Reconciling Custodial and Human Service Work: The Complex Role of the Prison Officer

Expectations of prison officers' work in policy and in academic literature have become more complex in recent decades, with an increasing emphasis on the need to bring together security roles with human services components of the work. However, staff working within prisons face the daily challenge of working closely with prisoners, who are both subjects of community opprobrium and citizens with complex needs and high levels of volatility. The officer is placed at the centre of this dilemma. This article explores the way these challenges are being resolved in three Australian prisons through the conceptualisation of prison officers' work, and reports research that explored with officers and other staff their understanding of their roles. The article describes the diversity of approaches to conceptualising the work of the prison officer and resolving the competing demands of custodial and human services roles and the influence of the particular prison and the length of time in custodial employment on the resolution of this challenge.