Rules and Regulations

• A major responsibility of correctional officers is to provide maximum security by deflecting disturbances, such as physical attacks and escapes, while enforcing the institution's rules and procedures. Correctional officers ensure that inmates follow prescribed rules by removing privileges from anyone who does not follow the regulations. They also assume a variety of miscellaneous responsibilities, which include searching prisoners and prisoners' cells for drugs and weapons, keeping orderly behavior, conducting regular security checks of entrances and exits and making sure fire systems are working properly.
  
  

Places of Employment

• Most correctional officers work at government prisons. Some, however, are responsible for overseeing foreigners who the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service is going to deport or release. Other officers may be employed at privately owned/for-profit institutions.
  
  

Detention Officers

• Detention officers are a category of correctional professionals who work with county sheriffs and police departments at local jails. One of most dangerous times for these officers is when the arrested criminals are brought to the jails and awaiting incarceration. According to the U.S. Justice Department, approximately 3,300 jails and holding cells are located in counties nationwide. About three-fourths of these are overseen by the sheriff. More than 11 million individuals move through the U.S. jail system every year.
  
  

Reporting Responsibilities

• All correctional officers must complete daily reports on each inmate's work and personal behavior. These documents also include data on an inmate's conflicts with staff or other prisoners and involvements in suspicious situations as well as information on any unusual or dangerous activities the correctional officer observes the inmate participating in. The officers will also assist with investigations of criminal activity within the institution and search for prisoners who have escaped.
  
  Officers who work in a prison with direct oversight of cell blocks are unarmed but do carry a radio to call for assistance. They may work as a team or alone to oversee 50 to 100 prisoners. The officers are able to watch the inmates' behavior and activities with computer tracking systems and cameras that feed into a centralized control center. These professionals only have authority within the prison walls. They are not allowed to assume policing activities outside of the the institution.
  
  

Prisoner Transportation

• In maximum security facilities, the inmates may not see any other individuals other than the correctional officers for long periods of time. The prisoners are only allowed to exit their cells to take showers, work out in the gym and meet with infrequent visitors. The correctional officers may need to shackle some prisoners when the prisoners leave their cells for visitations, as well as trips to the courthouse and medical facilities.