Perception of working conditions and health by prison officers of a male prison from Brazil

Abstract

This paper presents a case study done with the prison officers of Male Prison from Florianopolis, Santa Catarina, Brazil. Starting from the hypothesis that workers’ health is largely influenced by its working condition and that the work in prisons contributes to the incidence of health problems, the real perception of prison workers about their own work and health was investigated through content analysis, using semi-structured interviews. The study emphasizes that the type of work and its content increase the level of stress of the workers analyzed, and the lack of security generates fear and distrust, revealing problems in the organization and the work process. However, a deeper analysis of the work condition is fundamental to understand how the worker deals with the characteristics of the work, the strategies that he finds to solve the problems and how much the work context influences his health.