Sadly management has the right to manage or mismanage so long as you are compensated by the agreed upon terms. This means as long as you are paid your hourly wage and any over time they can use you as needed to run the institution. Now there may be some bargaining unit agreements or local/state laws that can change this. You could if you have a contractual agreement from your bargaining unit over seniority and if you do in fact have enough females to cover the required posts the most senior should be able to pick in general roster by your time. I would need to know the state you work in and be able to look at your contract if you have a bargaining unit agreement with your employer to give you a definite yes or no though.

Sadly management has the right to manage or mismanage so long as you are compensated by the agreed upon terms. This means as long as you are paid your hourly wage and any over time they can use you as needed to run the institution. Now there may be some bargaining unit agreements or local/state laws that can change this. You could if you have a contractual agreement from your bargaining unit over seniority and if you do in fact have enough females to cover the required posts the most senior should be able to pick in general roster by your time. I would need to know the state you work in and be able to look at your contract if you have a bargaining unit agreement with your employer to give you a definite yes or no though.

I need some information and feedback. I am a female CO working at a county jail in NY for 10.5 years. Out of 96 officers only 16 positions are designated GENDER SPECIFIC, female only..The administration has designated this positions 6 dayshift, 5 afternoon and 5 overnight..Due to these designations I, with 10.5 years of service will not get my shift preference due to me being #7 in “female seniority”..Male officers with 1-2 years of service will get this position..Sounds like discriminatory hiring practice due to the facility never having more than 18 female officers at one time and when we had the 18, 2 were getting ready to be let go..Any feedback or information on this subject would be greatly appreciated

Nope. There is useally a staff restroom. If there is not you can be relived to go use one.

The pods we have at one institution I worked at have restrooms that have locked doors and are in a hallway between pods that are for use by both male and female. The one I work at now has a dorm setting and the restroom is in the dorms officer area but the inmates can see you come in or out but cannot see you while doing your business.(unless they craw in the ceiling and peek thru the air vents)

Are there any female correction officers that are required to use the restroom in a pod in front of male inmates?

Good luck, keep us all posted.

arzkttn

Hi. I work with the MN DOC. I am also a 24 year veteran with the US armed forces. In my experience, women have always done just as good, if not better, than the men in my working areas regardless of where I work. I currently work in an all male facility. I have seen the inmates play the women officers as if they don’t matter. Once these women put there foot down and address the issue, the inmates soon get that the female officer is no different than the male officers. I have also seen my fair share of male officers being played and really it comes down to you doing what your suppose to as a CO. You do your job, you should do just fine. With the fact you are on this site and asking others about this topic, I feel you will have no problems! Good luck to you and stay safe.

Well let me put it this way. If a large scale incident happens can you kill an inmate to save mine or your life? If you answered no then you should not step foot in a prison reguardless of your sex.

Something that will help you is “Don’t forget your a female” mindset.

As I sit here waiting for the feminist backlash let me explain what that means. First off depending on the population your dealing with ( I/E men, women, juvies) may or may not limit the posts your allowed to work. Female CO’s generally are not permitted to perform in depth searches of male inmates and vice versa. Second is male inmates respond differently to females than they do to males. This can be good or bad depending on the given situation.Third is yes you will have nay sayers and critics but long as you do your job how it needs to be done than who cares. Forth NEVER EVER for ANY reason get involved with an inmate. This puts everyone including you in harms way, DON"T do it. If your smart and recourceful you’ll find ways to make being a female work to your advantage.

Marissa welcome. Some other essential tips: learn to say NO and have an explaination why(rulebook). It is not the size of your body but the size of your character that really counts. Be compassionate but also guarded, NEVER become emotionally involved with any inmate or their circumstance in life. Be by the “:book” untill you have the experience and knowlege to make those really small disgressionary decisions. That means “by the book”. Contemplate every decision before you make it, ask yourself these questions: how does it affect the institution, the other staff,yourself and other inmates. It is actually fairly easy after some experience has been achieved. Stay on this website and ask those of us with experience if you have questions as well as your local experienced staff. HAVE a SENSE of Humor and never take yourself toooo seriusly.Just when we think we got it, something new comes along. Great luck if you make the plunge, it isn’t for most people.

With PREA in effect, it will make it harder for women corretional officers as well.

