Abstract
Correctional officers (COs) are subject to the development of burnout syndrome. This investigation focuses on those factors that contribute to burnout syndrome in COs who work in Italian penitentiary institutions. Utilizing a qualitative methodology with 50 northern Italian COs, the study finds burnout to be caused by two types of factors, organizational and psychosocial. Notably, the results highlight feelings of anguish, sadness, and abandonment and CO requests for psychological help.
Introduction
While burnout was first conceptualized by Freudenberger (1974), the definition commonly used today was created by Maslach and Jackson (1981). Redefined, burnout is a syndrome of depersonalization, emotional exhaustion, and reduced personal accomplishment (Borgogni & Consiglio, 2005; Boudoukha et al., 2013; Bria et al., 2014; Maslach & Goldberg, 1998; Maslach & Jackson, 1981; Pietrantoni et al., 2003). More specifically, this syndrome stems from stress induced mainly by working in direct contact with people who are suffering both physically and socially. Furthermore, the literature highlights how burnout, which has repercussions for the individual’s personal life, is a process that manifests itself over time and results from factors related to his or her work rather than personal characteristics (Lambert, Hogan, Barton-Bellessa, et al., 2012a; Maslach & Goldberg, 1998).Therefore, to evaluate burnout, it is necessary to focus on the connection between the individual’s work situation and his or her personal experiences. The research also shows how emotional exhaustion exerts a cost on employees and the organization as a whole (Lambert et al., 2010).
As the literature documents (Baudino, 2014; Ferrari, 2016), burnout can manifest itself in all professions, with very strong relational implications, compromises in workers’ conduct, and high employee turnover. For these reasons, the problem of burnout is of considerable interest in the prison context, where correctional officers share their work spaces daily with people who are suffering and where the psychophysical condition of these officers affects both users and the organization itself.
As noted by Lambert et al. (2010), the employees of correctional institutions represent “the heart and soul” (p. 111) of these institutions. Therefore, their malaise, expressed as burnout, has consequences for them, their coworkers, their family members, and for the entire organization. These professionals who are in direct contact with prisoners (Dial, 2010) have the major responsibility for prisoners’ adapting to prison life and, subsequently, to the return to community (Vuolo & Kruttschnitt, 2008). The correctional officer, who represents “one of the main actors of the penal system” (Vuolo & Kruttschnitt, 2008, p. 309) finds himself or herself having to constantly learn and adapt in a workplace, i.e. the prison setting, that is also in continual change (Dial, 2010).
Burnout in the Context of the Correctional Officer
Organizational Factors
In the penitentiary context, the authors identified multiple factors that can determine the development of burnout syndrome in correctional officers. Baudino (2014) has emphasized that the physical working environment is decisive for assessing the stress levels inherent in the prison context. The physical environment can negatively affect workers’ concentration and performance and cause “sick building syndrome”—buildings and structures that are often neglected, crumbling, obsolete, with outdated lighting and ventilation systems, plagued with noises and lacking comfort can lead to an increase in stress-related mental illness, such as smoking, alcoholism, drug addiction, and depressed mood, as well as producing high rates of turnover and burnout (Baudino, 2014; Carlson et al., 2003; Ferrari, 2016; Harizanova, 2016; Lambert et al., 2010). However, the work environment is more than just a physical structure, as it is also composed of social and psychological factors (Lambert, Hogan, Dial, et al., 2012b). In fact, even the context—the organizational-structural conditions of the prison institution, such as overcrowding, staff shortages, excessive work shifts and accompanying issues of sick leave, and the lack of prisoner management skills—represents crucial factors that may lead to personal alienation and development of burnout syndrome (Auerbach et al., 2003; Baudino, 2014; Ferrari, 2016; Keinan & Malach-Pines, 2007; Martin et al., 2012; Steiner & Wooldredge, 2015).
Moreover, recent research has highlighted the increase in the likelihood of burnout experiences when correctional officers perceive a badly distributed workload and lack of time to carry out their work assignments (Andersen et al., 2017).
