By Sandra Scarmack
The Herald
MERCER COUNTY — That’s the wisdom of 29-year-old James L. Baker, a correctional officer at the Mercer County Jail honored by colleagues and supervisors as the 2013 Corrections Officer of the Year.
Baker, who is married with a family, said he’s always yearned for a career where he thought he could “make a difference in someone’s life” but admits that the job he has is nothing like the job he thought he was getting when he studied criminal justice at Penn State.
“One day I’m a mental health worker, a counselor and the next, I’m a bouncer, breaking up a fight,” he said. The situations he sees inside the jail are “things you wouldn’t expect on the outside. But I know that these are people just like me, but they’ve made a mistake. I try to treat everyone with respect,” he said.
And for that attitude, Baker’s work is appreciated by both his colleagues and supervisors. Warden Erna Craig said Baker “exemplifies what a corrections officer ought to be.”
Full story: Baker is Corrections Officer of the Year