Marissa, I have work in our County Jail for 27 years. It has gone from ruff to totally intense. It was built for a max of 83 and we run 250 to 297. They have a plan to build a new one in 2017. At this jail we qualify with tasers, pepper spray and guns. We do not wear then in the jail but we are Corrections Deputies and transport inmates to Courts, other jails, do medical/hospital details and various other detail where we must be qualified when doing inmate movements outside of the jail. I did not have any problems with the academy but from new females at our jail they state the push ups or sit ups were the most difficult because they are done the male way and our muscle strength is not as capable for these as the other physical tests. Everyone here excells in one needed skill or another and we all work together as a team to do the impossible. I am proud to work with them all.

worked in a men’s facility for over 5yrs.. not always easy. Just be yourself and don’t let them get to you. I am here to do my job and not make friends with them. Some might think they can get you to be with them in other ways and I let them know that will never happen. If things happen you have issues with have some female officer you can confide in before discussing with a male officer since there prospective on the situation may be not what you are looking to here. Yet, hopefully most officers & supervisors will have your back in any problem.

Squeeze……. Our upper midwest facility policy maintains that a female must work any womans admissions post and do all female stripsearches. Other than that Male COs work the female units on a daily bassis. And yes the female inmates get twice as many privlages and perks as the male inmates. It also doesn’t help that the female cell hall director doesn’t know whats she’s doing.

3 years , prettydarn good I’d say. We here in the midwest jail,female officers can only work in the female housing units. A female officer just handed in her 2 week notice because she couldn’t stand to work in the female units any longer. She was a young single hispanic mother and a pretty good officer too. I have not worked in an all female prison but in jailsthe women inmates are much harder to work with. Most come from crappy backgrounds of abuse (all kinds), mental health issues and 80% are on some kind of psychotropic medication. I have to applaud all those female officers who work in those units day in and day out. Male inmate behavior is much easier to predict and usually with all that testosterone flowing much more blatently observable. Women inmates not so much. I can understand B_A_Urns how stressfull it must be. The extra privileges must burn you up but if it is any help remember that we are not here to punish them, that is done by society incarcerating them. I know it sounds cliche but if you focus on your role in this movie and revel in any accomplishment you achieve no matter how small then every day can be some form of win. That’s just how I do it, it has worked for me so far and I am possibly going to retire next March.

Maybe some of you have heard of this find of facility. It’s a MINT program. A.K.A birthing center. Federal female offenders can have their babies at the local hospital and raise them at the birthing center for a year. A lot are leaving and going home. Some are going back to prison.
All I can say is STRESS. I have never been so worn out with females in all my life.
These women get SO many privileges compared to regular female inmates in correctional facilities. However, they are not grateful. It’s really a pain. I have tried and tried to enjoy my job. I just can’t. Maybe this isn’t the career for me. I have been there for 3 years. And I am so sick of women. Is that bad? Am I being negative? Because God knows I am always trying to be positive. There’s just always drama between the girls, and I really hate it.
The only thing I enjoy at my job anymore is giving the girls music lessons.

In early 1979, I was hired as a correctional officer, a woman working in a men’s institution in California. The academy taught important information, but the real education came in the form of experience. In reading the comments and advise given, I smile when I see that the same advise about “be yourself”, “firm but fair”, “don’t try to act like John Wayne”. They all still ring true. One of my favorites was “don’’t take your job home”. I taught an “in-service training class” on the subject. But the reality is that you do. Recognizing when do is key. As humans, we have human emotions. We are supposed to. You are going to see some very ugly things, and you are going to be required to respond as a trained officer. You are going to make mistakes and hopefully they will be the learning kind, and not the kind that get you killed. And you will learn the language and culture of a system that is a city within itself. Some things, I’m very sure, have changed in the last 30+ years. But some things will never change. Women have a great deal to add to law enforcement in general, and corrections specifically. And, as in any other profession, the more you learn, the better you become.

Good points all! Leorising , if that is how you cope then good if it works for you. You have a different perspective than most of the corr/professional that i know but that is how you cope. As a former new hire instructor/teacher my portion of the classes I taught were up front like Irish assasin. This frankness informs new hires what to expect, if you work in most correctional settings these experiences others are talking aboput are a universal truth to most extent. These horrers are going to happen sometime in the future. I have been stabbed fights all that, I also work in a local hospital security ( a trauma center) for the past 23 years p/t and the people working in the er deal with the horrors differently. Military personel deal with the PTSD differently. The longer your min the business the way we cope changes or evolves. For me for the most part I’m like Mick and Irish Assassin I leave it at the door coming and going, I don’t even associate with people i work with off duty except 1, and he is my best friend, ( immigrant from Russia/Belarus). But that is only because we’re both weightlifters and fighters ( I’m getting too old for that now). But for those looking for a career in corrections most of them are only going to stay for a short time while they try to become police officers or they wash out. The ones left are the truely dedicated ones or just looking for a job. As for worrying about friends on the outside, I don’t! I shoot more often than they do! I don’t worry about that stuff. Not that it isn’t a concern but if we worry about that so much that i change my daily hyabits I’m in the wrong business. Having said that they (the bad guys) will usually go after the weaker officers for the set up. those are the officers that the inmates sense are at risk and vulnerable to pressure. If you conduct yourself (as I am confident you do) inb a proffessional but firm manner they will leave you alone. If someone reaches out to you it is easy to stop that, write the report!! Inform the admin and local law enforcement too, independantly off your minstitution. Good luck!!

