Understanding corrections officer safety in Aotearoa New Zealand

Abstract

Working as a corrections officer can be challenging; in addition to navigating occupational hazards in a complex environment, corrections officers are also at risk of being verbally and physically assaulted by prisoners. As such, corrections officers report high rates of physical injury and report high levels of symptoms of psychological and stress-related disorders (e.g., depression, anxiety, PTSD, burnout). Corrections officers undergo the necessary task of managing prisoners and ensuring their needs are met, while risking their own safety and wellbeing to do so. Previous research has established that characteristics of prisoners, of officers, and of the prison environment contribute to the safety and wellbeing of corrections officers; however, this research is not comprehensive because studies typically examine only one type of characteristic (e.g., only prisoner characteristics or only officer characteristics, but not both). Likewise, some research examines strategies to improve corrections officer wellbeing, but again, this research is fragmented and limited in the sense that it focuses primarily on physical wellbeing and omits the emotional, social, and spiritual wellbeing of officers. Therefore, in this thesis, we sought to examine multiple factors of prison work that may decrease the safety of corrections officers and identify strategies that may increase corrections officer overall wellbeing.

This thesis contains five studies that investigate what contributes to the safety of corrections officers in New Zealand prisons. The first study examined characteristics of prisoners that were predictive of violence against corrections officers at three levels of severity, using a database of 1,647 incidents of prisoner-to-officer assault. Prisoners who perpetrated serious violence against corrections officers were typically younger, higher security, gang affiliated and in directed segregation, compared to prisoners who perpetrated minor or moderate violence against corrections officers. In the second study, we extracted a subsample of incidents from the previous study to narratively analyse officers’ written reports of incidents of prisoner-to-officer assault to examine officer and situational characteristics that were predictive of violence at three levels of severity. Men were more commonly victims of serious violence compared to women, and some activities and locations in prisons (e.g., movements, prisoners’ cells) were predictive of serious violence against officers.

The third study used interviews with 21 corrections officers and followed a grounded theory methodology to understand how corrections officers constructed their own safety in relation to their working relationships in prison. Corrections officers emphasised a necessity to develop positive working relationships with prisoners and colleagues to maintain their safety, and did so by being respectful and honest, and by using effective communication skills. The fourth study utilised the same data and methodology as study three to examine the strategies that officers used to keep safe while interacting with prisoners. Officers used some strategies consistently during their shift (e.g., alertness) and other strategies during specific interactions with prisoners (e.g., using physical measures during incidents of physical violence). Finally, in study five, we used the same data to capture how corrections officers perceived their emotional, social and spiritual wellbeing in relation to their work in prison. Officers described feeling stressed and emotionally exhausted due to their work in prison, which negatively impacted their personal lives outside of work. Taken together, the results of this thesis indicate that there are characteristics of prisoners, of officers, and of the prison environment itself that contribute to serious harm towards corrections officers. On the other hand, there are also strategies that corrections officers use to increase their safety at work including both security-focused strategies (e.g., physical control and restraint) and relational skills (e.g., using communication to build a rapport with prisoners). This thesis examined corrections officer safety from a holistic approach by understanding how multiple factors contribute to the overall wellbeing of officers, which establishes an empirical foundation for improving the safety and wellbeing of corrections officers in New Zealand.