Correctional Officer Issues

Safety is a major stressor for correctional officers within a correctional facility (Schmalleger & Smykla, 2015). The scenario that was presented has three possible safety issues the correctional officer encountered, that we will discuss. The three safety issues are: overtime, working alone in a cell block, and family-work conflict. Now that we have identified the three possible safety issues, probable solutions or observations will be discussed.

Firstly, overtime, is the first possible safety issue recognized in the scenario for the overworked correctional officers. Reese (2014), stated that an excessive amount of overtime may lead to sleep deprivation, mental and emotional fatigue, burnout and time spent away from family and friends. This

Overtime is due to being under staffed and overpopulated with prisoners. Add to that, a high turnover rate of new hires, failed background checks, or new hires succumb to the demands of working overtime. Possible solutions for overtime would be aggressive recruiting, more job fairs, and revamping of the referral program to make it more appealing, and enticing to currently employed correctional officers, to recruit more qualified candidates.

In addition to overtime, another safety issue is a correctional cell block officer, being alone in a cell block, during shift change. Block officers, according to Schmalleger & Smykla (2015), are responsible for supervising inmates in housing areas. The primary concerns of a block officer are the safety and security of the correctional facility. Correctional block officers are greatly outnumbered by the inmates they supervise. With the inmate population exploding, cell blocks that at one time was manned by three

Conflicts, between work and family life, were the most significant issues that affect work and job satisfaction among correctional officers. Home life is impacted by the demands of the job. The difference between a correction officer at work and at home, and family circumstance, like a sick child, places a strain on any work experience (University, 2014). So, when we have a correctional officer, that has stayed up most of the night before, attending to a sick child, and returns to work the following night. This has the making of a safety crisis. This correctional officer is weary, tired and not focused. The focus, of the correctional officer is at home with the sick child. Loss of focus for a correctional officer, and let’s not forget alone in a cell block during shift change, raises the stress level. If an incident, like a fight were to happen, this Correctional officer would not make quick decision or judgement calls in a timely manner. This places the correctional officer as well as the inmates in an unsafe environment. A possible solution to avoid this safety issue would be to utilize sick