Why is this important?
Serious health issues affect this public safety sector workforce, and are exacerbated by violence, trauma, and stress that that are intrinsic to working in corrections. (Jaegers et al., 2022; 2019; Obidoa et al., 2011).
Corrections officers have disproportionate risk of fatality from violence, high rates of non-fatal injuries from assaults, and from direct or observed involvement in violent events, such as injury, homicide and suicide among inmates (Konda, et. al., 2012).
Mental health disorders in COs exceed rates observed in other criminal justice professions and in the general public: 53% of jail officers meet the criteria for PTSD (Jaegers et al. 2019) and 31% meeting criteria for clinical depression (Jaegers et al., 2020; NIJ, 2017).
This in-person program is structured to advance research to practice (r2p) to improve corrections worker health. The symposia program is supported by 15 years of research and practice that us locally based. The plan to establish an ongoing participatory network of key stakeholders and change agents, is based on more than a decade of experience (El Ghaziri et al., 2020) with the National Corrections Collaborative (NCC) and NCC Project Taskforce, a voluntary group of corrections practitioners and professionals. It is also informed by survey work with the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) to identify available approaches that address organizational stress and trauma among corrections workers (CPH-NEW, 2022; El Ghaziri et al., 2020). These NIC-sponsored investigations revealed the scarcity of intervention research to address the mental health needs of corrections workers stress and trauma.
Through NIC's support we are building an inventory of safety and health resources including policies, practices, peer support, and training suitable for addressing worker trauma and organizational stress. We also plan to establish an ongoing group of professionals and practitioners from symposia attendees who will be the agents of national best practices.
