Blog 16

I never really thought about how the capacity of jails affecting the people who work there. It is obvious, but it is something that doesn’t automatically come to mind. I never really thought about the imminently danger of the job either I thought more of prisoners like animals at the zoo. Docile and behind bars but these officers have a lot of contact with them on a day to day basis. Women officers were referred to as a ‘steak you can’t eat’ if that isn’t rattling to hear from a convicted murder I have no idea what is. I think male officers have to deal with more hostility from male inmates but females have to be more vigilant more by the book because many will not be able to simply over power the inmates. Females also have to be more aware of their surroundings since many of the inmates are convicted sex offenders.
Coming from a gender based society and the women who are officers probably have help more female based jobs this can be a total culture shock which may have harm on their mental and emotional well being. The need for guards is high and since many of these workers are becoming officers as a last resort (in today’s economy many are taking last resort jobs). I feel like females are more in this category whereas their male counter parts had similar jobs (police, military) and decided that becoming a correctional officer had more to offer them or they winded up in the jobs. Many young boys want to become a police officer because their fathers or other male role models where and they make most male cops look so appealing on television and in movies, women are not portrayed very often or in a flattering aspect making a lot of females shy away from corrections and police work. I feel that gender norms are a huge part of recruiting and then the danger levels and the on the job hazards count more for the amount of people that stay in the field of corrections.