RT Article
T1 “This Place Will Wear You Down”: Examining the Organizational and Contagion Effects of Stress on Correctional Staff Working Overtime in U.S. Prisons
JF Journal of contemporary criminal justice
VO 40
IS 4
SP 640
OP 661
A1 O’Connell, Daniel
A2 Rell, Emalie
A2 Chambers, Darryl L.
A2 Visher, Christy A.
A2 Niness, Mackenzie
A2 Gavnik, Adam
A2 Lamberton, Chelsi
LA English
YR 2024
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1906945934
AB Prisons are stressful environments for both people living and working in them. Extant literature suggests that correctional staff have increased stress levels that lead to compromised physical health, mental health, social relationships, and increased emotional strain. This article reports on a project utilizing a modified Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach to understand the mechanisms that lead to increased stress levels among correctional officers who reported working overtime. The analysis utilizes organizational justice and social comparison frameworks to explore predictors of individual levels of stress among correctional officers working overtime in a Delaware prison. The findings indicate that individual-level stress spreads through perceptions of coworker’s stress and is inversely related to perceived levels of organizational justice. This analysis is useful to prison administrators, leadership, in suggesting avenues to improve the climate of correctional environments.
K1 Organizational Justice
K1 Overtime
K1 Stress
K1 Prison
DO 10.1177/10439862241277277