Researchers illuminate the mental health plight of correctional workers by demonstrating a high prevalence of mental health disorders among the group. Yet, structural barriers persist in preventing correctional staff from accessing treatment and support—barriers that may result in more prolonged and pronounced symptoms. We consider correctional staff perspectives on how mental health policies at the organizational level can foster better well-being outcomes for employees. Data are drawn from open-ended survey responses from provincial and territorial correctional employees ( N = 870) in Canada. Responses collectively highlight the need for a correctional staff mental health paradigm that reflects the sources of stress among correctional workers, including access to specialized mental health services that are easily accessible, immediately available, and comprehensive in nature. Additional aspects of the work environment were identified as venues for important change, including improvements in work and schedule structures, improved manager–staff relations, and changes to the physical environment.
Prisons and other correctional settings are spaces often marked by numerous sources of physical, psychological, and emotional insecurity. Researchers have consistently found correctional work to be associated with outcomes such as burnout, posttraumatic stress disorder, and depression. Drawing on open-ended survey questions with correctional workers (CWs) in the province of Ontario, we first identify salient themes in discussions of work stressors and potentially psychologically traumatic events (PPTEs); these include situations involving harm to prisoners, harm to staff, and harms associated with occupational and organizational culture. Next, employing the concept of “habitus,” we consider the social-subjective effects of exposure to PPTEs as revealed in respondent accounts. Key aspects include a disposition of hypervigilance, desensitization, disillusionment, and distrust. We suggest that the CW habitus may, in some ways, serve to mitigate threats in the work environment, though may have negative effects on job performance and well-being, and come to shape social experiences in everyday life.
Contributing to the international literature on reintegration and parole governance, we examine the release experiences of women ( n=43) who served time in federal Canadian prison through a qualitative content analysis of casework documents. We show that the multiple stressors of release, combined with layers of social marginality, may render the “pains of release” as equally compromising to (albeit distinct from) those associated with imprisonment. Findings reveal several key pains of re-entry for formerly incarcerated women experience: Over stimulation, social disorientation and social precarity; missing “hooks” for new identities; parental and custodial struggles; extensive parole obligations; and living conditions. Implications for policy and case management practices are presented.
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