit, and a handful of small problems are building.
Choose what you would do. Then see what happens. There are often good reasons for each choice.
I have not heard back about my phone call to my kids. It was meant to be this morning. If I miss another one they will think I do not care. Please, can you sort it out?
Tell him the roster is not your problem and he should put in a request form like everyone else
Hassan walks away angry and slams a door later. You followed the process, but a small fix would have kept him calm. A person with a grievance who feels ignored can become a risk.
Promise him a call this afternoon and write it on the whiteboard so he can see it
Hassan relaxes, but the phone list is full and you cannot deliver. By evening he is angry and says officers cannot be trusted. Promise only what you can do.
Check the phone list, find out what went wrong, and tell him what you can do and when
The call was missed because of a lockdown drill. You arrange a slot for tomorrow and tell Hassan straight. He is disappointed, but he trusts you. Straight answers are a form of respect.
I found a folded note in the book we handed out. It's probably nothing, but I don't know what to do with it. Do I just give it back, or do I report it? You've got more time on the job than I do.
Tell him to pass it back, as it looks like a personal letter and he does not want to cause a stir
Later you learn the note was part of a plan to pass something between units. Reading and reporting matters here because small things can add up to a larger picture.
Tell him to read it carefully, report it to the supervisor, and record exactly where he found it
The supervisor takes a look and decides it is harmless. Officer Chen learns what to do next time. Reporting something that turns out to be nothing is better than ignoring something that was not.
Take the note, put it in your pocket and deal with it at the end of your shift
You forget about it until after the shift, and the chain of evidence is muddy. Procedures exist because small items need to be accounted for.
You can't move me! I was just starting to get settled here and I've got a job in the kitchen. Why am I being punished? Nobody told me anything. I want to speak to the manager now.
Stay calm, listen to his concerns, explain what you know, and tell him how to raise it with the manager
Mr Benedetti calms down, though he remains upset about the move. You handled it well, and you could also have checked whether the reason for the move had been explained to him properly.
Tell him firmly to pack his things because orders are orders
He refuses, voices rise, and other men on the unit start paying attention. A request that could have been calm becomes a tense standoff. Respect is the best way to keep a unit steady.
Listen, check why the move was made, and tell him honestly
It turns out the move was for a safety reason that he did not know about. Once explained, he is not happy, but he understands, and he asks to speak to the case officer. Being open lowers the tension.
How it went
The next shift arrives, you hand over the notes and walk out into daylight. Correctional work asks you to keep a tight routine and treat people with respect at the same time. Could you stay fair and firm when you are tired and the day has been tense?
This is a simplified, fictional situation to help you explore. It is not professional instruction or a test of your ability.
Case study: The quiet before the yard
A fictional case set in a residential unit inside a fictional medium-security correctional centre.
The situation
Officer Dean Whitford was on the morning yard at Ridgeview Correctional Centre. Two men on his unit, Callum and Wes, had been exchanging looks since breakfast. Nothing had been said and nothing looked wrong on paper. The yard was crowded, a colleague was away sick, and the usual practice was to watch from the edge and step in only if something happened.
What they did
Dean noticed that Callum had been quiet all week and Wes had missed his phone call the day before. He had a quiet word with each man separately, away from the others. Callum said Wes owed him a favour. Wes said he was sick of being leaned on. Dean spoke to the unit supervisor, who moved Wes to a different yard time that week and arranged for a case officer to talk to both of them.
How it turned out
Nothing happened that day, which is hard to prove but was the point. The two men were kept apart and later given a supervised chance to settle the matter with a staff member present. Dean wrote his observations in the unit log so the next shift knew what he had seen.
What would you do?
- How can an officer know when something is about to go wrong?
- Why might talking to each man separately work better than in front of others?
- What could be the hardest part of keeping people safe when nothing has happened yet?