Roles Of A Correctional Officer Research Assignment Paper

Roles of a Correctional officer
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Roles of a Correctional officer
As per the statistics in the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, in 2012, there were approximately 469500 correctional officers in the country. Correctional officers are tasked with the duty of overseeing the prisons and ensuring that the convicted, and people awaiting trial serve their time as expected by the law. Their role are quite detailed and form the main focus of this article. They include:
* Enforcing the stipulated rules and maintaining order. According to Scott (2007), “prison officers privilege their policing tasks and the maintenance of order above other competing goals.” Every prison has its sets of rules and regulations which must be adhered to by every prisoner. Inmates are bound to cause disturbances, some can plan escapes, or assaults on their fellow inmates. It is the duty of the correctional officers to ensure order is maintained and mostly by use of punishments, progressive sanctions, and if need be, loss of certain privileges.
* Correctional officers also help in the process of rehabilitating and counselling prisoners. The purpose of a prison facility is to help promote deterrence, rehabilitate prisoners, offer retribution, and incapacitation. Rehabilitation is a process which if conducted well can help prevent future criminal activities by former inmates. Inmates are often taken through work assignments, counselling sessions, and other educative programs. The goal of these programs and activities is to help inmates to be responsible citizens once they finish serving their sentence.
* Provide and maintain security within the prison. Prisoners are often seen as the responsibility of the correctional officers. Therefore, as per the law, one will...