Addressing Corrections Officer Burnout

Dr. Chris Sharp

Issue Areas

Recently, Brian Koehn, CEO of Social Purpose Corrections wrote an important piece on the current state of corrections in the United States and the myriad of problems that impact inmates. Those problems, as he notes, don’t only impact those incarcerated, but those charged with their security and, more importantly, mentorship. The result is high burnout, turnover, and mortality in corrections.

Correctional officer attrition ranging from 12 to 58 percent depending on the state. We are brewing a recipe for disaster in correctional institutions nationwide.

Beccaria once said that punishment needed to be swift, certain, and severe enough to deter the person from committing crime. When it comes to corrections, we have tried longer sentences (currently driving incarceration trends), mandatory sentences, and three strikes laws all of which helped create a vortex that drags people back into the system. Frankly, it hasn’t worked the way we thought. This doesn’t mean that incarceration is unnecessary, but it must serve a purpose. In 1950, Austin MacCormick noted that the primary function of prison, probation, and parole was to reduce crime by preventing its repetition, and that everyone who entered into corrections represented an opportunity for savings by reducing future crime. States like North Carolina are starting to see that to do this, meaningful treatment must include a bridge to community-based services upon release.

We can have a balance of both accountability and rehabilitation. Holding offenders accountable not just for their crime, but also for their treatment creates an opportunity for inmates to truly “correct” their behavior before their release into the community. The reality is that 95 percent of all inmates will be released, so we should be asking ourselves, “who should they be?” Do we want someone who has had the treatment, education, and training necessary to function in the community? Or, do we want to keep doing what we’re doing and pray that the outcome changes?

I applaud groups like Social Purpose Corrections, The Other Side Academy, and others that are doing the hard work of rebuilding lives for some of the toughest populations to work with.