Abstract

Correction officers work in an occupational context where they are often exposed to violence; however, prior research assessing the relationship between violence exposure and officers’ mental health has been limited. The current study sought to better understand the impact of direct and indirect exposure to violence and suicide on psychological health outcomes. Analyzing data from a random sample of 317 correction officers in Massachusetts, findings indicate that personally knowing other officers who died by suicide is associated with greater anger, anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Increased strain-based work-family conflict and departmental discipline were also associated with elevated symptomology. However, other types of violence exposures, including being assaulted, witnessing staff assaults, and suicides among the incarcerated population, did not predict any outcomes. Further, family support did not serve as a stress buffer for officers exposed to violence, but higher levels of family support were associated with decreased PTSD.

Keywords: correction officers; exposure to violence; mental health; psychological distress; officer suicide

This research reported in this article was supported by the National Institute of Justice under Grant #MU-MU-0010. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not represent the official views of the National Institute of Justice or the U.S. Department of Justice.

Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Stacie St. Louis, 1360 Southern Drive, Carroll Building, Statesboro, GA, 30458. Email: [email protected]

For decades, the impacts of imprisonment on the incarcerated population have been documented and empirically assessed, but comparatively little attention has been paid to the effects of the correctional environment on those who work in our carceral institutions. Correction officers are in a uniquely stressful position relative to other correctional staff as they are tasked with responding to potentially violent situations that may arise during an otherwise standard shift. Compared to other public safety personnel, correction officers work in confined spaces with a population of people convicted of criminal offenses for extended durations. Police officers, on the other hand, typically interact with potentially dangerous people in passing and time-limited encounters. Yet, researchers have documented that, compared to research on police officers, firefighters, and combat military personnel, “mental health outcomes including depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress among corrections officers remain relatively unexplored” (Regehr et al., 2019, p. 2). The current study seeks to fill this critical void by assessing the effects of correctional work, specifically direct and indirect exposure to violence and suicide, on officers’ anger, anxiety, depression, and PTSD.

A recent systematic review and meta-analysis examined over 200 empirical studies on correction officer safety, health, and wellness and reported that officer mental health was the least examined outcome among these works, assessed in only nine of the 200 studies (Butler et al., 2019). Across the handful of studies that have examined officers’ mental health, most studies have focused on PTSD and only a handful on anxiety and depression, usually as part of a global mental health or psychological distress measure. Prevalence estimates indicate that 15-34% of correction officers struggle with PTSD, 24-25% with anxiety, and 24-60% with depression (Regehr et al., 2019). Even the lower ends of these ranges are far higher than their prevalence in the general public. An estimated 3.6% of US adults had PTSD in the past year (lifetime prevalence of 6.8%), 2.7% had generalized anxiety disorder in the past year (lifetime prevalence of 5.7%), and 6.8% had major depressive disorder (lifetime prevalence of 16.9%) (National Comorbidity Survey, 2005). There is evidence that psychological distress may be particularly acute for officers in correctional environments. Compared to other correctional service workers (e.g., parole and probation officers, institutional training staff), correction officers report greater anxiety, depression, and PTSD (Ricciardelli et al., 2021). Correction officers also report significantly greater stress, anxiety, social anxiety, depression, PTSD, and panic disorder than institutional wellness staff (e.g., nurses, counselors), further highlighting the unique challenges of the officer position (Fusco et al., 2021).

Prior research on correction officers’ psychological distress has predominately identified the impact of social support and other work-related factors (e.g., shift, overtime, etc.) on officers’ physical and behavioral health (e.g., Bourbonnais et al., 2007; Dollard & Winefield, 1995, 1998; Goldberg et al., 1996; Harvey, 2014; Liu et al., 2013; Peeters et al., 1995). Yet, along with the routine stress, correction officers work in potentially dangerous environments and face an elevated risk of exposure to violence. Correction officers work in one of the five occupations most exposed to violence (Harrell, 2011). Not only do officers witness and break up fights and respond to incidents of self-harm and suicide (Marzano & Adler, 2007; Smith et al., 2019), but they are also at substantial risk of being assaulted themselves (Goulette et al., 2022). Correction officers have the highest rate of intentional injury by another person and one of the highest rates of injury and illness that lead to absenteeism (Konda et al., 2012; U.S. Department of Labor, 2016). Officers’ reoccurring violence exposures likely contribute to their elevated mental health symptomology (Ricciardelli et al., 2021).

