THE ROLE OF CORRECTIONS

Lizotte has seen a lot during her 15-year career. Many prisoners enter the system suffering from mental-health issues and substance-abuse problems. A correctional facility must have a staff that is committed to helping people rehabilitate.

The men and women who work on the line in corrections do not call themselves “guards;” they are correctional officers. Lizotte’s staff often take on roles as counselors, referees, and sometimes even parents giving guidance and direction.

“Staff are not looking to punish. They want to help,” Lizotte says.

“Corrections is not what you see on TV,” Greer adds. “Our facilities are modern, clean, and productive.”

“Corrections is not what you see on TV.”

The job as a prison warden is to first give the prisoner what is due to them by the law, such as shelter and food. But after those needs are met, Buchanan says, an official’s job is to build on those basics so that prisoners can take advantage of their second chance at life after their release. That can be difficult when the turnover is quick.

“We need to remember that these are people who will go home and will work and live alongside us,” Buchanan says.

NEW TACTICS AND SECOND CHANCES

“I wanted to connect and network with other professionals in my field,” Greer shares. “Having the chance to talk to others who know the language and culture was appealing. … If you’re on a cruise ship and you meet someone who asks, ‘What do you do for a living?’, ‘prison warden’ is not what they expect to hear.”

“I didn’t realize how lucky I was until I got there,” Lizotte says. “Warden Exchange brings things down to the basics. The complicated things they make uncomplicated.”

Participants of Warden Exchange graduate from the program with individualized action plans to bring restorative change to their facilities and fulfill their legacies of building safer, more constructive, and more rehabilitative correctional environments.

“Doing business the old way doesn’t work,” Buchanan explains. “We have to do more. We have to find nontraditional ways. I’m blessed to have a director who allows me to do these things [like Warden Exchange]. He gives me the freedom to help people, rather than limit the facility to bureaucracy.”

“We are always trying to do the right thing.
We want to see the prisoners change their ways to be better off.”

THE MISSION

Greer sees the mission of a warden as public safety. “There are a lot of different ways we can do that,” he says, “[and] not just by removing people from society.”

“I’m making a safer community for my children, your children, and the prison population’s children,” Lizotte shares. “If I can do that for my kids, then I’m doing that for the prisoners’ children as well.”

“We are always trying to do the right thing,” Buchanan adds. “We want to see the prisoners change their ways to be better off.”

“I tell [the women], ‘You don’t look good in prison green. You need to go home and get some new colors in your wardrobe,'” Lizotte says. She pauses and then adds softly, “I don’t think [our] officers get enough credit.”