Trauma-Informed Corrections
C.J. Van Wright, DSW, LICSW
This is part two of a qualitative case study that explores the experiences and perceptions of correctional staff who have utilized a trauma-informed approach in a women’s correctional facility for at least ten years. Part two begins with a presentation of case study findings, showing that staff are proud of participating in trauma-informed practices and that they see the approach as valuable. Several themes emerged from the data, including increased awareness of mental health issues, increased respect for human dignity, the importance of listening and safety, and an emphasis on professionalism.
Findings
This study has four kinds of results: descriptive data related to sample participants, observational results, summary responses to implementation questions, and thematic data.
Descriptive Data Related to Participants
The sample consisted of nine (N = 9) staff participants, six (67%) of whom were women and three (33%) men. Five participants (56%) self-identified as persons of color (Black and Latino); and four (44%) identified as White, Irish Catholic, Caucasian, or American. The ages of participants ranged from 39 to 65 with a mean age just over 52.
The sample contained three job categories: correctional officers, supervisors, and administrators. Five (56%), were correctional officers; two, 22%, were supervisors; and two 22%, were administrators. The spectrum of jobs that have significant contact, for instance, a correctional staff to less direct contact, for example an administrator. Regarding years of service, all nine participants had been employed by the facility since it opened 11 years ago, and all had some years of service with the department before the facility opened.
Observational Results
Several notes in the field diary emerge as worthy of comment. During recruitment of participants, one person asked whether the administration would see results. There was discernible tension in the room at the time of this comment, indicating possible strain between correctional staff and administration. During the interviews themselves, participants appeared careful with their responses to open-ended questions, a characteristic possibly reflective of this tension or possibly related to professional demeanor. Interviews with women were longer, possibly because women tend to be more relational (Miller & Najavits, 2012).
One participant made an observation regarding how, historically, corrections as a profession has viewed inmates from a criminogenic point of view—that is, viewing inmates from the perspective of risk factors for criminal activity (Bonta & Andrews, 2017)—in contrast to the more recent view that inmates are traumatized, a view that undergirds trauma-informed correctional practices. This same participant also noted that this shift coincides with increased numbers of white inmate populations.
Summary Responses to Implementation Questions
Answers to implementation questions are summarized because responses to these items did not lend themselves to thematic analysis. The commonality that spanned all five of these questions is that none of the participants indicated regret or reservation about the organization having adopted an explicit commitment to a trauma-informed approach. On the contrary, each interviewee endorsed the trauma-informed practice model. Responses to the five questions concerning implementation follow.
In response to the question, What does the trauma-informed mission mean? Most participants said it involved having to respond to mental-health issues, remaining aware of inmate trauma, and understanding that inmates may self-medicate mental health issues through their substance use. Participants also stated that being trauma-informed means helping inmates be more equipped, more fit to handle real life. A gender analysis on this question indicates that men in the study noted how trauma-informed approaches might benefit incarcerated women in the long run, noting ability to succeed in their lives post-release; they discussed improvement in terms of confidence and life skills upon release. By contrast, women voiced more concerns about how to help women handle their internal lives, emphasizing utilization of programs, healing from trauma, and changes in inmate self-perception.
When asked, “Do you think inmates’ trauma affects your day-to-day work?” all nine participants indicated that it does. One participant said, “The answer to that question is a very stern yes, because in this line of work as correctional officers, as supervisors, as counselors, we have to walk this line.” Another participant noted, “[Trauma] does have an effect on the day-to-day work—not to the point where I’m taking it home, and I’m trying to dissect and figure out and try to fix, but as a human being to another human being—yes, it has an effect on me. Absolutely.”
In response to the training question, “What do you remember most about trauma and trauma-informed care?” one respondent stressed the importance of “understanding the concepts of trauma because if you don’t have the basic definition of trauma, you won’t understand how diverse it is.” Staff seemed to agree that training was central to having a trauma-informed approach. As one participant put it, “any training the staff receives provides the staff with more confidence to be able to handle people in a way that is the least difficult for [the inmate] and the least traumatizing for the staff as well.” Another said, “the most important thing to me was making sure everybody was safe.”
