An analysis of the attitude of correctional officers toward inmate educational programs in Oklahoma's minimum, medium, and maximum security institutions /

Abstract

Parametric and non-parametric tests of significance were used to test the hypotheses for significance. A t-test was used to test HO(, 0). An analysis of variance procedure was used in testing HO(, 1). The non-parametric Spearman rank order correlation coefficient was chosen to test HO(, 2), HO(, 3), and HO(, 4). The hypotheses were tested at the .05 level of significance. In each case, the results were statistically not significant. The researcher accepted the null hypotheses.

The problem of this study was to answer the question: What are the attitudes of correctional officers toward inmate educational programs in Oklahoma's maximum, medium, and minimum security prisons? Attitudes of correctional officers were studied in relation to their gender, educational level, number of years employed by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections, age, and the security level of the institution in which they are employed.

An extensive review of current literature pertaining to rehabilitative and treatment programs in correctional institutions was performed. Special attention was given to literature related to the role of the correctional officer in the rehabilitation and treatment of inmates. An opinionnaire was developed to collect demographic and attitudinal information from correctional officers employed by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. The population for the study was limited to the 1,270 correctional officers employed by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections. A sample of 20 percent (254) of the population was chosen to participate in the study. A total of 212 (85 percent) opinionnaires were returned and validated for statistical analysis.