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I am a correctional officer at a local jail.

The first, and arguably most important, responsibility is to watch over the inmates. I need to make sure they are safe, they are in the places they should be, and they are doing the things they should be doing. Most of the other responsibilities are determined on where I am stationed for that particular shift.

There are four different stations. They are master control, booking, housing and a-pod posts. The master control post is when I open doors, answer phones, and do hourly counts. The booking post is when I take care of intakes and releases. I fingerprint, take pictures, and ask all of the necessary questions to the inmates that come into the jail. When I'm stationed at the housing post, I look over the side of the jail that holds the more severe criminals. Jobs in this area require hourly rounds and reading mail. The a-pod station is for the general population. This station is for inmates with less severe crimes. I do hourly rounds in this area, as well as make sure that they are all safe, secure and they are where they need to be.

No, not really. That's one of my favorite parts of the job. When I go into work, I will most likely face a problem that I have never dealt with before. Sometimes, it will be incredibly slow, while other times, the eight hours will just fly by. I am charge of doing cell searches every day, but again, no cell search is like the previous day.

There isn't a certain situation that I could pick. There are a lot of major problems that I face; most of the time they have something in common. We will get a lot of people that have abused alcohol and/or drugs, especially being so close to a college town. There are times when the inmates are fighting each other, or they are fighting the police that are bringing them in. For example, prisoners have spit on or yelled at the officers, while others have tried to escape. They will try to kick and spit at us while we are booking them into the jail. We need to be careful because the safety of others and ourselves is our number one concern. Some of these people that come in are pretty big and could cause a lot of problems.

My job is very important in that we are assigned a lot of security issues. For example, when prisoners come in, one of our jobs is to frisk them and say we miss something, i.e. a knife. As soon as the handcuffs come off, we are faced with a huge problem. One example that I've seen was that a prisoner got through frisking with marijuana and we found out later that they had been smoking in the jail. Just the other day, an inmate stole another inmate's cigar and was smoking in the jail. If I miss something, I could create a bigger problem then just out of control inmates; my personal safety would then be at risk. Anything could be turned into a weapon, so I need to make sure that I take care of all of those issues.

I get along really well with my coworkers. We all share a very unique sense of humor. Sometimes we need this humor, because there are times when our job is very stressful and humor is a way we take the edge off. Everyone on my shift gets along great. Even if you have differences with a coworker, I know that they have my back if the situation called for it. We are almost like a band of brothers.

I have a pair of black of boots that I must wear at all times. We also have a 511 tactical, which is an Army-issued uniform. It is a khaki pair of pants with a black top. We also have a turtleneck that is required November through April. I also wear a duty belt, which holds our OC spray, our handcuffs, our radio and our keys.

I didn't set out to be a correctional officer at first. My real dream job was to be a police officer. My stepdad was a police officer for 33 years, and he used to come home and tell amazing stories. I started doing ride-alongs with him when I was ten years old. The reason this job sparked my interest was that I knew I would not be sitting behind a desk everyday. I think the correctional officer is at the bottom of the food chain, but I am able to learn so many things from this job. I have learned that there are good ways to talk to criminals and there are bad ways to talk to criminals. I have talked to murderers and child molesters on a daily basis, and I have learned to identify their habits and their reasoning for doing these things. I am using this job as a learning experience until I become a police officer.

Right now, I really like working in the jail. My supervisors have told me that if I keep doing a good job, there is a chance for me to become a supervisor, too. Right now, I am still unsure whether I want to become a police officer or continue working in corrections, because I really enjoy what I do.

There are actually two people that I've worked with in the jail that have become deputies. A lot of people use the jail as a stepping-stone to get to where they want to be.

The longest any one person has worked in our jail is seven years. The average is probably close to two or three years before people move up or switch positions.

There are three different shifts in my jail. The first starts at 7:00 a.m. and goes until 3:00 p.m. The second starts at 3:00 p.m. and goes until 11:00 p.m. The final shift starts at 11:00 p.m. and goes until 7:00 a.m. I work the third shift. I get to work around 10:30 p.m. or 10:40 p.m. We get there a little early to get our shift briefing from the officer so we know what is going on.

Correct. I get my shift briefing from the officer that I am relieving, and then I start work.

In our contract, it says that we are not allowed to have a scheduled break. There are some days when we will lockdown the inmates for an hour so we can eat. There are some days when I look up at the clock and see that it's six in the morning and I haven't eaten anything. It really depends on the day. I realize that if it's a busy day, chances are I won't get to eat.

The nights of the week and the weather are the two main factors. Sunday nights are usually the slowest, because no one is doing anything. If it is cold and snowy out, there's a good chance that we will be slow. Thursday through Saturday nights are the busiest. People go out to the bars, which results in a number of public intoxications and driving under the influence. There are some nights where we do not get anyone in, and then there are some nights that we get 15 people in.

The average starting point is around $30,000 per year. I started off at $33,000. I will max out after seven years at $37,000. After that, you get a three percent cost of living increase. Supervisors at my job start around $50,000 per year.