In response to the question, “who is most impacted by inmate trauma?” most said the correctional officer because officers work directly with the inmates 40 hours per week. Some participants also mentioned the role of the counselor, noting that counseling staff listens to extraordinary trauma histories during the ordinary course of their duties. All participants emphasized how trauma histories in the population impact everyone (across job categories) in the facility.
Lastly, participants addressed the question: “what are signs that tell you an inmate is being triggered relative to her trauma?” Consistently, participants indicated that body language served as a primary indicator. Staff members suggest that they look for changes in behavior like becoming more agitated physically or withdrawing socially.
Four themes emerged from the rest of the interview data. These include: tuning in to mental health, safety, staff insights, and challenges of trauma-informed corrections. Each theme carries subthemes supported by data from the participants. The participants indicated that implementing a trauma-informed approach to corrections has helped staff tune in to the mental health needs of the inmates. Trauma-informed training assisted staff with cultivating a lens that blends trauma-informed practice with the mission of public safety, care, custody, and reducing recidivism. Tuning in to mental health needs had two subthemes: resources to support staff mental health and respect for human dignity.
Themes
Participants noted that the facility has put into place several mechanisms to help staff deal with residual effects of trauma. For example, after a suicide attempt, trained staff peers check in with first responders through the Critical Incident Response Team. Participants described the mechanism as supported by line staff, supervisors, and the top administrator of the agency.
Some participants reported that colleagues or close associates helped them to cope with encounters with inmates who had engaged in self-harming behaviors.
Respect for human dignity
This was a significant subtheme related to mental health.
Every participant discussed how the trauma-informed approach helps them be more conscious of the need for respect and the need to treat inmates with human dignity. For example, one participant said,
“It’s just a matter of understanding, and, again, sympathizing with the inmate, and modifying your interaction to maybe ease a little bit of the angst they experience.”
Another participant said,
“We’re here as a correctional center to help individuals and not punish individuals. Our main goal is to try to better them back out on the street, whether it’s something that happened in their childhood or wrong place wrong time for them, or whatever it may be.”
Safety
This theme was discussed by every respondent. Participants talked about safety in connection with inmates, themselves, and anyone else who might be in the facility, such as volunteers or vendors. The following two quotes from participants:
“Not only do we want to make it safe for the inmates, but also want to make it safe for other inmates, the other staff member, or anybody else who’s in that, who’s in that vicinity.” [sic]
“Definitely, definitely. I think they feel safe, yes, because that’s our number one goal is to keep them safe here. We have such a focus on them, safety, we have cameras, we have the staff.”
Cultivating and ensuring a secure environment was a thread that ran through the fabric of the interviews, resulting in a collective theme in which safety figured centrally.
Staff Insights
Staff articulated three insights resulting from having implemented a trauma-informed approach: the importance of listening, the importance related to professionalism, and the importance of holding inmates accountable for their behavior.
Listening
The transcripts contain many, many references to attending to an inmate through listening. Since putting a trauma-informed approach to work for some years, the staff have come to value listening more; they see that it helps them do their jobs more effectively. Before the trauma-informed training in 2007 launch, the staff’s point of reference was to think about tactical responses to problematic inmate behaviors. Now they are more likely to use interpersonal communication skills as a first-line intervention. As one respondent reported, “Sometimes it is just the listening part, and that’s all someone needed.” Another participant reported, “I just pulled her aside, and I listened.”
Professionalism
The term professionalism arose in the participants’ comments concerning respect and consistency with inmates. Two respondents express the view on the importance of professionalism:
“I believe that being trained as a professional relative to what a person has endured in their life is that [professionalism]. Our professionalism, the way we interact with [the inmates], is a big part of them carrying themselves in a manner which [inspires the response reflected by the statement], ‘I’m getting respect from the staff, I’m going to show respect, I’m going to attend my programs.’ As I said, it all works in conjunction.”
“But once the inmates get to know the staff on the professional level, I think they [inmates] feel more secure than they did at the beginning because they know that we’re there to protect them not only from other inmates, but staff or whatever.”
Accountability
Several participants offered the idea that trauma-informed practice affects staff ability to hold inmates accountable. Two participants stated,
“There are some areas of awareness, and we know that there is [sic] impulse controls, but we also have to still hold [the inmates] accountable. Another said, I think we are more stringent with our rules. We really put ownership on [the inmates] and accountability on them.”
