Letter to the editor: Improving mental health services for correctional officers
The National Institute of Justice has found the very debilitating effects of working as a correctional officer “stem from two primary sources: the demands of responding to critical incidents within the correctional facility (and) organizational stressors ranging from understaffing shifts to toxic environments.”
The study found the suicide rate of correctional officers is seven times the national average. An Allegheny County Jail study found the life expectancy of our officers is 61, 16 years below the national average.
The constant risk of potential violence is what distinguishes the work of our officers from many other workplaces.
Critical questions are: what are the mental health needs of our officers, and what services would be effective to help our officers improve their mental health?
The NIJ study also found there are “two primary reasons why the mental health of our officers has received such insufficient attention:
• Social stigmatization of mental health issues.
• Officer concern that addressing their mental health issues would have negative repercussions at work.”
NIJ recognizes the importance of securing trust and guaranteeing confidentiality as essential in providing mental health services to correctional officers. For this reason, NIJ, as do I, recommend an outside mental health provider, who is not connected to the county, provide mental health services. The benefits of better job performance, less turnover and our jail becoming more secure far outweigh the costs of providing mental health services by an outside provider.
John Kenstowicz
Morningside
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