© Gregory Morton, Mike Denhof & Caterina Spinaris, 2012
This article examines issues that correctional agencies might consider when discussing the implementation of programs designed to prevent and remediate Corrections Fatigue and related organizational climate and staff well-being issues. Briefly, our qualifications for offering our perspectives on corrections staff’s well-being are the following: Gregory Morton has served at the Oregon Department of Corrections since 1975, including eight years as Staff Training Administrator. Concern for the professional and life skills of the corrections workforce has been his primary motivation throughout. Mike Denhof is a clinical research psychologist with over 12 years of experience working in correctional and mental health settings, including extensive experience in inmate mental health and risk assessment, and general clinical-behavioral health and outcomes research. Mike has played a lead role in the development of clinical-behavioral assessment models for the State of Colorado, for multiple large behavioral health organizations (BHOs), and for numerous mental health centers, jails, and different types of correctional organizations. Caterina Spinaris is a licensed professional counselor and the founding director of Desert Waters Correctional Outreach, with 11 years of experience training and treating corrections staff and their family members. She is also the author of the book Staying Well: Strategies for Corrections Staff.
In our role as correctional employees we are problem solvers. We don’t like letting problems fester. We are trained to confront difficult situations. We are eager, sometimes even overly so, to address issues when we see them. We don’t like unfinished business or letting obvious oversights go uncorrected.
However, there is one historical predicament that impacts all of us but that none of us have ever addressed fully – the mental and emotional toll that the profession itself takes on its practitioners. Read more…
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ctudor Corrections Fatigue, Leadership, PTSD Add new tag, well-being
This article is based on conversations with a married friend caught in a web of an intoxicating attraction to a coworker. It is presented with my friend’s permission.
You called me in a frantic state of mind, rightfully frightened about what seemed to you to be an irresistible attraction to a married fellow worker. You could not understand how you, a straight-laced, conservative woman could have been flooded with what felt to you like overwhelming romantic fantasies about your colleague. You described spending hours obsessing about that person, wondering why you were “in love” with him, and what you should do about it. Read more…
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ctudor Boundaries, family family, happiness
Several readers lately asked that I address the topic of staff bullying other staff—intimidating, harassing, threatening, coercing colleagues to do something they do not want to do.
Before I tackle such an article I would like to invite you to email me your personal experiences and observations regarding this issue in the corrections workplace.
Here are some questions to get you started. Read more…
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ctudor Boundaries, professionalism integrity, morale
In 2010 DWCO conducted a pilot online survey measuring PTSD rates in the corrections ranks. Results showed that 39% of our sample met criteria for PTSD for symptoms experienced over the past six months. Read more…
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ctudor PTSD, Research PTSD, traumatic stress
You go to the firing range every year to qualify with your weapon. And that is necessary and good. Do you realize though that you daily carry with you a different kind of weapon that goes neglected and unacknowledged for the most part until you “fire?” That hidden yet powerful weapon is your emotions.
Please consider how many times a year you have to shoot at offenders. Compare that with how many times weekly or even daily you may engage in tense verbal interactions with offenders, fellow staff or family members, and how many times these result in fierce arguments or other types of conflict. Read more…
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ctudor Uncategorized
This article is Part 2 of the series on managing and regulating one’s emotions. In it I present a real-life example of the type of stressors faced routinely by corrections staff, and suggestions as to how to deal with its emotional impact. This example was shared with me by Greg Morton, a retired State Training Manager for the Oregon DOC. Greg is now a part-time facilitator for an inmate Parenting Class.
Let me give you a little background. Greg and I were discussing whether PTSD might be an occupational disease of corrections staff due to their repeated exposure to violence on the job. We compared the corrections staff’s workplace conditions to coal miners’ Black Lung, and wondered to what degree occupational diseases may be preventable. My opinion was that unless workplace death and violence drop to near zero, at least some degree of psychological traumatization of corrections staff is inevitable, especially for those repeatedly exposed to such incidents.
Read more…
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Dear Corrections Employee:
My name is Caterina Spinaris Tudor, Ph.D., and as the Executive Director of Desert Waters Correctional Outreach (DWCO) I invite you to participate anonymously in a landmark study that researches health and wellness issues of corrections staff. Read more…
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ctudor Uncategorized
Corrections staff, especially women staff, are at times confronted with the sight of a male offender who exposes himself to them or masturbates in front of them for sexual gratification, or to shock or humiliate them.
Women correctional workers have described such encounters to me as highly disgusting, even to the point of interfering with their sex lives at home until they worked through their emotional impact. Read more…
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ctudor Women in Corrections Women in Corrections
I was doing a training recently when the subject of divorce in corrections
came up. I could almost feel the pain in the room pouring out of people’s
hearts. When later on I received this article, submitted to me by a female corrections officer (who gave me permission to reprint it anonymously), I knew I had to share it with as many people in corrections as I could. Read more…
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ctudor family family
The other day I heard someone say that as firefighters expect to see charred bodies on the job, correctional workers should expect to encounter violence at work, and consequently, should be prepared to deal with it and not be bothered by it.
The speaker made two points here: (1) that staff should be prepared to deal with workplace violence, and (2) that they should not be bothered by it.
These are two separate issues. Read more…
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ctudor PTSD PTSD, traumatic stress
