Correctional officers in correctional institutions face many problems such as staff turnover, inmate demands especially the minors with the most powerful issue affecting them being racial discrimination. I t is also not easy for the correctional officers to work in prisons where the inmates are of the opposite sex.
Either way there will be hurdles to face brought about by the issue of gender faced by both the correctional officers and the offenders. This paper will look at both sides of the coin to find out if male correctional officers can work in female institutions and whether female correctional officers can be assigned in male institutions.
Female correctional officers have been before not assigned to work in male institutions because they are thought to be of the weaker sex thus lack physical strength, can be easily assaulted by the male inmates and may not be obeyed by the inmates. It is for the above reasons that females working in correctional institutions were allocated the posts of matrons in the female institutions or clerical officers in the male institutions such that they hardly interact with the inmates.
Research indicates that female officers working in male institutions bring about a moderate situation the prison (Siegel, 2009, p.67). This is because women are known to have excellent skills in communication hence will always be ready to listen to the inmates developing good relations as opposed to their male counterparts.
It is due to this reason that women officers are allocated in prisons for women or minorities otherwise assigned to low risk duties such as working in the visiting areas or control rooms. This is a disadvantage to the female correctional officers since they end up lacking the essential skills of working in the hardship areas due to the lack of exposure.
Male correctional officers on the other hand often work in both the male and female institutions. However, when allocated in the female correctional institutions they tend to be assaultive thus subjecting the female inmates to sexual menace, rape and offers or proposals (Siegel, 2009, p. 27).
Thus if working in female prisons the male officers should not be allowed in areas that the female inmates carry out most of their chores so as to reduce their interaction time as well as their housing units. Female inmates have been suffering a great deal yet are afraid to complain since no one listens to them, instead the male correctional officers are thought to be telling the truth (Kasdan, 2001, p. 1).
Therefore this problem can only come to an end after placing strict rules for the male officers working in female institutions or rather completely removing them.
All the accusations on correctional officers have been proved to be groundless, women officers can comfortably work in male institutions and at the same time male correctional officers can work in female institutions as long as rules and regulations of the institution are followed. This is because there is no correlation between the number or gender of correctional officers in a correctional institution and the efficiency in work or number of assault (Kasdan, 2001, p. 1).
The only significant difference in the gender is that male officers prefer a situation of free will while the women correctional officers prefer social organisation. Despite the allegations being not true, a lesser number of female correctional officers have been recruited in correctional institutions because of their male counterparts’ antagonism.
Reference List
Kasdan, D. (2001). Male correctional officers should be restricted from some areas of women’s prisons. Web.
Siegel, L. (2009). Introduction to criminal justice. United States. Wadsworth publishing.