When working in corrections, the stress can wear you out. It does not matter if you work inside correctional facilities, in probation and parole, in community corrections, or with juvenile offenders — you are tired. Sometimes you go to work tired, are tired throughout your shift, and come home tired. Your loved ones often ask, “How was your day?” How do you answer that question? Fatigue will always be a part of corrections. We have to recognize it. The following excerpt about corrections fatigue is taken from the just-released book, “Stressed Out: Strategies for Living and Working in Corrections,” Third Edition (2024), by Gary F. Cornelius, from Carolina Academic Press. Order your copy here.
Corrections fatigue can negatively impact your life.
Many researchers of stress in corrections use the term corrections fatigue to describe the worn-out staff. Beagley (n.d.) states that correctional fatigue is “the gradual wear and tear of the spirit, soul, and body of correctional staff as they adapt to the demands of their workplace and career.” Correctional officers often feel worn out. They deal with and encounter the same type of manipulative lying offenders day after day. Inmates’ bad behavior never seems to end. For example, the offender you, the probation officer, worked with for months to get off drugs lies about his behavior and re-offends.
Many correctional officers dread going to work, listening to the noises, smelling the odors, and being the subject of inmates’ assaults and verbal harassment day after day. A juvenile detention worker thinks this babysitting job is not worth his sanity. As a result, people look for other jobs, and before long, the facility is down positions. Short staffing creates stress.
How do correctional workers know that they are suffering from correctional fatigue? They realize that life is not as enjoyable as it once was. They are concerned about their safety and become hypervigilant. Their minds never leave the job.
Beagley (n.d.) lists some signs of correctional fatigue:
- When out in public, such as in a grocery store, you get nervous that you may run into a former offender.
- The password on your smartphone or computer is “security.”
- Your vocabulary and actions are similar to work. Friends drop by for a “visitation,” and loud children are told to go to their “cells.”
Fatigue affects the staff person’s personal life, as well. Strife at home, emotional estrangement from family, separation, divorce, and withdrawal from loved ones can occur.
Correctional fatigue does not happen overnight; it takes time as the stresses of working in corrections take their toll, with PTSD [Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder] being a possible outcome. Beagley (n.d.), at Arizona State University, identifies the following factors leading to correctional fatigue in both institutional and noninstitutional environments:
- Nature of the job: In corrections, the staff is not dealing with moral, positive people. A correctional officer, juvenile detention officer, and probation/parole officer must always be on alert. Correctional staff interacts with offenders who often adhere to a much different moral code.
- Role conflict: Some staff think solely of custody, control, and punishment, and if management emphasizes treatment, this can create conflict.
- Negative workplace environment: The noises, sights, and smells of institutions can be depressing, especially when mentally ill offenders, gangs, and crowded conditions add to the mix. Probation and parole officers make field visits in dangerous neighborhoods; offenders’ homes are sometimes unclean and unpleasant. Additional negative factors include frustrating work situations such as short staffing, mandatory overtime, lack of recognition, changes in policies and directives, and shift work.
- Exposure to trauma: No two days in corrections are alike. Correctional officers may encounter violent inmates, mentally ill inmates, inmate suicides, and other issues.
- High caseloads and lack of support systems: Supervisors can order probation/parole officers to supervise large numbers of offenders. Similarly, correctional officers may find themselves responsible for large numbers of inmates in their assigned areas. Staff may feel alone and unsupported by hearing supervisors say: “That’s the way the job is,” or “Suck it up.” Besides, supervisors may tell staff when they voice their concerns that they “will have to do more with less.” In addition, management may expect more of the correctional worker, and training may be substandard.
- Fear of embarrassment and not talking about it: Some say that correctional staff is “paid to take it.” Others may interpret talking about their concerns as a sign of weakness or incompetence. As a result, many correctional staff “clam up.” Unfortunately, ignoring the problem and not speaking up also includes not discussing or reporting incidents of sexual harassment from both other staff and inmates.
- Lack of community support: As frustrations build, the public’s lack of understanding of the role of corrections only adds to the problem. The media—news, television, and movies—occasionally portray correctional officers as brutal, uneducated thugs. Staff rarely see news coverage of what it is like to work in corrections. This negative image, combined with a lack of support and funding, can also lead to fatigue.
- Co-workers’ personality styles: Many correctional professionals do an outstanding job, work with others as a team, and are very professional. However, some workers are negative, complaining, sloppy, unethical, and unprofessional, like many professions. Also, when supervisors do not address these issues of professionalism and ethics, the good staff ask themselves: “what’s the use?”
Concerning stress, the corrections profession is in a “Golden Age” in many respects. Compared to several decades ago, we know more about offenders and have devised training methods to manage them more effectively. We have better equipment and communications. However, our most important commodity in corrections is our people. Corrections professionals wake up, gear up, and mentally prepare to deal with criminal offenders every workday. Fatigue can set in, and one does not have to be a supervisor to help your staff with it. You can be a concerned loved one, friend, significant other, colleague, or supervisor. In this “Golden Age,” there are many corrections veterans and mental health workers in many organizations that help corrections professionals positively cope with stress and fatigue. Some of the best ways to help are when you encounter a colleague or loved one that is “worn out,” talk to them, reach out to them, and help them rest and relax. Persuade them to vent and to let it out. Pent-up anger will explode eventually; and people dear to us will be in the line of fire. Try to understand why they are fatigued. Get the information on what can be done, show the concern, and corrections fatigue may be lessened — and that is good for all.
Reference
Beagley D. (n.d.) Arizona problem-solving courts conference: Correctional fatigue and self-care.
