Many people are interested in law as a career choice. I can tell you that there are many job titles in law. Police Officer, Lawyer, Corrections Officer, Criminologist, and even Bounty Hunter are all just a few titles. If corrections is your thing though, you’ve come to the right article as I am a former deputy jailer.
I was hired on at the local county jail as a guard with no formal training in corrections. In fact, all the training I received was hands-on. Naturally, the inmates all saw me as “fresh meat” and gave me a hard time. I’d either just ignore their comments or go along with them depending on what was being said or done. They even tried getting me to do things that I wasn’t supposed to do like give them contraband. Because I treated them with respect, I got respect from them most of the time. This is a career where you’re always in a confined space with people who don’t care if they kill a guard. Because of mutual respect, they saw me as one of their own and even defended me when other staff would “trash” me behind my back. I was often the only guard in a cell with up to 10 inmates at a time and I had to leave the door cracked open and unguarded. The inmates would try to scare me by going up to the door and closing it, knowing it would lock automatically. I knew their intentions weren’t anything more than just playing around trying to scare me – which they stopped after realizing it never worked – but playing or not, it was still a dangerous situation to be in.
This is a fast paced field where you always have to stay on your toes and be ready for anything. This is a high danger career where you may be required to use physical force on inmates. Some facilities require you to be certified in the use of fire arms in the event that lethal force is needed. These are just some of the details. Depending on the facility and the location of it, you may need a degree, certification, experience, or all of the above. Many facilities will accept no experience and do hands-on training.
I hope you find this helpful in deciding if corrections is the right choice for you or someone you know.