Local jails: Myths vs. reality

By Tim Evenson

What do you think the answer would be if you were to ask the average citizen in your community about their local jail and what service it provides the community? I bet the most common answer would be that it is a place were bad people are put, or something to that effect.

What do you think the answer would be if you asked someone on the street what a corrections officer does? My guess is that the most common reply would be something to do with a glorified babysitter of some sort.

Of course, this also could not be further from the truth. Corrections officers today have to be disciplined in many different areas of expertise. Corrections officers have to be experts in communication, observation, defense and control tactics, legal matters, and constitutional issues. Jails are by nature dangerous, negative environments, and it takes a special kind of person to work there.

Corrections officer is one of the few jobs in which you must supervise people on your first day of work. More importantly, you must supervise people who do not want to be supervised and may have violent tendencies. If I had to give a one word description of a corrections officer, it would not be babysitter, it would be mentor.

I have been working in a local jail for over 16 years. I started out as a corrections officer in a 27-bed jail, and then became a first-line shift supervisor after our new 125-bed facility was built. For the last eight years I have been the jail administrator of that facility.

I have found this position both challenging and rewarding. As jail administrator it is my job to be a problem solver, to make sure effective policies have been put in place, and to assist my officers in keeping themselves, the inmates, and the public safe.

During my carrier in corrections two things have become apparent: First, the overall public perception of a jail’s function within a community is unclear (and perceptions are usually driven by media myths).

And secondly, I realized early on that not all those in jail are evil people who should be locked up forever. For the most part, they are everyday people: they are your neighbors, friends, and family members who made bad decisions and have hit a low point in their lives. After realizing this I asked myself how I thought we should treat these people, and the answer I came up with is very simple: humanely and professionally.

So when we are asked what a jail is, what should we say?

I think the best way to put it is that it is a community within our community. All jails operate 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, and have core functions no matter how large or small, such as mail service, food service, mental health services, health care services, sanitary services, and maintenance services, to name a few.

A local jail, then, is a community not unlike the one in which average citizens live their lives. Corrections officers, administrators, and other staff are tasked with protecting the jail’s inhabitants -- our fellow citizens -- from themselves and each other. Most importantly, in enforcing the rules of this community within a community, we protect those on the outside from those within.

Come back next week for part two of this article, where I’ll take a closer look at the kinds of inmates one finds in local jails, the different challenges that arise from housing them, and the need for educating our communities about the role of local jails.