“[Correctional officers] will give them more opportunity to have a cool-down period, as opposed to just lock in and be authoritative.”
Challenges of Trauma-Informed Corrections
Participants noted challenges to maintaining trauma-informed and gender-responsive practices in the women’s correctional facility. Female staff commented on gender-responsiveness training needs for their male counterparts. One participant said,
“I don’t mean to sound very biased, but I think some men have to get a little bit more training. The reason I say that is because of my years of experience.”
Another challenge noted has to do with the difficulty of articulating trauma effects because of the complex world of a woman … trauma, crisis, PTSD, all that stuff that can be all in one little body and can be so complex all in one second. Another challenge has to do with support for staff. As one correctional staff noted:
“I’m worried about having enough support for staff, I really am, and I don’t mean the kind where you go out and have a drink.”
Discussion
This study confirms that in a facility that has adopted a trauma-informed approach to staff-inmate interactions, the staff sees that promoting mental health is a part of their mission. They see themselves as key elements in a trauma-informed facility. Interpretations of the findings in the context of previous scholarship, unexpected outcomes, and implications for practitioners and scholars follow. Such comments take on a particular meaning in a correctional context since the cultivation of pro-social attitudes like accountability figures centrally in the mission of the field (Bonta & Andrews, 2017).
Findings Supported by the Literature
Safety, both physical and psychological, emerged as critical to participants in this study, which is exactly the attitude we hope for in those entrusted with the care of these mothers, daughters, sisters, and even grandmothers. Indeed, participants in this study stated that safety was essential to their relationship with inmates and to creating an environment that minimizes triggers and makes the day go better for inmates as well as for themselves.
Participants reported that since beginning trauma-informed practices, inmate cooperation has increased, making disciplinary actions go more smoothly and with fewer complications. This finding aligns with the emphasis in Najavits (2002) on the role of safety in trauma and recovery.
Insights related to listening, professionalism, and accountability are consistent with what Miller (1986), Jordan et al (1991), and Harris (2017) have already observed and discussed.
Having a perspective on inmate interactions that put trauma in focus seems to have moved staff to attend more closely and more carefully. It is a simple insight, but one that arises in participants’ comments as a powerful shift in how they approach their work. It is also noteworthy that the interviewees referred to themselves as professionals. The term appears to signal that staff took their work seriously, indicating a sense that it was more than just a job for them. Finally, it is imperative for those who are suspicious of trauma-informed corrections— management and line staff who believe that it perhaps “coddles” inmates—to hear that the participants in this study note that inmate accountability continued to occur in the trauma-informed practice model.
Unexpected Finding
As a matter of context, the proportion of incarcerated women who identify as white is growing, nationally (Carson & Anderson, 2016). This demographic shift became more pronounced at the facility in the case study due to the 2013 jurisdictional change that directed a large and overwhelmingly white county to begin sending its incarcerated women to the facility. For the first time in the county’s recent history, the correctional center serves a majority of white women, perhaps making the observations about race rise to the surface. As already noted, one participant connected the transition from a more criminal focus to one focused on victims of trauma with increasing numbers of white inmates. The current social and historical climate perhaps puts issues of race and class more prominently in the public’s consciousness, and therefore in the consciousness of participants in this study. This is significant because it is an on-the-ground recognition of the intersectionality between race and corrections.
Implications for Practice and Further Research
This research has important implications for social work practice in the context of the correctional environment. First, there is the issue of staff burnout, which is clear from the comments of the participant who voiced concern about having enough support staff and the participant who described staff members supporting one another after encounters with inmates who had engaged in self-harming behaviors. When considering staff burnout, it is important to recognize the reality of vicarious traumatization (Miller & Najavits, 2012). Addressing the connection between witnessing trauma and experiencing burnout might save the
organization sick days, lost time, and turnover. By responding effectively to daily trauma, perhaps the experience of vicarious traumatization and subsequent burnout can be impacted.
Second, the research makes clear that ongoing training is essential in trauma-informed practices, as is practicing related skills. Being able to identify signs that someone is being triggered serves as a practical asset, a benefit not merely for the inmate but also for the staff.
