After reading the above simulation one must first take into account the contemporary problems in the American corrections system today. Many of the prisons themselves are old and in need of repair. This in turn causes great amounts of health and fire hazards for not only the inmates but also the corrections staff and administration. Budgets and funding to prisons in the US are cut more and more every year. Overcrowding is also a huge issue in the inmate population of the US corrections system, which has reached an all-time high. Overcrowding has resulted in reduced safety of both prisoners and corrections officials as well as lack of resources and available housing for the newly incarcerated. Riots and disturbances have occurred in greater number than ever before. This causes security to come first and foremost before anything else, including that of rehabilitation. The new influx of prisoners has also resulted in understaffing of the guards causing personnel issues.
These staffing issues stem from not only issues with administration but also the prison environment itself. Overcrowding causes the prisons to become understaffed which causes an issue of understaffing for the administration. The problem must be solved by over scheduling prison personnel which becomes the cause of huge amounts of overtime and rotating shifts that at times conflict with each other. Safety is also a huge issue in the life of a corrections officer. Offenders greatly outnumber guards in all prison situations and the threat of working with convicted criminals is a huge weight on not only the mind but body as well.
[...] Safety is also a huge issue in the life of a corrections officer. Offenders greatly outnumber guards in all prison situations and the threat of working with convicted criminals is a huge weight on not only the mind but body as well. There is a perceived threat of violence inside and out of the prison system from not only offenders but their criminal associations still within the public when the officer leaves work. As a result of these stressors officers can experience what is known as “burnout”. [...]
[...] Courts play a huge role in perceptions of corrections officers such as the supervisor in the above simulation. The biggest factor they play is their decisions which greatly impact the corrections department. When the courts decide to give tougher and lengthier incarceration sentences they become the cause of overcrowding. This in turn causes the issues of the corrections officials and thus creates a cynical attitude in regard to not only the corrections system but towards the courts as well. The administrators must therefore come up with more creative solutions to dealing with the huge inmate population as well as the stress on guards and officials in regards to not only their own safety but safety of the inmates from one another. [...]
[...] Correctional officer simulation and reaction “Your shift supervisor at your county detention facility has been working there for several years. Because he has been there the longest, he is often given the responsibility of mentoring and training new hires. He is assigned a new deputy, and the first thing he advises him to do is to get out of the jail into a patrol car as quickly as he can. He proceeds to tell him all of the negative things about working the jail facility, including about the administration and inmate population.” After reading the above simulation one must first take into account the contemporary problems in the American corrections system today. [...]
[...] This reflects also onto the criminal justice system on a whole. Besides the stressors of dealing with criminals, the delinquents of society, everyday members of the criminal justice system are also faced with the weighing feeling that they are not making an impact on the offender's lives or the public on a whole by doing what they do. I say this because every day there is a new criminal, a new victim and another life put behind bars. Members of the criminal justice community tend to feel they are not making a difference and are limited by actions of other jurisdictions within the branch. [...]
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