Why do people look at corrections deputies like they are not police officers?

Question

I hear all the time that corrections isn't "real" police work. Why is this? We deal with the same people in a lot closer proximity.

Answer 1

I am a police officer and I know a bunch of dedicated, honest, and brave corrections deputies, or officers, as I call them.  My father was one.  

The jobs are not completely different, but they are just by nature.

We, cops, bring the bad guy to the jail.  We had to face him in his ultimate chance of escape, weapon, no weapon, we did not know.  He did not know whether we were able to defeat him if he were to fight.  

Once in jail or prison, you guys have your code down.  They must know that you are in control every step; we have to sometimes let them feel as if they were.  We have to give up our safety to get the bad guy to your domain.  

You guys do a major job!  They have masses of bad guys, that you know are bad guys.  At least in the cop world there are many good guys mingled with the bad guys.  You know all of yours are bad, well we have to know that some are not due to the justice system convicting a very minute percentage guilty that were innocent.  

In sum, we both do a dangerous, dirty, and wonderful job.  We allow happy children to roam free, and beautiful ladies to shop till' they drop, and men to act like they can beat the world up, when we know they can't because we are there.  So, yeah, some will face deputies like they are less, but we have to know that we see the difference between ourselves and that people are just uneducated about those differences.  

Answer 2

You don't deal much with victims and public. Actually you deal with the worst parts. Job is harder but you don't get the glory from the public. You work in the shadow and keep those vampires from getting out. Just don't turn into one.

Answer 3

I respect those who work the jails, because I could never do that.

In Texas, not all CO's are certified police officers and therefore can't do the job I do.

We are all part of a 'team' that takes all of our jobs to make our community a safer place.

Answer 4

Probaby because corrections officers are not police officers...and not all corrections officers are sworn with all police powers.

Why does a corrections deputy want the public to look at them as being a police officer anyway? Do you tell people you're a cop or a corrections deputy?

They're similar, yet different jobs, each with their difficuly parts and dangers. Both are equally important.  

Answer 5

I've wondered the same thing once until I heard a Lieutenant from Texas once say that he felt people don't take "correctional officers as cops because what they do is behind closed doors, hidden almost, from not only the public eye, but from public critique as well."

Where some see the occassional police officer as a person on a "powertrip", corrections has been cited as a place for people on the "ultimate powertrip" from certain viewpoints.

There have been far too many movies and TV shows depicting correction officers are criminal if not worse than the criminals they are charged with guarding & protecting. Sadly, with the closure of several facilities and centers in the continental US under charges of drug distribution, physical abuse, rape, and torture, and the charges & crimes by US military personnel at the Abu-Ghraib Prison in last 4 years the public's viewpoint has been all too supported.

Best of luck in your endeavors.