For most police officers, the thought of touring the yard of a maximum security prison may seem like a deer visiting a gun store. When you ask a police officer who works the streets everyday, they will tell you there's no way they would work in a jail or prison. The job of a correctional officer is not for everyone. Correctional officers in jails and prisons throughout the nation are concerned about the level of tension in their facilities. Many jails and prisons suffer from overcrowding, understaffing, low salaries and overworked officers. Jail and prison administrators and staff members know the dangers of volatile conditions. These conditions can result in disturbances such as riots and hostage situations. Add this to the list of other stressors and this job can be a killer, even if no one is shooting at you. Officers' families are also well aware of this tension.

They recognize the stress in their loved ones' eyes, their faces, their behavior, and their stress related illnesses.

According to a new publication from the National Institute of Justice and Corrections Program Office entitled "Addressing Correctional Officer Stress: Programs and Strategies" job related stress is widespread and, in many cases, severe and possibly increasing among correctional officers. Many supervisors (lieutenants and captains) also experience considerable job-related stress, as do superintendents.

HOW BAD IS CORRECTIONAL OFFICER STRESS?

The available empirical and anecdotal evidence convincingly documents that stress among correctional officers is widespread and, in many cases severe. (1) In recent years several circumstances may have created increased stress for correctional officers:

• Inmate crowding has increased in many correctional facilities. The ratio of inmates to custody or security employees rose from 4.2 to 4.6 between 1990 and 1995. (2)
• Inmate assaults against correctional staff in State and Federal Prisons have increase between 1990 and 19995, the number of attacks jumped by nearly one-third, from 10,731 to 14,165. (3) During this same period, the number of correctional officers increased by only 14 percent, (4) resulting in an overall increased risk of assault for each individual officer at the end of this period.
• Many offenders serving increasingly longer sentences do not fear punishment or respect the authority of correctional officers. (5) According to one superintendent,
• "Inmates today aren't afraid to assault staff; they don't care if they get put in segregation." There are also more gangs and more dangerous gangs in prison. (6)

WHAT CAUSES STRESS FOR CORRECTIONAL OFFICERS?

ORGANIZATIONAL STRESS

Many years ago a researcher observed, "any organization or social structure which consists of one group of people kept inside who do not want to be there and the other group who are there to make sure they stay in will be an organization under stress." (7)

More recently, A.T. Wall, director of the Rhode Island Department of Corrections, confirmed this observation based on firsthand experience: "You have a captive population that doesn't want to be here and wants to be as comfortable as possible for as long as they have to be incarcerated. And correctional officers stand in the way of those desires, so there's built-in tension and manipulation." Many individuals interviewed suggested that organization related conditions create stress for many officers, in particular, understaffing, overtime, shift work, and supervisor demands.

STRESS FROM OUTSIDE THE SYSTEM

Two significant sources of stress for some officers originate outside the prison or jail.

• · One source is poor public image. According to one researcher, "A negative image of corrections is regularly portrayed in the media…with officers depicted as stupid, animalistic, and senseless abusers of socially wronged individuals." (8) As one officer said, "The public hasn't a clue as to what correctional officers do. Someone asked me just the other day if I beat inmates all the time." One officer said she routinely tells other people, "I work for the State," refusing to specify her precise job. The end result is that some officers come to feel isolated and estranged from friends and family. (9)
• · The second outside source of stress is poor pay. Many officers cite low pay as a source of stress. The beginning salary in one State is $12,000. In another State, officers start out earning $18,000; the most they can earn after 18 months is $ 26,400. Starting pay in one privately operated facility is $14,000 to $16,000 a year.

STRESS CAN CREATE SEVERAL SIGNIFICANT PROBLEMS FOR OFFICERS

Excessive stress can result in at least four serious problems for officers:

• · Stress may result in physical illnesses, ranging from heart disease to eating disorders.
• It may also precipitate substance abuse among susceptible individuals. (10)
• Stress can lead to burnout among officers. (11)
• Stress has been implicated in excessive disability retirements. (12) Even when physical ailments are the reason for the disability, the illness may have been brought on by stress.
• Correctional officers experiencing excessive stress may damage their family relationships by displacing their frustrations onto spouses and children, ordering family members around just as they issue commands to inmates, and becoming distant by withholding information about their work that they feel family members will not understand. Shift work and overtime can create stress by preventing officers from attending important family functions.

As discussed above, the effects of stress on correctional officers can degrade their ability to perform their responsibilities in the prison or jail in ways that compromise institutional safety, cost money, and create stress for other staff.

SURVIVAL CHANGES

Like police officers, correctional officers indicate that their work has changed them and they have paid a large price as a result. Many correctional officers describe these changes as necessary to survive, but also as unanticipated and as not helpful in non-work relationships. The changes frequently involve a loss of naivety, a new awareness of the world, loss of the ability to trust, development of a cynical outlook, and strained relations with family and friends.

