Transitioning From My Career in Corrections: From Cell Blocks to Academia

How did I end up working in corrections? Growing up in a small town in western Massachusetts, I was an average student with no clear direction for my future. I attended a small state college 20 minutes from my house with zero aspirations of ever working in law enforcement. "Just find me a major with the least amount of math involved," was my only request to my faculty advisor. That request narrowed my choices to only a few options. I gravitated towards History or Political Science, with the latter winning out.

As a Political Science major, I took classes on subjects like comparative foreign policy and international relations. I was an active member of the Model United Nations Club. My college buddies were all taking, and struggling through, classes on crime in the city and prisons. Although my alma mater is known for its criminal justice program, I remember thinking CJ was a useless major. As I watched my buddies struggle through their coursework, I remember thinking, all that just to be a cop?

Little did I know.

In my freshman year of college, I set my sights on a law degree. But much like in high school, I was, at best, an average student who did just enough to get by. I remember enjoying the college experience but was by no means an academic. My post-graduate plan was to enroll in the University of Vermont's environmental law program. I really liked the idea of UVM, or, quite possibly, I just really liked the bars in Burlington that I had discovered on weekend trips to Vermont.

Shortly before graduation, I was out with several of my classmates, all majors in Criminal Justice. This was right around the same time that the reality of the cost to relocate to UVM was hitting me. I was starting to second guess my post-grad plans and my UVM dream. So, when my friend asked if I wanted to go take the Connecticut Department of Corrections test with them, it seemed like a good short-term solution. I didn't know then what the job entailed or how the field of corrections would change the trajectory of my life.

I took the test, and a few months later I was offered the job and started at the academy. One thing I distinctly remember from my first day was that I promised myself (about 8 minutes in) that I would only work a day past 20 years because I wanted to, not because I had to. This was when I realized that I needed a plan.

When I began my career, a majority of my co-workers had side jobs in the trades. They worked as plumbers, electricians, and landscapers. I remember thinking that was a great position for them to be in. At the time, a career in corrections was a "20 and out", so they worked as little OT as possible and did their side jobs for extra cash. They retired 20 years later with the pension, benefits, and their side businesses to return to. They were all set. I, on the other hand, had no marketable skillset to turn to. I needed to think long and hard about what my plan was going to be.

How I Ended up in Academia

Eventually, I went back to school for my MSCJ degree and completed it in 2000. It was there I had the great fortune of taking my correctional classes with Dr. Hank Deluca. Dr. Deluca would turn out to be my greatest professional mentor and a major force in my life. Hank had started in the New York State DOC after returning from Korea. While he was still on the job, he went back to school to obtain his associate, bachelors, masters, and doctoral degrees. Specific to corrections, having those credentials was unheard of at that time. This was my experience seeing what possibilities existed for me in the field. After taking my final comprehensive exam, Hank called me into his office. He told me he was officially retiring and moving south. I congratulated him, told him it was well deserved and wished him luck.

This conversation was the moment my professional life would change forever. I'll never forget Hank asking if I had ever considered teaching. I remember laughing and saying, "Do you mean as a professor? No! Hank, I'm just a CO." We both laughed but Hank went on to say he thought I would be very good at it. He wanted to recommend me to the chair of the CJ department to replace him the following fall. As Hank's replacement, I would teach all the corrections classes in the program. In hindsight and more to placate him, I agreed, assuming the conversation would end there. It did not. Two weeks later, I was offered an adjunct teaching position in the Massachusetts State College system.

I taught my first course in the fall of 2000, with absolutely no prior teaching experience. I decided that since I had no idea what I was doing, I would develop my own style. I tried to model the positive experiences from my best teachers and DOC instructors, while trying to avoid the characteristics of the worst. 25 years later, it appears to have paid off. I often think back to the first time I heard the phrase, "fake it 'til you make it" in corrections and realized what sage advice that was.

I immediately fell in love with teaching. I found it offered many intrinsic rewards that don't exist working in corrections. I continued in my adjunct role through 2010. I completed my doctoral program with a plan to pursue a full-time position in academia when I retired in 2014. Obtaining my terminal degree, while raising a pre-teen daughter, working full-time in the facility, and teaching in the evenings was about as miserable as it sounds. But I knew it was the best chance I had to be able to retire at my 20-year mark and start a new professional chapter in my life. I was determined to honor the promise that I made to myself 20 years prior, on that first day in the academy.

My efforts paid off and I completed my doctoral program when I retired in November of 2013. I spent the next six months completing my dissertation and was hired by Albertus Magnus College in August. There was no way that I could have planned that perfect timeline. I often think back on my dad's favorite quote to me, "The harder you work, the luckier you get." I believe that no truer words have ever been spoken.