Psychosocial Factors
With regard to psychosocial factors, particular attention was paid to the relationship with prisoners. Notably, research has revealed inconsistent results regarding the effect of time spent with inmates. On the one hand, the amount of time spent in contact with inmates has been correlated with an increase in burnout levels (Lambert, Hogan, Dial, et al., 2012b; Keinan & Malach-Pines, 2007). On the other hand, it is less the amount of time with inmates and more the issue of dealing with inmates’ personal problems that leads correctional officers to develop stress, malaise, and burnout (Andersen et al., 2017). In addition, Spinaris et al. (2012) and, later, Isenhardt and Hostettler (2020) noted that it is both the observed violence and the increase in staff exhaustion and disengagement that leads to a reduced perception of safety and increased levels of burnout. However, some authors (Lambert et al., 2010) have found that the effects caused by burnout are more evident in officers involved in prisoner custody than those who hold other positions in carceral environments.
Furthermore, some research (Lambert, Hogan, Barton-Bellessa, et al., 2012a; Lambert, Hogan, Dial, et al., 2012b) has primarily emphasized the analysis of factors that can contribute to reducing burnout levels. Social support and trust in the organization have been found to represent a form of burnout protection. More specifically, the support received from the administration helps correctional officers perceive their work more positively. Additionally, supervisors’ support is perceived as necessary to overcome the problems that arise in the workplace. No less important is support received from coworkers, which allows correctional officers to face the challenges associated with work. Such support makes work more interesting and meaningful, and, thereby, increases the individual’s perception of efficiency. Research has also found that correctional officer trust in their supervisors and administrators makes them more inclined to accept job demands and thus reduces burnout levels. In contrast, a lack of trust, in addition to having an effect on burnout levels, can lead staff to vent their frustrations on others, especially on those who have no power, such as the inmates, who may be treated in an insensitive and impersonal way.
Past Studies on Burnout in the Correctional Context in Italy
International research, with the aim of studying the causes and effects of burnout in prison officers, has grown strongly, particularly in the last decade. However, as stated by Viotti (2016), there are still very few studies in the Italian context. Research carried out by Petitta et al. (2009) has shown that a sense of self-efficacy is a significant predictor of burnout. In contrast, Prati and Boldrin (2011) have emphasized the role of overcrowding, staff shortages, risk of aggression, inmate insults, relationships with superiors, and the lack of psychological support services as the major issues behind staff burnout. The same authors also argue that critical workplace events endured by correctional officers, such as offenses, threats, and self-injurious actions, contribute to increasing the level of burnout. More recently, Castiglione et al. (2017) have found that discrepancies between self-representation of the future self and the current role of correctional officers increase burnout levels, affirming that individual factors are crucial because self-representation drives thoughts, actions and emotions. Research by Farnese et al. (2017) has revealed how the presence of a mentor and socialization are crucial protective factors for correctional officers just assuming the role. Last, Viotti (2016) highlighted how the relationship with inmates represents a stressful factor that negatively affects the physical, cognitive, and, above all, emotional well-being of correctional officers. What’s more, correctional officer guilt and the perception of impotence due to the impossibility of helping inmates are seen as another source of stress.
Focus of This Study
An analysis of international and national literature reveals that the methodological approach commonly used in burnout studies is mainly quantitative; only a few studies have used a mixed methods (Jurik, 1985; Keinan & Malach-Pines, 2007; Martin et al., 2012; Moon & Maxwell, 2004) or an exclusively qualitative (Viotti, 2016) approach. Moreover, in most of the research analyzed (Keinan & Malach-Pines, 2007; Lambert et al., 2010; Lambert, Hogan, Barton-Bellessa, et al., 2012a; Lambert, Hogan, Dial, et al., 2012b; Petitta et al., 2009), the participants were members of the prison staff, thus including several professionals as well as correctional officers.
The present research carried out in the Italian context, instead, focused solely on the specific role of correctional officers, the figure that, more than any other, is in close contact with inmates. In addition, the study used a qualitative approach to study the theme of burnout in depth through the words and experiences of participants. The qualitative perspective is better equipped to provide a shared and co-constructed reading between the participants and the researcher of the factors that most favor the development of burnout syndrome.
The use of a qualitative methodology is fundamental to supporting the researcher’s exploration of correctional officers’ perceptions. Moreover, this methodology clarifies whether workers’ own perceptions of their skills are sufficient to perform the tasks requested of them. A purely quantitative approach would not capture the complexity of factors that lead to the development of burnout, especially in a work context that has not yet been explored from this point of view in Italy. In lieu of questionnaires that would not elucidate those factors considered fundamental by the correctional officers themselves, semi-structured interview were utilized to uncover deeper understanding. This design, therefore, represents a significant contribution to extant studies in the Italian context, particularly in its utilization of several prison institution settings.
Research
The Italian context
Italian penitentiary work environments have undergone significant changes over the years. In fact, in 1990, the issue of Law No. 395 led to a real change in Italy’s correctional field, with the creation of the Department of Penitentiary Administration (DAP) and the establishment of the Corps of Correctional Officers, a demilitarized organization of correctional officers with a civil orientation (Ferrari, 2016). This law has instituted changes in both correctional officers’ duties and in the intrinsic objectives of the role. In fact, the role that was previously identified as a guardian has now, with the introduction of Law 395, been re-titled correctional officer. The correctional officer, therefore, in addition to ensuring the execution of measures involving deprivation of personal liberty, guaranteeing order within the institutions of prevention and punishment, and assuring safety, now also participates, in the context of working groups, in the activities of inmate observation and rehabilitation treatment, aiming to both punish and reintroduce the inmate to social life (Baudino, 2014; Prati & Boldrin, 2011).
With the law change, as some authors point out (Baudino, 2014; Ferrari, 2016), on the one hand, there was a humanization of the role of the correctional officer. On the other hand, such humanization found the correctional officers unprepared to take on simultaneously the dual roles of repressor and rehabilitator. The aspect of managing the human side of the inmates is challenging in that correctional officers have basically had a purely military preparation. Correctional officers cannot help but rely on experience and common sense to carry out the intrinsic tasks of their role, finding a meeting point between being empathic and understanding—and being inflexible (Ferrari, 2016). Baudino (2014) points to the “schizophrenia” of the duty of the correctional officer, whose behavioral patterns must oscillate between being the guardian of order and of the inmate’s personal and human dignity.
In 2013, Italy was condemned by the Court of Europe for Human Rights in Strasbourg due to prison overcrowding. In addition, the recent Council of Europe Annual Penal Statistics (Space I, Aebi et al., 2017), shown in Table 1, highlight Italy’s place as one of the European countries with the highest overcrowding rate, surpassed only by Belgium, Hungary, and France; Italy also has the second-largest number of correctional officers working within prison settings, surpassed only by Sweden.
Situation in European Correctional Institutions.
Source: The Council of Europe Annual Penal Statistics, 2015 (Space I).
However, as shown in Table 2, there are regional variations in the rates of prison overcrowding and the numbers of correctional officers in carceral institutions. Northern Italy, for example, is home to the correctional institutions with the highest overcrowding rate and the lowest number of agents present in these prisons.
Situation in Italian Correctional Institutions.
Source: www.poliziapenitenziaria.it/statistiche (Sappe, Sindacato autonomo polizia penitenziaria, 2017).
Many authors (Baudino, 2014; Cheek & Miller, 1983; Martin et al., 2012; Prati & Boldrin, 2011) have shown how overcrowding, by affecting workers’ concentration and performance, can lead to the development of compromised health conditions, such as stress and burnout syndrome.
With these premises, it is clear that it is necessary to analyze and collect more in-depth data on a subject that remains so little addressed and undervalued in Italy, in a complex and dynamic context such as that of prison, and which is nonetheless decisive for achieving the intrinsic goal of organization: the prisoner’s reintegration into society.
Aims of the Present Study
The goal of this research study is to understand the factors that can lead to the development of burnout syndrome, focusing on the dimensions that characterize it and the influence it exerts on the work of correctional officers. In particular, our analysis of the extant research, especially in the international context, revealed that many factors influence the development of burnout syndrome. Drawing on this body of work, we, therefore, aim to explore how organizational factors, the management of critical events, relationships with colleagues and prisoners, and personal resources affect the development of correctional officer burnout syndrome. Moreover, using a qualitative method, the intent is to achieve a greater understanding and analysis of the full complexity of burnout syndrome through the utilization of correctional officers’ responses. Importantly, we decided to involve participants working in institutions in northern Italy because of the region’s high rate of prison overcrowding and low percentage of correctional officers, factors that have already been found in the literature to influence the level of burnout (Prati & Boldrin, 2011).
Methods
Measure
The research team drew on the literature to create a semi-structured in-depth interview instrument. The choice of this tool was guided by the desire to elicit participants’ own narrative structures and linguistic expressions, eliminating the interviewer’s intervention that could influence the modality or the expressive content of the narration (Atkinson, 2002). This qualitative tool helped enhance the theme of burnout by placing the researchers in a position to listen and bring up those factors that affect the development of this syndrome. Furthermore, this method allowed the interviewees to feel that they were free to express their states of mind through narrating their professional and personal experiences. During the semi-structured interview, the correctional officer’s perceptions of burnout were analyzed through the direct account of experiences felt to be particularly critical and situations deemed particularly stressful, and of the emotions connected to them.
Procedure
The research was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Department of Education Sciences of the University of Genoa. Subsequently, the project was proposed to several correctional institutions in the regions with the highest overcrowding rates and the lowest number of employed correctional officers. The institutions formally joined the project by sending a letter authorizing the research team to have access to the facilities and to propose the research to the prison officers.
Participation was voluntary; interviews were conducted in the workplace, in a specially designated room. In agreement with the administrative staff, the research was introduced prior to interviewing by a pedagogical legal officer or an inspector for a first collection of applications, as a minimum of 15 participants per institution was required. The interviewers, who went to the location, proceeded with individual in-depth interviews after a brief presentation of the research objective. Each interview took an average of 60 minutes. In addition, a sociodemographic sheet was administered to collect data that the literature has found significant, such as age, city of origin, educational qualifications, marital status, number of children, city of residence and that of the family’s residence, weekly working hours and years of service. Individual participation was voluntary, and an informed consent form was signed by each volunteer before the audio-recorded interview begun.
This study was carried out in accordance with the ethical recommendations of the Declaration of Helsinki and in compliance with the American Psychological Association (APA) standards for the treatment of human volunteers. The total body of text is 245,457 words. Each interview was transcribed verbatim.
Participants
As shown in Table 3, the research participants were 50 male prison officers, with an average age of 35.7 (range: 23–52 years, SD = 7.85), currently employed in correctional institutions in northern Italy. The participants were solely men because the women employed in study only held administrative roles.
Interviewees’ Sociodemographic Data.
In regard to educational level, 78% of those interviewed had a high school diploma, 18% a middle school diploma, and the remaining 4% a Bachelor’s degree. Regarding marital and family status, 60% were single, 38% married/cohabiting, and 2% did not declare their family status. Moreover, 58% of participants have family living in cities in southern Italy, very far from their workplace. The average number of years of service is 12.3, while the average number of weekly working hours corresponds to 40.26, approximately 4 hr longer than the figure stated in their employment contract.
Data Analysis
The transcription of the semi-structured in-depth interviews was carried out by two independent judges, following grounded theory approach (Glaser & Strauss, 1967). The analysis of the protocol was carried out individually, and the two judges then met to discuss the categories identified, thus obtaining a common categorization. NVivo 9 software (2010) was used for data analysis.
The software was used to create a graphic representation and define a model based on the previously identified categories. The model is composed of nodes and sub-nodes, and their labels represent the categories and subcategories identified by the researchers that exemplify the main themes that emerged.
Results
Figure 1 shows the model related to the different dimensions of burnout that emerged from the participants’ narratives. For each node, some significant sentences that best represent the category itself are reported.
Model of burnout dimensions.
The represented model is divided into two main nodes, organizational factors and psychosocial factors, each of which is divided into subcategories.
Organizational Factors
The organizational factors node contains four subcategories: work environment, distance from home, excessive work shifts, and overcrowding.
Regarding the work environment subcategory, many of the participants view their work context as one of deprivation of freedom that leads them to experience feelings of anguish and sadness: I feel a sense of anguish when I enter the institute . . . the feeling of being closed inside gives me that sense of sadness, of anguish (Interview 49, 44 years).
Another stress factor for correctional officers is their distance from home. Stress is mostly linked to denied requests to be transferred to their home city, where family and loved ones are living, often hundreds of kilometers away. Such stress is also connected to psychological factors caused by both the physical distance and the cultural difference perceived by the interviewees.
Most of us come from southern Italy, there is no clear criterion on how transfers take place, and this is the only negative aspect that I see in our administration (Interview 8, 42 years); I’m far from home, [. . .] I’m almost a thousand kilometers from home; the mentality is different, and this does not make me feel good (Interview 25, 40 years).
