No Guns, Just
Guts
Correctional
Officer Week 2013
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment