HOW BAD IS CORRECTIONAL OFFICER STRESS?
The available empirical and anecdotal evidence convincingly documents that stress among correctional officers is widespread and, in many cases severe. (1) In recent years several circumstances may have created increased stress for correctional officers: • Inmate crowding has increased in many correctional facilities. The ratio of inmates to custody or security employees rose from 4.2 to 4.6 between 1990 and 1995. (2) • Inmate assaults against correctional staff in State and Federal Prisons have increase between 1990 and 19995, the number of attacks jumped by nearly one-third, from 10,731 to 14,165. (3) During this same period, the number of correctional officers increased by only 14 percent, (4) resulting in an overall increased risk of assault for each individual officer at the end of this period. • Many offenders serving increasingly longer sentences do not fear punishment or respect the authority of correctional officers. (5) According to one superintendent, • “Inmates today aren’t
