Correctional officers have more responsibilities than in the past and their duty is no longer to merely watch over the prisoners. They now have to play several roles in keeping prisoners in line. They have to be "psychiatrists" when prisoners come to them with their problems and they have to be "arbitrators and protectors" when inmates have complaints or problems with each other, while still watching out for their own safety. In these situations, the wrong decision could offend someone and start a riot. This makes correctional officers "prisoners" of the daily emotional and physical moods of the inmates. Also, when looking at the atmosphere and environment of a state or federal prison, it would seem obvious what correction personnel like least about working there: surveys of personnel who resign or quit show that their biggest problems are with supervisory personnel rather than inmates.

When describing how dangerous a correction officer’s job is, it first must be established what kind of prison they work in on a daily basis . There are three basic types of prisons where corrections officers work and each present a different level of danger to their personnel. The first and probably safest for an officer is what is known as minimum security. The authors Fox and Stinchcomb, in Introduction to Corrections, describe minimum security as a type of prison with very little external security, usually only one exterior fence and no towers and outside patrols. In fact, the cells are more like dormitories and might resemble a college campus. The officers working in such an institution probably have the easiest time in controlling their inmates since most prisoners assigned here are nonviolent and first time offenders serving short sentences. Minimum security prisons are also used as pre-release or parole facilities.

The second group are medium security prisons, and they are quite a leap from minimum security. Medium security has stronger perimeter security that might have guard towers or booths. The interior, unlike minimum security, is made of cells and has such security measures as closed circuit television, alarms, and locked gates to prevent prisoners from entering specified areas. Although the prisoners here are considered less dangerous than in maximum security prisons, officers must still handle them with caution. Prisoners assigned here have committed a variety of crimes, but they have been judged not dangerous enough to be housed in maximum security prisons. Even with this classification, we have to be careful in the liberties given to these inmates, because classifications are made not only by crimes committed, but also on space available in other prisons and expediency in terms of the courts.

The last and most dangerous type of prison is maximum security. This is where the worst and most uncontrollable inmates are housed. In this type of setting both exterior and interior security have high priority. The outside perimeter might have more than one layer of fencing and such security measures as armed guard towers, searchlights, and electronic detection devices. Interior security focuses on knowing where a prisoner is at all times. Movement in these institutions is tightly watched, visitation is limited and carefully scrutinized, and inmate counts are taken several times daily. Even with such security measures these facilities are not safer for the officer, since such tight and extreme measures often make inmates more frustrated and thus more dangerous.

Another major problem that endangers an officer as well as the prisoner population in general is the number of inmates. The United States now has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. Again according to Fox and Stinchcomb, in 1991 "the total number of state and federal prisoners had reached a record high of 823,414, representing a 150% increase over the previous 11-year period." Most prisons are said to be operating at 116% of what should be their "highest capacity." With these problems comes a change in the attitude of the average prisoner which in turn affects correction personnel in their daily duties.  When many inmates are doubled up, when non-living facilities are turned into types of dormitories and some recreational areas are taken away to make room for living quarters, inmates start to become frustrated. In these situations violent acts start to escalate, while sanitation and health risks also start to become a problem. Homicides, suicides, and inmate assaults start to rise, while incidents of infections and sexual diseases as well as psychological and psychiatric problems occur. Officers are having a more difficult time keeping control of the prison population with this overcrowding problem and procedures may become confused or chaotic.
While prison are overcrowded and prison personnel are struggling to find room for what seems to be an endless number of new incoming inmates, prisoners are more organized when it comes to their activities. "A development of a inmate hierarchy, which can get illegal contraband such as drugs and weapons as well almost anything a prisoner might desire, has been in place for decades," Jill Smolowe points out in a 1992 Time article. With inmates in a situation of overcrowding under strictly enforced rules and regulations, but with access to weapons and drugs, overall prison safety is at stake. Although most of the frustration felt by prisoners usually is taken out on their fellow inmates, a correction officer trying to break up conflicts can have the situation turn on them in a heart-beat.
Corrections officers control inmates to the best of their abilities, but it would be foolish to think that they have total control of their prisons. There is also what is called "inmate control," where the heads of specific groups in prison help keep other inmates in line in exchange for certain inmate privileges. In the past, inmates were given many jobs and responsibilities for maintaining not just some type of order, but jobs that were essential to maintaining the prison’s daily routine. After many of these prisoners took advantage of their situation for personal gain and to get other prisoners to owe them favors, part of their duties were given to civilian workers.  Although the maintenance of order by prisoners is still being used in most prisons, it is an informal inmate control. Most prison wardens would probably say for the record that they do not promote inmates disciplining or keeping other inmates in line, but off the record they agree that it is essential to prison order. Sometimes prison officials have to look the other way when it comes to minor prison violations for the greater good of prison order and to keep prisoners helpful when they might need assistance with other major problems. Although prisoners have a code to keep each other in line for the administration in order to get certain privileges, this only happens when they have something to gain-otherwise, they resent the administration most of the time.

Along with the code the prisoners abide by to get extra privileges, they also have a code that they obey which often goes against the administration. This code is even more strict and when it is broken prisoners are treated in an even more harsh manner. From Fox and Stinchcomb, the five basic rules in the inmates’ code are: "do not get involved in an other inmate’s business, do not argue with other inmates, do not use fellow inmates for personal gain, stay strong, and do not trust the guards." Although prisoners do not trust the correction officers, they do not consider them their worst enemy. What inmates detest most are informants. As an example of this, in a riot that occurred in a prison in Santa Fe, the inmates broke into the protective custody wing of the prison and killed several informants, but no correction officer was killed.

