Characteristics and attitudes of 201 correction officers thirty years on following the approval of the prison reform

Abstract

Thirty years on, following the approval of the prison reform bill has seen a profound change in the socio-demographic profile of correction officers. Nowadays, they are people with a higher cultural level, who are more motivated as regards the career they have chosen, whose socio-economic backgrounds are less disadvantaged and who have a higher number of years of service. However, this improved profile of correction officers has not been matched by a greater ability of prisons to carry out their rehabilitatory role; there have been no corresponding gradual changes to overcome the problems that beset the prison system: the chronic lack of facilities, the appalling state of the prison buildings, the overcrowding, lack of opportunities, staff shortages, etc. These persisting shortfalls have hindered the implementation of prison reform,and have become manifest in the deep mistrust expressed by correction officers, who, especially the youngest and most highly educated, do not believe that prison can be effective, despite the fact that the majority retain rehabilitation to be a worthy ideal. The responses given by workers also reveal a lack of faith in alternatives to prison as well as in their attitude towards the inmates. Both the prison guards and early half the correction officers consider them to be individuals destined to a life of crime due to their character traits and lifestyle. The study also highlighted that the older the correction officer and the higher the level of education, then the more favourable was their attitude towards inmates and prison reform. Overall, the findings of this research study bear witness to the essential feeling that the ideals which animated prison reform have not been met, and that the results obtained are the expression of a society which shuns diversity and those people who make its members feel ill at ease. Consequently, prison is viewed as a means for segregation, a place in which to offload the 'problem' cases who are perceived as being a threat to the survival of society and its members.