Perspectives of Correction Officers on Crime And Criminals And Their Relationship With “Power” And “Authority”

The criminal justice system in Turkey has always created its own agenda and has remained as one of the top interests of both social sciences and politics. Via this research, we have aimed to present a new perspective to the field by working with correction officers, who are actually one of the key actors in the field of criminality; but somehow have not been researched in-depth. Within the scope of the research, in-depth interviews were conducted with 12 correction officers from the three major cities of Turkey (Ankara, Istanbul, Bursa) and their opinions on the prison system, their profession and work life, their communication with prisoners, and the overall prison conditions/probation system/labor of prisoners were examined. At the end of the research, most of the participants stated that they performed their profession because they had to, they found the education they received insufficient, they tried to establish an authority balance in communication with the prisoners, they see their position in prison as isolating, they did not believe in the “remedial” function of the prisons, and they saw structural problems in the execution system. Prisons create a negative environment for both employees and prisoners, and the reforms do not solve the structural problems.