You're dealing with over a thousand people for eight to ten hours a day that you just don't trust. That carries over outside of work. As one officer put it, "My former wife used to tell me, "Since you started working at the prison, you're a lot more abrupt. You're not as compassionate in the way you communicate things and you're drinking way more than you use to." You can't let your emotions show and your colleagues become extremely important to you. One officer summed it up this way: "I guess I put my life in their hands every day. I feel good about the people I work with. After you've worked with them for a while, it's almost like you can feel what their next move is going to be and you plan yours accordingly."

THE CONSEQUENCES OF STRESS

"The stress from this job will kill you even if no one is shooting at you!" They include headaches, backaches, stomach problems, high blood pressure, strokes, heart attacks, and maybe even suicide." You are likely to find that you are alone more often, have marital problems, and seek solace in the job. This becomes a vicious cycle as you experience more and more of these problems, you become more and more involved at work which leads to more and more of these problems.

You are not likely to stop and take personal time out. You are always "on call" and when called are definitely needed by other people you work with, by the civilian population of the area, and by the general public to do what they are either afraid to do or choose not to. In response to these needs, you suffer. The effects of stress may accumulate until you cannot take any more. Some officers "explode" no longer able to hold their world together. They are forced to seek help. Most correctional officers will not seek help until it is absolutely necessary. They wait until the stress buildup has created a crisis and they cannot function because of it.

CREATING A STRESS AWARENESS PROGRAM

Many correctional agencies are just beginning to realize that they need to consider the impact that work related stress, trauma, and crisis situations as well as personal stress has on the correctional officer as well as their families. Family members serve as an officer's most important source of support and comfort. Many agencies are addressing correctional officer stress because of the high turn over of officers on the job, domestic violence among officers, and correctional officer suicide.

Critical incidents such as altercations with violent inmates, injures to fellow officers and inmate suicide occur all too often in corrections. Many agencies are now forming peer support and critical incident stress debriefing teams to reduce the effects traumatic events have on officers and their families. Research has shown that these teams work best when line staff play a major role on the team. As peers, line staff can more easily establish a supportive rapport with other officers. Typically, CISD teams have four members - a mental health professional, a chaplain, and two line staff members.

Proper selection of team members is vital to ensuring the team's credibility and effectiveness. Here are some guidelines for selecting candidates and organizing a support team:

1. They must be comfortable with their own emotional reactions to incidents.
2. They must demonstrate, by their own example, that they can cope effectively with stress.
3. They must show a true desire to provide support to their colleagues.
4. They must not have chronic mental health or substance abuse problems.
5. They must be educated regarding the kinds of problems officers are likely to experience and be competent to deal with them.
6. They must be able to work under clinical direction and as a part of a disciplined professional group.

Your selection committee may want to consider the following critical personality characteristics for team members:

• Ability to establish and maintain rapport with colleagues.
• Degree of respect from colleagues.
• Ability to actively listen to others.
• Ability to keep confidences.
• Ability to adhere to policy and guidelines.
• A lack of debilitating personal problems.

In addition, the applicants' immediate supervisor should be interviewed to rank the applicant's ability to be an effective member of the peer support team. After team members are selected, 40 hours of block training is provided along with basic and advanced critical incident stress debriefing certification training. Annual block training provides up to date information to keep team members aware of peer support skills and new techniques to help coworkers and family members cope. The big thing to remember is you have to be taking care of yourself before you can take care of anyone else.

HOW A STRESS AWARENESS PROGRAM CAN HELP

Establishing a stress awareness program can help with the following:

• Save correctional administrators money by reducing overtime costs incurred when officers take sick time or quit because of job related stress and illness.
• Improves officer performance by enhancing staff morale.
• Increases institutional safety by reducing distractions caused by stress.
• Improves relations with the union by working together on a program that can mutually benefit both parties.
• Shows concern for employees by demonstrating that the department cares about its staff as human beings, not just employees.

KEYS TO PROGRAM SUCCESS

Developing and maintaining a successful stress program is not easy. Correctional agencies need to address several considerations to make their programs effective.

1. Appoint talented and dedicated staff who can stand the stress of helping others who experience stress.
2. Get the wholehearted participation of the top administrators, union officers, line officers, and family members.
3. Maintain confidentiality; provide an array of services, not just debriefings, after critical incident; train supervisors to spot and refer officers who may be experiencing stress; and change the correctional organization itself in ways that will reduce officer stress.
4. Monitor program activities and evaluate their effectiveness in reducing stress and saving the department money.

WHAT IS THE COST?

Program costs vary tremendously depending primarily on how much programs rely on volunteers and existing staff and the services the programs provide. The Post-Incident Stress Debriefing Program developed by the New York State Department of Correctional Services costs almost nothing because it relies entirely on officers who have received training as debriefers at their own expense or through department training funded by Federal Grants. Other programs have annual budgets ranging from $27,500 to $90,000.

