Predicting work-related stress in correctional officers: A meta-analysis

The present review examined the predictors of job stress in correctional officers and marked the first meta-analysis of this topic area. Twenty studies were selected for inclusion, producing 191 individual effect size estimates. Overall, the findings revealed that work attitudes (i.e., participation in decision-making, job satisfaction, commitment, and turnover intention) and specific correctional officer problems (i.e., perceived dangerousness and role difficulties) generated the strongest predictive relationships with job stress. Furthermore, both favorable (i.e., human service/rehabilitation orientation and counseling) and unfavorable (i.e., punitiveness, custody orientation, social distance, and corruption) correctional officer attitudes yielded moderate relationships with job stress, with the country of study emerging as a critical moderating variable. The weakest correlates of job stress were demographic variables and job characteristics (e.g., security level). The implications of these findings are discussed and directions for future research are provided.     

Correctional officer attitudes toward inmates and working with inmates in a “get tough” era

The past few decades have seen an ideological shift to a more punitive attitude in policy and practice toward crime and criminal offenders. This study examined the orientation of local correctional officers toward inmates and worked with inmates to ascertain whether their attitudes mirror this punitive inclination. Findings indicate that despite the more punitive sentiment among the public and policymakers, officers still do not express a punitive attitude toward inmates and generally support rehabilitation programs for inmates. The study also looked at the impact of several individual characteristic and work variables on officer attitudes. Results show work variables are more strongly associated with attitudes among correctional officers. The implications of this research for correctional management are discussed.     

The treatment ideal and detention reality: Demographic,professional/ occupational and organizational influences on detention worker punitiveness

For some time, corrections researchers have focused on the punitive and rehabilitative orientations of correctional officers. Relatively little research attention, however, has been devoted to understanding the support for these orientations among correctional workers responsible for the care and custody of juvenile delinquents. Based on survey data drawn from a sample of detention care workers (DCWs) in two facilities in a Southeastern state (N=109), this paper examines the extent to which, and why, DCWs adopt a punitive orientation to youth in detention despite policies and training that discourage this view. Findings, that contrast the relative impact of demographic, occupational/professional and organizational environment variables in accounting for variation in punishment/control orientation among DCWs, suggest that demographic indicators (i.e., age, gender) and organizational environment contribute disproportionately to explained variance in punitive orientation once other variables are controlled. Implications for detention policy, staff recruitment and training are discussed.     

Gender differences in occupational characteristics of Canadian correctional officers

As women have increasingly become employed as correctional officers in prisons for male offenders, questions have been raised as to how they may, or may not, differ from their male counterparts. To examine this issue questionnaires were sent to all 866 correctional officers who directly supervised male offenders in five prisons operated by the Correctional Service of Canada. Responses were obtained from 339 officers (39%), 86% of which were male and the remaining 14% female. Female officers were more likely to be unmarried, better educated, less interested in the custody aspect of the correctional officer role, younger, have less experience as a correctional officer, have higher levels of job satisfaction, and be more accepting of women as correctional officers than were their male colleagues. No gender related differences were found in the variables of race, rank, security level worked, stress level, and quality of the working relationship experienced with coworkers. Implications of the findings are discussed     

Trepidation among the “keepers”: Gendered Perceptions of Fear and Risk of Victimization among Corrections Officers

Determining the attitudes of correctional officers relative to their level of fear and risk of victimization is important to investigate due to the relationship of the conditions of confinement and the care and custody of offenders. Furthermore, consideration of such attitudes by gender may uncover differences because of the unique obstacles female corrections officers face. This study examines the level of fear and risk of both inmate and staff related victimization by gender through administering a survey to all corrections officers employed in the adult prisons within one-state. The overall analysis indicated some level of apprehension among officers regarding their fear and risk of victimization for inmate-precipitated victimization more than staff-to-staff victimization. Female officers were also more likely to demonstrate a higher level of perceived fear and risk of inmate-precipitated and staff-precipitated victimization. In addition, race and security level were shown to be significant as predictors of both fear and perceived risk of victimization among officers.     

