Lecture Notes: Understanding the Role of Correctional Officers

Introduction

• Speaker: Matt Elliott, Public Information Manager, Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
• Addressing misconceptions about correctional officers.

Misperceptions of Correctional Officers

• Correctional officers are often misidentified as mere 'guards'.
• Responsibilities:
  • Manage housing units where inmates live.
  • Ensure inmates receive medication and meals.
  • Protect inmates from potential harm within the facility.
• The role is dangerous but crucial and impactful.

Humanizing Inmates

• Emphasis on treating inmates as human beings.
• Objective: Provide inmates a chance to reform and reintegrate into society.
• Approach: Treat inmates with respect and humanity to foster positive behavior and change.

Training and Practices

• Comprehensive training for correctional officers on inmate management.
• Example of misconduct: Staff assaulting an inmate led to firing and prosecution.
• Training aims:
  • Effective correctional practices.
  • Prepare inmates for reentry into society.

Recruitment Challenges

• Difficulty attracting new recruits due to:
  • Dangerous job environment.
  • Low pay (approx. $13.70/hour).
  • Better financial opportunities in oil fields for rural residents.
• Result: Understaffing leading to facility closures and security challenges.

Contraband and Security Issues

• Major problem with contraband (e.g., cell phones, drugs like pot and meth).
• Contraband often leads to violence within facilities.
• Understaffing exacerbates control over contraband and violence.

Impact on Programs

• Understaffing affects the ability to offer correctional programs.
• Lack of enough correctional officers limits program facilitation, even with volunteer involvement.

Policy and Incarceration Rates

• Recent increase in Oklahoma's incarceration rate.
• Critique of current policies favoring incarceration over addressing root causes (e.g., addiction).
• Significant resources wasted on indiscriminate incarceration.

Conclusion

• Current policies often fail to address underlying issues leading to imprisonment.
• A call for a balanced approach that enforces punishment while correcting root causes.
• The need for policy and practice that make sense from both a policy and human standpoint.