Psychological Stress and Correctional Work 285not fully describe the types of stress that correctional officers experience on a day-
to-day basis. They are under continual threat of physical danger. They experience
hostility from the inmates and often the public. They respond to political changes
in attitudes toward the role of institutional corrections. They work daily in a tedious
and unrewarding environment. Finally, they completely depend on their coworkers
to provide for their safety (Grossi & Berg, 1991). Working in such an atmosphere
every clay can lead to some very debilitating consequences, including depression,
chronic fatigue, physical illness, and even Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
The following illustration describes a stressful situation that officers often must face.
The day began like any other at the prison. The day staff came in and were briefed on
any problems or incidents of which they needed to be aware, and then they began their
duties of moving the prisoners through their daily routines. After a few hours, when
the work was becoming tedious and the guards began to relax, three inmates attacked a
guard walking by and managed to get his gun away from him. They used him as a hostage
and demanded that the other guards give up their guns. The officers had to comply to
avoid having their coworker killed. The inmates were able to gain control of the prison
unit by holding approximately 30 employees hostage. The guards that were able to avoid
becoming hostages locked themselves in the administrative offices but could not escape
from the prison. This highly intense and stressful situation lasted for over 2 hours with
the officers under constant fear for their lives. The incident ended without any serious
injuries but with a great deal of property damage (Bergmann & Queen, 1987). The
officers who had to endure this hostage situation were exposed to a type of stress that
most people will never experience in their lifetime. Even the officers that were not held
hostage felt the effects of the stress because they had to return to work in this environment
wondering if such an incident might happen again.Literature Review
Although the above illustration is a severe example, it represents the type of stressful
situation that correctional officers are potentially faced with and must learn to accept
as part of their job. Research shows that most correctional officers do feel this stress.
In a study that asked officers to rate their levels of day-to-day job-related stress, only
26.2% reported feeling low levels of stress. Most of the officers experienced medium
to high levels of stress every day, with 10.0% reporting very high levels of work stress
(Robinson, 1992). Generally, the type of stress that officers experience is related to
the work that they do; that is, guarding the inmates. With overcrowded prisons,
officers have a more difficult time controlling inmates, especially when the inmates
know that they will be there for a long time and do not fear punishment (Martinez,
1997). The case illustration shows how it is possible for prisoners to become uncon-
trollable just by outnumbering the guards. Robinson (1992) reported that the most
frequently cited source of stress by correctional officers is related to security. Twenty-
seven percent of the officers reported a fear of offenders and a lack of security proce-
dures. Their second and third most reported sources of stress were a lack of commu-
nication in the prison and a heavy workload. In addition Robinson determined that
officers'job commitment was affected by stress. He found that officers who reported
higher levels of work-related stress had lower levels of commitment to their jobs.