NCJ Number
85896
Editor(s)
R R Ross
Date Published
1981
Length
338 pages
Annotation
This collection of articles portrays the current state of knowledge about correctional officers, including their functions, their selection and training, their organization, and their management.
Abstract
One section of articles describes the daily work of prison guards, how they view their jobs, their career, and how their unique environment imprisons them as well as the inmates. In contrast to the popular view that the guard is only a 'turn-key' performing routine tasks, the next section of articles documents the complexity of the job and emphasizes the social service role that correctional officers can and do perform in their work with inmates. Another section presents two articles that raise issues about what guard-inmate relations would be like if prisons were to be manned by laypersons. The recent entry of women into the corps of correctional officers and the issues raised by their participation are discussed in two essays, and the selection and training of correctional officers are considered in the subsequent section. Research on the value of the use of psychological testing to select correctional officers is reviewed, and a model for selecting correctional officers through a combination of training and objective assessment is proposed. The concluding section discusses the impact on correctional officers of various organizational and management approaches in prisons, the unionization of guards, and the establishment of collective bargaining. Reference sections provide a comprehensive bibliography on the correctional officer. For individual entries see NCJ 85897-99. (Editor summary modified)