No Guns, No Glory Just Guts ~~ Correctional Officer Week May 2013

No Guns, Just Guts

Correctional Officer Week 2013

In 1984, President Ronald Reagan signed Proclamation 5187 creating “National Correctional Officers’ Week.” The first full week in May has since been recognized as National Correctional Officers’ Week to honor the work of correctional officers and correctional personnel nationwide. Corrections has become a most complex and challenging field where there exists the potential of violence daily and losing a life has become more common today than ever before. Sometimes, working with honor and pride is all the recognition correctional office rs get in their tenure as an officer working inside a jail or prison.

Since the beginning of tradition, agencies throughout the world have taken steps to recognize the value of these Spartans and most often forgotten heroes in our criminal justice system. It is with honor that we recognize our correctional officers in 2013 in a manner that is most befitting of their true character and dedication to the job. Too many times are the officers recognized or mislabeled members of a continuum of evil and allegations that transforms them into human characteristic that are reflections of power and abuse. If one should believe the summarization of the Stanford Prison Experiment where there are suggestions of “evil” transformations of their character, it is a complete mockery to those that have towed the line for over decades of doing good work and saving lives.

This project revealed a “banality of evil” that suggested that good officers, under certain conditions or circumstances such a peer pressure and other social pressures, change into criminals and commit act that are otherwise “unthinkable.” This is completely offensive and untrue in most cases. Good officers withstand more social and political pressures to stay the course than anyone can ever imagine or conduct research on under the circumstances they work and perform their jobs. One might say that this experiment is totally unreal to the facts as prolonged experience has shown that there are highs and lows on this job but the temptation to compromise does not exist as a frequent or common influence as implicated. If someone conducting such an experiment were to have a longer testing period than 14 days, it would have been revealed the opposite result because officers are resilient and rebound quickly after critical incidents and significant interventions. However, officers were condemned nevertheless.

History has linked officers with good and evil but have managed to focus more on evil than the good. There are allegations of some crossing over to the evil side because of personal agendas or being coerced or seduced by peers to join them in the cause to inflict more pain and more misery in an environment already filled with such negative elements. Correctional officers are not the typical perpetrators described by the media or in the movies. They are often just the opposite of what is portrayed to be an attempt to write a reality show.  

 Officers carry no weapons or guns but they have the guts to do the job. This notion they are armed has created tremendous amount of pressure for the officer to live up to this supernatural expectation to enforce rules and expected behaviors. Their role as a first responder requires them to act quickly and take life-saving actions making it a trap in most cases for many as they will be chastised or criticized for how they did their job. Criticized often by the public or the media, they continue to do this job that nobody else wants to do.

They are part of a system that is inundated with bad influences but do their job with good conscience and pride they overcome these barriers with honor. Just to illustrate some of the simple tasks these officers perform deserves recognition that they are first responders to multiple life and death situations. Officers are often called to confront violent behaviors if not the target or victim of such horrible misconduct. Their shift work is abusive in nature as well as their exposure to some of the worst criminals ever prosecuted for felony crimes. Some are rotated often that interrupts their personal lives at the home front but realize it is part of the job.  Working within poor sanitation and safety conditions, they risk exposures to bio-hazard infections or other communicable diseases.  The get paid a minimal wage compared to many other law enforcement positions but accept danger as their partner 8 to 16 hours a day and carry out the most difficult challenge of all; making sure a convicted felon complies with rules and regulations. They are the forgotten silent majority in our criminal justice system.

Officers sweat, bleed and shed tears on and off the job. Their combat is with inner stress as well as external moral and political anxieties that surround them daily. The line between good and bad is invisible to some but those that wear the badge with honor and pride know where that line exists 24/7. It is true some abuses occur but the majority of good deeds overcome the bad ones.

They knock themselves out with physical and mental wear and tear on their mind and body that is often neglected and ignored by themselves, their employer or the public as they fight fatigue, stress and major challenges and adversities that create hostile acts towards them and other prisoners. They break up fights and disarm violent offenders with nothing but bare hands, chemical agents or handcuffs and the latest entry in our continuum of force, the Taser.

In all actuality, the correctional officer is the silent hero in our criminal justice system. He or she stands watch within an environment that is reinforced by basic human expectations – us versus them making it a combat zone at times with bizarre rules for engagement since none are armed during the normal scope of their duties unless on an armed post such as tower duty, transports or other special posts. The second misleading fact is their refusal to act out their role as officers by being a bystander on the job. They are involved in every aspect of correctional settings and do the most difficult job under the most challenging conditions.

Correctional Officers are motivated by self-satisfaction and dedication to the job and the challenges it presents to them as law enforcement officers working that thin blue line.  Correctional officer week 2013 is dedicated to the brave men and women of corrections and the role they play in our criminal justice system with honor and pride.

 

Source: http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/the_banality_of_heroism