One of the first studies to explore the relationship between violence exposure and mental health outcomes focused on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and documented that PTSD-positive officers had faced more assaults, violence/injury/death events, and different types of violence/injury/death events than PTSD-negative officers (Spinaris et al., 2012). Other studies published around this time explored related factors that may contribute to officers’ PTSD, yielding contradictory findings. When controlling for other variables (e.g., demographics, personality traits, burnout), officers’ PTSD was not associated with having faced aggression from incarcerated persons (Kunst et al., 2009) or officers’ perceived seriousness of prior assaults on their person (Boudoukha et al., 2013). However, more recent studies have focused more precisely on the incidence and type of violence exposures (e.g., being assaulted, witnessing staff assaults, seeing/handling the deceased), emphasizing that direct/indirect exposure to violence increases officers' PTSD (Harney & Lerman, 2021; Taylor & Swartz, 2021). For example, exploring this relationship with different measures of PTSD (total symptom severity, provisional diagnosis, probable PTSD), a recent study by Ellison et al. (2022) found that being assaulted, being threatened, and witnessing staff assaults had significant negative impacts on all three measures of PTSD.

More recently, scholars have expanded this research by assessing how violence exposure impacts other forms of psychological health, finding that violence exposure is associated with greater depression/anxiety (a combined measure) and risk of suicide (Lerman et al., 2022). Further, officers feeling more negatively affected by their exposure to violence among incarcerated persons report greater depressive symptoms (Namazi et al., 2021). In short, most research in this area has assessed psychological distress in general or PTSD, with newer studies assessing additional specific mental health outcomes (e.g., depression). Additional research is needed on other anxiety disorders (e.g., panic), mood disorders (e.g., bipolar), and impulse-control disorders (e.g., anger).

Most research on violence exposure and mental health effects focuses on assaults by incarcerated people or related measures of officer injury. Though Namazi et al. (2021) included questions about suicides by officers and incarcerated individuals as part of a greater violence exposure scale, additional research is needed on the independent impacts of direct and indirect exposure to suicide, particularly officer suicide, on correction officers’ emotional/psychological health. Concerns over correction office suicide have grown over the past decade after a New Jersey task force on police suicide found that correction officers had a suicide rate twice that of police officers in that state (New Jersey Police Suicide Task Force, 2009). Although we know little about the rate of correction officer suicide nationally, CDC data suggest that suicide risk is elevated among those working in the protective services (e.g., correction officers, police officers) relative to other occupations (Peterson et al., 2020). Moreover, concern about a cluster of officer suicides led to the current study in Massachusetts. From 2010 to 2015, the suicide rate among officers who had worked for the Massachusetts Department of Correction (105 per 100,000) was more than ten-fold higher than the suicide rate within the state (9 per 100,000) and more than double the suicide rate among the incarcerated population (40 per 100,000) in Massachusetts state prisons over a similar period (Carson, 2021; Frost & Monteiro, 2020).

Officers exposed to violence and suicide may rely on their supervisors, colleagues, and loved ones to help them process the incidents. In other words, social support may serve as a stress buffer for officers exposed to violence and suicide, where officers with greater social support are less negatively impacted by these incidents. A recent study sheds light on the stress-buffering effects of social support for officers exposed to violence (Namazi et al., 2021). Officers were asked to report how impacted they felt by their exposure to violence against themselves and fellow staff, including witnessing deaths/suicides among those incarcerated, assaults by incarcerated persons on themselves/staff, and witnessing co-worker death/suicides. A moderation analysis revealed that after being affected by a violence exposure, supervisor support served as a stress buffer against depression. Among officers who reported being highly affected by their violence exposure, higher levels of supervisor support were associated with less depressive symptoms. Co-worker support was not a stress buffer for officers exposed to violence (Namazi et al., 2021). While Namazi et al. (2021) focused on supervisor and co-worker support, other studies have found that social support outside of work (i.e., friends, family) can decrease officers’ depression, anxiety, and PTSD (Costello et al., 2015; Ellison et al., 2022). It is possible that, in addition to its direct effects on officers’ mental health, social support outside work may also serve as a stress buffer for officers exposed to violence and suicide.

Current Study

While recent research has uncovered important associations, most studies relied upon convenience samples (or samples with relatively low response rates), generating concerns about the potential for selection bias (Boudoukha et al., 2013; Harney & Lerman, 2021; Kunst et al., 2009; Lerman et al., 2022; Namazi et al., 2021; Spinaris et al., 2012). The current study expands our understanding of correction officers’ exposure to violence and psychological health. It is crucial to explore the occupational hazards of correctional work further and identify key risk factors associated with psychological distress. We focus on direct violence to individual officers and witnessed violence against fellow correction officers. We expand on prior research by assessing specific emotional and psychological health outcomes beyond PTSD using clinically validated scales. In addition to violence exposures such as assaults by incarcerated people, we also consider officers’ direct and indirect exposure to suicide, including the suicides of other correction officers. As prior studies suggest that supervisor support can serve as a stress buffer for officers exposed to violence, we expand on this research by measuring the stress-buffering effects of family support on correction officers’ emotional/psychological health.

To this end, we answer two related questions. First, are violence and suicide exposures associated with an increase in officers’ anger, anxiety, depression, and PTSD symptomology? We hypothesize that officers with more exposure to violence/suicide will exhibit higher levels of anger, anxiety, depression, and PTSD. Second, does family support moderate the relationship between officers’ exposure to violence and mental health? We expect that family support will moderate the impact of violence exposure on officers’ emotional and psychological health. Exposure to violence/suicide will have less of an impact on emotional/psychological health for officers with greater family support; officers with less family support will be more negatively impacted by their violence/suicide exposure. 

Method

Data and Participants

To answer these questions, we use original data collected through a mixed-methods study of correction officer wellbeing and suicide (Frost et al., 2020). In May 2018, the Massachusetts Department of Correction provided a complete census of sworn officers (N = 3,298) working for the department that included demographic data (e.g., age, race, sex). The research team randomly selected 451 officers from the population of correction officers.[i] Of the 451 randomly sampled officers, 319 completed the interview for an overall participation rate of 71%.

We conducted significance tests to assess representativeness, comparing the population of correction officers to the random sample of officers on key demographic variables (see Appendix A). Using a series of t tests and chi-square tests, we did not identify significant differences between the population and random sample concerning age, sex, race, rank, and tenure. We then compared those in the random sample who participated to those who declined to participate. Officers who declined participation were older and had worked for the department longer than those who agreed to participate but were similar in terms of sex, race, and rank. Given that prior studies found that older officers were more likely to experience psychological symptoms (Bierie, 2012), depression (Obidoa et al., 2011), and PTSD (Kunst et al., 2009) and that officers with longer job tenure experienced greater psychological distress (Dollard & Winefield, 1995), we likely present conservative estimates of the levels of anger, anxiety, depression, and PTSD within this department of correction.

Participants were interviewed between May 2018 and December 2019 across all 13 prison facilities in Massachusetts. A small number of officers interviewed (n = 13) worked in administrative or specialized units (e.g., transportation, employee assistance). Interviews with officers were conducted one-on-one by a member of the research team on-site (at their workplace) and on-shift (during their working hours) in a private setting that was conducive to a confidential interview (typically an administrative office or unoccupied roll-call room). All interviewees were informed about study purposes and procedures while reviewing the informed consent documentation, and those willing to participate signed and received a copy of the informed consent.[ii] While the officers were not compensated for participating, the department paid them for their time as the interviews were conducted during their shifts. The interviews were designed to collect extensive quantitative and qualitative data. The quantitative data were collected using a questionnaire developed by the research team, which the interviewers read aloud to participants during the one-on-one interviews. The current study focuses on the quantitative data, including various assessments embedded within the interview instrument.

Given that data were collected through one-on-one interviews with participants, missing data were minimal. As opposed to a written survey where participants could simply skip over a question, in our study, participants would need to inform the interviewer that they did not want to answer a question. One participant is missing a PTSD score, as this page was mistakenly skipped during their interview. Another participant is missing responses to all questions used to generate scales in the current study, as they elected not to answer these questions. After omitting these two officers from the analysis, the sample size for the current study is 317 correction officers. Six additional variables were missing data on one officer each, and a veteran variable was missing data on three officers. These values were imputed (10 iterations) after a Little’s test found that data were missing at random to the best of our knowledge (X² = 232.89; p = .93). Had listwise deletion been used, the sample size would have been 310 officers, but by instead using multiple imputation, we maintained a sample of 317.

Measures

Emotional/Psychological Health

We administered subscales from the Trauma Symptom Inventory-II (TSI-II) to measure correction officers’ anger, anxiety, and depression (Table 1).[iii] The Trauma Symptom Inventory-II is one of the most widely used assessment tools for understanding the psychological effects of traumatic events (Briere, 2011). Each 10-item subscale begins with “In the last six months, how often have you experienced…” and proceeds to describe a symptom or behavior (e.g., “nervousness” or “doing something dangerous and wanting to die”). Four response options range from “never” to “often.” The anger, anxiety, and depression subscales in this sample had Cronbach’s alphas of .91, .87, and .93, respectively.

The TSI has been normed on age and gender, and in the current study, raw scores were converted into t-scores. Higher raw scores and standardized t-scores indicate more severe symptomology for each subscale. Based on the normal distribution of the population, a T-score of 50 (SD = 10) is the population mean. As per the TSI-II manual, t-scores were then used to create three ranges: normal (T < 60), problematic (T = 60–64), and clinically elevated (T > 65) (Briere, 2011). Although not as severe as clinically elevated symptoms, T-scores in the problematic range signify an above-average identification of symptoms likely to have clinical implications.

We measure PTSD using the PTSD Checklist-Civilian (PCL-C; Weathers et al., 1994). The PCL-C is a widely used measure comprised of 17 questions that assess DSM-5 symptoms of PTSD. All questions asked participants how much they were affected by an experience during the past month, with five response options ranging from “not at all” to “extremely” (see Appendix B). The 17 questions are summed to create a total severity score, with higher scores indicating more PTSD (alpha = .92). Possible scores range from 17 to 85. Scores 17-29 indicate little to no severity of PTSD symptoms, scores 30-44 indicate moderate to moderately high severity of PTSD symptoms, and scores 45-85 indicate high severity of PTSD symptoms.

[Table 1 about here]

Exposure to Violence

We measure both direct and witnessed exposure to violence over the officers’ careers. Officers were asked how many times they had ever been physically assaulted and how many times they had ever witnessed a staff assault that resulted in a serious injury requiring medical care. Officers were also asked about suicide as a violence exposure, including how many times they had ever responded to suicide deaths among those incarcerated. Officers were also asked how many other correction officers they personally knew who had died by suicide; this variable ranged from zero to 20 officers. All other violence exposure variables included a handful of extreme outliers, which were re-coded to 20+ assaults/suicides. In other words, these remained continuous variables but the small number of officers who were assaulted over 20 times (2.8%), witnessed over 20 staff assaults (5.7%), or responded to over 20 suicide deaths among those incarcerated (1.3%) had their values recoded to 20.

Family Support

Social support may directly impact officers’ mental health but may also serve as a stress buffer for officers exposed to violence (Namazi et al., 2021). As such, we include a family support variable that measures the extent to which family was a source of social support regarding the participant’s job (Armstrong et al., 2015; Cullen et al., 1985). Four questions were averaged to create the family support scale variable, with higher scores indicating more support (alpha = .74; see Appendix B). Response options for each question included: strongly disagree = 1, disagree = 2, neither agree nor disagree = 3, agree = 4, and strongly agree = 5.[iv]

Control Variables

Building on prior research, we control for other occupational stressors, work-family conflicts, and demographic characteristics that may contribute to officers’ psychological distress. Shift is comprised of four categories that were dummy-coded for regression analyses: (1) 7am-3pm (reference category), (2) 3pm-11pm, (3) 11pm-7am, and (4) other, non-standard shift. The first three categories are the standard non-rotating shifts assigned to officers working in this department of correction. A small fraction of officers work non-standard shifts that typically bridge the standard shifts. Facility security level is a dichotomous variable measuring whether the officers had ever worked at a maximum-security facility or the state hospital, as department data documented that these facilities had experienced the most violence and suicides in previous years (Frost et al., 2020).

Departmental discipline is measured through officers’ self-reported formal disciplinary histories. Officers are subject to official personnel action (or formal reprimands) for not meeting workplace expectations, including policy or protocol violations, multiple unsubstantiated absences, and persistent job performance issues.[v] Officers were asked how many times they had “faced departmental discipline.” To account for extreme outliers, values above 20 were re-coded to 20+ incidents. Nearly half of the officers had been disciplined at least once in their career (42%; n = 133).  

Given the importance of work-family balance and conflict across more recent studies (Lee et al., 2019; Namazi et al., 2021; Obidoa et al., 2011), we use items from conflict scales developed by Lambert et al. (2006) and used in Armstrong et al. (2015) to measure time- and strain-based work-family conflict. Time-based work-family conflict is comprised of five averaged questions (alpha = .80). It assesses conflict at home attributed to the officer spending insufficient time tending to family needs due to workplace demands. Strain-based work-family conflict measures strains resulting from the demands and tensions from work that negatively impact the quality of an officer’s home life. It is comprised of ten averaged questions (alpha = .89). Both scales included five response options: strongly disagree = 1, disagree = 2, neither agree nor disagree = 3, agree = 4, and strongly agree = 5. Participants' responses were averaged for each of the two scales to create time-based conflict and strain-based conflict scales; higher scores indicate more conflict.

