May 7th through the 13th is National Correctional Employees Appreciation Week, when jail officers and other correctional employees are highlighted for their work.
It began as ‘Correctional Officers Appreciation Week’ in 1986, and was expanded to all correctional employees in 1996.
The Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office employs about 80 confinement officers that oversee the county jail 24 hours per day, assisted by non-officer support staff, said Vanderburgh County Sheriff Noah Robinson.
“So we have a staff that takes care of all the paperwork that involves processing inmates and prisoners in and out of the facility, making sure that the sentences are computed accurately.”
Robinson said there’s also kitchen and medical staff and hopefully with the new jail, mental health professionals, all of which are less visible than road deputies.
He said there will be lunches and dinners for officers and employees throughout the week.
Robinson said National Correctional Employee Week is important because it highlights the mostly hidden work of jail officers and employees.
“They oftentimes don't receive the same level of recognition that a uniform Sheriff deputy or police officer does.”
Most counties have a sheriff’s office which is also responsible for running the jail. There are also state and federal penitentiaries such as FCI Terre Haute and Kentucky State Penitentiary in Eddyville.
The Federal Correctional Institute (FCI) in Terre Haute employs 370 Correctional Officers and 333 other positions, according to the FCI spokesperson.
“Other positions” include administration, Correctional Programs, Education, Employee Development, Financial Management, Food Services, Health Services, Human Resources, Information Technology, Occupational Safety and Health, Psychology, Recreation, Reentry Affairs, Religious Services, Trust Fund and Unicor.
The FCI will host activities for employees and families throughout the week , including a memorial service for staff and retirees to remember those who gave the ultimate sacrifice in the line of duty.
Said the FCI in an email, “we protect public safety by ensuring that federal offenders serve their sentences of imprisonment in facilities that are safe, humane, cost-efficient, and appropriately secure, and provide reentry programming to ensure their successful return to the community.”
Robinson said his confinement officers interact with county jail inmates a little differently because in prison, inmates are serving a sentence.
In a county jail, there are low level offenders serving short sentences, but mostly pretrial detainees that might have been accused of murder.
“We have to be able to handle individuals who in effect have been judged guilty, but also are handling individuals who have not been found guilty yet,” he said. “And they are pretrial detainees. And so being conscious of the fact that this individual, in many cases, has not been found guilty and needs to be treated as such.”
He said the job of a confinement officer is also different because there are fewer high-stress incidents as a police officer or road deputy, but officers must also maintain a constant vigilance for safety in their everyday work, which can be taxing.
He said hiring enough deputies is still a challenge despite raises approved by the County Commission.