The subcategory of excessive work shifts is connected to the lack of personnel that leads to extraordinary situations that arise out of necessity: It is stressful when there is a lack of staff and then you work twice as much. It happened a few days ago, I even did a shift from eight am to eight pm, because the staff was short-handed, and if, on a floor of four departments, there are supposed to be four coworkers and the staff is short-handed and you take the first and second floor and then someone from another floor calls you, then there is a problem; at the end of the evening, it becomes stressful [. . .]. When the staff is short-handed, it becomes stressful (Interview 10, 33 years); Sometimes for me it is very stressful when you do the afternoon shift from four pm to midnight and then the next day from eight am to four pm. If you calculate that, I finish at midnight and add the time it takes to shower and change, I get home at half past midnight. Between one thing and the other, you get to bed at one o’clock am, and then you have to wake up at six, so you sleep five hours if all goes well. I am afraid that, over the years, this situation may be a cause of stress (Interview 44, 27 years).
The overcrowding subcategory is reported as a cause of stress by many respondents when the number of correctional officers present in a section is significantly lower than the number of inmates. In fact, correctional officers complained about the lack of personnel and the need to manage hundreds of inmates by themselves. This condition, when protracted, can lead correctional officers to develop burnout syndrome: In past experiences, I have seen coworkers who worked alone in a section with 100 inmates and, in the long run, like after 10, 15, 20 years of service there comes a moment when. . .you become exhausted. But nobody protects us, nobody tries to do something for us, to make us, how do you say it, work in better conditions (Interview 36, 32 years); I think that, having reached a certain age of service, we should retire, because the work is thinking, it’s stressful, [. . .], when I got here, we talked, in a department of about six hundred inmates and yes, so on one floor there were one hundred and fifty, one hundred and sixty, with one correctional officer (Interview 5, 50 years).
Psychosocial Factors
The psychosocial factors node is divided into two macro categories, individual factors and relational factors, which, in turn, include several subcategories each.
The individual factors include emotional burden, problem-solving difficulty, and work-family conflict, while the relational factors are expressed in relationship with supervisors and relationship with inmates.
Individual factors
Speaking about emotional burden, some participants, referring to the suicides that have occurred among correctional officers, hypothesizing how these may be due to burdensome emotional situations that those who perform this work are required to manage without any kind of external support: There are challenging episodes, on an emotional level, in the institute, and we indirectly suffer the consequences, not realizing immediately how these episodes hurt and how maybe they would require external psychological help. There are coworkers, who, in fact, have committed suicide (Interview 45, 29 years).
Many, moreover, perceive the need to assist day after day in the inmates’ self-damaging acts as stressful: Some episodes that one sees, however, can stress you internally, even if you do not notice it immediately, but, in the end, you realize you are stressed, because you keep accumulating and then explode. It can be stressful to see certain things, ugly episodes, which no one has ever seen in his life. I do not think it happens to everyone to see people who sew their mouths or who cut themselves with a razor blade and spill blood in front of you, and that can be stressful (Interview 45, 29 years).
Others, again, find it stressful to be threatened by inmates: Threats like “I will come to seek you out, I know where you live” said by the inmates are not easy to manage, they create stress (Interview 44, 27 years).
Last, taking charge of the inmates’ problems and maintaining constant control even in the face of personal problems is seen as a major psychological commitment: Having to deal with inmates and seeing the problems they have, which they sometimes, often dump them on us. In fact, we practically do very little, on a physical level, but psychologically and mentally we work a lot. Sometimes there are coworkers who shoot themselves with their guns and, in my opinion, these are the causes (Interview 7, 24 years).
The problem-solving difficulty is dictated by the difficulty encountered by many of the interviewees in managing problematic situations with inmates, such as the self-harming behaviors some implement: Problematic events are the cases in which there are people who you can no longer manage because they may have behaviors so altered that you cannot keep them still, when there are these problems here, you do not know how to manage them, these create problems and stress (Interview 47, 52 years); In that exact moment, you have to make a very important decision because maybe you’re dealing with an inmate who is really trying to hang himself and you try to help him (Interview 26, 35 years).
Finally, the work-family conflict is due to the difficulty of reconciling personal and work commitments; many have reported the need to keep private life separate from work to safeguard their physical and mental health: It was a stressful period from a personal point of view, being able to reconcile family and work shifts so yes, it was a most definitely a stressful period (Interview 17, 29 years); If there is a colleague who has problems in private life, personal problems, in the end he explodes. Unfortunately, we have many episodes like that, and because of this the suicide rate in the prison among correctional officers is very high (Interview 26, 35 years).