Finally, we control for age, sex (where one signifies male officers), and race (where one represents white officers). We also control for whether the officer was a veteran and whether they were in a relationship at the time of the interview. Work-related control variables include officers’ tenure (in years) and rank. Rank is an ordinal variable where one signifies officers, two sergeants, three lieutenants, and four captains.

Analytic Strategy

We first conducted four OLS regressions to examine the relationship between exposure to violence/suicide and officers’ anger, anxiety, depression, and PTSD. These regressions included the violence exposure, family support, and control variables. To examine the potential stress-buffering effects of family support, we next conducted a moderation analysis consisting of an additional four OLS regression analyses. We began by mean-centering the family support and exposure to violence/suicide variables and then multiplied each mean-centered violence/suicide exposure variable by the mean-centered family support variable. This process created four interaction variables used in the moderation analysis. All model variables were screened to ensure normal distribution, and VIF tests detected no issues with multicollinearity. All analyses were conducted in Stata 17 BE using multiple imputation to address the minimal missing data.

Results

Overall, correction officers in the Massachusetts Department of Correction reported high levels of psychological distress and were often exposed to violence. Officers were most likely to report moderate to highly severe PTSD symptomology (50%; n = 159), followed by problematic or clinically elevated anger (27%; n = 87), anxiety (24%; n = 75), and depression (6%, n = 19). Most of the interviewed officers had experienced at least one of the four violence/suicide exposures throughout their careers (86%; n = 271). Specifically, 50% were assaulted (n = 158), 54% witnessed serious staff assaults requiring medical care (n = 172), 35% responded to suicide deaths among those incarcerated (n = 111), and 65% personally knew correction officers who died by suicide (n = 207). Officers were assaulted an average of 2.5 times, witnessed a serious staff assault an average of 3.3 times, responded to suicides among those incarcerated an average of 1.0 times, and personally knew an average of 1.8 other officers who died by suicide. See Appendix C for a correlation matrix of all model variables.

Results from the multivariate analyses emphasized the importance of exposure to officer suicide on participants’ emotional/psychological health (Table 2). We found that, when controlling for occupational stressors, work-family conflicts, and officers’ demographics, personally knowing officers who died by suicide was associated with increased anger (B = 0.12, p = .023, 95%CI [0.07, 0.97]), anxiety (B = 0.13, p = .011, 95%CI [0.12, 0.96]), depression (B = 0.12, p = .024, 95%CI [0.05, 0.76]), and PTSD (B = 0.14, p = .004, 95%CI [0.24, 1.25]). However, being assaulted, witnessing staff assaults, and responding to suicide deaths among those incarcerated were not significantly associated with any of the emotional/psychological health outcomes.

In addition to knowing other officers who died by suicide, two other key findings emerged. First, officers reporting higher strain-based work-family conflict experienced greater anger (B = 0.46, p < .001, 95%CI [4.22, 7.81]), anxiety (B = 0.54, p < .001, 95%CI [5.13, 8.49]), depression (B = 0.47, p < .001, 95%CI [3.50, 6.32]), and PTSD (B = 0.50, p < .001, 95%CI [6.01, 10.03]). Second, officers reporting more departmental discipline experienced elevated anger (B = 0.13, p = .013, 95%CI [0.11, 0.93]), depression (B = 0.11, p = .026, 95%CI [0.04, 0.69]), and PTSD (B = 0.12, p = .010, 95%CI [0.15, 1.06]). We also identified other interesting relationships related to occupational stressors and officers’ demographics. Officers who are veterans reported higher levels of PTSD (B = 0.16, p = .001, 95%CI [1.80, 6.68]), and officers in a relationship reported fewer symptoms of depression (B = -0.15, p = .002, 95%CI [-5.46, -1.21]). Finally, family support was directly associated with PTSD, where officers with greater family support reported less PTSD symptomology (B = -0.12, p = .021, 95%CI [-3.26, -0.27]).While we predicted that family support would moderate the relationship between exposure to violence and psychological health, moderation analyses revealed that family support did not serve as a stress buffer for officers exposed to violence (see Appendix D).

[Table 2 about here]

Based on the standardized beta coefficients, strain-based work-family conflict has the strongest effect on every emotional/psychological health measure, with knowing other officers who died by suicide being the next strongest (or close to the next strongest) predictor.

