Rehumanization: Correctional Officer Story Anthony Gangi
Growing up, I didn’t have family in law enforcement who influenced me to be a CO. When I started working, I was a waiter and wasn’t making the money I wanted, so I looked into Corrections and the initial pay was good, with great benefits. I jumped on the opportunity and began my career in […]
Rehumanization: Correctional Officer Story by Chamelle Johnson
Growing up, I didn’t have the best of things. I was raised in a single parent home and money was tight. I had my mom, two older sisters, and one younger brother. In school I always tried to be a part of the popular crowd. Throughout high school, I didn’t really take advantage of educational […]
Rehumanization: Correctional Officer Story by Keith Hellwig
I’ve worked with a number of agencies, but chiefly with the Wisconsin Department of Corrections, where I was employed for 36 years and retired as a Captain. For 23 of those years, I also worked as a police officer on the streets. Now, even though I’m retired, I continue to work as a patrol officer […]
Rehumanization: Correctional Officer Story by Gary York
I was in the Army for ten years, where I served in the Military Police, and when I got out I became a Correction Officer in the Florida State prison system and Investigations for 28.8 years. Being a CO is hard, many people can’t handle that job. My brother has been a street cop for […]
Rehumanization: Correctional Officer Story by Betsy Miller
I began my CO career at a detention center in Connecticut. We received new intakes that the police just arrested, had a unit that housed trustees who worked with DOT every day and housed inmates to be transferred to the county jail awaiting sentencing or transfer to the Prison. We had large numbers of substance […]
Rehumanization: Correctional Officer Story by Brian Dawe
I started as a state correctional officer at MCI Norfolk medium-security prison in Massachusetts in May of 1982 and left the department in 1998. In 1988, I helped co-found the Massachusetts Correctional Officers Federated Union, and served on the executive board for nine years. During my tenure, I started connecting with the officers around the […]
Rehumanization: Correctional Officer Story by Andy Potter
I began my career as a Correctional Officer in the late 1980s working at the Michigan Training Unit. I also worked at a maximum-security facility called Oaks Correctional Facility and then I transferred back to the training unit. Currently, I serve as the executive director for the Michigan Corrections Organization. I’m also the founder of […]
Rehumanization: Correctional Officer Story by Jerome
I started my Correctional career at the federal detention center in Brooklyn, New York, where I worked from 1994 to 1997. From there, I went to the U. S. Immigration and Naturalization Service, which is now known as Immigration Customs Enforcement, as a detention officer. I worked there from 1997 to 2000. Next I went […]
Rehumanization: Correctional Officer Story by Luis Soto
I started working as a Correctional Officer in 1991 when I was twenty years old. I was struggling to pay for college during my first year at Montclair State University, and I saw a posting for the officers’ entrance exam being given at the Northern State Prison in Newark, New Jersey. I took the exam, […]
Rehumanization: Correctional Officer Story by Kyle Julian Diaz
I worked for two years at the Arizona Prison complex in Tucson. During my time there I worked at every custody level including level five, where half the inmates were from the general population and half were seriously mentally ill. I’d been in the Marine Corps before moving to Tucson, and I found that, being […]
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