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Dear Corrections Employee, The wife of a corrections officer once told me, “When my husband got a job at the Department of Corrections as a Corrections Officer, I had no idea that it was a package deal—that we’d be signing up too, as a family.” Since then, I’ve heard similar statements expressed by other family members of corrections staff as they navigate through the uncharted waters of their loved one working in corrections, and while trying to understand and adapt to changes in their life as a family. More often than not, your spouse and your other family members enter into the world of corrections uninformed and unprepared for the toll this occupation can take on you, and by extension on them, and the changes they will be experiencing in their home life as a result of your job demands. Your family members are happy that you will have a steady paycheck with benefits. They are thrilled to hear [...]

Prison. It’s overcrowded. It’s understaffed. It’s loud. Gangsterism is a constant. The potential for a fight or a stabbing is just around the corner. Complaints outnumber the barbed wire spikes surrounding the place. I’ve heard it said, “Prison is an assault on the senses.” But that’s just a normal day. If working behind bars wasn’t already hard enough, this worldwide pandemic has added yet another layer of anxiety and mistrust in a place that was already a daily battlefield - both psychologically as well as physically. “This thing is like an abusive husband. It has isolated us from each other. And now…fear.” This was one officer’s take on how the prospect of COVID-19 infiltrating the correctional system has impacted the relationships among colleagues in the maximum security center at which she works in South Africa. While the national lockdown was in place, the Department of Correctional Services (DCS) closed its doors to the public - including all visitors as [...]

One of the outcomes of post-traumatic stress is the symptom of hypervigilance—an excessive and continual state of alertness, anticipating danger and being on the lookout for it to the extreme. By definition, hypervigilance prevents people from letting go and relaxing, as they remain on guard, watching and preparing for danger, ever ready to defend themselves and others. Hypervigilance helps maintain the fight-or-flight stress response active in our brain and in the rest of our body. It may help save lives when an actual threat materializes, but it wears us down and wears us out emotionally and physically if it becomes a chronic state of being. Corrections staff in general, and corrections officers in particular, have grown accustomed to anticipating and preparing to face dangers related to their profession. They have rehearsed over and over, both mentally and literally, ways to confront and neutralize threats that stem from human manipulation and violence, physical plant failures, fires, and adverse natural events. [...]

Since the criminal justice pendulum in the United States has swung towards more rehabilitation and re-entry efforts and away from sheer containment, and since custody staff are the correctional employees that offenders interact with the most, custody staff’s job description has expanded. In addition to ensuring safety and securing offenders’ adherence to rules, custody staff are now tasked with being part of the effort to help “reprogram” offenders’ thinking toward becoming more prosocial and toward making more constructive choices. This complex and demanding task requires the use of interpersonal skills beyond those needed in traditional custody work, such as good communication and de-escalation skills. Custody staff’s expected involvement with offenders now may range from empathetic listening, to giving words of affirmation or encouragement, to engaging in the application of motivational interviewing techniques or problem-solving strategies to defusing an interpersonal conflict. In short, custody staff are currently expected to operate as both cops and helpers, as both law enforcers and [...]

In Desert Waters’ signature course “From Corrections Fatigue to Fulfillment™” (CF2F), we repeatedly emphasize that wellness interventions designed to move staff from a place of work-related Fatigue to a place of Fulfillment are a two-way street in a correctional organization. That is, to maximize the probability of successful outcomes, interventions must be BOTH bottom-up AND top-down. By bottom-up, we mean self-care and other health-promoting activities and behaviors that individual staff can practice on their own, independently of anyone else, on and off the job. By top-down, we mean programs, resources, and system-wide policies instituted and implemented by the organization to promote employee wellness. Bottom-up, individual-focused activities are about what employees can do themselves—and that no one else can do for them. They and only they can make these behaviors happen, and often only they know if they have disciplined themselves enough to follow through with these activities. Individual, bottom-up, activities include good sleep hygiene; healthy nutrition; regular physical exercise; [...]

I recently spoke with a reporter who was gathering material for an upcoming documentary on the subject of correctional officer suicide. My aim for one part of the conversation was to explain how aspects of correctional work, if not processed properly, may contribute to suicidal thinking and behaviors. During the course of our conversation, I mentioned traumatic exposure at work as one of these possible contributors. I pointed out the fact that, during the course of their careers, correctional personnel are typically exposed to diverse types of incidents of violence, injury or death, either directly or indirectly. In my discussion with the reporter, I added that research supports the notion that both direct and indirect exposure to these types of incidents is potentially traumatizing and can result in the development of Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), clinical depression and substance abuse disorders—all of which are risk factors for the development of suicidal thinking and behaviors. [Direct traumatic exposure includes experiencing [...]

What It Is and How It Works I still remember one corrections officer telling me that when he joined a corrections agency, other custody staff would not talk to him. But after he dealt with the murder of an incarcerated individual without blinking an eye – without showing any signs of emotional distress – he was warmly embraced by veteran staff and welcomed into the fold. He told me that the message he received that day loudly and clearly was that he should not show that he was bothered by anything he witnessed at work, no matter how gruesome. This officer went on to work for another 14 years in corrections, serving in the front lines. During the course of his (outwardly, at least) successful career, he went through two major relationship breakups, and he developed a dependence on alcohol and tobacco products, and a propensity to play violent computer games after work for 5 or more hours at [...]