STRESS MANAGEMENT OF CORRECTIONAL PERSONNEL
Hye-ri JEONG

I. INTRODUCTION
Correctional officersʼstress not only influences the quality of oneʼs life but also corrections andrehabilitation of inmates.Therefore correctional officersʼstress can be a serious obstacle to achieving
the objectives of the organization.In this paper,the meaning and factors of stress and the methods ofrelieving stress will be discussed. Through this work, it is hoped that we will discover some ideas ofpolicy for stress management.

II. STRESS MANAGEMENT OF CORRECTIONAL PERSONNEL
A. Status of Job Stress of Correctional Officers
1. Previous Studies of Correctional OfficersʼStress in Korea
Job stress is a physically and mentally adverse reaction that occurs when a workerʼ
s abilities orresources,or the workerʼ
s desire,do not match the job requirements.According to previous studies inKorea,job burnout of correctional officers was higher than police officers.Seventh grade correctional
officers had the highest burnout level, and officers who have worked for 10 to 19 years had a higher
burnout rate than the officers with 1 to 9 years of experience.
2. A Result of Job Stress and the Need to M anage
Experiencing a variety of stresses at work is known to affect the individualʼs loss of productivity,
physical symptoms such as sleep disorders,anxiety etc.To control job-related stress is more difficult
than to control stress in day-to-day life;each person will have a negative work ethic in the process ofexperiencing job stress.
Thus, too much stress leads to job dissatisfaction;this will be the biggest stumbling block to therehabilitation of prisoners. Therefore,all individuals should have the ability to respond effectively tothe stress. Organizational efforts are also required to identify and eliminate job stress factors and tobuild a support system to enhance a personʼ
s ability to cope with stress.
B. Factors of Job Stress
1. Characteristics of the Work:To Perform Their Duties in Crisis
There is a probability that accidents can occur at any time in correctional facilities,so correctional
staff must always deal with tension in the workplace. Attacks, hostage-taking, riots, assaults frominmates and suicidal or self-inflicted harm attempts are major stress factors.Threats of violence havemore serious impacts on stress than the other factors.
Job performance in a crisis not only causes a threat to life but increases the fear of revenge byinmates after release. Sometimes the helplessness of not being able to respond to the misconduct ofinmates can be a stress factor. In addition, a shift system can be a factor which causes stress.
2. Overburden
In spite of increasing workload recently, due to the introduction of new correctional programmes
and the policy of improving the treatment of prisoners, correctional staff are in the midst of a toughsituation to perform the activities of rehabilitation because break time and meal time are short and,atthe same time,there are many inmates to be managed by each staff member.Due to concerns about theSuperintendent, Director of Welfare Division, Cheonan Correctional Institution, Republic of Korea.

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heavy work of other employees, vacation or early leave may not be used without permission.
Exploiting claims on release of information as a means of harassing the staff and the rights to sue,accuse, and appeal to human rights are the factors of overburden.1
Table 1:The number of inmates per staff member who works in cells (In 2004)
E PrisonK Prison

C PrisonJ Prison

D Prison

S Detention house

121

47.9

74.2

77

123

98.6

Picture 1:Annual average number of inmates per staff member (1992〜2011)(Number of inmates)(Year)

Table 2:Number of cases where inmates disobey the treatment (2007〜2011)
contents(unit :case)

Petition

Administrative
judgment

administrative
litigation

Sue and accuse

2007

1,999

268

63

1,277

2008

2,330301

83

1,153

2009

2,205

354

1041,173

2010

1,573

245

79800

2011

1,313

239

77

646

year

3. Poor Working Environment
Working environments of prisons and workshops that most staff are working in are poor. Andovercrowding can be one of the factors that causes poor work environment.

1While inmates used the method of violating discipline or causing correctional accidents including assault to express theircomplaints or attempt to have what they want in the past,the tendency of false accusations and litigating human rights
is increasing.

