Correctional Officers and How Stress Affects them and Ways to Deal With it

Running head: Correctional Officers

Correctional Officers and Stress

in APA style

Claire Gilman

Hebron High School

Abstract

Everyday that a correctional makes the decision to go to work could be the distinction between life and death. Many people do not realize the unseen dangers lurking behind the stereotypes of the job. Watching over inmates and criminals a person must be ready for anything. At any second throughout the day an inmate could start a riot and the correction officer would have to step in and split it up. The danger of anything close to this happening will eventually cause stress in even the most lighthearted people. Along with the stress from fear of possible dangerous situations, correction officers also receive stress from their long and tiresome work hours. Often times the correctional officers are on call, even during the holidays, this interferes with their family and personal lives.

Prison Industrial Complex #occupysanquentin

Tacoma prison

Correctional Officer II

Also, the correction officers often do not feel as if their family could relate to what they are going through and so they do not talk about it creating a rift within their family relationships. This split between personal lives, family, and work is almost always a cause for stress. There are new programs being set up to help deal with the stress created on the job, but this does not always help and the programs are not always free. There are high hopes to make advances in these programs to make them relatively low in cost and effective.

"Correctional officers are the gatekeepers of the prison system. They watch over convicted criminals as these criminals serve their time in prison" ("What's correction officer," n.d., p. 1). Any amount of time spent with criminals can be taxing on a persons stress levels. Imagine...