Possibly, but they don’t exactly hire the best and the brightest to be jail guards. It’s a crappy job.
When I worked in NY State Corrections, the crappy part of the job was having to deal with policy and procedures written by high paid bureaucrats in Albany, who had never worked a day in a prison. And working with politically appointed Superintendents, and Deputy Superintendents, many of which had either never worn a uniform, or had forgotten what it was like to be a blue shirt. They were too busy being trying to keep their jobs by placating the people in Albany that had appointed them. We always felt we were one step below an inmate when it came to Albany.
It was my experience that the powers in Albany, were more concerned with waxed floors on the units, than they were if the inmates were doing drugs, or making and carrying weapons.
The inmates on the other hand were easy to deal with. If they misbehaved, you threw them in a cell, and wrote them up. Many of the supervisors I worked with (I was a Sergeant), didn't have the balls to say "no" to a convict. As a Sergeant, I'd be approached by inmates who would come to me with a request. If they hadn't already spoken to the unit officer, I'd tell them to go back and talk to him/her. When they weren't happy with the answer they got from C.O, they'd come back to me whining that the officer had said "no," and I'd tell them, "Well then, that's your answer," and I'd send them on their way. The inmates were no different than kids, who try to pit their parents against each other, to see which one is going to give them their way.
I can't tell you how many times after an inmate was taken off a housing unit, and admitted to the box (Special Housing), that the facility would get a call from his mother, wanting to know why her son was put in the box. One of his buddies on the unit would usually call the guy's mother, to let her know what had happened. The only thing they'd be told is to call in the morning, and speak to someone in the Counselor's office about it. The job paid well, had good benefits, and gave me an excellent pension. But it wasn't the type of job where you could go home, and feel like you actually accomplished anything. That's why I went back to college, and got my batchelors degree and worked on my masters. I never used my education to change jobs. By that time I had too much time, and seniority in the job to go anywhere else. I retired in 2003...one of the lucky ones to live long enough to retire.