“Don’t forget us.”
That was the message corrections professionals from across the country shared during the 2026 One Voice United‘s “Telling Our Stories” session, where six speakers stepped onto the stage to discuss the realities of a profession often misunderstood by the public.
From the mental and physical toll of the job to the expertise required to safely manage correctional facilities and supervise individuals in the community, the speakers highlighted challenges that often go unseen outside prison walls. While their experiences varied, they shared a common belief: if corrections professionals don’t tell their own stories, others will tell them instead.
From cardiovascular health checks to mental health support after traumatic incidents, speakers urged corrections officers to treat their well-being as part of the job, not something to deal with after retirement.
Supervisors: Recognize when staff are at their limit
For Wendell Powell, a correctional captain at Harnett Correctional Institution in North Carolina, one of the biggest misconceptions about corrections is that anyone can do the job.
“Giving them equipment, giving them a badge and a uniform, that doesn’t make you a correctional officer,” Powell said.
Instead, he said, officers develop their expertise through experience — learning how facilities operate, understanding emergency procedures and building the skills necessary to manage a wide range of situations.
“Correction officers are made by working in a prison or in a jail setting, doing the job, gaining that institutional knowledge,” Powell said.
That experience becomes especially important during emergencies, when officers must rely on training, judgment and teamwork to maintain safety and security.
Powell also emphasized the responsibility supervisors have to recognize when staff members are reaching their limits.
“Prison is not for everyone, and everyone can’t handle the issues that we deal with,” he said.
Don’t wait until retirement to check your health
Mike Thompson, who works at High Desert State Prison in Nevada and serves as vice president of FOP Nevada CO Lodge 21, said officers need to pay attention to their health long before they leave the profession.
“Don’t wait till you retire to get your cardiovascular health checked,” Thompson said.
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Thompson said he recently had his own cardiovascular health checked and is now taking blood pressure medication. For him, the lesson was clear: finding out early is better than waiting until a crisis.
He also urged corrections officers to take action when the job starts affecting their home life.
“A couple of things you have to know going into this job is that it will affect you and you need to seek help if it starts to affect your home life,” Thompson said.
Learn the signs before the job changes you
Mike Simpson, a veteran corrections professional with the Suffolk County Sheriff’s Department in Massachusetts, said the profession has changed significantly since he started 30 years ago.
“When I started my job 30 years ago, there was nothing to tell us about the effects of the job on us,” Simpson said. “We just had to kind of deal with it and move through it.”
Simpson described the job then as a “highwire act without a net.” Officers were expected to keep moving, even if they did not understand how the stress, trauma and pressure of the job were affecting them.
That awareness matters, he said, because officers cannot address what they do not recognize.
“If you don’t know about it, then you’re not going to see it when it happens to you,” Simpson said.
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Turning awareness into action
Jon Zumkehr, an Illinois corrections professional with nearly two decades of experience, said the profession still has work to do when it comes to supporting staff after traumatic events.
“We want to kind of make mental health actually health and talk about it like we talk about the weather,” Zumkehr said.
Zumkehr spoke about the Blake Shores Bill, named after Correctional Officer Blake Shores, who died by suicide in March 2023. The bill seeks to require correctional facilities to provide mental health resources and information to staff.
At his facility, Zumkehr said staff have worked with management to post mental health resource signs throughout the prison, place magnets with local resources in officer stations and offices, and send staff to suicide prevention training.
In corrections, he said, people often come together after a suicide. But months later, the urgency can fade.
“That’s why we made it our mission not just to move on and to actually try to make change,” Zumkehr said.
The public safety role many people never see
Gina Lopez, a parole officer from New York and division council leader for the Public Employees Federation, highlighted another aspect of corrections work that is often overlooked: community supervision.
“We have so many hats that we have to carry to do our job,” Lopez said.
Parole officers, she explained, must balance the needs of victims, communities and individuals under supervision while helping people secure housing, employment and treatment services.
Lopez also argued that policymakers should seek greater input from frontline professionals when developing reforms that affect corrections operations.
“I think if they would have taken the time to listen to the line staff, I think we could have made it even better reform,” she said.
Her comments echoed a broader theme heard throughout the session: the people doing the work often have valuable insights into how policies play out in practice.
‘Don’t forget us’
Beyond the specific challenges discussed, several speakers said they hope the public gains a better understanding of the people behind the profession.
“We’re just their neighbors,” Simpson said, noting that many corrections professionals coach youth sports, volunteer in their communities and live alongside the people they serve.
Powell shared a similar message, emphasizing that corrections professionals often work behind the scenes with little public recognition.
“We don’t get the big headlines when we save a life,” Powell said. “We don’t get the headlines when we do the right thing.”
Still, he said, corrections professionals continue showing up every day to perform a difficult and often unseen public safety role.
“Don’t forget us,” Powell said. “We’re here doing our job.”
