CORRECTIONS
PTSD, depression, suicide and divorce highest among correctional officers
BRIAN DAWE
Each year, an average of 10 correctional officers die in the line of duty. Every year, 156 correctional officers take their own lives. The cumulative negative effects that this job has on our health is devastating. For every officer who dies in the line of duty, 15 take their own lives.
“… Over time, negative work experiences and resulting psychological distress may have a cumulative impact that shapes personality adversely and causes individuals to develop a more pervasively negative outlook.”“( Depression, PTSD and Comorbidity in United States Corrections Professionals: Prevalence and Impact on Health and Functioning.” Michael D. Denhof, Ph. D., Caterina G. Spinaris Ph. D., Desert Waters Outreach, June 2013)
Do you jump when the phone rings, even when you’ re off the job? Is your first reaction to your children’ s request“ no,” regardless of what they’ re asking? Do you sit with your back to the wall in order to watch ingress and egress points? Do you feel emotions well up in you far above what the situation warrants? Are you frequently tired and consuming more alcohol than before? Are you often asked by family and friends if everything is alright? Have you stopped listening? Do you seek more solitude and alone time?
PTSD and depression
In a room with 100 randomly selected correctional officers, statistics show that 34 out will have PTSD and 31 will be diagnosed with severe depression. Officers diagnosed with PTSD also have a 65 percent chance of comorbidity with depression. Officers diagnosed with depression have a 67 percent chance of comorbidity with PTSD.
A 2012 national study of nearly 4,000 correctional officers and staff conducted by Caterina Spinaris, Ph. D., with Desert Waters Outreach in Colorado found a 27 percent PTSD rate among all correctional staff and a depression rate of 26 percent. Among security personnel, the rate is 34 percent, substantially higher than the general population and all other first responders.
According to a 2010 report from the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, for adults in the general population, current prevalence rates have been estimated at 3.5 percent for PTSD and 9.1 percent for depression. Compare that to the correctional profession, in which male security staff have the highest rates for PTSD( 35.8 percent) and depression( 32.5 percent). For female security staff, the rates are slightly lower, at 29.6 percent for PTSD and 27.1 percent for depression. When both PTSD and depression are present, the chances of suicide greatly increase.
One of the major contributing factors that appears to increase PTSD and depression rates is the officer’ s experience with violence, injury or death( VID) on the job. Spinaris’ s report showed that staff who have not experienced VID on the job had a 13 percent depression rate, while those experiencing one or more VIDs saw that rate jump to 27.6 percent.
Suicide In 2016, the National Institute of Justice awarded a $ 500,000 grant to Northeastern University in Massachusetts to study the
20 NEW JERSEY COPS ■ JUNE 2018 impacts of correctional officer suicide. In the“ Background” section of the award, the institute states:“ The rate of suicide among correctional officers in Massachusetts since 2010 has been at least five times higher than the national average and almost eight times higher than the suicide rate in the state.” From 2010 to 2016, 18 Massachusetts correctional officers took their lives.
In 2009, the New Jersey Police Suicide Task force found that the suicide rate for men in the general population ages 25 to 64 was 14 per 100,000. For police officers, it was slightly higher at 15.1 per 100,000. For correctional officers, however, it was off the charts at 34.8 per 100,000, more than double the rate of suicide for police officers.
“ Based on the analysis of death certificate data from 21 states that provided information on the occupation of the deceased, it was determined that corrections officers’ risk of suicide was 39 percent higher than that of the rest of all other professions combined.”
Divorce Police psychologist Gary Aumiller, Ph. D., while studying police and corrections divorce rates, found that:
“ Corrections officers are above the general population on all measure of divorce. It is a sad thing, and we have to look at that as a profession, but our corrections officers are higher in rates of divorce, and in the rates of growth in the divorced population. It is difficult to do the statistics any other way. They were 20 percent more likely to get a divorce than the general population...”(“ Divorce in Cops and Corrections,” Gary Aumiller, Ph. D. ABPP, Police Psychologist, December 2, 2016)
Heart disease
Heart disease is also a factor when PTSD and depression are present. Individuals formally screened for PTSD and depression reported that they suffered from heart disease approximately twice as often as individuals who were disorder-free and approximately 50 percent more often than individuals who had PTSD only or depression only. These results indicate that corrections professionals with concurrent PTSD and depression are substantially more likely to report having heart disease and suggest that they are at increased risk for heart disease.
In short, correctional officers have a 39 percent higher suicide rate, PTSD rates ten times higher than the general population and a divorce rate that’ s 20 percent higher than the national average. Heart disease affects us at a rate that is 50 percent higher than any other occupation. These statistics are sobering, even more so because they are so underreported.
Every elected official in your jurisdiction should get a copy of the reports cited herein and this summary. Don’ t let them tell you,“ I didn’ t know.” Be safe in there. d
Brian Dawe spent 16 years as a state correctional officer in Massachusetts, beginning on May 31, 1982. He is a co-founder of the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union, administrator for the Corrections and Criminal Justice Coalition and the executive director for Corrections USA and the American Correctional Officer. He is the originator and owner of the American Correctional Officer Intelligence Network.