(Montreal) Correctional agents live from psychological distress due to threats or intimidation which they suffer in their work context, reveals a recent study.
Correctional agents in adult prisons are responsible for the management, control and safety of people in detention.
If they can sometimes expect inadequate behaviors of prisoners, agents can also live on the part of their colleagues or superiors, noted Michelle Brend, assistant professor at the Social Work and Criminology at Laval University.
“There are several people who reported that there is a big problem about their well-being,” she said after having looked into this problem in a study.
By probing 77 correctional agents, she found that 30 of them have expressed in comments from a system that is broken, where little follow -up is sometimes achieved after events deemed traumatic.
“From what I have seen at work, the strongest pressure on the mental health of staff does not come from prisoners, but from management,” said an agent in the context of the study.
“The staff are attacked daily and there is never any change. […] They just don’t care about us, ”said another.
A person has also told that peers can make fun of if someone is not able to manage something. She said that an official threatened to send prisoners to her home to kill her.
Added to this is the exposure to violence between prisoners, the gestures of suicide or mutilation, recalled Mme Brand.
“It is a part of this work which is so difficult to testify to the suffering of another human being,” said the professor.
Psychological distress is also sometimes more present in people who are part of a minority.
A turn to operate
In his research, Mme Brend noted that several participants pointed out that certain policies prevent them from acting at best from their interests, creating helplessness.
“We have not really established a culture that is sensitive to trauma, this is where we have work to do,” she said.
More than a change in practice, it is a “philosophical change” that should be achieved to have an advancement in prisons.
This can go through support to help meet trauma and more mental health support, but also provide tools to help prisoners.
If the steam is not overthrown, the professor believes that the moral distress of correctional agents can also have larger impacts, such as a greater personnel bearing or high costs of sick leave.
“We have people of excellence in Canada, but we don’t have a system that works with all the pieces together in the same direction,” said Mme Brand.