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154TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSEPARTICIPANTSʼPAPERSChart 1:The State of Correctional Facilities by the Elapsed Years

4. Role Stress Due to Role Conflict
Role conflict between establishing orders and correction and rehabilitation for re-socialization maytrigger stress. This is called “security or treatment”in Korea.
5. Low Social Recognition for Corrections Officials
The negative images that the public have of correctional officers can also be stressful.
6. Other Factors Such as Organizational, Personnel M anagement, etc.
The following factors can also contribute to an individualʼ
s stress:
The lack of communication between the upper and lower classes from a closed corporate culture
and vertical instruction system, conflicts with boss and coworkers in job performance, complaints
about personnel management, promotion backlog or limited promotion opportunities.
C. Stress M anagement
1. Current System and Direction of the Discussion.
In Korea, several correctional institutions are currently working under agreements with local
medical centers.According to the agreements,physicians are in charge of correctional officersʼmental
health by consulting each staff member about their job stress.They both agreed to work on improving
mental health by the treatment of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which usually appears after somecorrectional accidents including fleeing, suicide attempts and assault. According to this agreement,each staff member can get proper treatment. This is one of the system supports to help staff manage
their stress individually.
In this paper, we will find stress management divided up as follows.
①Organization-wide management halting and alleviating job stress factors②Supportive measures for cultivating and strengthening the ability of individuals to deal with theirstress directly
2. To Control Job Stress Factors-Preventive Management as Fundamental M anagement ofJob Stress(i) To Control the Factors from Features of Work(a)Forming a Flexible Organizational Culture
The factors from the features of work itself are difficult to be directly controlled. However,constant tensions from managing the inmates will be released by the organizational culture in which
mistakes can sometimes be acceptable. In particular, when inmates are caught for breaches of discipline,providing proper measures to the staff,instead of censuring,will be helpful to forming a tolerant

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and flexible atmosphere.
(b)Building Facilities for M anaging Violent Criminals and Trouble-making Inmates
In Huntsville Prison in Texas in the U.S., locking devices of the cells are fully-automated,strictly
blocked to avoid physical contact between the staff and inmate by separating hallways with wire
netting. Counselling and interviews with defenders can also be done across the wire netting. Thispowerfullydecreases the chance ofviolence toward the staff;therefore,accidents such as assault or riot
are prevented fundamentally and order is well established in the prison.
Therefore, when dealing with violent offenders, their complete isolation from staff must bereserved, and it also needs to be deeply considered when designing the facility.
(c) Enhancing Means of Sanctions for Breaches of Discipline ― Overhauling and Improving thePunishment System
To decrease the stress factor resulting from physical and mental threats from inmates,there need
to be active and stern responses dealing with breaches of discipline.However,the existing punishment
system has no effect as punishment.
M ost inmates want to be housed in an individual room for privacy. There are many cases whereinmates violate the rules on purpose to get their own room,even though housing in an individual room
is one of the means of punishment for breaches of discipline. If inmates break the rules, they will beplaced in solitary confinement for a month at most including the period of investigation, which gives
an actual punishment period of only 10 to 20 days.
Therefore, the punishment enforcement law needs to reflect the characteristics of criminal law tohave a strong punishment effect. That is, it should not be said that all actions of breaking the rules
within correctional facilities are only considered as violations of administrative order.In order to doso, it would be much better to revise the punishment enforcement law so that the punishment ofcriminal activities and violation of internal regulations must be specified separately.
Chart 2:Composition of punishment enforcement(d)Offering Correctional Officerʼ
s Human Rights Protection
Now there is a treatment team for inmates in each institution to protect the inmatesʼhuman rights
and solve their complaints. Recently it has been frequently noted that correctional officersʼhumanrights would often be neglected because the headquarters places more emphasis on inmatesʼhumanrights.

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The abuses of rights have increased due to the pressure on respecting inmatesʼhuman rights.Now
is the time that we should pay attention to correctional officersʼhuman rights, and we must set up away to consult and help them with their complaints.2(e)Improvement of Educational Training
Educational training for correctional officers should not be a formality but should be helpful forpractical work and improve hands-on training. For the training, role-playing will be introduced andprovided with individual manuals on each situation and the target of treatment.This manual has to beavailable anytime, if needed.
(ii) Reducing Overburden(a)Improvement of Working System and Increasing the Staff for Reduction of Workload
We should reduce the factor of overburden through adjustment of night duty and improvement ofthe working system by offering incentives including some allowance to staff who manage troublemaking inmates.This will let them regard their dutyas equivalent to the benefit but not overburdening.
It is impossible to directly control the overburdening factors caused by features of work itself.
Therefore,we need to increase the number of staff and the budget as a part of special efforts to reduceoverburden and improve the work environment.
(b)Reduction of Workload by Introduction of M odern Security Equipment
Expanding modern security equipment helps the reduction of workload as well as concentration ofimplementing policy focusing more on correction and rehabilitation but less on maintaining security.
(iii) Improvement of Poor Environment
Korea Correctional Service headquarters is now constantly modernizing correctional facilities andtrying to build facilities smaller than the previous ones. In the future, when designing a correctional
facility,the view of stress will have to be considered by creating stress impact assessments3 obtaining
the idea from the environmental impact assessment.
(iv) Relieving Role Stress from Role Conflicts
A key solution of the conflict is changing staffʼ
s perception of inmates; they are not subject tomanage but beneficiaries of rehabilitation.Precisely,we need to switch from secure detention to moreemphasis on rehabilitation and improvement. For this paradigm shift, the correctional environment
itself has to be furnished with institutional devices first.4 Separate accommodations and reduction of
overcrowding are the foundation of those institutional devices.
(v) Rational Way to Cope with Being Accused
We should create institutional devices in response to inmatesʼfalse accusations, appeal and claim
rights such as right-to-know.For example,we should sternly deal with false accusations or abuses ofrights to maintain convenient life in prison by appointing special staff to detect abuses of accusation.
Also, law experts should be hired to provide the staff with opportunities to receive legal advice.
(vi) Raising Recognition of Correctional Officers
We need to make good use of various media such as newspapers and broadcasts. We will let the
local residents know about correctional administration and provide more chances to participate inactivities that are related to rehabilitation.

2In immediate response to inmatesʼ
verbal abuse and physical violence, the CRPT (Correctional Rapid Patrol Team)isnow being operated in Korea,which focuses on restoring order to respond to inmatesʼ
breaches ofdiscipline.It is expectedthat the team in charge of correctional officersʼcomplaints will play a bigger role.
3For example, to secure enough space for taking a rest might be one of the indicators.
4In Korea, the Ministry of Justice opened a correctional psychological treatment center to plan the sexual violence
control measures and effective prevention of recurrences in 2011.Korea Correctional Service also opened a mental healthcenter at Gunsan Correctional Institution last year. The center was established to rehabilitate inmates suffering from amental illness.

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RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 91(vii) Improvement of the Methods of Operating Organizations
Taking part in the decision-making process through various channels contributes to reducing job
stress. Offering opportunities of communication between staff and setting up the system to increasecooperation among departments will reduce conflicts at work. Organizing a cohesive team when
performing a job could be a measure to diminish conflicts.
3. M easures to Consolidate Personnel Ability to M anage Stress(i) Mid-level StaffsʼAbility to Manage Their Stress
The important thing is to release negative emotion about inmates and work in order to turn thestressful situation back to the starting point. Mid-level staff will be able to cope with stress more
effectively by having the following skills.
The capability of objectively recognizing the situation
Effective communication skills
Ability to control anger
Adjustment of the cognitive structure
Full knowledge of job performance in advanceObtaining self-calming strategies
To find a haven for relieving oneʼs stress such as taking a rest or pursuing hobbies
Getting out of perfectionism and into the habit of laying out realistic goals
Receptive attitude towards change
Request for cooperation in difficult situations and capability of expressing oneʼs inner feelings
To maintain a sense of balance to stress5
Ability to mediate conflicts among individuals and organizations(ii) Supporting Measures of Personnel Ability to Manage Stress(a)Establishing a Task Force for Measuring, Managing, and Preventing Stress
The nature of the work is not completely resolved by simply increasing the number of civil servantsor reducing workload. Therefore, organizing a team consisting of a psychologist and professionalcounsellor could be a more efficient alternative combined with changing external policy considering
the specific character of stable public organizations.
In the United States, peer support and teams for relieving stress have been operated in order toremove post-traumatic stress disorder.Setting aside the kinds of post management discussed previously, additionally forming a preventive job-stress management team will be able to analyze factors ofstress, plan to solve the problem and evaluate level of performance and personal relationships after
accomplishment.6(b)Encouraging Staff to Become Counsellors
In order to present a prescription that goes well with characteristics of the work,it would be betterfor a stress management team if it partially consists of qualified correctional officers instead of full
5It is the ability to adjust the degree of response not to feel more stress than the importance of the situation.
6The Massachusetts Department of Corrections in the U.S. established a Stress Unit which consists of five correctional

officers who were trained as peer supporters.They have duties to consult with other co-workers who suffer from stressor connect with external professional organizations. Furthermore, they carry out follow-up treatment.

