Correctional Staff and Residents on Continued Deprivation In the Face of Severe Staffing Shortages

• In Event: Correctional Officers’ Perceptions of Safety and Security: Implications for Prison Policy and Practice

Abstract

A perfect storm of endogenous and exogenous factors currently plagues U.S. carceral facilities and resident lockdowns represent a life raft mirage. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, many prisons and jails faced pronounced staffing shortages with mandatory overtime becoming a normative part of correctional employment. However, the number of individuals incarcerated was declining and most correctional systems believed their staffing levels would recover. As COVID-19 raged, staffing took another hit as correctional staff (and residents) faced lockdowns, quarantines, heightened health risks, and continual overtime as sick staff could not come to work and many carceral staff resigned. Now, post-COVID, incarceration rates are beginning to rise and the correctional staffing shortage is the worst it has ever been. To continue supervising carceral residents, numerous correctional institutions continue to curtail resident movement—and thereby rehabilitation--in ways that include lockdowns with limited access to recreation, medical units, chow halls, work, visitation, and classes/programs. Using analysis of data collected with 448 residents and 145 staff in eight prisons and five jails in the U.S. this paper presents findings on staff/resident perceptions of sustained lockdowns and how staffing shortages affect health and well-being. The paper concludes with implications for the field and recommendations for improvement.

Author

• Danielle S. Rudes, Sam Houston State University