Correct Squeeze, I do exactly that. But I also admit that I’m not the most PC person here either. Often times the things I say are mistaken for blatent discontent when I’m just speaking the truth through my eyes. Life and corrections both have negative elements and I feel when someone witholds that information they are giving somewhat false information. Now some of us might be lucky enough to spend our whole tours without witnessing violence, using force, or seeing a fellow staff member hurt on the job or worse. Sad fact is most of us won’t be that lucky. If you are then I envy you, mine has been anything but calm running the gambit from fights, stabbings, staff injuries and even death. Just like when i signed up for my military tour, the recruiters never tell you about the “horrors of war” that’s something your forced to learn from the vets and first hand. Same with corrections, nobody really prepares the new jacks for the negative that can happen. Corrections can be and is a risky job, to treat it like anything else is untrue and down right dangerous to everyone involved.

leorising, I must say I’m confused over the nature of your post. While yes all the things you’ve mentioned are possible a good “unwind” plan is very important. I for one enjoy my down time in various ways and find that in my time off I don’t even think about what goes on inside the wire. Working in such an occupation isn’t for everyone and it would seem it isn’t for you. I don’t shame anyone on that, but thats just fact. Not everone is cut out to be a CO, cop, soldier etc. Just like I’m not cut out to be a social worker, banker, editor or other such occupations. I do suffer from anxiety and the like from PTSD yet I don’t let it effect my job or my family. Fixing a problem means being strong enough to admit it’s there in the first place, understanding why, and taking the correct steps to fix said issue. Giving inmates mental control? This only happens if the person in question lets it happen. Inmates may “expect” to get treated with specialness, but what the expect and what they get are different things. Once again this falls back on the person and the golden rule of corrections, “fair, firm and consistant”.

Sorry for the long post. I’ll get off my soapbox now.

Leorising. That is a very pessimistic outlook, I have been in the Job for 15 years. I dont have High Blood pressure, I dont have anxiety and I never treat any inmate as “Special”. And as for their friends on the outside. I give them no heed. Watching your back becomes second nature and you do it without even thinking about it. And under no circumstances have I ever found it difficult to remain professional. And I have worked in the roughest toughest parts of our prison. It’s a Job. You don’t take it personally. When I enter the through the prison gates at the start of the shift I put on my “Game face” until I walk out the gate at the end of my shift and I leave the shit behind me. It sounds like that is something you are unable to do.

For any person who thinks they might want a corrections career perhaps I can give another opinion. If you are trying to be "John Wayne, save the world, make wrongs right, or, change things in general, I would suggest NOT going into law enforment, the military or corrections. You will worry about the well-being of your family constantly. It will keep you in a constant state of very serious anxiety, professionally as well as privately. Most people get high blood pressure from the job stress. You will be constantly watching your back. You will worry about the person “sitting next to you”, so to speak. Why? Inmates/criminals have friends on the outside. I assure you, criminals do not sit back and contemplate their past behavior. I could tell you story after story, but I won’t. What most C.O.‘s do is end up giving the inmate/criminal mental control; which does not have spoken. It will be immediately understood. Whoever does try, I wish you well. Just remember: Inmates/criminals EXPECT to be treated with specialness. (This can not be underestimated.) If you don’t, or even if you act as “well-trained and desaplined Officer”, chances are you will be in a dangerious situation. It is EXTREMELY difficult to remain a professional in corrections. I wish you well and good luck.

From one Irishman to another, you simply call it as you live it. Sometimes Irish your way of speaking simply emphasises your point and I don’t think it can be said any better. We all have to rely on our brothers and sisters to watch our backs, to be our spotter. That takes a tremendous amount of trust and comaraderie that is earned. More so than those that work the streets in my opinion (not to take anything away from police). Joy keep in touch, we are praying and watching.

I know I come across rather brash from time to time but I really do have good intentions. I’m someone who just says how things are in my eyes, no sugar or padding offered. Granted my views don’t always apply to everyone, I might not have an award winning manner, and I’m sure not much for the softer side of things. So even though I’m a bit of an “ass” I won’t intentionally steer someone wrong who asks for help.

That being said it isn’t important if we all hold hands and skip though the spring flowers, It is important that we all go home safe.

Squeeze, shakeyjake and Irish, you guys are the best, with support like yours from Joy’s fellow jailers, correctional officers and/ or LE she cannot help but succeed, AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!