Well what to say about a career in Corrections. Well to start, I have been doing the job for approximately 4 years now and am having the time of my life. The only thing that kills me is the drive to work which takes about an hour and a half (one way). Currently I am assigned to a Housing unit which houses half Protective Segregation Inmates and half General Population Inmates. I straight tell my inmates what's up. Sometimes I do not give all the story just because sometimes you need to get the inmate to do something where you are not putting yourself out or your partners out on front street.
The department as a whole is discouraging, but I look at it this way, atleast I have a job and I know that the officers I work with will back me 100% and I would do the same for them.
I have talked to a lot of street cops where I live and some actually came from corrections and some look at me as if I am crazy. They tell me that they would never do something like that because we do not have guns on our duty belts. Our department does not allow us to carry OC or impact weapons. The only place in our institution that wears a vest is the lockdown unit (Adseg Unit). However we have shotguns in our houseing unit, shotguns and a mini 14 in all of our gun post and towers. There are some spots that do not have gun coverage, but basically we are covered at all times by a gun. I have already pulled my housing unit shotgun twice last week and my partner pulled it again today to cover me against an inmate attack.
In my institution, there are approximately 1700+ inmates and maybe 40 officers on at a time. Talk about making your A**hole pucker when something goes down....I love this job........

could never do it for life, im going to patrol.