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 see as a growing problem: the mental health of corrections officers, who, according to one study, have rates of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) comparable to military combat veterans."