Prison Guard Safety
Prisons are an unusual situation. Prison guards (also known as correctional officers or detention officers) work with assault perpetrators and even murderers on a day-to-day basis. Many prisoners are able to create innovative weapons out of supposedly harmless items. Prison guards are often targets that prisoners try to take their frustrations out on. Many methods have been developed to increase prison guard safety and prevent injuries.
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Danger
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Prison guards are injured every year by prisoners, and have an exceptionally high rate of non-fatal injuries compared with other occupations. Many prisoners that prison guards work with are violent offenders and are often not afraid to use violence against the guards, especially in the event of an attempted prison escape. However, prison guards can remain safer when proper safety procedures are followed.
Reward System
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Prisons try to reduce the amount of violence carried out against prison guards by giving prisoners early release from prison due to good behavior. Prisoners are also given an increasing number of other privileges such as the ownership of more possessions and more visits and opportunities to leave the prison while supervised in order to participate in programs. In contrast, prisoners who behave aggressively toward prison guards receive fewer privileges.
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Data
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Assaults conducted on prison guards must be noted and analyzed in order to keep track of prisoners who are higher risks to the prison guards, and in order to also develop better methodologies for handling violent prisoner offenses.
Separation
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Prisoners are often separated by the severity of the crime that they have committed. This allows prison guards to have stricter safety procedures in order to be able to manage prisoners who are high security risks. Larger numbers of prison guards can also be concentrated in more dangerous areas in order to more effectively manage violent confrontations.
Weapons
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Many prison guards have been killed by unconventional weapons such as toothbrushes, according to the National Criminal Justice Reference Service. Prison guards must be able to identify unconventional weapons by determining their potential to become weapons.
Researchers have redesigned everyday items like razors to make them more difficult to use as weapons. The handles are made out of special polymers that cannot be melted down, making it difficult for the handles to be made into sharp points.
Some objects cannot be made completely non-lethal, like brooms. But they can be made more lightweight so that the broom becomes an ineffective weapon. Controlling which objects prisoners have access to and regularly searching prisoners can further reduce the use of weapons.
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References
- Photo Credit prison wire image by robert mobley from Fotolia.com
