Sioux County, Iowa — This week, May 3rd through the 9th is National Correctional Officers Week. A week set aside to recognize correctional officers, from county jails to federal prisons, for the professionalism, integrity and strength they exemplify in the face of a difficult and often dangerous work environment.
We wanted to know exactly what it is that correctional officers do at facilities here in northwest Iowa. We talked to Sioux County Jail Commander Davis De Jong, and he says it all starts when an officer brings a prisoner to their facility.
(As above) “Our correctional officers do anything from, we do in taking of arrests, booking individuals in. That also involves searching, and the questionnaires and a lot of our questions nowadays, we have a bunch of mental health questions that we ask in order to kind of make sure that inmates as they arrested are gonna be safe, so safety is huge.”
But De Jong says the correctional officer’s duties extend far beyond the intake process.
(As above) “We have two full time kitchen staff that cook the food and the officers distribute food, and they distribute medications, making sure they get their medications on time, and we’re all first aid, AED, CPR certified and are there for any emergency situations with inmates.”
He says his correctional officers deal with the inmates, one-on-one, on a regular basis.
(As above) “We are dealing with inmates hourly, we do hourly checks on the inmates and walkthroughs and they’re actually under twenty four hour observation anyway cameras but we walk through there and during that time we are always interacting with them.”
De Jong says Sioux County Correctional Officers are also the people who conduct prisoner transport.
(As above) “We have certified transport officers within the mix of correctional officers, and they bring them to court, they bring them to medical appointments which includes all of them we’ve done eye, dentist clinic, all of them. and they also are doing transports for the federal marshals.”
Commander De Jong had high praise for his correctional officers, and the job they do.
(As above) “The correctional officers here at Sioux County do a great job. I put out an email to them saying that, because it’s true. They’re good with diversity and change and they just they really care about the inmates here. Problems arise with inmates and sometimes it’s mental health or you know physical health and they’re right away bringing it to a sergeant or supervisor’s attention and truly showing that they care that that the images taken care of.”
De Jong says the fact that his correctional officers truly care about the jail’s inmates is not lost on the inmates, and leads to a much less tense environment at the Sioux County Jail.
