At first blush, one might say the stress of working in corrections is derived directly from the clientele. But not so, according to those who are trying to make the lives of corrections officers and staff a little easier.

Administrators and others who have developed stress and wellness programs for corrections workers note that the daily stress of life combined with aspects of corrections can make staff unhealthy mentally, physically and spiritually.

Getting staff in tune with their lives beyond the job can make them more effective on the job, they say.

"I stress that staff need to keep their lives in balance. Being a CO or a parole agent or probation officer is a wonderful job, [but] especially when they are starting out, it can be all consuming," said Michael Raneses, a parole unit supervisor for the California Department of Corrections and the founder of the California-based Corrections Staff Fellowship Ministries.

Raneses, who devotes much of his time to helping others in corrections feel connected to their values, their faith and ethics while at work, said he understands how the job can take over.

"I went through a divorce because I failed to keep my life in perspective. They [corrections staff] have to take time for their spouses, their kids, to enjoy life and not be all-consumed with the job. It is detrimental to their emotional and physical well being, it is detrimental to the family and ultimately to the job. If they don't keep balance, they are ultimately not as effective on the job," he said.

There is good reason to feel overwhelmed by a corrections job. Increasingly staff are feeling overworked as layoffs and prison closures occur, officers are often the only contacts for inmates, their families, attorneys and others and, like other public safety positions, officers put their lives on the line.

"The jobs are demanding to the point where a corrections worker can feel just plain 'worn out.' There will always be more offenders than staff, people do not like being told what to do... and there are physical risks," said Gary Cornelius, author of the book Stressed Out! Strategies for Living and Working with Stress in Corrections and Classification Supervisor for the Fairfax County, Va., Adult Detention Center.

But if these factors cannot be changed, then staff must work on other areas of stress. Job balance is just one recent focus for improving staff stress, but there are others.

For agencies to be effective in helping their employees, they first have to learn what help they might need.

In Oklahoma, for example, corrections administrators surveyed staff and learned that caring for elderly parents was weighing heavily on their minds, while other agencies have instituted anger management classes and new age stress reduction measures.

Oklahoma Hones-in on Staff Wellness

Although the Oklahoma Department of Corrections has addressed staff wellness in one way or another since the 80s, it was not until the mid to late 90s that the department began assessment of staff to determine what their specific wellness needs really were.

The DOC partnered with the state Employee Benefits Council to conduct health risk assessments of the DOC staff and then developed programs to address those needs.

According to Curtis Gilley, Employee Assistance Services Administrator for the DOC, wellness coordinators were hired to design wellness programs according to the results.

"If the results said we had a high smoking population, then we would focus on a smoking class. If we had a problems with nutrition, we'd focus on that," he said.

Those classes made a dent in such statistics as lost workdays. Gilley, who believes strongly in the link between employee wellness and performance, said that those numbers dropped from an average of 12 per employee in 1995 to 6.6 in 2000.

"If you were to ask me one of the most critical issues [in corrections] I would say stress would be right up there at the top. I believe with great passion it is very, very important and organizationally, we don't put enough effort into it," said Gilley.

With that in mind, the DOC has focused in on specific interventions that employees say they would like. Last year, the DOC conducted another survey about employee concerns and needs in relation to wellness and satisfaction.

One of those areas of concern was nutrition and becoming healthier, another was elder care.

With this information, the DOC took the bull by the horns and began working with a nutritional expert from the Employee Benefits Council to create training classes for employees. In addition, the DOC helped develop a course on disc for staff to take and get credit for taking.

Beyond health, the DOC also found that the day-to-day stressors of one group of employees, the baby boomers, were worth monitoring. One area of concern for this group was the added pressure they were feeling to care for elderly parents.

"If you look at the literature, a program that helps employees address a balance between work and life [outside of work] can help. The baby boomers have to take care of their family members and when they are doing that, they are worrying about it both during the work day and off the work site," said Gilley.

The DOC's Eldercare Awareness Program was developed to help this population deal with this increasingly common issue.

The program included the design and distribution of an informational brochure and a resource website related to eldercare. In addition, the DOC held eldercare awareness training sessions and created an eldercare training CD. Finally, the DOC hosted two "brown bag" luncheon meetings for employees needing assistance with eldercare issues.

Pinpointing areas of stress was also the goal of a program in the Cuyahoga County, Ohio, Juvenile Court after it experienced a period of major administrative changes, and an increase in the number of juveniles and the severity of their offenses.

The court, armed with a National Institute of Justice Corrections and Law Enforcement Family Support grant, was able to find out specifically where staff stress came from.

Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court Studies Stress

Staff members at the juvenile court reported a range of attitudes about the workplace, from ambivalence to positive feelings and, although they did not indicate high levels of burnout, the officers stated they felt anger and anxiety more than physical or depressive symptoms.

According to Renee Edel, Senior Program Planner for the court, focus groups with employees indicated that some traditional and non-traditional methods of stress management training were needed.

Edel and her group collected information about meditation and aroma therapy for a new age stress reduction session and also offered relationship sessions, communications skills session, anger management sessions, a financial workshop and personality assessment sessions for staff on both the detention and probation sides.

The courts put out a flyer to employees describing the voluntary program and its goals and hired an independent researcher who gave the participants an extensive questionnaire to determine the level of stress staff experienced.

The questionnaire, Edel said, included several questions: How do you interact with people you live with? Do you snap at them? Do you sleep well? And, Do you think about work when you are home?

The participants took part in nine full-day sessions on stress management techniques both off-site and on-site for four months.

At the end of the program the questionnaire was re-administered and the program participants each had the opportunity to consult with a social worker to develop their own personal wellness plan and indicate an individual who would help them carry it through.

Some of the most popular parts of the program were the personality assessment sessions, which taught employees about their own personality type and how they can work with different personalities, as well as relaxation techniques from the new age sessions, Edel said.

There was also an increased understanding by staff that the system in which the employees worked was not one that would change quickly.

"We learned that most people came to an awareness that you don't always have a say in your day-to-day activity," Edel said, adding that this realization also helped relieve some stress.

In addition, researchers determined that employees, for the most part, did not trust the employee assistance program as being confidential. "Whether that was true or not we don't know because they were afraid to try [it]," Edel said.

Although the county did not initially provide funding to continue the wellness program, Edel is pleased that it recently evolved into a program where personality assessment sessions and communication skills sessions are now offered to the workforce.

"I think that one of the major benefits of a stress reduction program is people feel valued and they are worth something to management just by the fact they implemented the program, and, it increases morale. They are then more likely to do their work, there is less chance of people becoming sick, and that all contributes to people being happier," Edel said. "Healthier and more productive people tend to be pro-active, especially with limited resources and people pulling higher workloads."

With happier and healthier employees as the ultimate goal, other organizations are working toward the same result-but from a different starting point.

Improving Spiritual Health

According to Corrections Staff Fellowship's Raneses, helping staff stay in touch with the reasons that they came to corrections in the first place can do a great deal to help manage day-to-day stress.

By bringing their faith and spiritual beliefs to their work, he said, staff can find new meaning in it.

"Most staff go to church on Sunday but they couldn't make the connection on Monday morning," he said. "We encourage corrections professionals to be persons of integrity and  [we] equip and encourage them to integrate their faith and values into their career and strive toward the highest levels of ethics in corrections." 

Raneses said the members of the fellowship are not bible thumpers on the job, but rather have an understanding and a clarity that their job is to bring light to the corrections institution and those who are housed there.

"I think God wants us to make a positive difference in the workplace. He wants us to bring light to these dark environments," said Raneses.

To help staff have a better and more positive outlook on their work and those they work with, the fellowship's chapters hold regular meetings to discuss the issues that members experience.

Workplace stress is a common theme.

"Staff meet once a month. We talk about integrating positive values in corrections, dealing with stress, balancing career and family, dealing with difficult people -- those kinds of issues," Raneses said.

The fellowship seems to have hit a chord with many corrections officers as it has grown to 60 chapters in 15 states and Canada since its founding in 1997. And, according to Raneses, the reason is because staff that are involved feel they are connected.

"We travel around and visit staff in other states and people come up and say 'Thank You. I feel supported and that is all the reward I need,'" he said.

Members of these fellowship chapters meet on their own time, sometimes within the prison, sometimes in probation and parole offices and sometimes outside.

"What staff express is it is encouraging to know they are not alone. When staff find out there is someone in their office who shares their faith - it is strengthening and encouraging," said Raneses.

This is exactly what many in corrections need in order to manage the stress of the job and the stress of normal life.

"Corrections will tear down your physical and mental health if you let it. The job can tire you to the point that escape mechanisms such as "vegging out" and quick fixes such as smoking, drink and overeating look desirable," said Cornelius of Fairfax County.

Cornelius said staff need support from all angles and that can be provided in numerous ways - through their agency, by colleagues and from outside organizations.

He suggests that some simple efforts may also go a long way toward relieving stress among corrections workers. Recognizing the hard work of officers and others, saying 'Thank You', paying attention to the qualifications of those who are promoted, answering questions and giving feedback, taking the time to train staff - including how to cope with stress - and providing encouragement to staff be healthy are all strategies that can help the corrections worker.

"There are many demands on your attentiveness, your ability to make good decisions and your time. Staff need support, from encouragement, to being able to take time off, or to being able to voice concerns and ideas. This support has to come from the agency, colleagues and supervisors," Cornelius said.

Resources:

For information about the Corrections Staff Fellowship, visit the website at http://www.csfministries.org

Cornelius' book Stressed Out! Strategies for Living and Working with Stress in Corrections, 2nd Edition will be published this summer and will be available through the American Corrections Association http://www.aca.org

For information about the Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court's stress reduction program, read the final report available on NCJRS at http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/nij/grants/203979.pdf

To reach Curtis Gilley of the Oklahoma DOC, call 405-275-1997 or visit the DOC's website at http://www.doc.state.ok.us/humanresources/eap.htm

For information about the Corrections and Law Enforcement Family Support program go to: http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/clefs/