CLEARFIELD – While correctional officers are acting as a voice of authority inside jails, they are ensuring the safety and welfare of inmates and their fellow staff, according to Frank DeHaven, a CO with 20 years of service at the Clearfield County Jail.
Correctional officers disrupt violent fights between inmates and assaults on staff to ensure order. They also help with the rehabilitation of inmates by arranging for them to attend educational classes, drug and alcohol classes, church services, etc., plus any court proceedings, he said.
He said the jail houses 152 beds with a population that consists of some with an unpaid traffic ticket to suspected drug dealers and pedophiles. “It’s a city in there. We are the police and fire [crews], doctors, nurses and janitors” he said.
DeHaven said correctional officers interact with visitors from the general public who can cause an equal amount of turmoil as the inmates. “People don’t realize how something as minor as an ink pen or pencil can be made into a weapon,” he said.
“We are just there to do a job, to make sure all the inmates are taken care of and all of our staff members go home at the end of a shift.”
For him, he said it’s hard and very saddening to watch young kids come into the jail on drugs. He said it’s even harder to see the kids who come in, “get cleaned up” and then return to jail for repeat offenses.
DeHaven said correctional officers regularly deal with people coming in to detox from alcohol. “You have some people who are talking to deceased family members or hunting groundhogs. I wish I could show them a video so they could really see the effects of alcohol on them,” he said.
While dealing with the various conflicts that come with the job, DeHaven said correctional officers strive to ensure order inside the jail. “We’re a small jail,” he said. “If you get two or three guys bouncing off the walls, it can really stir up the whole population. We face the same problems as the big prisons.
“We can beef up security as much as we want, and they’ll find a way around us. It is a real cat and mouse game sometimes. But we treat all inmates with the same respect across the board. We have rules and rules are rules; our No. 1 priority is to keep everyone safe.”
During his 20 years at the Clearfield County Jail, he would like to think that he and his fellow COs have seen it all. “Every day is different in there though,” he said. “I’ll go to work tomorrow night, and it’ll be something completely different. I’ve always said I’d write a book, but no one would ever believe it.”
DeHaven said being a correctional officer has taught him a great deal about life and made him feel fortunate to have his family and upbringing. His job also has a great reward when “you see someone on the street, and they come up to you and say, ‘hey, thank you’ for helping me out while I was in there.”
National Correctional Officers’ Week started May 3; it is being celebrated through Saturday. The CCJ has approximately 33 COs on its staff, said DeHaven.
In 1984, President Ronald Reagan signed Proclamation 5187 to create “National Correctional Officers’ Week.” The first full week in May has since been recognized as National Correctional Officers’ Week to honor the work of correctional officers and correctional personnel nationwide.
In 1996, Congress officially changed the name of the week to National Correctional Officers and Employees Week.