Implications for Corrections
While these case findings are certainly valuable, other scholars should replicate them in correctional context to determine how generalizable the findings may be. Further research: how social workers might help correctional systems continue to build on trauma-informed approaches would also be useful.
As a social work provider and supervisor of many years, my social work perspective inevitably informs the consideration of a correctional setting in this project, which raises an additional question worthy of future research: how might social workers help correctional systems continue to build on their trauma-informed approach, and help better equip their staff? Additional research related to how social work educators could best prepare emerging social work professionals to meet challenges and provide leadership in trauma-informed corrections, or in serving justice-involved adults in other settings.
Finally, more research will explore racial, economic and social dynamics with racial and economic disparities. More specifically, how do these topics translate in situations where there are differences and similarities between and among correctional staff and the inmates with whom they work? How does race impact correctional professionals’ willingness to see trauma history versus criminality in the pathway to incarceration?
In conclusion, there is a professional and moral duty for social workers, collectively and as a profession, to raise the level of engagement and positive impact in confronting the problem of disproportionate and mass incarceration in the United States in these early decades of the twenty-first century. Alternatives to incarceration, improved practice skill with justice-involved individuals, methods for reducing recidivism, and structural changes to reduce disparities must occur (Pettus-Davis & Epperson, 2015). Within the field of corrections, addressing gender-specific risks and needs, including trauma sequelae, has shown promise (Bonta & Andrews, 2017; Kubiak et al., 2017). Since social workers have long emphasized effective practice behaviors to support survivors of interpersonal trauma, we have specific contributions that would benefit the further evolution of correctional systems toward trauma-informed approaches. Social workers, therefore, have important calls to action on micro, mezzo, and macro levels in support of gender-responsive and trauma-informed correctional practice.
behavior and outcomes. The participants consider themselves professionals and speak with pride about their work in delivering trauma-informed and gender-responsive care.
This study gives policymakers who are concerned with transforming jails and prisons at least for women, valuable data on the reactions and feelings of staff, who emphasized the importance of tuning in to mental health needs, listening to inmates, and maintaining a safe environment, while also holding inmates accountable. Hitherto, the research has overwhelmingly focused on the inmate when it comes to the impact of trauma. This study suggests that greater understanding of a gender-responsive, trauma-informed mode of interaction is important for dealing with any population in crisis, but especially those facing the hardship of incarceration.
This study found that correctional officers, supervisors, and administrators who had been at the facility since its inauguration of a trauma-informed approach reported universal commitment to trauma-informed corrections and felt that the method made a positive difference both in their own work lives and in inmates’
In terms of implications for correctional facilities, these research findings (focused on a regional female correctional facility) should inform future research related to incarcerated male populations. Incarcerated men also present with histories of trauma and more research related to how a trauma-informed approach to corrections for men could improve practice. State and federal facility staff perceptions should also be explored.
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Dr. CJ Van Wright, DSW, LICSW, is an Assistant Professor at Westfield State University’s Department of Social Work in Westfield, MA, as well as a social worker with decades of conducting trauma groups with incarcerated women and in community mental health clinical care and supervision. For the doctoral social work program and dissertation at the University of St. Thomas / St. Catherine University, Dr. Van Wright explored veteran jail staff perspectives on operational dimensions of trauma-informed corrections.
References
Bonta, J., & Andrews, D. (Eds.). (2017). The psychology of criminal conduct. New York, NY: Routledge Publishing.
Carson, A. E., & Anderson, E. (2016). Prisoners in 2015. Retrieved from https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/p15.pdf
Harris, M. S. (2017). Incarcerated mothers: Trauma and attachment issues. Smith College Studies in Social Work, 87(1), 26–42. https://doi.org/10.1080/037731.2017.1246796
Jordan et al. (1991). Women’s growth in connection. New York, NY: The Guilford Press.
Kubiak et al., (2017). Trauma-informed corrections. In D. Springer & A. Roberts (Eds.), Social work in juvenile and criminal justice system, fourth edition (4th ed.). Springfield, IL: Charles C. Thomas.
Miller, N. A., & Najavits, L. M. (2012). Creating trauma-informed correctional care: A balance of goals and environment. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 3(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v3i0.17246
Najavits, L. M. (2002). Seeking safety: A treatment manual for PTSD and substance abuse. Guilford Press.