Discussion

The current study expands our understanding of the relationship between exposure to violence/suicide and several psychological health outcomes. Unexpectedly, being assaulted, witnessing serious staff assaults, and responding to suicide deaths among those incarcerated were not associated with greater emotional/psychological distress symptomology among correction officers. Instead, we identified two key variables associated with increased anger, anxiety, depression, and PTSD: strain-based work-family conflict and personally knowing other officers who died by suicide.

Strain-based work-family conflict was the strongest risk factor for officers’ psychological distress. Obidoa et al. (2011) similarly found that work-family conflict was associated with depression and explained that it is a more “immediate or proximal stressor” that would, in turn, lead to depressive symptoms. In other words, officers may struggle to balance their work and home lives on a daily basis, bringing the job home with them to the extent that it decreases their energy outside work and harms their personal relationships. Interestingly, while strain-based work-family conflict was strongly associated with all emotional/psychological health outcomes, time-based work-family conflict was not. The two types of work-family conflict may be compounded issues, as evidenced by their correlation. Prior studies using these same scales drew a similar conclusion: strain-based work-family conflict was associated with job satisfaction, but time-based work-family conflict was not (Armstrong et al., 2015; Lambert et al., 2006).

As hypothesized, another strong risk factor for elevated anger, anxiety, depression, and PTSD was personally knowing other officers who died by suicide. Correction officer suicide has more recently emerged as a core concern, and suicides of fellow correction officers may make officers fear for their own long-term health and wellbeing (Frost & Monteiro, 2020). On the other hand, experiencing or witnessing violence and responding to suicide deaths among those incarcerated were not significantly related to emotional and psychological distress. Kunst et al. (2009) drew a similar conclusion when they did not find a significant effect of aggression from incarcerated persons on PTSD, suggesting that officers view aggression as part of the job and, therefore, not particularly traumatizing. Qualitative research on correction officers has further reiterated the normalization of violence in corrections, with officer injuries also being viewed as a part of the job (Goulette et al., 2022). When violent and traumatic incidents occur (e.g., self-harm), officers often reject any negative impact of these incidents on their mental health (Smith et al., 2019).

In addition to strain-based work-family conflict and knowing officers who died by suicide, departmental discipline was also associated with elevated anger, depression, and PTSD, but not anxiety. This finding is unsurprising as internal investigations emerged as a particularly acute stressor in qualitative data collected through interviews conducted with the families of officers who died by suicide and with officers still working in this department (Frost & Monteiro, 2020).

Finally, we gained insight on the impact of family support on officers’ mental health. Contradictory to our prediction that support may serve as a stress buffer for officers exposed to violence, findings did not support this hypothesis. Family support was also not directly associated with anger, anxiety, and depression, though officers with greater family support reported lower PTSD. In his study on correction officers' psychological distress, Harvey (2014) drew a related conclusion and explained that officers may be less inclined to seek support from loved ones to maintain separation between their work and home lives. Additionally, while some studies identify a moderation effect of social support, most of this research measures work-based support by colleagues or supervisors (Namazi et al., 2021). In the aftermath of a violence exposure, officers may rely more on colleagues who can relate to their experience than on family members who cannot.

Limitations

As previously noted, our results likely represent conservative estimates of anxiety, depression, and PTSD within this population of correction officers. The assessments were based on self-reported prevalence of symptoms, and previous research has documented a reluctance among officers to acknowledge symptoms of emotional/psychological distress even where they exist (Cheek & Miller, 1983). Older officers and officers with longer tenure were more likely to refuse participation in the study, so this population may experience greater psychological distress than discussed. It is possible that the risk factors aligning with these higher levels of anger, anxiety, depression, and PTSD differ. Moreover, we asked officers to self-report their violence exposure and disciplinary histories, and they potentially misremembered the number of these incidents; however, prior research has found that alternative measures based on official records severely under-report assaults among incarcerated persons (by as much as 80%) and other misconduct (Steiner & Wooldredge, 2014).