Crossing the Line: A Quantitative Analysis of Inmate Boundary Violators in a Southern Prison System

The majority of current research on inappropriate relationships between correctional staff and inmates involves a qualitative approach. This study sought to provide a quantitative analysis of these boundary violators by self-report data, which was provided by male inmates in a southern prison system. Building upon research by Allen and Bosta (Games criminals play. Susanville, CA: Rae John Publishers, 1981) and Marquart et al. (Justice Quarterly 18:877–910, 2001) the inmates were divided into two distinct categories: Inmates who indicated “No relationship”, and those inmates who were “boundary violators”. This study examined the differences between these two categories utilizing demographic characteristics, custody level, and attitudes and prison behavior. Significant differences were found in boundary violator attitudes about female correctional officers and the behavior they exhibit in the presence of females.     

Games guards play: a self-report study of institutional deviance within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice

While most correctional officers adhere to the highest level of professionalism, some engage in institutional deviance during the course of their eight-hour shifts. In the present study, we administered 501 self-report questionnaires to correctional officers within the Texas Department of Criminal Justice. Respondents who reported that their supervisors were not supportive tended to admit to higher levels of institutional deviance than their peers, though peer support did not contribute to correctional officer deviance. Additionally, respondents who perceived their jobs to be less dangerous than other officers were more likely to have attitudes that were conducive to institutional deviance. Moreover, a perception of deviance among others also helped ‘normalize’ these acts in the prison setting and contributed to more favorable attitudes toward institutional deviance by correctional officers. Theory X and Theory Y is used to explain the lack of supervisory support that leads to institutional deviance among correctional officers. These findings have important policy implications toward reducing deviance among correctional officers, thereby making prison facilities safer and more secure.     

Correctional Officers and Domestic Violence: Experiences and Attitudes

This article presents the first statewide data regarding correctional officers’ attitudes about and personal experiences with domestic violence. Online surveys were administered to Florida correctional officers asking a series of questions, including their beliefs and attitudes about the prevalence of domestic violence among colleagues, and their childhood and adult experiences with domestic violence. Results from 710 officers revealed that 33?% of respondents knew about correctional officers who had committed unreported domestic violence; 30?% reported that they had directly experienced domestic violence as children; and over 11?% reported that they had been physically violent with an intimate partner. Multivariate statistics showed that age, race, and childhood experiences with domestic violence were significantly related to correctional officers reporting being physically abusive to an intimate partner or family member. These and other findings highlight the need for increased agency prevention efforts and research on the phenomenon of correctional officer-involved domestic violence.     

INDIVIDUAL AND ORGANIZATIONAL DETERMINANTS OF CORRECTIONAL OFFICER ATTITUDES TOWARD INMATES*

This paper analyzes the impact of individual attributes and organizational influences in the determination of correctional officers’attitudes toward inmates. Drawing on survey data from 179 line-level correctional officers, the analysis evaluates the expectations of prison reformers that more highly educated, female, and minority officers will hold more positive attitudes toward their inmate clientele. Contrary expectations drawn from the sociology of work literature suggest that the work-role socialization will overshadow the effect of individual attributes in the determination of officer attitudes. The analysis reveals that minority officers hold more positive orientations toward inmates, while education and gender exert no impact. In addition, organizational-level characteristics are also important in the prediction of officer views of inmates. These findings suggest that correctional reforms that focus primarily on changing the demographic composition of correctional officers are quite unlikely to ameliorate significantly the tension in today's prisons. It is necessary for both reformers and social scientists to develop more sophisticated analyses of the interplay between individual attributes and work organization characteristics and their joint effects on behavior in the prison setting.     

