May 5-11, 2019, was Corrections Employee Week in Pennsylvania, and during this time the nation also celebrates National Corrections Officer Week. Knowing that, a few SCI Phoenix corrections officers authored this article:
I'm A Corrections Officer
Almost every kid I grew up with played cops and robbers, cowboys and Indians, soldier or firefighter. I never met one that locked their friends in the basement and played CO! Unless you're a legacy, no one grows up wanting to be a corrections officer. Let's face it, no one wants to go to jail, even if you have the keys. Yet here we are, more than 420,000 of us every day doing the impossible, outnumbered 80-1 or more, just trying to keep the public safe. Ninety percent of us had no idea we would ever walk this beat. If you told us when we were in high school that we would be doing this job, you would have gotten some pretty interesting responses, and I'll bet most couldn't be reprinted here. Those of us who make it through the first five years, turning economic necessity into a career, are proud of being a Corrections Officer.
"Call me whatever you want, just pay me!" If you know a corrections officer that feels this way, it's time to straighten them out. To put it bluntly, perception is reality. If you are perceived as being a "guard" by our elected officials and the public, you can expect to receive the respect, compensation and benefits that a guard would. This is precisely why we are treated like the "crazy Uncle Charlie" in the law enforcement attic. Just crazy enough to do this insane job while the public, and even many of our fellow law enforcement officers, look down upon us. If we allow our image to be comparable to that of a mall cop, a night watchman patrolling an empty warehouse or a crossing guard, then we can certainly expect to be treated accordingly. I don't mention those professions to discredit them, but they definitely do not entail the challenges of corrections. It's important for all of us to realize that perception is reality, and so perception is directly reflected in how we are treated in every aspect of our professional careers. From our paychecks to the local news, it's all based on how we are perceived.
The perception of who we are and what we do is monstrous. It is so far flung from our day-to-day lives behind the walls that the portrayal of us would be laughable if it wasn't so deadly. How many great articles do you read about CO's? How many television shows like Oz, Orange Is the New Black or Prison Break correctly script our jobs? In how many movies are we seen as sympathetic characters, never mind courageous? You never read about the 40,000 assaults we face or the 11 line of duty deaths or the 150 CO's who commit suicide every year. Where's that investigative report? Where's the concern over our 34% PTSD rate or our depression, divorce and substance abuse rates that are off the charts even when compared to all other first responders? Or how about the riots we quell, inmates lives we save, assaults we breakup, escapes we stop and the public we keep safe every day? We don't hear about them, because to the outside world, we are still just "guards." What we have failed to grasp as a profession is that how we are perceived is directly reflected in how we are treated, how we are compensated, how we are staffed, how we are equipped and how we are trained. Perception even impacts retirement age and pay. How we are viewed by many elected officials is why legislation is enacted, yet our opinions are rarely sought.
During this year's Corrections Officers Week, take extra care in how you present yourself. Wear that badge with pride. You represent all of us with every action you take, not just behind the walls but in your community as well. You do a thankless, dangerous job that is vital to the criminal justice system and to the safety of the public we are sworn to protect. Be proud of that, and know that few would dare even consider going where you go every day. We are a vital component of the law enforcement community and a central piece of the matrix of men and women who protect public safety. To be regarded as anything less increases our personal risk, denies us adequate pay and benefits and continues the age-old myth that we are just "guards." I've never been a guard and I never wanted to be a cop, but I'm proud as hell that I am, and always will be a, corrections officer.