The backbone of corrections is its workforce. The corrections sector relies on qualified, trained and dedicated staff for effective, professional operations. But today, correctional administrators, particularly those running prisons and jails, are grappling with severe workforce challenges that directly impact mission performance. Those challenges include staff recruitment, selection and retention, training and agency succession planning.
Wherever you interact with criminal offenders, there is a real danger of assault, attempted escape and the necessity to control offenders by force. This is true whether you work inside a juvenile facility, an adult prison or a local jail or you are a probation or parole officer. Most correctional officers want things to run smoothly, and do not look for trouble. They do not abuse offenders or throw their weight around. They want to get through a 25-year (or more) career and retire in good health. The key to doing that is staying safe, and the key to safety is a cautious mindset.
The idea that offenders respond to the costs and benefits of crime dates to the eighteenth century, following Beccaria and Bentham. Becker [1968] provided the first modern and mathematical treatment of the subject, giving a new impetus to the school of thoughts initiated in the 18th century. The main levers of criminal law are the probability of being caught and the severity of the sanction. It is widely accepted that the probability has an influence on crime level (Garoupa [1999]; Polinsky and Shavell [2000]). In this context, an increase in police forces has a negative influence on crime level (Marvell and Moody [1996]; Levitt [1997]). The impact of the severity of the sanction appears to be more undermined.
Background: Correctional Officers show signs of adverse health early in their careers. We evaluated the impact of a one-year peer health mentoring program for new officers based on
a Total Worker Health® approach; Conclusions: A continuous peer health mentoring program seemed protective to new officers in reducing burnout and also declines in BMI and hypertension. Short-term physical health markers in younger officers may not be an index of psycho-social effects. A participatory design approach is recommended for a long-term health mentoring program to be both effective and sustainable.
While technology such as better video surveillance, communications, tablets, and kiosks have greatly improved and enhanced the job of correctional officers, one thing has remained constant: We must have enough staff to maintain the posts, walk the tiers and floors, and provide safety and security to everyone who lives, works, and visits a correctional facility. As corrections leaders, we must do what we can not only to hire enough people, but also to help them develop into good corrections professionals. And by doing so, hopefully we can retain them. If we retain good people, it will both improve the department and serve as a legacy.
Recruitment and retention has been one of the toughest challenges in corrections historically because of several factors. The most important reason behind this challenge is the fact that an occupation in corrections involves violence and confrontations with incarcerated individuals. Agency culture and environmental factors are directly related to retention and recruitment. Evaluating facility cultures and being mindful of generational differences are key to understanding shrinking corrections workforces. Attracting new people to the profession is difficult and retaining staff is problematic given the average length of time correctional officers staying employed in corrections ranges from less than one year to five years.33 Despite the challenges the field has and continues to face, it’s clear that corrections administrators are using their historical experiences to explore new ways to hire and keep staff. Taking a holistic approach to the hiring and retention process has resulted in dividends that will hopefully have long-term payoffs. Offering a comprehensive staff wellness program helps to promote healthy correctional institution, increases engagement among employees, sets up a healthier and more productive workforce, attracts candidates by adding appeal to job seekers, promotes healthy correctional institutions, and keeps more experienced individuals in the field.
The use of force by corrections officers is one of the most controversial aspects of the legal authority granted to them and questions have surfaced regarding when the use of force violates a prisoner’s constitutional rights. The United States Supreme Court determined how claims of excessive force are examined in Hudson v. McMillian, 503 U.S. 1 (1992).
A new study by the RAND Corporation and the University of Denver (DU) analyzed insights from a working group of experts with practical expertise in and knowl-edge of inmate mortality trends.
Approximately 1,000 people in the United States were fatally shot by police officers during 2018, and people with mental illness were involved in approximately 25 percent of those fatalities. Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) training is a specialized police curriculum that aims to reduce the risk of serious injury or death during an emergency interaction between persons with mental illness and police officers. CIT has been implemented widely both nationally and internationally. Given the increasing resources devoted to CIT, efforts to analyze its effectiveness and outcomes relative to other approaches are important. Studies of CIT and similar interventions are found within both the mental health and the criminal justice arenas, which use very different terminologies, approaches, and outcome studies, rendering unified analyses challenging. This article describes the CIT model and reviews several recent systematic analyses of studies concerning the effects of CIT. Studies generally support that CIT has beneficial officer-level outcomes, such as officer satisfaction and self-perception of a reduction in use of force. CIT also likely leads to prebooking diversion from jails to psychiatric facilities. There is little evidence in the peer-reviewed literature, however, that shows CIT’s benefits on objective measures of arrests, officer injury, citizen injury, or use of force.
Jails have been described as the criminal justice system’s “front door,” but jail incarceration typically begins with the police, with an arrest. Before any bail hearing, pretrial detention, prosecution, or sentencing, there is contact with the police. But despite their crucial role in the process, we know less about these police encounters than other stages of the criminal justice system