Over 21 years with NC state. I am currently a Lt. at a 1500 bed close custody facility. It is a tough job. The pay, although good for the area I'm in, still stinks for what we do. People talk about the benefits of a state job. Well they suck too with the exception of good vacation and sick leave earning and insurance for life. The retirement is good but we work for it just like everybody else does and because I'm in corrections doesn't mean I get any better benefits than a teacher, a DOT truck driver, or the clerk running the gift shop at the state zoo (and with the exceptions of teachers, I don't get a raise unless everybody else does too). The only real reward for us is knowing we do a job that most people couldn't do or more likely, wouldn't do.
Most people talk about how dangerous a police officer's job is, and it can be. You never know what kind of person you are dealing with at the moment but most of the people police deal with on a daily basis are basically good people. The few bad they deal with is only briefly enough to diffuse the situation and make the arrest. Once they have done something bad enough to go to prison then we have to deal with them. Unlike the police, everyone I deal with on a daily basis is a convicted felon. Murderers, rapist, child molesters, robbers, drug dealers, and gang members. We're surrounded by them constantly while at work. Somebody said it earlier. We're always out numbered and sooner or later, it's going to pop off.
Just last year we had a fatal stabbing of an inmate and a week with out an assault or at least a use of force is rare. Thankfully though, most of the violence is inmate on inmate due to gang power struggles and so on. That doesn't mean that staff doesn't get hurt though. Inmates are always waiting to take a shot. Staff respond to a code and are attempting to separate two inmates fighting and another inmate comes up from behind and assaults staff. I also know staff that have been assaulted severe enough that they can never return to work.
The best advice I can give you if you are certain this is the field you want is that no matter how friendly, nice or innocent an inmate seems, he's not. He will never have your best interest in mind. All of them are potentially dangerous. All of them are there because they have been tried, convicted, and found guilty by a jury of their peers of a crime worthy of imprisonment. They are not your friends and it is not your job to save them. Don't get caught in their web. You will get walked out the door or worse and they will still be there.
