"The COVID-19 pandemic and operational challenges, impacts, and lessons learned: a multi-methods study of U.S. prison systems"

BACKGROUND

The purpose of this study was to examine how the COVID-19 pandemic changed U.S. prison operations and influenced the daily work of prison staff.

METHODS

In collaboration with the National Institute of Corrections, we administered a survey to 31 state correctional agencies in April 2021 and conducted five focus groups with 62 correctional staff.

RESULTS

Using a framework of bounded rationality, we find that daily operations were strained, particularly in the areas of staffing, implementing public health policy efforts, and sustaining correctional programming. While prison systems and staff were under-prepared to respond to the pandemic, they attempted to address complex problems with the limited resources they had.

CONCLUSIONS

Results underscore a need in corrections for prioritizing further developments and reviews of collaborative policies and practices for managing crisis situations. Seeking avenues for leveraging technological innovations to improve operations and facilitate enhanced communication are especially warranted. Finally, meaningful reductions in the prison population, changes in physical infrastructure, and expansions of hiring and retention initiatives are critical for positioning prisons to manage future emergencies.

Suicide in prisons: describing trends and staff knowledge and preparedness to address suicide

PURPOSE

Suicide prevention and intervention in prisons is a challenge. Prisons were not designed to be clinical facilities, yet with the growing numbers of people who face mental health challenges in prisons, staff require knowledge and skills to adequately address mental health crises, especially suicide. This study aims to: describe trends in suicide attempts and completions within one state's prison system and measure staff knowledge and preparedness to address suicide.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH

This research uses a nonexperimental research design and two data sources. Administrative data from 2000 to 2017 on serious suicide attempts and completions were analyzed, and all correctional staff employed in the state's Department of Corrections were surveyed at one point in time. Univariate and bivariate analyses were conducted.

FINDINGS

The number of serious suicide attempts trended up but completed suicides decreased. Correctional staff demonstrated high suicide knowledge of risk factors and warning signs of suicide. Staff who viewed a media-based suicide training displayed significantly more knowledge of suicide and perceived greater preparedness compared to staff who did not or did not recall viewing the training.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE

Corrections staff play a key role in preventing suicides in prison. Innovative intervention is needed to increase suicide awareness, improve communication and enhance prevention skills.

Exploring the connection between work-family conflict and job burnout among Nigerian correctional staff

Only one study among U.S. prison staff has explored the effects of work-family conflict and job burnout. To replicate the research to determine whether the results vary by nation, this study examined the effects of four types of work-family conflict (strain-based, time-based, behavior-based and family-based conflict) on three dimensions of job burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization and feeling ineffective at work) among Nigerian correctional staff. Strain- and behavior-based conflict had significant positive effects on emotional exhaustion, but time- and family-based conflict did not. Family-based conflict was the only type of domain spillover with significant positive effects on depersonalization. Behavior-based conflict was the only type of work-family conflict with significant positive effects on feeling ineffective at work. Time-based and strain-based conflict were highly related to one another, which was attributed to time-based conflict being a contributor to strain-based conflict for Nigerian prison staff.

HIV Stigma in Prisons and Jails: Results from a Staff Survey

With numerous HIV service gaps in prisons and jails, there has been little research on HIV stigma attitudes among correctional staff. Such attitudes may undermine HIV services for inmates at risk of or infected with HIV. This HIV stigma attitudes survey among 218 correctional staff in 32 US facilities (1) provides an overview of staff's stigma attitudes, (2) reports psychometric analyses of domains in Earnshaw and Chaudoir's HIV Stigma Framework (HSF), and (3) explores differences in stigma attitudes among different staff types. Overall, correctional and medical staff expressed non stigmatizing attitudes toward people living with HIV/AIDS, but perceived that stigma and discrimination exist in others. Factor analyses revealed a three factor structure capturing two mechanisms of the HSF (prejudice, discrimination). Few factor score differences were found by staff type or setting. Implications for correctional HIV services and future research on HIV stigma attitudes are discussed.