The Corrections Officer - Keepers of the Gate

- The rate of PTSD in corrections workers is 25.8%. The rate of PTSD in the general public 1.9% - 3.6% (Tema Conter)

- Nearly 80% of corrections employees reported experiencing a traumatic event in the workplace. Moreover, the average number of events personally experienced over six months was almost three per employee. (Tema Conter)

-Corrections officers suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder at more than double the rate of military veterans in the US, according to Caterina Spinaris, the leading professional in corrections-specific clinical research and founder of Desert Waters Correctional Outreach, a nonprofit based in Colorado.

-The suicide rate among corrections officers is twice as high as that of both police officers and the general public, according to a New Jersey police taskforce. An earlier national study found that corrections officers’ suicide risk was 39% higher than all other professions combined.
-Correctional Officers (CO’s) have the second highest mortality rate of any occupation.

-33.5% of all assaults in prisons and jails are committed by inmates against staff.

- A CO’s 58th birthday, on average, is their last.

- A CO will be seriously assaulted at least twice in a 20 year career.

- On average a CO will live only 18 months after retirement.

Sources: “Stress Management for the Professional Correctional Officer”, Donald Steele, Ph.D., Steele Publishing 2001 “Corrections Yearbook 2000, 2002”, Criminal Justice Institute, Middletown, CT “Sourcebook of Criminal Justice Statistics 2003”, Bureau of Justice Statistics, 31st edition, NCJ 208756 “Suicide Risk Among Correctional Officers”, Archives of Suicide Research, Stack, S.J., & Tsoudis, O. 1997 Metropolitan Life Actuarial Statistics, 1998 Society of Actuaries, 1994

CorrectionsOfficer

From Emergency Response Portraits