Too Young to Guard? New York’s Controversial Move to Lower the Age for Corrections Officers

Hannah Weaver: State Democratic leaders have agreed to Governor Kathy Hochul’s plan to allow 18-year-olds to work as corrections officers in New York’s state prisons. A job that previously required a minimum age of 21. The decision is part of the state’s $254 billion budget negotiations and follows a three-week prison strike in February that left facilities understaffed.  

Maud Yaïche: On the one hand, eighteen-year-olds are able to join the military. They’re adults. They hold jobs. On the other hand, if you have an eighteen-year-old at home, you might be thinking this is a teenager. I’m struggling to get them to make their bed or do the dishes.  

Weaver:  Maud, you’ve been reporting on what this change could mean, and what impact it might have inside prison walls. So, what did you find out?

Yaïche: So, I first spoke to a professor of criminal justice at John Jay College, Dr Kimora. She has been teaching prison guards for over a decade. I asked her what she made of the change and she had some questions for me.

"The question is, are they qualified? The question is, can they handle the stress? The question is, do they have enough education? Because at the same time that that will be going on, the credit load for somebody becoming a corrections officer if they're attending college has gone from 60 to 24. So basically what we have now are two things going on, the age going down and the amount of credits. So that means, as an educator, I'm concerned", Professor Kimora.

Yaïche: Regardless of age, Kimora says she’s concerned about anyone’s ability to do this job correctly with less training. But, she said, age does play an important role too. Psychologists will tell us that nobody's brain on the planet, doesn't matter how intelligent you are, is fully developed before you are 25 years old. 

Professor Kimora: So if somebody is hired to do a job that requires a lot of fast thinking, composure, etc., that might be a problem, if that makes sense. Because you and I look at something differently when we're 18 than we would at 25, because hopefully we've matured a little bit in terms of our information, etc., etc. And it's also how the brain connects inside. I don't need to give a whole spew on medicine, but that's part of it. I'm concerned about those two factors right there. 

Weaver: So, does she think eighteen is just too young? I mean, these jobs can be really difficult and involve high stress and even dangerous situations. 

Yaïche: Kimora is concerned, but she told me that training could be the key, even if the prison situation is difficult, dangerous and stressful. Corrections officers can learn empathy, ethics and to understand how to have the best response in a given situation. 

Professor Kimora:  Basically, corrections officers do two things. They are there for safety and security. That's it. They're not there to counsel. They're not there to do all these things that are not part of their job. But if they have enough education, they could at least refer an alcoholic, let's say, to somebody in the prison or jail to help. 

Yaïche: But I also spoke to Dr. Kimberly Collica-Cox, a professor at Pace University specializing in Criminology. She is more worried about this decision and is not a fan of having eighteen-year-olds take on these challenging jobs. She raised some of the same concerns — that a teenager may not be prepared or have the emotional maturity to make fast, split-second decisions. 

Weaver: Right, and we know there’s been a problem with decision-making on behalf of older corrections officers. There was just the case at Midstate Correctional Facility where guards were charged with beating a prisoner. 

Yaïche: Yes, of course, you’re right. But Kimberly Collica-Cox also raised another point. What kind of impact would taking this job have on a teenager? 

"And it's concerning to think about what might happen in terms of their own mental health, right? We're often concerned with law enforcement and the impact of things that they see on a day-to-day basis. You know, they are exposed to traumatic situations, and how might an 18-year-old be able to handle that?" Professor Collica-Cox

Yaïche: And she said that could have ripple effects which would undermine lowering the age requirement.

Professor Collica-Cox:  We could see high rates of burnout and turnover, which is not going to solve the staffing problem. They're going to spend money investing in someone who may not stay for the long haul and that's going to be an issue.

Yaïche: Ultimately Collica-Cox said she understands why the change was made. She says we know that the New York State Department of Corrections is understaffed. They've been dealing with issues and trying to recruit new staff and trying to maintain staff. She estimates that they’ve lost four thousand officers. Plus 2,000 that they fired during the strike. So it's left them in a very precarious position, right, where the safety of residents and staff is now a big concern. But she’s not sure that reducing the age to 18 is the way to handle that.

Cox thinks what should have been done is to talk to existing corrections officers to find out what they need to do their jobs better and hopefully retain more mature staff. 

Weaver: Maud, thank you so much.

Yaïche: Thank you.