Relational factors
The relationship with supervisors is shown to be another source of stress for the participants. The lack of dialogue between supervisors and correctional officers and the perception of favoritism and misunderstandings exacerbate correctional officers’ stress levels: You get stressed when you have no dialogue. I find myself [with] an inmate with a flooded cell and I cannot find the supervisor, who just doesn’t care, and this creates stress (Interview 41, 26 years); There are some divergences with the supervisor, which create resentment . . . for example, the manager of the office sometimes does not perform his duties and manages the office according to his personal vision, also showing favoritism . . . this, if repeated over time, creates bad moods and stress (Interview 18, 30 years).
The subcategory relationship with the inmates is reported as a stress factor by many of the interviewed correctional officers. In particular, some participants define the inmates’ continuous and repetitive daily requests as stressful: Every day is stressful, because the inmates are now no longer locked in the cells, but they are free to walk around, every 3 minutes they come into the office to ask all kinds of things, which are things that [they] have already asked the colleague of the previous shift. Being told by coworkers that the same question has already been asked and that the inmate has to wait, in the long run, becomes stressful (Interview 1, 35 years).
Others, again, have reported that their relationships with inmates include feelings of fear, for example, when forced to intervene in risky situations to disarm a prisoner or to interrupt fights: We were in a risky situation because we knew he had the razor blade in his mouth, so the moment we entered, someone blocked him, someone else had to pull the razor away. I remember this scene, where he took the razor blade out of his mouth and tried to cut us. My coworkers and I were there to hold his hand firmly, but he could have cut us. I remember that I had to force him to open his hand to drop the blade on the ground, and that was a situation where I was afraid. When at work, it often happens that the inmates are beating each other and then you have to intervene, you cannot wait for them to kill someone (Interview 13, 46 years).
Some participants also feel that they are treated as scapegoats by some inmates, who believe they have been wronged: Some mornings, starting to work is an ordeal, a continuous war, because some inmates who have problems with magistrates, lawyers, in the end they take it out on us, we are caught in the middle. And it is very stressful, because then you work badly, and this also affects other inmates (Interview 46, 29 years).
And finally, even the unpredictability of the inmates’ behavior is considered a cause of stress: The fact that you never know how the prisoner will behave is very stressful because you do not know how to manage it (Interview 27, 28).
The interviewees’ words allowed us to be fully aware of the complexities and the general situation in correctional institutions.
Discussion
The objective of this research was to explore the factors that can lead to the development of burnout syndrome among correctional officers. The results seem to confirm what has already been highlighted in the literature, with some differences. From the analysis of the interviews, two main types of factors emerged that can lead to the development of burnout syndrome in the workplace, organizational and psychosocial. In contrast, in the literature, different macro areas have been identified, such as factors related to the type of work, work environment, and social factors (Viotti, 2016), or categories related to the dangers and the problematic nature of the role and organizational factors (Keinan & Malach-Pines, 2007).
In our research, the organizational factors include aspects such as the physical environment, distance from home, excessive work shifts, and overcrowding, all of which emerged from the analysis of the interviews and are considered crucial for the assessment of stress levels. With regard to the physical work environment, many of the interviewees experience feelings of anguish and sadness, experiencing the working environment as a deprivation of freedom. In contrast, in the literature, run-down environment and poor structural conditions are the main factors considered conducive to stress (Baudino, 2014; Ferrari, 2016).
Regarding the distance of the workplace from home, many of the participants live far from their families, and lack of transparency regarding the criteria for obtaining a transfer is a source of stress. This theme is rarely addressed in the international literature, as it seems to be a characteristic peculiar to Italy. Another stress factor is excessive work shifts, caused in particular by the lack of personnel (Baudino, 2014; Keinan & Malach-Pines, 2007). Moreover, overcrowding, which is present in the penal contexts considered and which characterizes various European structures, creates unease for the correctional officers, who are forced to manage hundreds of inmates without support.
Unlike what is found in the literature (Moon & Maxwell, 2004; Viotti, 2016), in the present research, the perception of a negative external image was not a determining factor for the development of burnout.
Psychosocial factors comprise the following categories: individual factors and relational factors. Individual factors include emotional burden, problem-solving difficulty, and work-family conflict.
