May 5-11 is National Correctional Officers' Week, more accurately, Correctional Workers' Week. Every certified employee in a correctional environment is an officer first, and a nurse, superintendent, case manager, food service worker, etc. We establish and administer policies equally regardless of whether the offender is a ruthless, remorseless brute, or a young adult who is basically good but fell in with the wrong crowd, possibly drawn by the prospect of the fast money and prestige offered by drug dealers. Corrections is an ever-changing profession.
Corporal punishment is a thing of the distant past.
Corrections, like law enforcement, and the criminal element itself, has become sophisticated. More than ever before, the correctional workers of today are college educated and well trained. Extensive background investigations are being conducted to ensure that correctional workers are of sound moral character. Our system, the North Carolina Division of Prisons, is designed so that inmates have available a positive, credible avenue to the executive staff when they have a complaint or grievance. Inmate medical care, food and educational opportunities are better than ever before.