Correctional Officers as Parole Officers

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Abstract
Developed largely in response to prison overcrowding, Alabama's Supervised Intensive Restitution (SIR) program provides for the early release of selected inmates to the community under the supervision of correctional officers. Focusing on job stress, burnout, and job satisfaction, the perceptions of these quasi-parole officers were compared to those of two samples of institutional corrections officers and to those of a sample of probation/parole officers. Results showed that this natural experiment in job enrichment had an exceptionally positive impact on the SIR officers. Even though the program was designed as a control strategy, the SIR officers reported high levels of satisfaction regarding assisting offenders; on some measures, these quasi-parole officers had significantly more positive scores than the sample of probation/parole officers. After dealing with the issue of a possible Hawthorne effect, several implications of the results for correctional policy are offered.

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