Blog 16 The Pathways to Becoming a Correctional Officer

Men and women can agree that as children, they never saw themselves on the path towards becoming a correctional officer. In fact, both parties are usually CO’s by pure chance and are motivated to join in this line of work for similar reasons. The routes they take to get there, however, are quite different due to the deeply sex-segregated labor market. Most men come from professions that are highly masculine gendered and continue to follow this path of gendered occupations. For women, however, the opposite is true.

For one of the men in Britton’s study, his interest in working in corrections began with a strong interest in law enforcement and the military. He joined the Army Reserves and later the Army Police and found that he enjoyed working in the law enforcement side of the military so he joined the corrections unit and found his niche. This connection from military to corrections is common for men because 44% of correctional officers come from a military background. For them it is a natural progression since the work structure of the military is similar to the work structure in a correctional facility. Also both professions are highly masculine gendered; the military is known to be the place where boys “become men”.

This is why the relationship between previous work experience and becoming a corrections officer is so different for women than men. The majority of women from the Britton’s research, 37%, had occupational backgrounds in clerical or secretarial work that are highly sex segregated. Women make up 77% of all administration support workers and 99% of all secretaries. Not a single man in her study reported previous work in a clerical position. A secretarial job is highly female gendered and attributed to the belief that women have strong intrapersonal skills, manual dexterity and a high level of patience for tedious tasks. The gendered path from a female-dominated occupation to a male-dominated occupation is quite unnatural and a stark contrast to the males experience.

Most males and females find themselves working as correctional officers by word of mouth or chance. This indicates that social networks play a role in job opportunities and these too are gendered. For example, the African American woman corrections officer heard about employment opportunities at the local prison from a female friend of hers. She suggested she apply for the job as a secretary and she got the job. Later on she was informed that she could work overtime by guarding cells. Although she was apprehensive at first, she found she would be trained on the spot and ended up really enjoying her new position. The men, on the other hand, are influence by their gendered, military social networks who inform them of chance open positions while waiting to find other positions as Military Police.

The motivations for men and women to become correctional officers are all usually similar. The first motivation is of course the high level of monetary compensation and broad qualifications. Positions as correctional officers for the state only require a high school diploma or equivalent and 3 years experience in related felids, which could be one of twelve. The second motivation would be the excellent benefits of government jobs; good health insurance, paid vacations, and retirement. The third motivation, applied especially to women, is that becoming a correctional officer requires the same experience as other female-dominated jobs but offers twice the salary and better benefits. This is especially pertinent for single moms or recently divorced moms because single parent households encompass a fourth of the households in poverty.