Probably the most dangerous infiltration into the prison system over the past few decades are prison gangs. This problem has changed the subculture of prison life from inmates versus the staff to prison gangs fighting each other for supremacy.  These gangs are separated along the lines of racial, ethnic, or religious groups. The gang problem began spreading when state prisons with gang problems started transferring gang members to other prisons, which resulted in creating gangs in the other prisons. A survey from Illinois, taken in 1989, showed that between 80 and 90 percent of Illinois inmates had street gang affiliations, most of which are transferable into prison gangs. These gangs were originally formed for self-protection, but when they realized what kind of power they possessed in the prison they decided to organize criminal activities. A well organized gang can get control over such illegal activities as gambling, sex, and drug transactions as well as being able to direct these activities on the outside from prison. What makes prison gangs so dangerous to the administration and correctional officers is their ability to mobilize large groups of prisoners to commit violent acts for any reason.

When large group of inmates mobilize, what usually comes next is a prison riot, usually unpredictable and likely to happen without any warning. Riots often begin with a purpose to bring attention to the plight of the inmate and the type of situation which they have to deal with on a daily basis. This is a nightmare situation for the correctional administration as well as the correctional officer. When a riot begins, tempers flare, prisoners are not thinking rationally, and this is a situation in which the officer can get hurt. What a riot represents is a loss of power: in the normal scheme of things, administration has control and the inmate very little say in things-in a riot situation the inmates have a voice and everybody has to listen to what they have to say. The time after a riot has taken place may become the most dangerous part of the situation. This is when the administration must take back control and statistics show that the majority of riots are brought to an end by the use of force. Officers are usually at the whim of the inmates with such advantages as inmate to officer ratios, inmate solidarity, and gangs and their control of illegal activities.
Even with all of the officer and inmate problems and dangers, most officers say their biggest problems are with the correctional administration. With the problems that correctional officers are facing in today’s prisons, there is now a "new breed" of officer to try to counter the more violent criminals that are pretty much being developed in the prison environment. "These new correctional officers are more diverse in race, ethnicity, gender, are of a younger age, and have higher educational credentials than the officers of the past," according to Gabris T. Geralt in Public Personnel Management. Now that more younger minorities with higher education are starting to get into these positions there is more chance of change. It has been shown that the previous generation of corrections officers had much the same ideas as their employers and did little to make changes in correctional procedures.  Younger, more educated personnel seem to push the administration more to make changes from the old ways which do not seem to be working.

Since today’s correctional officers are not satisfied with going with the norm and change usually comes slowly, the turnover is about 25 percent annually, which is a high rate. Since a police officer’s job is just as dangerous yet their turnover rate is about 9 percent, it can be argued that the problem is with administration rather than problems with the actual inmates. Not only does the environment of working in the prison make officers feel a prisoner, but the actual occupation also does in terms of low pay, slow advancement, and poor administration. The most common reasons that departing personnel give for leaving are shift work, few incentives for good work, poor promotional opportunities, and problems with their supervisors, such as poor relations, lack of support, and unfair treatment. These kinds of problems are what scare off good, qualified young people from going into corrections and staying in this field as a career.

Considering how dangerous and complicated this field of work is, it is essential that well qualified people are placed in positions, but until this field is recognized as a good place to work the recruitment process eliminates very few applicants. It does not make sense at this point to eliminate people who wish to work in this field, even if they are not what might be considered highly qualified. With the turnover rate so high, the qualification standards must be kept low in order to fill the numerous vacancies being left by departing employees. That the qualifications might not be of the highest standards does not mean that the training given is inferior when candidates are chosen.

Most states have mandatory training programs that all officers must go through before starting their position. With all the legal issues that inmates are constantly bringing before the courts, it is necessary to train these officers not only to defend themselves physically, but legally as well. They are given several hours of classroom orientation which must be completed before they go on the job. In the past officers were also required to receive orientation, but could go on the job before it was completed. It turned out that once they began their jobs, most of the time they could not be spared to finish their training as mandated. When officers have been on the job for a while, they learn that prisoners do not challenge them physically as much as legally.

Offenders are constantly filing lawsuits either to claim damages for abuse done to them or to get practices changed by claiming they are in violation of their civil rights.   This litigation can be civil or criminal or both. In a criminal liability case against an officer, the inmate is claiming that the officer did something that was against the law and overstepped the officer’s authority. Even if the officer is not found guilty of doing anything criminal, an inmate may still bring a civil case against the officer. In most cases, the suit is actually brought against the prison or state, which has the ability to pay a greater monetary award. The suit claims that the state is vicariously liable for the actions of an employee because the employee was improperly trained or the employer was negligent in supervision. Most of these claims are unfounded and baseless; in hopes of preventing other such claims, the state files a counter suit.   Prisoners also file suit not for monetary damages, but to change existing policies. For inmates to protest a specific rule or regulation used in a prison, they often sue for violation of the constitutional amendment which guards against cruel and unusual punishment. If the courts side with the inmates on this type of lawsuit, it brings changes to every prison in the country in federal cases.

Finally, the last and least discussed item that affects a correction officer is stress.   There are two types of stress that affect officers in their daily prison routine. The first is episodic stress, in which a traumatic incident happens to or is witnessed by an officer. Although most people might believe this is the most common stress, it does not have long term effects. Since these situations take place so quickly that the officer barely has time to react, the incident is short-lived. These incidents also affect a such smaller number of the correction staff than the other type of stress known as chronic stress. Chronic stress is what affects most corrections workers, it is what they encounter every day over years of working. Examples include the way they fight the system throughout their careers to get favorable changes while nothing happens, or just the boredom of doing the same thing over and over again.

The job of a corrections officer is almost a thankless one, and not much attention is paid unless something goes wrong. Between the dangerous inmates they guard and the strict administration that governs them, they are almost like prisoners themselves, although they are the thin line separating criminals from law abiding citizens.