Every profession has its risks, but to work with deviant individuals is one of the most challenging. Joseph Micieli writes in his study that “the correctional environment is one plagued with confrontation, violence and diseases.” (Micieli, n. d., p. 3) The prison subculture is characterized by broken rules and distrust. About sixty three hundred employees recently work in the High security prisons, according to the data, issued by the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Most of the employees can witness that working there is extremely stressful and can affect people who work in such environment. Lindquist & Whitehead gave the best description of it writing that: “Correctional officers are as much imprisoned as their captives.” (Lindquist & Whitehead, 1986, p. 27) Working in such environment deeply affects the officers who are employed to work there, their personal interaction with families and friends their social life outside the correctional facility.
The physical and mental challenges and the constant testing of their integrity had a great impact in the professional lives of the correctional officers.
Stress can have far-reaching effects on the correctional workers together with their families, and friends. Researchers noted in their reports that the correctional officers normally suffer from illnesses, related with stress as hypertension, depression, heart decease and anxiety. Studies have settled the fact that correctional officers experience a great dose of anger directed to their families and friends. They show also aggression. There is registered a high number of divorces and posttraumatic stress disorders. Many of correctional workers are using drugs. These facts and conclusions were reported in a research that was investigating and analyzing The Impact of Correctional Officer Perceptions of Inmates on Job Stress performed by
Marcos Misis, Bitna Kim, Kelly Cheeseman, Nancy L. Hogan, Eric G. Lambert in 2013.
The nature of the law enforcement and correctional work includes the risk of losing moral and social inhibitions by the correctional officers, and allows them to reveal signs of deviant conduct.
The term correctional deviance is broader than the term corruption. It involves all actions which are incompatible with norms, moral values, or ethics from the standpoint of the police and the society. Tracy Barnhart, in her article Deviance and Corruption describes the different kind of deviance that may happen to the correctional officer, working for years under stress with deviant individuals – the prisoners.
On the first place she dethrones the “Myth of the rotten apple” (Barnhart, T., 2010) which explains the practice when a case of corruption is reported the explanations given insist that this was a single person not the whole unit, exactly like “the rotten apple in a clean barrel.” (Ibid)
Next she describes the different types of deviance as gratuity, comes from gratitude, and means the acceptance of free meals, discounts and services. According to the Code of ethics this is corruption because they include financial gain and the officers are in a position that suggests the same sort of favors in future.
Another form of corruption is perjury when the act of corruption requires a certain information to be delivered to “fix” someone’s criminal prosecution or “dropsy” evidence – a false testimony by the officer that he/she saw the prisoner to do something wrong.
Brutality goes with Perjury “hand in hand” because if an officer decides to brutally punish a detainee, next that is expected to be done is to lie in order to vindicate eventual accusation.
There are enough reasons for the correctional officers to use Profane words and language but it should be better to go further and discuss the phenomenon “sex on duty or duty-related” (Ibid) It is broadly spread activity in the prisons. Many officers are attracted by the inmates and sooner or later they accomplish their intentions.
Further, many transgressions as sleeping on duty, drinking & abusing drugs, nevertheless at work or off work, misuse of confidential information, etc. could be added to the long list of the sins in working with deviant individuals.
The conclusion is obvious that these people that work for years in correctional facilities, exposed to the influence of brutal and deviant individuals must be due rewarded for the stress and risks they experience during their work.
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Reference
Barnhart, T., Deviance and Corruption, Corrections.com, 2010, Retrieved on Feb. 24, 2016 from www.corrections.com/news/article/23579-deviance-and-corruption
Lindquist, C. A., & Whitehead, J. T. Correctional officer job burnout: A path model. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, (1986) 23, 23-42, Print
Micieli, J., Stress and Effects of Working in a High Security Prison, n. d. Retrieved on Feb. 24, 2016 from www.ncjrs.gov/pdflist/224105pdf
Misis, M., Kim, B., Cheeseman, K., Hogan, N., Lambert, E., The Impact of Correctional Officer Perceptions of Inmates on Job Stress, 2013, DOI: 10.1177/2158244013489695, Print
