Staff Wellness as Catalyst for Culture Change in Solitary Confinement Reform Initiatives

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

Abstract

There is broad consensus in public health that solitary confinement should be reduced or abolished because it often leads to psychological harms and physical ailments. A growing social movement is prompting an increasing number of states to pursue legislation and correctional policy changes aimed at achieving these objectives. However, even in states receptive to change, there are formidable institutional and cultural barriers impeding implementation of transformative change. Frontline correctional staff are ultimately tasked with putting any new legal mandates or agency directives into practice. Yet, many officers may resist or resent change due to corrosive workplace cultures, fear of violence borne from workplace traumas and injuries, a lack of education, training, and support for staff faced with new job responsibilities. This presentation will describe a novel approach, grounded in public health and Scandinavian correctional principles, for motivating, educating, and training correctional staff to advance (rather than hinder) initiatives to reduce isolation and its harms. Drawing on experiences piloting this approach in multiple states, and findings from a mixed-methods evaluation in Oregon prisons, presenters will discuss how incorporating staff wellness components into solitary confinement reform initiatives can cultivate correctional cultures more conducive to implementing the objectives of system-wide reform initiatives.

Author

• David Cloud, University of California, San Francisco