Women In Corrections

I believe that women make the prison setting a more normal place to be. If you were a male inmate and only surrounded by male staff, that wouldn’t be representative of life on the outside. Same with a female inmate. If there were no male staff in female prisons, you might think you were in one of those all female worlds that you hear about in myths and legends.



I’m a librarian not a corrections officer so my relationship with inmates is a little different. I try to impart correct behaviors and social skills a little here and there. I recently told a “life without parole” inmate who told me he was rebellious, that soon he could “grow up and quit being rebellious” since he was almost 30. I try to act normal around them, using humor along with teaching them some work ethics and hoping to help them with self-esteem which is lacking in most inmate’s lives.



I told a nurse once that I was surprised how nice she was to the inmates during med-line. It wasn’t something I had seen much in my experience from nursing staff. She said that she figured it may be the only nice treatment that they received from staff. I agreed. We all are taught that we are not there to punish the inmates. The punishment is incarceration. I believe we are role models and Oregon has a great idea with their Oregon Accountability Model idea. For those who may not agree with rehabilitation, I think you would agree with trying to curb recidivism. I think that women staff in prisons are a great asset. Yes, sometimes they get in trouble, but so do men. I really enjoy my work with inmates.