Prison guards have a complex job managing public funds, ensuring public safety, and running a complex institution that can house thousands of people. They are trained as both correctional officers and administrators and need to provide services such as medical care, education, and rehabilitation programs. The job is challenging and potentially dangerous, requiring flexibility and a sharp mind to handle ethical, moral, and legal issues.
A prison warden oversees the operations of a prison. Prison guards have a complex job because they are responsible for managing public funds, ensuring public safety and running a complex institution that can house thousands of people, all with needs that need to be met. Working in this field can be very demanding and tiring, as well as potentially dangerous.
Prison guards are trained as both correctional officers and administrators. Some come from corrections backgrounds, starting out as officers and moving into prison administration. Others approach the position from the position of administration and management. Approaches often depend on how prison guards are hired. In regions where they are appointed, they tend to have more administrative skills, while in regions where they apply for office, they generally come from the ranks of correctional officers.
As prisons are paid for with public funds, one of the main jobs of a prison warden is using those funds properly and responsibly to run the prison. Prison guards need to house, feed and clothe prisoners, and they are also expected to provide services such as medical care, access to education, psychiatric care and opportunities to engage in rehabilitation and reintegration programmes.
Unlike other populations that need to be taken care of, prisoners are also dangerous, which makes the job of a prison guard significantly more difficult. Guards need to think about how spaces in a prison should be allocated and they should be able to respond to emerging issues such as gang violence, or newly admitted prisoners with a controversial background that could create a security issue. They may also run programs such as prisoner work teams, in which prisoners carry out work within the prison or in the local community, and these programs can be challenging for a prison director to operate safely and effectively.
A prison director also needs to deal with the prison staff, including guards, janitors, cooks and so on, hiring people where appropriate and handling discipline as necessary. Security issues in a prison add a level of complexity to managing people in a prison that is not seen in other environments.
Although a prison warden has historically been portrayed as a grim person with cold, hard justice in mind, prison guards need to be very flexible, and are generally highly educated and idealistic. Running a prison can be like running a business, but it is also fraught with very serious ethical, moral and legal issues that require a sharp mind at the helm to ensure the facility is run properly.
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