Correcting the “Correctional” Component of the Corrections Officer Role: How Offender Custodians Can Contribute to Rehabilitation and Reintegration

Abstract

Research demonstrates that for many individuals imprisonment fails to rehabilitate or deter, and may actually promote recidivism. What can be done to limit reoffending and improve reentry experiences? One malleable component of custodial corrections is the role of the corrections officer. Alterations in the practices of detention workers may significantly contribute to positive offender outcomes. Drawing from several disparate literatures, this article proposes ten recommendations for how to reform the role of corrections officers in ways that promote rehabilitation and reintegration. Discussed are ways in which corrections officers should emphasize correction, use cognitive behavioral techniques, embody other roles (crisis counsellors, health advocates, corrections counselors, and life coaches), encourage identity substitutions, suggest new routine activities, solicit crime controllers, and facilitate transitions.

Utilizing Crisis Intervention Teams in Prison to Improve Officer Knowledge, Stigmatizing Attitudes, and Perception of Response Options

“…Findings from this study complement findings from other studies suggesting COs are supportive of collaboration with mental health staff and can play an important role in mental health care in corrections (Appelbaum et al, 2001; Schaefer, 2018). Developing best practices for mental health and custody staff, like we have for people living in the community, will offer guidance to prison administrators and providers about models to facilitate effective collaboration (Lamberti, 2016).…”

Targeting Misconduct in Prison by Modifying Occupational Factors in Correctional Facilities

“…Moreover, Logan and colleagues (37) highlight the importance of the staff-inmate relationship and state that officers can affect inmates' behavior positively and negatively during their incarceration (e.g. (38,39)). Taken together, these studies highlight the importance of investigating factors related to correctional officers in order to influence inmate's behavior, including misconduct.…”

What do supervision officers do? Adult probation/parole officer workloads in a rural Western state

“…As Weisburd, Farrington, and Gill (2016) found in their comprehensive review of systematic reviews much of the EBP literature is mixed and does better at revealing what programs or practices do or do not work at the highest level of understanding (i.e., a macro perspective), they do little to provide day-to-day practical guidance to practitioners (a.k.a., service delivery). However, core correctional practices programming has made progress in this area and targets the practices of correctional personnel more directly (Dowden & Andrews, 2004; see also Schaefer, 2017). Though considered preliminary, a recent meta-analysis of ten studies found significant reductions in recidivism when probation officers had received core correctional practices training compared to probationer populations supervised by officers without such training (Chadwick, Dewolf, & Serin, 2015).…”