Assessing the correctional orientation of corrections officers in South Korea

The correctional goal in South Korea has recently changed from the straightforward punishment of inmates to rehabilitation. Currently, emphases are being placed on education, counseling, and other treatment programs. These changes have consequently begun to also change the corrections officers' roles from a purely custodial role to a human service role, in which officers are expected to manage rehabilitation and treatment programs. Despite these changes, few studies have examined the attitudes of corrections officers toward rehabilitation programming. This is an important dimension to examine in rehabilitation programming, as corrections officers play a major role in the delivery of institutional programs. This study examines the attitudes of South Korean corrections officers toward rehabilitation programs. Approximately 430 corrections officers were sampled. Results show that correctional attitudes are largely influenced by not only officers' own motivations for joining corrections but also by institutional factors such as job stress. Policy implications are discussed.     

Alienation and the correctional officer: A multivariate analysis

The increased pressures which have been placed upon correctional institutions in the 1980’s have made the retention of quality correctional officers imperative. Yet many of these officers find prison work to be an unsatisfying experience. This paper attempts to measure levels of alienation among correctional officers and identify factors which may be related to its occurrence. The amount of alienation experienced by 126 correctional officers at a Western state prison was measured utilizing Dean’s Alienation Scale. Alienation levels were found to be related primarily to institutional, and opposed to non-institutional, variables. The implications for correctional administration are discussed.     

THE CORRECTIONAL ORIENTATION OF PRISON WARDENS: IS THE REHABILITATIVE IDEAL SUPPORTED?*

Over the past two decades, the ideology ostensibly governing correctional policy has been transformed, it is claimed, from liberal-rehabilitative to conservative-punitive. Little empirical in formation is available, however, on whether those who manage correctional institutions—prison wardens—manifest a punitive or reformative orientation to their work Data from a national survey indicate that, while placing a prime emphasis on maintaining custody and institutional order, wardens remain supportive of rehabilitation. Levels of support for treatment, moreover, are only modestly influenced by individual, career, organizational, and contextual variables.     

Risk factors for potential occupational exposure to HIV: A study of correctional officers

This study examined social determinants that explain correctional officer exposure to blood/bodily fluids. Seasoned officers in five prisons were selected at random to complete an anonymous mail survey regarding situations which may have placed them at risk for exposure to HIV while at work. Institutional variables more strongly predicted officer chances of occupational exposure in a corrections setting than did perceptual and individual level variables, particularly the custody level of inmates supervised, length of time in the corrections career, and being in a position of rank. Years of experience increased the number of exposures to blood and bodily fluid, and increased officer apprehensiveness concerning uses of force with seropositive inmates. Knowledge about HIV and the frequency of use of personal protective equipment was not related to the likelihood of encounters with blood or bodily fluids.     

Psychosocial work environment, interpersonal violence at work and mental health among correctional officers

The main purpose of this study was to present changes occurring between 2002 and 2004 in the prevalence of psychosocial constraints and interpersonal violence at work among officers working in correctional facilities in Quebec. Results suggest that in the absence of specific organizational intervention aimed at improving a deleterious work situation, exposure to low decision latitude remained similar between 2002 and 2004, while exposure to high psychological demands improved somewhat, for both men and women. In 2000, rates of exposure of correctional officers in Quebec to high psychological demands, low decision latitude and the combination of high psychological demands and low decision latitude (job strain) were significantly higher than those obtained for the entire population of workers in Quebec in contact with the public. Exposure of correctional officers in Quebec to intimidation at work increased substantially between 2002 and 2004, among both men and women. Globally speaking, rates of exposure to intimidation by colleagues and superiors practically doubled between 2000 and 2004. Rates of exposure to intimidation among correctional officers in Quebec were particularly high in 2004 (71% among men 66% among women) compared to rates in another study conducted among federal correctional officers (48%) by Samak. The present study also showed that in 2004, correctional officers in Quebec were more likely to present signs of psychological distress linked with work when they were exposed to high psychological demands, low decision latitude, job strain and poor social support from superiors and colleagues. Psychological distress was also shown to be greater when reward at work was scarce and when there was an imbalance between effort and reward at work. Finally, in 2004, psychological distress among correctional officers was also associated with intimidation and psychological harassment at work.     

