Giving Compass' Take:

• In this essay at The Marshall Project, a female unit manager at a Pennsylvania state correctional facility describes her journey from corrections officer to corrections counselor and up the ladder, facing a male-dominated, dangerous world.

• One thing that the author did not lose throughout her time working in a prison was empathy. She found ways to connect with those who were incarcerated. How can we apply her lessons to the criminal justice system at large?

• Read about the organization trying to help formerly incarcerated people go to school.

I grew up in northeast Philadelphia and majored in administration of justice at Penn State University. During the summer of my senior year, I interned at the Pennsylvania State Police. By the time it was done, my heart was set on becoming a trooper. That same summer I applied for a job there. To play it safe, I also applied to several other agencies, including the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections. By fall, the corrections department offered me a job ...

After a year of training as a corrections officer (CO), I received a call from a sergeant who worked at the Restricted Housing Unit with a security level five — a maximum security unit. It’s what out on the street or in communities people might call “the hole” or solitary confinement. The sergeant said, “I liked your work ethics as a trainee. You have a good head on your shoulders, and I want you to come work with us.” The RHU is an intense place to work, especially being 22 — and a female at that. So what do I do? I say yes.

Females weren't considered people who could work there. We were seen as being in the way. The only other female officer there when I entered worked in the control center. So I said to the sergeant, "Listen, I'm not just here to write in logbooks. I want to do just the amount of work that the guys do, be out on the wing. If you guys run showers, I'm cuffing guys up and I'm taking them to the showers. I want to be treated just like how every other officer is in here." And they did. They treated me like that. If it was a regular day, it was a regular day; if we had to go in on a use of force on an inmate, my lieutenant would say, "Clark, get ready." I was the only female in the wing.

Read the full article about being a female corrections officer by Major Gina Clark at The Marshall Project.