Corrections officers contribute enormously to the maintenance of public safety. Corrections staffers must balance the needs of prison inmates with the demands of keeping the inmates safe, peaceful and productive - an assignment that requires utmost professionalism and dedication. COs work in some of the most difficult security jobs in the world, and they have to meet those challenges every day. And every day, corrections officers go home knowing that they have done all they can to keep our families and cities safe from crime and criminals.

Almost two million people are imprisoned across the United States. The role of the corrections officer has many facets: Enclose people with walls, restrict their movement and detain them over time. Encourage them to right whatever wrongs they may have done. Ensure their safety until their sentence has expired. Be prepared for some social dynamics that can occur only in prisons.

Change seems to be the only constant in the prison world. Staff changes, some inmates move, other inmates are released while others are brought in behind the prison walls. Governments periodically examine the effectiveness of almost every aspect of prisons and change policies on the basis of those studies. The personalities of inmates can also change a great deal over time. A prison initiate may become less resistant to authority figures over time. Others may go the opposite way. Working in prisons is never dull. Some criminals become different people when they are in prison. They may resist all help from corrections professionals at the beginning, but they may find something or someone that influences them to change. Often, we hear of inmates becoming very religious during their detention. Or inmates might discover vocations and educational talents that inspire them to focus on more constructive behavior. If the discovery leads to more cooperative and positively motivated inmates, then corrections professionals offer encouragement and whatever help they can while those inmates are serving time. The work of guarding such inmates makes the career very interesting and rewarding.

For all that, however, some basic realities of prison never change. Corrections authorities will always be considered by inmates to be different because they are guards, or teachers, or healthcare providers, or parole officers or kitchen staff. If we're in a prison and we're not a prisoner, we're on the other side. That perspective is also held by many guards towards inmates and, perhaps, the distinction needs to be strongly maintained in order to balance the lawful and unlawful forces within any prison. Some criminals never change. They enter prison and resist any person who is not a fellow prisoner. Corrections professionals can encourage the prisoner to straighten out, but in this case, they become a guard in the truest sense. They simply apply standard security rules to the prisoner. The routine work of guarding such inmates makes the career less rewarding. The threat of violence and personal injury are also a permanent factor of any career in corrections. Staff that work directly with inmates must always put security first: personal safety, the safety of other prisoners, other staff and, ultimately, the prison. With experience, corrections workers learn to detect the potetial for problems and can often respond before circumstances inflame and become dangerous.

Corrections work requires that professional staff be firm in some ways while being selectively compassionate and helpful at other times. It's a delicate balance behind the walls of a prison. If you're looking for a career in corrections, you may well become one of society's true heroes.