Correctional Staff: The Issue of Job Stress

Abstract

The United States of America has one of the highest incarceration rates in the world. Caring for all those prisoners makes corrections a major enterprise, employing an estimated 431,000 individuals in more than 4500 jails and prisons in the U.S. Correctional staff are critical elements in this enterprise, as they are responsible for ensuring that correctional facilities are safely, securely, and humanely operated. Correctional staffs are not only an important resource for a correctional institution, they are also an expensive one. In order to understand how often individuals in correctional environments experience job stress, it is necessary to discuss the concept of job stress and provide a working definition of job stress. How workplace factors affect the job stress of correctional staff is one significant area of research focus in the past several decades. Likewise, more research on posttraumatic stress disorder, compassion fatigue, and mental health among correctional staff and their relationship with job stress is needed. In light of the fact that staff are a highly important and expensive resource for correctional organizations, the need to address job stress is paramount, and correctional psychological services will play a vital role in helping correctional staff deal with stress from work. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved)