Prison guards victims of physical violence, intimidated and abandoned in dangerous situations when they have called for help, that is what the daily life of correctional agents, according to a recent study.
“Moral distress is very present in this work environment. It is worse if you are homosexual, indigenous or from racialized communities. You are often abandoned to your fate by your colleagues and your bosses, ”comments Denise Brend, a professor at the Social Work and Criminology school at Laval University.
With two academics, it has just published the results of a study with 77 correctional agents to employ Canadian federal prisons, where prisoners are imprisoned who must serve sentences of two and over. The results of this study demonstrate that many of them experience very large moral distress and do not have enough access to aid resources.
“Managers are very often inadequate,” adds Mr.me Brend, stating that prison administration does not understand the magnitude of the situation.
Denise Brend is a professor at Laval University. She studied moral distress in Canada correctional agents.
Denise Brend
Not surprised
“These results do not surprise me!” This is the echo that we hear from the field, ”says Frédérick Lebeau, president of the union of Correctional Agents of Canada, which brings together 7,400 professionals in the country, including 2,200 in Quebec.
While he himself worked as a correctional agent in a federal prison, he attended scenes of extreme violence, some of which are deadly. “People who self -managed, fought and committed suicide, there were several. It is an extremely difficult climate to live, ”says the union representative.
An example of this violence is the case of Sylvain Kabbouchi, a Laval gang leader assassinated in his cell in Donnacona prison last week. According to the sources of Journalhe was stabbed in the face and had his throat sliced. He died after being transferred to the infirmary.
Sylvain kabbouchi
Courtesy
Post-traumatic stress syndrome often awaits poorly loved professionals from the prison system who attend these scenes. The internal polls carried out by his union have shown in the past that 30% of the members lived situations of distress.
More resources
For the specialist in social work and psychotherapist Denise Brend, this situation should be better understood not only by the prison authorities, but by the general population.
“We underestimate the importance of suffering experienced in prison, on both sides of the bars,” she said.
Help resources must be more numerous and better suited, she gives as an example.
Mr. Lebeau specifies that it was his union which set up a system of assistance in the prisons of Quebec thanks to the financial participation of a foundation in 2020. Agents have access to the listening service 24 hours a day of the La Vigile house for problems related to drug addiction.