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external specialists in a team.Therefore,we should constantly bring up special counsellors within ourorganization.
(c)M atching the most suitable duty with each staff memberʼs ability to endure stressWe can also consider ways to give a suitable job that matches each staff memberʼs ability to endurestress by measuring features of their own abilities to endure stress from various angles.
(d)Outlining Stress Treatment Programmes①Presenting Suitable Guidelines for Stress SituationsTo provide opportunities for staff to participate in a treatment programme, we need to develop
stress treatment programmes for ourselves or by outsourcing.There is also a way to build a web-based
programme to manage and support depending on the degree or type of stress.Those programmes will
provide guidelines on how to deal with each problem such as exposure to dangerous situations,sleepingproblems, human relationship issues, etc., sorting by classification of stress.
②Introduction of EAP
EAP stands for Employee Assistance Program, and it is to provide a counselling service foremployeesʼmental health in enterprises, public institutions, schools, the military, etc. Currently inSouth Korea,EAP still appears to be in the early stages because it is often being processed as limited
and a one-time practice in the training course.In the near future,we need to examine the introductionof EAPs also in the public field such as managing correctional officersʼstress.
The EAP provides the following services:Counselling and training for mid-level managers to improve leadership,work environment andworkersʼmorale.
Providing services that are available to their families as well as staff themselves.
Advising and supporting the organization.
③CISM (Critical Incident Stress M anagement)
Critical Incident Stress is also known as post-traumatic stress,if that stress is not resolved,it will
be diagnosed as Acute Stress Disorder. Once these symptoms continue for more than one month,
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder will proceed. Correctional officers working in a crisis situation havea higher risk ofbeing exposed to traumatic stress.This appears when one experiences severe emotional
stress that can almost be considered as trauma.
CISM (Critical Incident Stress Management)is a comprehensive and systematic approach to control
and reduce the hazards of post-traumatic stress caused by a crisis situation.In Korea,Critical Incident
Stress Management recently started to target firefighters. Also, introducing the programme forcorrections officials who have a duty to provide services in crisis situations could help manage
traumatic stress in advance and prevent progression of acute stress disorder and post-traumatic stressdisorder.
(e)Taking Advantage of Education and Training
Education and training are necessary to include stress management training in a job training course
as well as build the curriculum with discovered contents that can be applied to the actual field ofcorrections. It is worth taking advantage of education and training as an opportunity to reduce job
stress which includes psychological therapy, group counselling and outdoor activities in the course.
Also, through assertiveness training7 and anger management training, we will be able to improvethe effective communication skills and the ability to control stress.
7Assertiveness training is showing someoneʼs needs, thoughts and feelings in a clear and direct expression withoutcriticizing or making them feel uncomfortable.

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Educational training should include contents that raise receptive attitudes for changes so they do
not feel confused and stressed about the new policy.
(f) Financial Support to Management of M ental Health by the Government
As mentioned above, in Korea, nowadays several institutions are separately planning to sign
agreements with mental health physicians in charge of local medical centers.It would be great to havespecial health check-ups for correctional officers more than once a year in conjunction with theagreement. And it is suggested that governments support the expenses of medical examination andtreatment for staff who are diagnosed with higher levels of post-traumatic stress disorder.

III. CONCLUSION
Because job stress is generated by various factors, it is not too much to say that removing
fundamental factors of job stress is equal to resolving all issues in correctional organizations. It is
impossible to solve the problems visibly and quickly so we should focus on the training,psychologicaltreatment programmes and financial support to enhance the capability of individualsʼstress management.Diverse stress factors within organizations,at the same time,should be evaluated and improved
with long-term and overall plans that include “Stress Impact Assessment”.

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