Chelsey, Correctional Officer
Meet Chelsey, a Correctional Officer at Edmonton Institution, a maximum-security federal prison.
Video transcript
Hello, I'm Chelsey and I'm a correctional officer (CX2) at Edmonton Institution.
We have individuals who are incarcerated for crimes that put them at a max (maximum security), so it can be more dangerous, volatile.
We're always doing a threat risk assessment, so any time that we're doing a walk, which we do every hour, we are evaluating their behaviour. We deal with things like brew (homemade alcohol), so brewed up inmates. We deal with individuals who are high from different drugs that they were able to get in.
And then we deal with a lot of mental health in a max as well. And you have to think of all the different personalities of these individuals, all in a very small space. There's a lot of fight for power.
It's very controlled in a max, so we control the times that they come out of their cells. We control what they're allowed to have. We want to make sure that they are not tattooing, making brews, making shanks.
We have certain times that inmates are allowed out of their cells in groups. We call it behind barriers. And so during that time, we are very present and looking for the different behaviours, because a lot of times that's when fights occur.
This is a very team-based operation. You have to rely on your partners to follow law and policy, and also to have your back and to potentially save your life.
I feel like a lot of individuals think that it's like TV, so if you've ever watched a show on prisons or jails, it's not like TV. It's very different. It's its own little world. We deal with fires, hangings, slashings, volatile inmates, assaults, hostage takings, deaths.
And then we're also just trying to set a good example for inmates to emulate so that when they cascade down or get out, they can become members of society that aren't going to further commit crimes.
I am proud to work at CSC (Correctional Service Canada). I think that it is a job that often gets overlooked in terms of our protection of society, but we deal with the worst of the worst in a max, and I'm proud of what we do.