Some potentially important indicators were unavailable in the data, such as quality of supervision or social support at work. We also could not measure officers’ perceptions of incarcerated individuals’ behavior. Future studies should examine the relationship between these factors and officers’ emotional/psychological health while accounting for facility-level measures. For example, it may be helpful to consider cross-facility differences through multi-level modeling, such as differences in prison capacity, crowding, security level, and prevalence of victimization. With only 13 facilities across the state, a sample size of approximately 300 officers, and variation in the number of officers across the 13 facilities, multi-level modeling was not possible. During the period of this study, there was very little overtime in the department (including voluntary and forced). However, due to a staffing shortage stemming partly from the Covid-19 pandemic, voluntary and particularly forced overtime has become more common over the past few years. Future research should consider the impact of voluntary and forced overtime on officers’ emotional and psychological health. Finally, we would be remiss if we did not acknowledge that the department of the current study predominately employed white males, so much so that it was not possible to disaggregate beyond white and non-white in the analysis. Scholars should consider the unique experiences of Black, Latinx, and officers of other races/ethnicities, given that officers of color face the additional stressor of working in a correctional system that disproportionately incarcerates Black and Latinx people.

Finally, we acknowledge the limitations of cross-sectional data and the temporal ordering of the relationships examined. While we ask about violence exposures and departmental discipline over the officers’ entire careers and psychological health symptomology in the past six months to help address temporal ordering, it remains a limitation. We were also unable to control for pre-existing emotional/psychological health issues, but we could use data from the larger study to address concerns that people with greater psychological distress could be self-selecting into the field of corrections. As part of the larger study, we interviewed a random sample of 45 new recruits who had recently graduated from the academy. We conducted four one-tailed independent samples t tests to compare the new recruit's emotional/psychological health scores to the sample in the current study. The new recruits' anger (p < .001), anxiety (p = .007), depression (p < .001), and PTSD (p < .001) scores were significantly lower than the random sample of all officers. While it would be preferable to use longitudinal data to assess these relationships, to our knowledge, there are currently no longitudinal data nor studies of occupational health and wellbeing among correction officers. Our results provide preliminary evidence of associations deserving of ongoing study.

Implications

Officer health and wellness has become a core concern among departments of correction and a strategic priority of the National Institute of Justice (2016). Given the high prevalence of anger, anxiety, depression, and PTSD identified among correction officers in the current study and across other studies (Regehr et al., 2019), it is important to destigmatize mental health and encourage help-seeking both within and beyond departments of correction (Johnston et al., 2022; Wills et al., 2021). It is also essential that senior leadership, including administrators and supervisors, encourage officers to seek support (Xanthakis, 2009), perhaps sharing their own experiences with mental health and help-seeking (Spinaris, 2020). Peer-to-peer counseling can also be an important resource in departments of correction, perhaps strategically selecting counselors that are veterans, who have navigated the disciplinary process, and who have known other officers who died by suicide. Officers may be hesitant to seek help from peer counselors if they worry about confidentiality or backlash, and if they seek help, they may minimize the extent to which they are struggling (Wills et al., 2021). As such, departments should also contract with licensed mental health professionals outside the department, prioritizing identifying providers who have experience treating corrections staff or specialize in this area (Spinaris & Brocato, 2019).

Departments should also consider implementing routine, mandated screenings for psychological distress and adopting other early intervention systems (Harvey, 2014). Mandated screenings would need to be implemented with caution, care, and consideration of ethical and practical concerns (e.g., confidentiality, backlash). Critical incident responses that attend to the psychological consequences of acute and cumulative exposures to violence can also be a valuable tool for reducing officers’ psychological distress, particularly in the aftermath of an officer suicide. These may include specialized critical incident stress debriefing units that provide on-the-job debriefing and ongoing counseling (Spinaris & Brocato, 2019). Officers in this department reported it was unusual to be offered time off following a traumatic event such as the suicide of a close colleague (Wills et al., 2021). Departments may consider providing paid time off to further promote the importance of self-care in the aftermath of critical incidents and traumatic events.

Given the impact of strain-based work-family conflict on officers' emotional and psychological health, internal and external resources could potentially extend to spouses or families of officers. During our qualitative interviews, more tenured officers spoke fondly of an earlier time when the department itself was like a family, with picnics and softball games and officers’ spouses coming together and supporting one another. Those family engagement opportunities have apparently since largely become relics of an earlier era, but perhaps re-engaging with families could foster a reduction in strain-based work-family conflict.  

Concluding Remarks

Correction officers work in an occupational context where they are frequently exposed to violence (Harrell, 2011), injured on the job (Goulette et al., 2022; Konda et al., 2012; U.S. Department of Labor, 2016), and respond to incidents of self-harm and suicide (Marzano & Adler, 2007; Smith et al., 2019). Accordingly, correction officers report greater psychological distress and, in some states, have a higher risk of suicide than the general public, public safety personnel, and other institutional staff (Frost & Monteiro, 2020; Fusco et al., 2021; New Jersey Police Suicide Task Force, 2009; Regehr et al., 2019; Ricciardelli et al., 2021). Like most departments of correction, the Massachusetts Department of Correction hosts a new officer academy and requires annual in-service training of all officers. While officer and institutional safety are emphasized in the academy and ongoing trainings, officer health and wellbeing are only briefly touched upon (Monteiro et al., 2023). Given the occupational hazards inherent to correctional work, a greater focus on correction officer health and wellbeing could help reduce the prevalence of psychological distress and its detrimental effects on officers.

