…Prison administrators need research on correction officers, just as police officers have been studied so that we begin to understand officer dynamics better, and we know what to look for as some officer behavior escalates from verbal abuse to physical. Too often all we do is make excuses or justifications and refuse to take ownership of what may be an environmental response. Of course for those officers who are psychologically unfit, they do not belong in a setting where their actions can jeopardize many other lives.

If correctional systems want to continue to professionalize, then they need to follow the example of the police and begin requiring college degrees of staff. Officers need knowledge about psychology and sociology, as well as global ideas. They need to understand that we incarcerate more people than any other country and who these people are. Correction systems need to move to help existing staff participate in education even while they are working in the system. Civil service and organized labor have played an important role in gaining a living wage for officers, but they have also continued the trend to narrow the officer's job, usually in an attempt to increase wages for any additional work. However, the end result has been to create a situation where officers have had their responsibilities reduced and narrowed, when in times past they had a much richer role and their advice and their knowledge of an inmate was sought by others before decisions were made.

Excerpted from a written statement submitted to the Commission