ROLE CONFLICT IN CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTIONS

The divergent and often incompatible goals of treatment and custody within correctional organizations frequently result in ambiguous role expectations and role conflict among prison personnel. Hypotheses that role conflict is significantly greater among staff in treatment institutions than among staff in custodv institutions. Is significantly greater among treatment staff than among custody staff, and is significantly related to both job satisfaction and punitive attitudes toward inmates are tested with questionnaire data obtained from 336 treatment and custody personnel within 6 adult correctional facilities. Although the bivariate analyses provide support for each of the hypotheses, subsequent analyses indicate that role conflict is more likely to be the product of the organizational goals of the institution than of the treatment or custody staff positions within those institutions. These findings are related to previous analyses of the treatment-custody dilemma within institutions, and the implications for future research are discussed.     

Does the job matter? Comparing correlates of stress among treatment and correctional staff in prisons

The wealth of literature on stress in the correctional workplace focused on correctional officers, frequently ignoring treatment personnel employed in these same institutions. This study advanced the literature on correctional workplace stress by: (1) testing for differences in workplace stress between correctional officers and treatment personnel, (2) examining personal and environmental factors to determine whether distinct precursors to stress existed for these two groups, and (3) utilizing multiple measures of stress. Self-report survey data from 3,794 employees in ten adult prisons in a southwestern state demonstrated that both groups of employees reported moderately high levels of job stress and stress-related health concerns. Apart from perceptions of safety, sources of stress as well as protective factors against stress were similar for both groups with environmental factors demonstrating the most robust impact.     

Service v. Security Focus in Training Assessments

ABSTRACT

As jails have moved to professionalize their staffs the role of the correctional officer has become broader in scope and now encompasses both service and security functions. However, some research suggests that female correctional staff may have more of a “service” orientation than males. In our analysis of one dataset from exclusively women's jail facilities we investigate correctional officer preferences for training (service v. security) to see if they differ by gender. We find that both male and female correctional officers generally rank service type training over security and that they differ little in their overall assessment of initial training provided and usefulness of in-service training. We also find that minority officers may be more likely to value service training than their nonminority counterparts.     

PERCEPTIONS OF THE WORK ENVIRONMENT AMONG CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS: DO RACE AND SEX MATTER?*

This article examines the relationship between race and sex and perceptions of the work environment among correctional officers. It addresses four central questions: (1) Are there race and sex differences among correctional officers in their perceptions of the work environment? (2) Do characteristics of the job and the institutions in which officers work account for these differences? (3) Do these differences attenuate over time? (4) Are there factors that mediate the relationship between race and sex and perceptions of the work environment? These issues are explored using data drawn from the correctional officer sub-sample (N= 2,979) of the 1992 administration of the Prison Social Climate Survey. Findings indicate that race and sex do play a role in shaping officers’ perceptions of the work environment, that these differences between groups are not completely accounted for by job or institutional characteristics and do not attenuate over time, and that there are factors that mediate the relationship between race and sex and workplace perceptions. Among minority male officers, greater efficacy in working with inmates appears to be an important factor in creating lower levels of job stress, while white female officers’ higher levels of overall job satisfaction are accounted for largely by a more positive evaluation of the quality of supervision.     

Effects of a competency-based counseling training program for correctional officers

The purposes of this study were (a) to determine whether a competency-based counseling training program can be effective in developing the counseling skills of correctional officers with diverse backgrounds and (b) to examine if participants would demonstrate positive changes in counseling skills regardless of their differences among a variety of demographic variables. One hundred and six correctional officers were selected to participate in this study. Both qualitative and quantitative research methods were applied for collecting and analyzing data. The results indicate that the participants' counseling skills were significantly improved. Because the participants demonstrated positive changes in their overall counseling skills, the present research further supports no significant difference among a variety of variables. The training program also brought out deeper reflection on the significant learning experiences, greater theoretical knowledge, as well as greater understanding of the counseling work for the participants.