How Satisfying is Prison Work

Abstract Academic and popular literature typically depict employment as a correctional officer as “dirty work” that is brutalizing and dissatisfying. By contrast, available survey data suggest that most officers perceive prison work as satisfying. The present study attempted to assess these competing positions by investigating levels of job satisfaction among a sample of southern guards and by comparing these results with data drawn from a national employment survey. The analysis revealed that, while most guards express satisfaction with their work, the level of officer job satisfaction is lower than that of any other occupational category. This finding, however, is specified by educational status, with college graduates manifesting little satisfaction and those with the least education having satisfaction scores above the national mean. The paper concludes by arguing for the utility of a comparative occupational approach in the study of correctional officers.