Sinead Regan: Occupational Stress and Coping among Prison Officers Occupational Stress and Coping among Irish Prison Officers: An Exploratory Examination Sinead Regan MSc 2009 Greenhouse Press 1 Sinead Regan: Occupational Stress and Coping among Prison Officers ABSTRACT Occupational Stress and Coping among Prison Officers: An Exploratory Examination Prison officers as a professional group are exposed to unique and powerful stressors. Few other employees are given the responsibility of taken charge of an unwilling and potentially violent population. This present study grew out of a perceived paucity of systematic research examining the relationships between stressors and stress related problems among prison officers in Ireland. The research was conducted to extend knowledge about prison officer perceptions of stress, consequences in terms of physical and emotional status, perceived causes of stress, and coping techniques. From self-reported data of sixty-eight prison officers drawn from a medium security committal prison for male offenders, findings of the present study indicate that according to several objective indicators, prison officers experience considerable stress on the job.
In these sessions the inmates are kept in chains and separated by jail cells in an open room, as opposed to a patient friendly atmosphere the psychiatric hospitals are able to provide. If the inmates in these prisons begin to display any disciplinary problems, they more often than not sent to segregation in a secluded part of the facility. Such alienation can be very detrimental in the continued treatment of their mental disorders. It is often the case where the mentally ill patients become so violent and a continued history of misconduct, to the point where the prison can no longer handle them; they will be transferred to the prison’s psychiatric hospital extension. It is in these facilities where the inmates are treated much more as patients rather than prisoners as was the case in the prisons.
Privacy for the individuals who are in these facilities has many concerns to keens that are searching in from the outside. Health problems and concerns for prisoners and disregard that happens in correctional facilities have been worries that press on to go unnoticed. The state appears to under staff in a few territories of administering prisoner's health issues. There are numerous who might go unattended of their health issues creating radical or even death in the process. A jail framework redesign yearly would serve to secure detainees and their health issues.
Outside The Walls: The Importance of Maintaining Strong Family Ties While Incarcerated. When a person is sentenced to prison, it is a devastating experience for not only the offender, but also the people they are closest to. A convicted criminal is stripped of freedom and individuality, and often, the connection held with loved ones is also a casualty of incarceration. With the family bond already strained from the incarceration, a dismissiveness of attachment often occurs among families with a member in the justice system (Fairchild 374). These detachments have a massive impact on prisoners who are left with little to be hopeful for.
A prison houses many varieties of classes of people or populations. These populations react differently than the other. Each of these populations poses a different problem for correctional administrators. Lack of funds and people caring for inmates are only two of the many problems. Among these populations HIV/AIDS, Female, and Gang populations offer unique challenges in the prison system.
With mandatory minimum, fixed and longer prison sentences for non-violent drug related convictions, it has put a strain on every state’s correctional department. Overcrowded prisons results in lack of programming and the available resources are being stretched even further, limited access to mental health resources, and there is an increased possibility of disarray. In this paper, we will discuss the history, causes and effects of overcrowding as well as alternatives to incarceration. TABLE OF CONTENT ABSTRACT………………………………………………………………………………..…….2 INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………………………..…………4 HISTORY OF PRISON OVERCROWDING………………………………………..….……..5 DEFINE OVERCROWDING……………………………………………………………..…….6 CAUSES OF OVERCROWDING….………………..…………………………………..…….7 HOW CROWDED ARE U.S. PRISONS…………………………………………….….…….8 PRISON CAPACITIES…………………………………………………….………………….11 EFFECTS OF OVERCROWDING…………………………………………….……………..13 ALTERNATIVES TO INCARCERATION……………………………………….………….16 REDUCING THE
Prison Environment CJS/230 Prison Environment To define a prison accurately would be dependent upon the security level; the different levels change the atmosphere and design. Generally, a prison is an overcrowded, confined, dreary, stressful, and depressing milieu. Many of the cells have bunk beds, within a several feet of the inmates bunk is the sink and toilet. There is not any way impossible to have any privacy as there are normally two inmates to a cell. Prison life can be very treacherous.
Does imprisonment fulfil those aims and purposes? Studies worldwide have shown that imprisonment does not work in terms of stated objectives. The stated objectives are to reform the criminal. In the majority of cases, the prison population is largely made up of re offenders. Donna King (Smart Justice) described her experience in jail as “Each prison sentence I went through, my crimes got bigger.
Within the realm of correctional officers, the largest obstacle is not the inmates but the politics that exist in the facility. There seems to be an officer culture within a culture and many times it becomes difficult to decipher. Another issue is communication within the correctional facility between individuals who possess different roles. Many times information does not get relayed properly or to the appropriate individuals so no one seems to be on the same page. An ongoing concern is that officer’s power has seemed to be almost eliminated and that causes problems with inmates and hostility amongst staff.
Prison Crowding Prison crowding is becoming more and more of an issue in the United States. Every day presents a growing problem when someone is arrested and taken into to custody and ultimately convicted. Many concerns have been raised when it comes to the topic of prison. Growth in prison capacity has lagged slightly behind that of the inmate population. There has been no consistent evidence that crowding is associated with mortality, morbidity which is defined as clinic utilization), recidivism, violence, or other pathological behaviors (Gaes 1994).