We always want to encourage managers and administrators to think about the organization as if it were a private company and the administrator is the CEO. It is generally accepted in corrections that not everyone who applies for a position as an officer has exactly the qualifications, attributes, or temperament to be “best suited” for the role. While some dismiss this concern as irrelevant based on the routine of the job, many other correctional administrators and leaders realize that to move any agency, facility, or program forward you must have a cadre of top performers and the requisite number of steady, adequate employees. Increasingly, county, state and federal correctional organizations realize the workforce is best when it is diverse.

The employees are stakeholders too; get them involved! Share your vision of quality for the agency with the employees. Look beyond the starting wage of other criminal justice agencies in your region to determine what you need to do to attract the employees you want and need. How do we successfully attract Hispanic, African-American, female, and other employees? In other words, how do we attract employees period? Do we create barriers? Do subtle barriers exist that are in our proverbial blind-spot?

To get employees, the right employees, takes planning. A labor market that is tight and competition sharpen the focus on effective recruiting. We often have no lack of applicant's for positions in corrections and criminal justice. They come to our doors constantly with all manner of motivations and the most diverse array of prior experiences. A discussion of issues about current demographic and workforce trends and how these should provide guidance in formulating a recruiting strategy in your particular geographic area would benefit most agency leaders. What specific strategies are needed to effectively recruit women and racial and ethnic minority employees? Are there barriers such as child care, transportation or economic considerations?

We all want to establish an optimistic scenario of a planned, focused, recruiting and hiring process that culminates in ready-to-go trainees. Do you remember the feeling or a specific event involving your first day or days on a new job? Can we do better than that? What about as you tried for that first promotion or lateral job assignment? 

As an instructor of criminal justice and a doctoral candidate at the University of West Florida in Pensacola, Florida and a retired law enforcement and corrections officer and administrator of twenty-five years, I hope, through research, to expand the knowledge we currently have about how and why Hispanics and other groups make career choices, specifically with regards to entering criminal justice agencies in the United States. The data gathered from a new survey and questionnaire will be analyzed and the results will be used to, hopefully, assist Hispanics, African-Americans and other individuals in making career choices related to law enforcement and to assist law enforcement agencies in effectively recruiting Hispanics and others into the profession.

*For information about the survey and research call (850) 857-6413 or e-mail rhough@uwf.edu if you have any questions or need clarification about the study. To begin the survey, click here: http://survey.uwf.edu/cutl/cops/cj_career.htm