Two counties house training programs in local high schools as officials pitch corrections jobs as gateways to criminal justice careers.
Nineteen-year-old detention officer Justtice Taylor of the Smith County Sheriff's Office, at the Smith County Jail in Tyler on Sept. 10, 2024.When Justtice Taylor began working at Smith County Jail last year, the inmates made fun of her, and her coworkers worried she wasn't mature enough for the job.“People were skeptical of me being so young and coming straight out of high school,” said Taylor, an aspiring homicide detective who was 18 when she was hired as a corrections officer.
But critics contend that teenagers lack the emotional maturity needed to work with inmates, many of whom are older and struggle with mental illness or substance abuse issues.“Criminals are crafty con artists, and 18 year-olds are naive,” said Thomas Washburn, executive director of the Law and Public Safety Education Network, a national nonprofit that focuses on career and technical education. “They don’t have the situational awareness and street smarts that you need.
Selected high school juniors learn how to investigate crime scenes, process inmates and de-escalate fights. The program launched this fall with six students, who DeAnda said are lured in by the prospect of earning $65,000 a year as a jailer as soon as they graduate high school.“West Texas is so driven by oil and gas,” DeAnda said. “So these kids come to us and say they have this other thing, criminal justice, that they are looking into and very interested in.
Taylor, who has worked in Smith County for close to eight months, said the experience of working in a jail has been quite different from what she imagined. Based on the true-crime television shows she had watched, she pictured jail as a scary place, filled with violence and chaos. In reality, she said, jail is a highly controlled environment, and her fellow prison guards are always ready to help her when an inmate acts out or has a medical emergency.
But that instruction is not sufficient to give 18-year-olds the tools they need to succeed as a jailer, some experts say. Ferrell said corrections is not for everyone. You must have tough skin, she said, and be aware of the challenges you will witness.
Texas Politics Texas Policy Texas Government Criminal Justice Texas Prisons Texas Department Of Criminal Justice Ector County Smith County
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