Skip to main content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Suicide in Corrections - Staff Suicide

  • document cover for Occupational Stressors in Corrections Work Annotated Bibliography

    Occupational Stressors in Corrections Work Annotated Bibliography

    "Corrections work of all disciplines, whether in institutional or in community-based settings, has been recognized as being exceptionally stressful. Traditionally, this has been regarded as a consequence of staff’s exposure to multiple organizational stressors and also operational stressors. Examples of organizational stressors are role problems, demanding interactions with other staff or justice-involved individuals, and low organizational support. Examples of operational stressors are shift work, high workloads, and mandatory overtime.

    The effects of these types of stressors have also been thought...

  • preview image for New Directions in Corrections: Staff Wellness: NIC's Second Virtual Conference

    New Directions in Corrections: Staff Wellness: NIC's Second Virtual Conference

    On June 10, 2015, the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) launched a national virtual conference on staff wellness titled “New Directions in Corrections: Staff Wellness.” Session topics will include using neuroscience to reduce stress, “healing corrections,” the organizational implications of boundary violations, creating a purpose-driven corrections career, corrections personnel suicide, and staff wellness.

    The objective of “New Directions in Corrections: Staff Wellness” is to: Educate corrections staff on the subject of corrections fatigue and staff wellness; Present strategies and resources...

  • cover of the Correctional Officer Suicide Annotated Bibliography

    Correctional Officer Suicide Annotated Bibliography

    Recognizing that corrections can be a tough profession, the National Institute of Corrections is at the forefront of Health and Wellness for Corrections Professionals. The NIC website has a wealth of resources on the topic including webinars, a virtual conference dedicated to the subject, as well as an Internet Broadcast called Corrections Stress: Peaks and Valleys. The literature on the subject reflects what those who work in the field already know anecdotally, that the job of a correctional officer...

  • Beating The Odds (2012)

    "We face some of the ugliest statistics of mortality as correctional officers. Perhaps you have seen these, they are fairly commonly cited online in other articles, but just in case you need a reality check here it is:"

  • Correctional suicides: Doing time takes its toll (2013)

    "We spend a lot of time focusing on the mental health of our inmates, but not enough time focusing on the mental health of the people who are caring for them"

  • Correctional Wellness and Safety Literature Review (2013)

    "Health and wellness among those who work in correctional agencies is an issue that has always existed, but is just starting to get the increasing attention that it deserves. One of the greatest threats to correctional officer (CO) wellness involves the stress they encounter as a result of their occupation. This document reviews the body of literature on the causes and effects of stress for COs, and describes the available research on CO wellness programs and their effectiveness. "

  • Prison Officers Need Help, But They Won't Ask For It (2014)

    "New York’s corrections system has come under scrutiny since the death of inmate Jerome Murdough, who was held in an overheated cell in the Rikers Island jail; a subsequent report by The New York Times detailed the mistreatment of mentally ill inmates. Around the same time, New York’s Daily News reported a surge in assaults on the prison’s staff by inmates. According to the New York Post, a “blood roster” was found recently in a cell on Rikers Island; it contained the names of 10 corrections officers targeted by the Bloods gang. Rarely mentioned in such reports is what experts...

  • Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries - BJS (2015)

    "NATIONAL CENSUS OF FATAL OCCUPATIONAL INJURIES IN 2015
    A total of 4,836 fatal work injuries were recorded in the United States in 2015, a slight increase from the 4,821 fatal injuries reported in 2014, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. (See chart 1.) This release marks the first time that the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI) has published a single, annual release with no revisions and will be the only release for 2015 CFOI data. A similar schedule will be followed in future years. Preliminary releases, which appeared in August or September in past years, will no...

  • High suicide rates plague Massachusetts correctional officers (2016)

    "When Michael Mellen retired at age 45, after 22 years as a Massachusetts correctional officer, he could not leave behind the paranoia that he developed behind the walls."

  • Corrections raising awareness following the sting of staff suicides (2017)

    "They are sworn to watch over some of the state's most dangerous residents. On any given day they might be spit on, assaulted, threatened, forced to break up violent fights, or asked to try and save the life of a person who has attempted suicide. Yet some employees with the Utah Department of Corrections, the agency responsible for maintaining the Utah State Prison and watching over those paroled from prison, have a salary so low that they qualify for food stamps."