There isn't any monetary reward. The rewards are usually just centered on personal examples. Most of my supervisors are good at telling me when I do a good job, but they are also good at telling me when I need to do better. I just like the self-gratification of knowing that I am doing a good job and that I am safe.

My schedule is very unique in that I work six days on and then get three days off. I really like this because I always have different days off. I don't always want to have Friday, Saturday and Sunday off; I like having a variety. Personally, it almost feels like I have four days off. On my sixth day, I get off at 7:00 a.m. I tend to stay awake the whole day, because I want to get on a normal sleeping pattern. Working six days in a row usually flies by really quickly.

We can do a minimal amount of traveling. There are extraditions in which I go to another jail in another state. I went to Chicago earlier last summer on an extradition, and I have been asked to go to Dallas, Arkansas and Miami. There are normally around ten extraditions each year, and each extradition has its own officer in charge, but each extradition has to have at least two people.

At first it changed a lot, but after two years, I have gotten used to it. People that call me during the day have no chance of getting a hold of me because I am sleeping. On my workdays, I get up around four or five in the afternoon, and I get done the things that I need to get done. The next thing I know, it's nine and I need to get ready for work. On my six days that I work I don't see a lot of my family or friends. I reserve my three days off for spending time with my friends. I try to get a lot of my important things done during my three days off, because I don't really have time to do anything on the days I work. It was hard initially, trying to plan around everyone else's schedules, because they all work during the day and sleep at night, whereas I am used to being up at two in the morning.

We get two weeks vacation after a year of working with the jail. Each pay period, I get 3.5 hours added towards my vacation time. Since we are a 24-7 business and we are open on holidays, we are given 10 personal days a year. If I work any overtime, we can add it to comp time, which can build up to forty hours or five extra days off. Currently, I have 10 personal days, five comp days and 80 hours of vacation time.

I really don't know if there is a satisfying part. I really like working, but when I think of 'satisfying.' I think that I have done something good. Sometimes I don't think I am doing a good enough job, because I am seeing the same people over and over again. When I see that, I think that I'm not changing anyone; I'm just holding him or her in jail. Everybody that comes into my jail says that they promise they are going to change, but realistically there's a good chance I will see them again. It's easy to say you are going to change when you are in jail, but the real test is when you get back to being on your own.

It's very frustrating when people don't learn their lesson. I've only been there two years and I've seen 10 people there four or five times. There are some people's files that look like novels because they have so many citations. Another frustrating aspect is when we get really busy. It is so hard to get thirty or forty drunken people in the same place while trying to get them settled down.

I realized that this was at the bottom of the ladder in terms of where I wanted to go. I needed to do the best I could at this job to show my superiors that I will do the same type of work, no matter what my job is. I needed a positive attitude in order to keep my head in all situations. Looking back on my first day now, I never knew how much fun I would have and how much I would enjoy my job. I look forward to going to work every day, and I am very happy with the decisions I have made so far.

No, not at all. I really enjoy what I do, so I don't think anything that I haven given up could be considered a sacrifice.

In most counties there is jail, the exceptions being the smaller counties. We employ 35 people. I couldn't even guess the number of people working in the bigger counties. In the smaller counties, there may only be two or three people working at the jail. Our jail is big enough that we are required to have at least five people on at all times. There are around 85 jails in Iowa.

Our salary has gone up a little bit over the past year, mostly due to the success of our union. The economy has the biggest effect on our buildings. Our buildings are built solely on government money. The government also gives out the money we get for our supplies. If we need anything new, we need to make sure that we have enough money to plan out our expenses. When we built the jail that I currently work in, the county ran out of money. They had to put the jail on hold until they could get enough money from the state government to start building again. The taxpayer's money has a direct effect on not only my salary, but also the quality of supplies that I use to do my job.

My job is something that I was not able to practice before I got into the situation. One thing I really should have spent more time learning about is communication skills. We don't carry guns, so we need to be able to use conversation to reason with unruly inmates.

I wouldn't persuade anybody. A person needs to have a reason for what they do, and if this job sounds interesting to them, I would more then recommend it as a profession.

It is a different thing everyday. I never have to sit behind a computer for eight hours a day, 40 hours a week. I get to have hands-on experience on a daily basis. I am able to meet great people that are on the same path that I am on. It is great pay for the work that I do, and the benefits are great. Our superiors are knowledgeable and fair to us, and that's a very important thing for me.

The first one would be great communication skills. We stay away from violence as much as possible, and we need to be able to speak to a variety of different people. If you can't use words to get to the bottom of a problem, this job probably wouldn't be a good fit. The person also needs to be in some sort of physical shape. I'm not saying they need to be the strongest person alive, but you need to be able hold your own against an inmate if they get out of line. General common sense is also another very important quality to have. I take pride in my ability to tell when someone is lying to me, and I think that is a very important tool to have. I also pride myself in my self-restraint. A lot of these inmates will do things that you may not like, but no matter what they do, I need to keep my cool and bring the situation back down to a normal level. The first priority at work is safety, so I need to know all of the different ways to be safe in every situation I encounter.