Not just custody and control: Canadian correctional officers’ views on ‘care’ involved in their work

Abstract

To understand the prison environment, we must acknowledge the integral role that correctional officers (COs) play in everyday functioning and structuring the living of prisoners. There are many tasks involved in CO work, some are traditional to CO work and others are less often considered. Specifically, a more thorough understanding of the tasks connected to care is needed. In the current article, we explore some of the human aspects of CO work, such as how officers view and incorporate humanity, listening, dignity, empathy and fairness into their work. Elucidating emergent themes from semi-structured interviews with 25 Canadian COs, we found officers continue to see custody and supervision as fundamental to their role, however, they also view various ‘care’ aspects as essential to their work. Officers discussed rapport building, interacting with prisoners, and centring interactions around humanity and, at times, kindness. Findings provide insight into the various approaches to correctional work and illuminate the role of care in the CO profession – if one is to achieve the rehabilitative function of their occupational responsibilities.