Desert Waters Correctional Outreach

As CO's we often wonder what Ethics has to do with us. After all, we work in a prison; why should we even care about ethics? The ones we keep watch over certainly did not care. Why in a prison should ethics matter? Isn't that the chaplains job? I think it matters because inmates watch us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our fellow officers watch us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Our fellow officers do because whether we want to acknowledge it or not, we work in teams. How we relate to each other is a matter of ethics. It is fundamental to being a human being. So, yes, even in prisons ethics matter; it matters even more here than in any other job in America.

Ever hear the terms "Fair, Firm and Consistent"? Think that phrase does not go to the core of ethical behavior?

Consistent. To me that means I apply the rules to everybody: inmate or officer; to the staff on the tier, to the office personnel, to the adminstrative staff, to the tier porter; Black, White, Hispanic, Asian, Protestant, Jew, Muslim, Buddhist; I apply the rules equally to each and every one. I try as best as I can to apply the rules consistently, across the board.

Firm. Even in those situations where I feel uncomfortable, where a fellow staff memger was weak and fell down and broke a rule and I have to own up to it, I must be strong in my conviction about being consistent. Every time I interact with an inmate, there are a group of inmates watching. In fact, they watch us 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In a sense, the tier is a stage and we are the actors on it. They are looking for that moment when we are weak. Some watch us to exploit our weaknesses. They are looking to see if we are weak every time in that situation. They may even create a situation that is similar just to see if that is our weakness. But as a correctional officer, I have to be firm. I can bend, I can have my moment of weakness, but I have to return to that sense of firm as soon as I can. I have to maintain that sense of professionalism in order to be effective.

Fair. We are human. It is hard to be fair. There is the inmate who is always helpful. There are those inmates who get short changed through no fault of their own or anyone elses. But we must be fair. We must treat everybody equally. The only thing that an officer has going is the officers word: can you be trusted to do the right thing. And inmates and fellow staff know what is the right thing. When the system fails and fails in a major way, that is what may save an officer. The inmates will remember that this officer was fair, even when the officer did not need to be.

Fair. Firm. Consistent. When we go out onto that stage, we model for inmates ethical behavior and what is the right thing to do.