91172.pdf

Psychological Stress and Correctional Work 287

eating and sleeping behaviors. Both Bergmann and Queen (1987) and Davis (1995)
identified long-term side effects from stress, including alcoholism, divorce, un-
employment, violent relationships, and suicide if the correctional officers did not
receive appropriate mental health services.
These traumatic incidents can also cause Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in certain
employees. In the case of Wcriz v. Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board (1996),
the plaintiff worked at a prison during a prison riot. He suffered PTSD and was
awarded total disability benefits. When he returned to a modified duty position at
the prison, his PTSD symptoms began to increase again, forcing him to leave his
job permanently. Despite the fact that there were no riots when he returned to
work, he was still awarded disability payments because his psychological stress was
related to the workplace.
Although many studies have examined the nature and extent of stress experienced
by correctional officers, few have researched ways to reduce this stress. As can
be seen from the Worker's Compensation lawsuits, stress can have some serious
consequences and lead to additional expenses for institutions. A study that did
examine methods for reducing stress researched the benefits of exercise programs for
correctional officers (Kiely & Hodgson, 1990). The authors found that the exercise
programs were a success, although they relied on self-reports for their data. The staff
was able to see how they benefitted from the exercise programs and therefore were
in favor of them. They reported higher staff morale, improved attitudes, increased
confidence, and greater physical fitness which improved resistance to stress. The
authors did find that correctional officers had a difficult time recognizing stress in
themselves or others and therefore concluded that heightening their awareness of
potential stressors along with preventative actions such as exercise would be the
best way to minimize the negative consequences of stress. Their overall findings
revealed the benefits of physical fitness as a way of reducing stress and aiding guards
in overcoming the effects of stress-related illnesses.
Another variable that intuitively would seem to reduce stress is peer support.
However, Grossi and Berg (1991) found that peer support actually increased work
stress. They hypothesized that in a prison setting, correctional officers may have to
compromise their personal values and integrity in order to obtain peer support, par-
ticularly when overlooking infractions made by other officers. This would produce
in more feelings of stress instead of less. It may be that other forms of support could
be stress reducing, such as the role of administration or family support. However,
these variables were not examined in this study.

Forensic Psychology and Policy Implications

After examining the effects that stress has on correctional officers, it is clear that pro-

grams need to be developed to help them handle work tension before they burn out.

One type of program that has received a considerable amount of attention is critical

incident stress debriefing. This is a stage method whereby individuals are taken back