A day in the life of a correctional officer

WINSTON COUNTY, Miss. (WCBI) – Correctional officers are the front-line of safety inside and outside of jails. 

Recently, we’ve reported several inmates escaping from area jails.

When that happens, it often comes back on the jailers, shining a light on the challenges they face every day on the job.

About twenty correctional officers work these halls at the Winston-Choctaw County Regional Correctional Facility.

“They really are in jail themselves twelve hours a day. It’s a dangerous environment. Shanks, drugs, you know, and their job is to keep that stuff out of there,” said Winston County Sheriff Jason Pugh. 

Those 20 men and women are responsible for nearly 300 state and county inmates.

“There are things in place that we actually do to make sure that our officers are actually counting inmates and are paying attention to detail because like, when those guys go in the yard, that’s an easy place to escape and you got a fence here, you actually have two layers, but the thing is, that’s an opportunity for them to escape, so that’s when we actually really watch,” said the facility’s chief of security, Terrence Watt.

Watt has seen it all.

He’s retired military and started as a correctional officer fives year ago.

Now, he’s chief of security.

“It’s our job to find the things that these guys aren’t issued, you know. We actually give them everything they need. Food, shelter, clothing, etc. and again, they’ll find stuff like cell phones, tobacco, you know, illegal drugs, stuff like that and it’s our job to actually find it.”

The officers are responsible for watching over all types of offenders.

“It’s a very under-appreciated job a lot of times, because when we take a guy in off the street, obviously he can be intoxicated. He can be on drugs. He can cause us a lot of problems and then we drop them off at the jail and then when we drop him off at the jail, then those folks have to take care of him from then, until his court date, and then, until he makes bond.”

Keeping inmates safe and healthy is an important part of the job, but Watt says the main goal is to make it home at the end of every shift.

“He’s a good guy and you know, he could have had a bad day. Bad news from home. Son got injured, or he wants to go home actually and leave, so we actually have to stay on our toes and we can’t get complacent because if you get complacent, you could get hurt or you could get killed.”

Sheriff Pugh says the average pay for jail employees starts at around nine dollars an hour.