Departments should recoup their expenses many-fold by reducing excessive sick time and officer turnover. A few departments report having data suggesting their programs may have saved them money.

The physical costs of working in corrections can be high: heart attacks, ulcers, high blood pressure, and other serious illnesses are just some of the results of too much unmanaged stress. There are mental and emotional costs as well: high divorce rates, depression, substance abuse, high job turn over, and suicide. The success of correctional professionals is sometimes determined by how they manage their own stress and the support they get from management. And unlike most professionals, how stress in corrections is managed can be a life or death issue.

This article is dedicated to all the men and women who serve as Correctional Officers in our jails and prisons. Thank you for the work you do!

Information for this article was gathered from the following sources:

American Jail Magazine - May/June 1997 "Planning for Family Responses to Jail Crisis Situations" by Joe Marchese

"Stressed Out - STRATEGIES FOR LIVING AND WORKING WITH STRESS IN CORRECTIONS" by Gary F. Cornelius 1994 The American Correctional Association

"OFFICERS AT RISK - HOW TO IDENTIFY AND COPE WITH STRESS" by Dennis L. Conroy and Karen Hess 1992 Custom Publishing Company"

"ADDRESSING CORRECTIONAL OFFICER STRESS: PROGRAMS AND STRATEGIES" by Peter Finn 2000 Published by National Institute of Justice in cooperation with the Corrections Program Office Notes

1. Hukabee, R.G., "Stress in Corrections: An Overview of the Issues," Journal of Criminal Justice 20 (5) (1992): 479-486.
2. Stephan, J.J., Census of State and Federal Correctional Facilities, 1995, Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1997, NCJ 166582.
3. Ibid.
4. Data provided by the American Correctional Association, June 29, 1999.
5. Martinez, A.R., "Corrections Officer: The 'Other' Prisoner," The Keeper's Voice 18 (1) (1997): 8-11.
6. Ibid. A few correctional officers suggested that correctional work has not become more stressful. Rather, they said, officers themselves have changed. According to these officers, in the past many officers came to the job from the military and therefore had a discipline and toughness that enabled them to adapt better to the work requirements (see also Kauffman, K., Prison Officers and Their World, Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press, 1988). In addition, life in general may be more stressful. If so, officers may be less able to cope with correctional work because they come to work already stressed out. In this connection, some providers observe that relationship problems are what drive many officers to seek professional counseling, not correctional work per se.
7. Brodsky, C.M., "Work Stress in Correctional Institution," Journal of Prison and Jail Health 2 (2) (1982): 74-102.
8. Van Fleet, F., "Correctional Officers and Their Families: Dealing with Stress," in The Effective Correctional Officer, Laurel, Maryland: American Correctional Association, 1992: 37-44.
9. Maghan, J., and L. Mcleish-Blackwell, "Black Women in Correctional Employment," in Change, Challenges, and Choices: Women's Role in Modern Corrections, ed. J.B. Morton, Laurel, Maryland: American Correctional Association, 1991: 82-99; Kauffman, Prison Officers and Their World; and Harris, G.A., "Stress in Corrections," Topeka, Kansas: Washburn University, 1980.
10. Woodruff, "Occupational Stress for Correctional Personnel"; and Cheek, F.E., and M.D. Miller, "New Look at Officers' Role Ambiguity," in Correctional Officers-Power, Pressure and Responsibility, ed. J.N. Tucker, Laurel, Maryland: American Correctional Association, 1983.
11. Burnout has been defined as a process that produces three conditions: (1) emotional exhaustion or feelings that the person is overextended and exhausted by the job; (2) depersonalization that causes impersonal and cynical interactions with clients; and (3) lack of feelings of personal accomplishment. Maslach, C., and S. Jackson, "The Measurement of Experienced Burnout," Journal of Occupational Behavior 2 (1981): 99-113. While there is no time limit or period in which workers burn out, five stages of burnout have been identified that many workers pass through in the process of becoming burned out: honeymoon (e.g., the officer loves his or her job and works hard); fuel shortage (e.g., the officer no longer enjoys going to work every day and gets tired more and more easily); chronic symptoms (e.g., the officer begins to experience chronic headaches and tunes out his or her family by watching a lot of television); crisis (the officer complains constantly to coworkers about the job; physical and mental problems get worse; and the officer is fed up with inmates, supervisors, and the paperwork);
    and "hitting the wall" (the officer quits the job, walks out on the family, or continues to work but thinks obsessively about how bad it is). Veninga, R., and J. Spradley, The Work Stress Connection: How to Cope with Job Burnout, New York: Ballantine Books, 1981; Cornelius, G., Stressed Out: Strategies for living and Working with Stress in Corrections, Laurel, Maryland: American Correctional Association, 1994.
12. Slate, R.N., "Stress Levels of Correctional Personnel: Is There a Difference Between the Sexes?" Paper presented at the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences annual meeting in Kansas City, Missouri, March 20, 1993.