The Forgotten Cops
What would the average citizen if it were proposed that police officers be assigned to a neighborhood which was inhabited by no one but criminals and those officers would be unarmed, patrol on foot and be heavily outnumbered? I wager that the overwhelming public response would be that the officers would have to be crazy to accept sun and assignment. However as you read this, such a scenario is being played out in all area of the country.
We are correctional officers. Not guards (who are people that watch school crossings). We work at minimum, medium, and maximum security Correctional facilities. We are empowered by the state to enforce its penal laws, rules, and regulations of the Departmen of Correctional Services. In short, we are policemen (and women). Our beat is totally inhabited by convicted felons who, by definition, are people who tend to break laws, rules, and regulations. We are outnumbered by as many as 50 to 1 at any given time on our work day and contrary to popular belief, we work without a sidearm. In short, out necks are on the line every minute of every day.
A Correctional Facility is a very misunderstood environment. The average person has very little knowledge of its workings' Society sends its criminals to correctional faclities and as time passes, each criminals crimes fade from out memory until the collective prison population becomes hordes of bad people being warehoused away from decent society in a place where they can cause no further harm. There is also a notion that prison inmates cease to be a problem when they are incarcerated. Correctional facilites are FULL of violence perpetrated by the prison population against the prison population and facility staff. Felonies are committed daily but rarely reported. They are called "unusual incidents" and rarely result in criminal prosecution.
Discipline is handled internally and, as a rule, the public is rarely informed of these crimes. In the course of maintaining order in these facilities, many officers have endured the humiliation of having URINE and FECES thrown at them. Uncounted correctional officers have been kicked, bitten, stabbed, and even raped in the line of duty, all whaile being legally mandated to remain their Professional Composure and refraining frm any retaliatoin which could be the basis for dismissal from service (not to mentions Lawsuits).
In addition to these obvious dangers, correctional officers face hidden dangers in the forms of HIV, Tuberculosis, Hepatitus B and C. Courts are now imposing longer sentences and the prison population is increasing far beyond the systems desigated capacity. As the public demands more police on the street, governments everywhere are cutting the police in prison where violence reihns supreme, jeopardizing all those working behind the prison wall.
Although you will never see us on "911", "Cops", or "Top Cops" we are law enforcement professionals. We are "The Forgotten Cop", hidden from public view, doing a dangerous beat, hoping someday to recieve respect and approval from the public who "We Silently Serve".