The correctional officers perceive the emotional burden of their work as oppressive, particularly when they must face episodes that can “lacerate”, as recorded on several occasions by different participants. Many interviewees, in agreement with Prati and Boldrin (2011), complain about the lack of psychological support, which appears necessary given the high number of suicides among correctional officers but which, for now, is only intended for inmates. In fact, as reported by the National Observatory of Suicides, in 2016, correctional officers suffered the greatest number of losses due to suicides of any group. Furthermore, Spinaris et al. (2012) argue that both the observed and sustained violence contribute to increasing staff exhaustion and disengagement, thereby reducing the perception of security and increasing burnout levels. However, in the data from the present research, the participants did not report the physical violence they received from inmates as a source of stress, perhaps because, as claimed by Prati and Boldrin (2011), being part of a police force with a purely formal military training, correctional officers are better prepared to face physical than verbal threats.
The problem-solving difficulty for correctional officers emerges as their lack of competence in managing inmates, and is described by the interviewees as one of the causes contributing to the development of burnout syndrome. In contrast, in the literature (Moon & Maxwell, 2004, Triplett, 1996, Triplett et al., 1999), this difficulty emerged as a role conflict triggered by an ideological change that sees the correctional institution no longer as a place of punishment but of rehabilitation. That is, the role conflict provokes in correctional officers a lack of clarity about their role, thereby increasing their stress levels. Auerbach et al. (2003) have pointed out that the perceived lack of their own skills and the interpersonal skills of supervisors is a source of stress for correctional officers. Surprisingly, the interviewees in this research did not focus on role conflict but rather on the perceived lack of skills in managing prisoners.
Finally, our research shows that the conflict between work and family is due mainly to the difficulty of reconciling personal and work commitments, as also demonstrated in the literature (Armstrong et al., 2015).
As far as relational factors, it appears that the aspects concerning the relationships established within the working context are experienced as a source of stress and therefore possible burnout. In particular, the relationship with supervisors and the relationship with inmates seem to create the greatest difficulties.
Regarding the relationship established with supervisors, the correctional officers reported how the lack of support and the subjective management of supervisors’ relationships with staff create a negative emotional burden, as has also been affirmed by some authors in the literature (Dial et al., 2010; Lambert, Hogan, Dial, et al., 2012b; Prati & Boldrin, 2011).
Concerning the relationship with the inmates, it appears from the literature (Prati & Boldrin, 2011) that the management of critical events, such as having to intervene in risky situations to disarm a prisoner or a quarrel or brawl, increases stress levels, thereby playing a fundamental role in the development of burnout. Furthermore, it is interesting to note how many interviewees report being treated as scapegoats by the majority of inmates as a cause of stress.
In addition to the results of this study, its strengths are also its weaknesses. The first strength is represented by the choice to use a qualitative tool, a methodology rarely used by research in this context, which has allowed us to show the participants’ point of view and help them reflect on the situations that, according to them, are caused by stress. A further strength is the number of participants reached. It is not easy to involve correctional officers in a research study that uses engaging methods such as in-depth interviews on particularly sensitive issues such as burnout. The third strength is that common problems emerged, although the research was conducted in prisons located in different regions of Italy and with different structural and organizational contexts.
However, some limitations can be highlighted. The work focused only on male correctional officers, thus leaving out the point of view of female workers. This aspect could be investigated in further research to determine if there are different perceptions related to gender. In the literature, men and women have been shown to adopt different strategies to cope with the stress and problems that arise in the prison context (Carlson et al., 2003; Dial, 2010; Dial et al., 2010; Jurik, 1985; Pollock, 2002; Zupan, 1992). Finally, another limitation of the research is the focus only on the causes of burnout, without analyzing those factors that can prevent the syndrome. Furthermore, the analysis of the interviews revealed a high number of suicides among the members of the prison correctional officers’ corps emerged as a source of concern. A further qualitative development could deepen this aspect to design more timely interventions.
Given the explicit need for psychological support that emerged from the analysis of the interviews, we agree on the prevention strategies proposed by Prati and Boldrin (2011) and by Viotti (2016): the creation of peer support and the establishment of psychological help services for officers in addition to those intended only for inmates.
Hence, considering correctional officers’ perception of themselves and of their work setting, as accomplished in this research, and, in particular, studying the elements that can lead to burnout can represent an element of growth and improvement of the entire system in the context of intervention strategies that upgrade correctional officers’ conditions, both on an individual level of well-being and on an organizational level, with consequent effects on the entire work setting.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all the participants who shared their narratives and the representatives of the prisons for their availability and interest in this research. We also thank Jessica Sechi for her diligent work in conducting some of the interviews and for her work transcribing some of the interview tapes.
Declaration of Conflicting Interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.