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Author Biographies

Stacie St. Louis is an assistant professor in the Department of Criminal Justice and Criminology at Georgia Southern University. She holds a Ph.D. in Criminology and Justice Policy from Northeastern University and a B.A. in Legal Studies from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Her research focuses on the administration of justice, including pretrial detention, case processing, and corrections.

Natasha A. Frost, Ph.D. is a professor in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice, and Associate Dean of Research in the College of Social Sciences and Humanities at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr. Frost’s scholarship focuses broadly on punishment and social control and specifically on mass incarceration. Current research projects include a longitudinal study of psychological distress and suicide among correction officers and a multi-state study of the sources and consequences of prison violence.

Carlos Monteiro is an assistant professor in the Sociology Department at Suffolk University. Dr. Monteiro’s research focuses largely on corrections with a specific focus on recidivism and reentry. Some of his most recent work examines correctional environments and their impact on incarcerated persons and staff, including a comprehensive study on the demands of correctional contexts on correction officers. At the local level, Dr. Monteiro works with the Boston Public Health Commission and the Cape Association of Boston on developing responses to violence in neighborhoods most affected by gun violence. In 2015, Dr. Monteiro earned his Ph.D. in criminology and justice policy from Northeastern University.

Jessica Trapassi Migliaccio is the administrator of planning and research for the Rhode Island Department of Correction. Jessica is also doctoral student in the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Northeastern University. She holds an M.A. in Criminology from the University of South Florida and a B.A. in Justice Studies from Rhode Island College. 

Tables

Table 1

Descriptive Statistics (N = 317)

Table 2

OLS Regression Analyses Predicting Emotional/Psychological Health (N = 317)

Appendices

Appendix A

Comparisons of the Population/Sample of Correction Officers and the Participant/Refusal Officers

Table A.1

Chi-Square and T Tests Comparing the Population of Officers to the Random Sample of Officers

Notes. SD = standard deviation.

*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001

Table A.2

Chi-Square and T Tests Comparing Officers Who Refused Participation to Officers Who Participated

Notes. SD = standard deviation.

*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001

Appendix B

Scale Questions

Notes. Items in italics are reverse-coded.

Appendix C

Correlation Matrix of all Model Variables (N = 317)

*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001

*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001

*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001

Appendix D

Moderation Analysis

OLS Regression Analyses Predicting Emotional/Psychological Health (N = 317)

Notes. B = standardized beta. SE = standard error. All other model variables were included in the analyses; these are not shown for ease of presentation but are available upon request.

*p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001

Notes

[i] The research team initially randomly selected 500 officers. Among the 500 randomly selected officers, 49 were removed from the sample because they had retired, resigned, or been terminated before the research team reached their facility for interviews and could not have participated.

[ii] The study was reviewed and approved by the Northeastern University Institutional Review Board (IRB Approval #: 17-02-02).

[iii] The TSI-II scales used in this research were reproduced by special permission of the Publisher, Psychological Assessment Resources, Inc. (PAR), 16204 North Florida Avenue, Lutz, Florida 33549, from the Trauma Symptom Inventory-2 by John Briere, PhD, Copyright 2011 by PAR. The publisher of the TSI-II does not allow reprinting of the individual items.  

[iv] One of the four family support questions asked officers about support from their spouse or significant other. Eleven officers elected not to answer this question, stating it was not applicable to them. This was usually because the officers were single. Rather than imputing values that might not align with the 11 officers’ experiences, their “not applicable” responses were recoded to the “neither agree nor disagree” response option.

[v] In this department, departmental discipline, which results in official personnel actions or formal reprimands, is distinct from supervisor discipline, which occurs more informally within the facilities in interactions with direct supervisors. Although sometimes triggered by internal investigations following co-worker complaints, grievances from incarcerated persons, or law enforcement contact, departmental discipline typically focuses on the officer as an employee. It results from not meeting workplace expectations, including policy or protocol violations, unsubstantiated absences, and persistent job performance issues. Accumulating write-ups can result in a series of graduated sanctions, including formal reprimands, paid or unpaid suspensions, and termination.