C. O. (Correction Officer)

[George Thompson]

This is an initialism that isn't in HDAS.  From a story in the NYTimes, Sunday, June 6, 2004, "City" section, p. 4, col. 4, a narrative by Daryl Letsome, a retired guard at the jail on Riker's Island.

"As a correction officer, you have to know how to interact with the inmates.  The inmates are dependent on the guards.  "C. O., can I get into my cell?"  "C. O., can I use the phone?"  They have no other alternative."

GAT

George A. Thompson
Author of A Documentary History of "The African Theatre", Northwestern Univ. Pr., 1998.