associate general counsel

administrative services

paralegal assistant

correctional officer

teacher

Tennessee Department of Correction

Easy job if you work on the women’s side or at night. If you work day shift on the men’s side, prepare for the worst. Violent, cussing, whining, and crazy inmates who are bored or high will ruin your long, 12-16 hour day. Most convicts are respectful and often friendly. But, in this environment, things can change in a heartbeat.

My biggest complaint is the management is poor. They negotiate with the inmates instead of disciplining them. The rules are not enforced, therefore the regular officers have to suffer the consequences. Also, when prisoners get too violent and start fires or fights, your unit manager and higher ranking officers may decide to go home in the middle of a shift.

There’s such a shortage of staff, that it’s really too unsafe for anyone. Also, there’s a step down program that allows violent offenders to enjoy open population privileges. Of course, this has led to officers being assaulted to the point of hospitalization. 

Until the warden gets good people at management level and proper control, things won’t change. The prison has to be run like one. 

The gangs should never have control of the phones. An entire gang should never be housed together. Inmates are not to be begged or negotiated with. All inmates should have what they’re supposed to have. (Electricity and water in their cells, all of their property, their weekly phone time)

I enjoy my job and I like my co-workers. Management here is not that great because they only look out for what makes them look good. They don't take concern in the well-being of their employees. They overload everyone here instead of hiring more people to do the work. This has caused a lot of people to quit and in this job you can't really afford to be without experienced workers. New employees have to go through a 6 week academy before they can carry a caseload and that makes it more difficult on the current officers who are already struggling to maintain their caseloads. The hardest part of my job is having to do the intake for 3 major courts which includes seeing every offender that is placed on probation and completing their beginning process before they see their actual officer. I do all their paperwork to include doing a risk & needs assessment on each of them individually and making their referrals for classes, as well as, collecting DNA from the felony offenders and sending it to TBI. All the intake for each offender is supposed to be completed in 1 day. So, it's a little hard to meet my goal when I have more than 40 new offenders each month. The most enjoyable part of the job is having co-workers that know what you go through on a daily basis and who keep you encouraged.

Management hounded employees to get numbers, numbers, numbers instead of supervising offenders as they should have been. Doctoring up monthly numbers was rampant and a culture of mistrust, backstabbing and mismanagement was a way of life. Managers would encourage and require numbers that were impossible to get if you were properly supervising assigned offenders. Managers frequently doctored numbers to make sure they were always within required parameters. Senior Directors and other Senior managers and Directors on District levels and above were adversarial and unbecoming to their officers and pushed impossible requirements for ineffectual policies and offender supervision requirements. Numbers were more important than the proper supervision of offenders. Officers couldn't do what was needed to be done to supervise offenders because of ineffective rules and regulations that kept coming out of leadership who had no actual idea of what was happening in the field and in offices. Managers who actually did their jobs were frequently berated in front of other managers during meetings or conference calls for not meeting number requirements for a month. Not a good place to work.

The primary purpose of the Agency is to administer Tennessee's unemployment insurance program.  Unfortunately, we do not do this very well.  Neither claimants nor employers can get through to resolve issues.  After many years of fighting to fix these issues, I have decided that it is time to move on to the private sector and take my knowledge of the unemployment insurance program on to help employers.

The management of the Agency does not understand nor seem to care to fix the issues.  My co-workers are generally frustrated because they want to do a good job but there are not enough of us and the system is so overwhelmed that every person who finally gets through is upset.  The hardest part of the job is continually apologizing for the lack of access.

The most enjoyable part of my job is being the expert on state and federal unemployment insurance law and having everyone come to me for advice on problematic claims and what federal and state law says regarding certain issues.

This is the worst job I have ever had. You’re locked In with the worst people in the world, they hate you, and that only gets worse if you do your job correctly. It puts your life in danger, and your families, they will find out where you live, what you drive, etc. The command rarely cares about you and makes impartial decisions, they will absolutely give you orders that go against policy and then throw you under the bus when it goes wrong. Its a very, very, very deep good ol boy system. The people with the in crowd will get away with whatever they want, there are almost no consequences for the inmates when they do things like S A. The entire command structure cares more about saving face and playing politics than actually doing a good job and keep their officers from unnecessary risks while maintaining good discipline with the inmates. You absolutely will get assaulted at some point for probably something stupid like you didn’t open a door for the inmate against policy because they wanted you to for whatever reason. Just don’t do it, it’s not worth it and never could be they way they are running them now. That’s it, period. I did this for over 5 years because I had to, not because I wanted to.

