Federal Canadian Correctional Officer Training: An ethnographic analysis

• In Event: Correctional Officer Training: Experience, Evaluation, and International Perspectives

Abstract

In this presentation, I speak to the content of a recently published book where I speak to the ethnographic experience of participating in three stages of the Correctional Officer Training Program (CTP) offered by Correctional Services Canada. In the volume, I present how officers are socialized, trained, and prepared (or not prepared) through training. I reveal the content and context of the training program, the role of values and ethics, the socialization process, the co-response model, the challenges of discretion, the gendered space, and the lessons of training and then speak to my unexpected experience of working three weeks in federal women’s prisons in Canada. The ethnographic data is based on full immersion in uniform living in dorm, but also includes thematic analysis of content, field notes, and reflection. I include recommendations of international value for correctional officer training and identify context and content needs.

Author

• Rosemary Ricciardelli, Memorial University of Newfoundland