Dealing with Retirement

I was hired by the CT Department of Corrections in October of 1993. I spent 3 months on a working test period and 19+ years doing the job. Corrections was all I knew at this point in my life. The entirety of my professional career existed inside the walls of the MacDougall-Walker Correctional Institution. My professional and personal identity was closely linked to who I was within the confines of the cellblock. So, you can imagine the shock I was in for when I retired. One day I knew exactly who I was, and then the next I was thrust into a completely new life. A new life I was expected to navigate with no assistance or help in the transition.

One of the primary goals of corrections is to provide an offender with the tools and resources necessary to reintegrate back into society after incarceration. I believe that agencies need to adopt the same goals for staff, beginning in the academy and continuing throughout their careers.

Given the low retirement age of correctional professionals, combined with the real possibility of a necessary or unforeseen early retirement, it is imperative that staff be prepared for the next chapter of life. These approaches include long-term plans, those that can be achieved over a longer period of time and short-term plans, those that can be achieved immediately. After speaking with many correctional professionals as I have over the last three decades, it always amazes me how many do not have these plans in place. Our careers are often routinely spent planning for the worst-case scenarios, with multiple contingency plans should things go wrong, but when it comes to planning for ourselves, so many have never begun that process.

My Experience Transitioning from Full-Time Corrections to Full-Time Academia

My first visit to the campus of Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, CT, is a day I'll never forget. Having worked in northern Connecticut for my entire career, I was not familiar with the city of New Haven. But I did know that a shockingly high percentage of in the incarcerated population in Connecticut was made up of offenders from that area. One specific section of the city, Newhallville, was particularly over-represented. My GPS took me down Rt. 15 and had me get off on Dixwell Avenue, a street I was familiar with as I had seen it mentioned so many times when I read PSI's.

That Thursday morning in July, as I drove 10 blocks down Dixwell Avenue, I saw at least 12 guys that were incarcerated at MacDougall throughout my career. They were just hanging out on the corners, clearly at home in their neighborhood. It was surreal. Things got even more bizarre as I turned into the entrance of the college and realized that it sat directly in the heart of Newhallville.

Since I began my teaching career in 2014, I have had over 50 students whose fathers, brothers and/or themselves I knew from MacDougall. Not that were simply in the system, but that I had known for 10-20 years. I will never forget the first student (one of many) who came up to me after our first class together and said, "Professor Lawrie, you probably don't recall, but I remember you from when I used to visit my dad back in the early 2000's."

This absolutely blew me away.

As an "academic," we discuss the theoretical applications of Nature vs. Nurture, but to see it in real life was much different. Why do some fail, and some succeed coming from the same environment? To witness a student in my class who was raising a child while working 2 jobs and maintaining a 4.0, and also have the knowledge that her older brother was serving a double-life sentence was difficult to process.

But it did teach me how to view incarceration through a different lens. Not simply a process of dealing solely with custody concerns, but as one that impacts generations of families. Again, I knew all of this while I was on the job, but it was always through the one unique perspective of a correctional officer. Putting actual faces to the family members forced me to change many of my beliefs about incarceration and the impact on communities.

The Need for More Correctional Professionals in Academia

I realize that the majority of correctional professionals reading this may have no interest at all in a career in higher education, and I completely understand that. However, I am appealing to anyone considering it. What I have learned over the last 25 years of teaching in the field of criminal justice is that the largest component of criminal justice reform is correctional reform. And that the one aspect of the criminal justice system that is the least represented in any meaningful discussions specific to change are corrections professionals. In my opinion, one of the primary reasons is a lack of former correctional professionals having a voice at the table. I often joke that I did the job for 20 years and no one cared what I had to say about it. Then, I spent 4 years, focusing specifically on one area of study, completed my doctorate and suddenly I am a subject matter expert whose opinion is sought out.

Here is an example - as a CJ department chair in 2019, when I posted an ad looking for a new CJ professor with a terminal degree and a background in policing, I received over 700 applicants. In 2022, when I posted the same ad, but looking for a terminal degree and correctional experience, I received nine applicants.

While I do not believe higher education is for everyone, I see the need for more qualified correctional practitioners in higher education. The only way that we can have meaningful discussions about the issues surrounding mass incarceration and policy changes to correctional practices, is to have a seat at the table. And often, that table is filled with academics.

Again, no one understands the unique issues of corrections better than we do and the more voices we have at the table, the greater the likelihood there is of enacting the type of changes we know would improve the system.

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Dr. John Lawrie retired from the Connecticut Department of Corrections after a 20-year career and then joined the faculty at Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, CT. He then went on to co-found the Corrections Community Network, an online community offering resources specifically for current and retired correctional, parole, and probation professionals. For more information, he can be contacted at John@thecorrectionsdr.com