Medical department is contracted out to a company named Centurion, AKA: MHM Services. Present leadership has less than 3 years nursing experience, 6 digit salary, but has no clue what she's doing. You are not promoted based on experience, skills or hard work; unfortunately this is one of those places where its who you know who you  ( familiar quote ) or how much your willing to kiss ( another familiar quote ).  Its high stressed and understaffed. Very few are willing to do a little extra so many are forced to over work to compensate! Fowl language is free flowing and acceptable.  Patient care is secondary to the almighty dollar. Did I mention you get great pay! The ONLY reason 90% of the medical staff stays! The other 10% secondary to time already spent there and hope to be able to tolerate it long enough to retire. This facility is only 1 of there contracts and it is the same at their other facilities that I filled in for secondary to being unable to staff appropriately.

I did enjoy working there at first. But as time went on I found out that no one has your back and no employee moral at  all. You never get your releaf on time most of the time your held over every day you work. And some staff has been forced to stay 20 +hours. Administration does not care about their employees at all. They only care about making themselves look good. And not care about the employees like most jobs do. When I worked for the Dept of Correction's in a different region it was run so much better and administration had your back and cared. They worked with you. In this area in Nashville they aren't like that at all. That's why there is such a high turn over in this area. I am very disappointed and was not happy there anymore I left to go work with a more reputable company. It is steady work and benefits are good. But when you need time off no one wants to work with you.

There's a power struggle going on between lower administration and higher administration. This leaves the foot soldiers or lowest ranking people at a disadvantage. They are tossed like ponds in a chess game. There's no sense of team or any sense of good morale.
If you are not in a click it is hard to be appreciated or go up in rank. I am too old to be a correctional officer without rank who is more mature and more knowledgeable about the system that those put over me.
No one is concerned about good work efficiency. The fact that you come to work everyday, is not even a plus, as a result it is hard to keep good morale.
The hardest part of the job is to be put with young hot heads who want to fight with inmates and write it on paper as though they where forced to in order to get a war story. Then there I am in the middle to prevent the officer from getting hurt by an inmate who has life or worse, he is twenty five years old and just figured out he dose not get out for twenty years. So what dose he care about the new guy who wants a war story. He wants to help him out.

My typical day on the yard was providing security supervision for Custody Level 1; Minimum through Custody Level 3; Medium supervision of detainees/inmates depending on CCA contract in their day-to-day. Posting included armed escort, transportation, security to hospital, visitors and facility security with routine conducted searches of inmate’s belongings, and unit checks. Maintain a required updated weapon certification for posting. Written log report regarding duties and observations. I've worked at four Eloy Arizona facilities in almost four years time; Eloy Detention Center, Red Rock Correctional Center, La Palma Correctional Center and Saguaro Correctional Center. I've learned safety and security, how to use my weapon, an teamwork. I have pride my follow officers and the job they do. Management had it's moments. Hardest part of the job was the overtime especially if your in school or doing a practicum as I was. The most enjoyable part of the job were the officers I came to know.

The benefits at this job are good and provide a sense of stability, which I truly appreciate. Having reliable benefits makes a big difference in feeling supported and secure in the workplace. However, the biggest challenge I face is the supervision. Unfortunately, poor communication, lack of support, and inconsistent leadership make the work environment more stressful than it needs to be. Supervisors often fail to listen to concerns or provide clear guidance, which affects morale and overall job satisfaction. This disconnect can make it difficult to stay motivated, even when the work itself is manageable. While strong benefits are important, effective leadership plays an equally critical role in employee success and well-being. Without supportive and competent supervisors, the positive aspects of the job are overshadowed by daily frustrations. Improving leadership and communication would greatly enhance the workplace experience and allow employees to truly benefit from the positive aspects the organization offers.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Associate general counsel 8 salaries reported	$8,250 per month
Administrative services 3 salaries reported	$4,568 per month
Paralegal assistant 2 salaries reported	$4,548 per month
Correctional officer 3 salaries reported	$55,583 per year
Teacher 1 salary reported	$45,000 per year

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