NCJ Number
141670
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 54 Issue: 6 Dated: (August 1992) Pages: 162,164-167
Date Published
1992
Length
5 pages
Annotation
The gradual changes in policies and practices relating to the employment of female correctional personnel in Michigan during the past 20 years demonstrate why the doctrine of fundamental fairness and the need to expand the talent pool of correctional personnel are the two basic reasons why women should be employed in corrections.
Abstract
When women were first employed at Jackson Prison, they experienced resistance and sly insubordination by male staff, social and job isolation, and sexual harassment. Some of the assaults on female correctional guards may have resulted from male indifference or possibly even malice. State regulations prevented women from working in many correctional positions, even though they often performed correctional functions at clerical pay. Jackson Prison decided on an approach of incremental implementation of the assigning of females to positions previously open only to males. Policies, operations, and training were then reviewed and modified as necessary, including policies regarding verbal and physical sexual harassment by inmates. Male officers' objections that female officers were too weak and naive to handle inmates effectively were found to be unfounded, and female recruits tended to have higher academic achievement and verbal skills than males. Their presence in a previously all-male domain has produced a healthy re-examination of longstanding beliefs and practices and their full integration into the workforce is welcome. Photograph