Factors influencing incarcerated offenders’ perceptions of correctional officers in South African correctional centres

Abstract

This article reports on an empirical study that examined incarcerated offenders’ perceptions of correctional officers in selected correctional centres in South Africa. Broadly, correctional officers require the voluntary compliance and cooperation of incarcerated offenders to realise the goals of the custodial institutions. But the perennial incidences of violence, abuse and brutality, and other forms of misconduct by correctional officers toward incarcerated offenders are inimical to the actualisation of such goals. Using a sample of 315 male participants from a cross-sectional survey, this study assessed whether experiences of abuse and brutality, social distance and corruption predict incarcerated offenders’ perception of correctional officers in South African correctional centres. The findings of this study corroborate broader attitudinal research findings in institutional corrections, and indeed in criminal justice studies. It points to the effects of abuse and brutality, and corruption in eroding confidence in correctional officers, decreasing the ratings of their procedural fairness, and their overall effectiveness or performance. The implications of our findings for appropriate policy implementation are discussed.

Keywords

• incarcerated offenders
• correctional officers
• correctional centres
• South Africa