Take Margaret Baynham, for example, who was awarded a National Medal for long service as she enters her 18th year on the job.

One of her charges was the first in the Canberra prison system to give birth while in jail.

The woman gave birth at hospital but because she was in custody Ms Baynham was present with her.

Ms Baynham says she saw that baby change the woman’s life.

"It was just really lovely to see. She got out not long after the baby was born and has not been back since, and that little girl is now eight," Ms Baynham said.

The woman and her partner now have four children and are powering along, she said, and the couple have decided they will not bring the children to the prison when they visit family members.

Witnessing those changes and seeing someone make them are part of what the officer enjoys about her role in the prison system, a job she says requires empathy and the right mindset.

"It's a good job and you can make a difference, if you come in with an open mind," she said.

She said what a lot of people don't realise is that correctional employees are quite educated, including plenty of tradies who have since changed careers.

"We’re not dumb, we don’t just turn keys. We are actually here to help the detainees," she said.

Their role in helping the people they supervise was also highlighted on Friday when awards were presented to five staff who saved a detainee’s life during a medical episode on December 23, 2017.

Corrections Day was started by NSW Corrective Services in 2017, before it was adopted nationally in January 2018, as a means of recognising the work correctional staff do.

In Canberra, more than 420 corrections staff manage about 480 detainees and more than 1000 community clients, such as those on good behaviour orders.

Along with Ms Baynham, Jason Russell was awarded the National Medal for his long service.

Mr Russell, a corrections officer for 17 years and now an acting deputy general manager, accepts that not many understand the work he and his colleagues do.

But he said it was more about chatting to people than patrolling walkways in helmets and vests like on American shows.

And the people employed in Canberra's prison system work hard at their jobs, he said.

“There's so much negative publicity around the AMC and corrective services, and everyone focuses on downfalls, yet no one stops and really looks and thinks how hard people work in this environment,” he said.

That environment can be difficult, he said.  Drug use and mental health are ongoing problems.

"Not everyone that comes into our facility is well at the time of coming in. So there's challenging behaviors you have to deal with," he said.

“The prison is not a hospital, so our capability to look after people in those situations is sometimes limited, [though] not through lack of trying … these people need help that I as a deputy general manager can't provide."

While he said the Dhulwa Mental Health Unit had helped since opening in 2016, he said that, speaking as a taxpayer and not just a corrections officer, the community still had work to do when it came to how it could make the system more effective, efficient and beneficial to those it served.