Maybe 20 years ago the system worked, but it does not work currently. While I was incarcerated all of the decent COs quit or descended into drug/alcohol abuse if they had to keep the job. One was like 2 years from retirement and he just couldn't work in such a messed up system anymore. We had one counselor who actually helped people. They demoted here to a horrible work situation because she was helping people with COVID release paperwork because we had no access to the law library due to COVIDE. It was actually part of her job description to provide that help with copies (and optionally charge us per copy depending on if we were indigent), but that didn't matter. She was too helpful so she had to go.
It's also worth noting that the COs you refer to are part of a jobs pipeline that feeds into immigration related officers. Immigrants will be treated by the same COs you met while incarcerated, and this time there is not even the pretense there has been a 'justified' conviction.
Criminal 'justice' in US is in dire need of overhaul, and an actual plan on how to get our imprisonment rate down to other first world nations.
