Social work is a very rewarding career that is all about helping and guiding others toward better lives. There are many specializations in this field. You can work with children who are abused or neglected. You can choose to work with indigent adults in medical facilities, or you may choose to help the poor find services that can help them financially. Then, there is the criminal justice social worker. This is a highly specialized area of the field and requires a special sort of personality to perform the job adequately, as it has a lot of unique challenges. Here’s what one is and what you may have to do if you choose this interesting and in-demand career path.
This type of social worker works with people who are caught up in the criminal justice system. These are people who are accused of crimes of all sorts, such as misdemeanors and felonies. Many of these people don’t have the money for an attorney and aren’t aware of their rights under the law. They need help navigating the legal system to make sure their rights are protected and that they get the best public defender available to them. You can help them with these things and they will almost always be grateful.
You can also help people who have already been convicted of crimes get rehabilitated back into society. In this position, you may be working with people in jail to assist them in completing the requirements for parole. For those already out on parole or probation, you can help them avoid re-arrest or violation of parole by assisting them in complying with their parole requirements, such as getting counseling and finding a job. If your clients don’t have a lot of money, you can help them find free or reduced fee sources for counseling, job placement, and drug or alcohol rehab services. A criminal justice social worker will work with a wide variety of people with many different personalities and temperaments, so you’ll need to be patient, firm, and unafraid of angry people. If this description fits you, you may find this to be a very rewarding career.
You have to be aware that people can be very manipulative who are in the criminal justice system and as a social worker you can be told a lot of things to play on your sympathy because they know that people with social work degrees tend to be pulled in by sob stories. Just saying this because my brother did that kinda thing.
Comment by Roz — January 4, 2010 @ 1:32 am