Gulf States Newsroom
Mississippi Department of Corrections staff were out in the Walmart parking lot in Pearl, Miss. working to try and hire people to work as correctional officers, March 13, 2021.
As shoppers file out of a Walmart in Pearl, Miss. on a busy Saturday in March, they cross paths with some unlikely recruiters. This parking lot, and lots of others around Mississippi, is the headquarters for a hiring blitz by the Mississippi Department of Corrections. Through outreach events like these, the department is trying to fill 700 correctional officer positions by this summer.
“It’s really not a job you want to start out and be afraid of,” said Charles Krook, who started out working in the prison as a correctional officer, before working his way up into the probation and parole office. “If you’re afraid, you know, don’t come here, because we need somebody with heart.”