Staff stress in contemporary jails: Assessing problem severity and the payoff of progressive personnel practices

The presence of a high level of workplace stress among carefully recruited and monitored personnel could signify that the long-term return on selection and training resources invested in employees of podular, direct supervision jails could be jeopardized as staff either leave employment or withdraw psychologically from their work environment. Despite the suspected scale of this problem, however, there is little direct empirical evidence available as to the extent of staff stress problems in such jails. Using survey and organizational profile data from five podular direct supervision jails, the extent of stress occuring is estimated and some likely causes are isolated. Evidence indicating that the adoption of progressive personnel practices produces positive outcomes with respect to the incidence of turnover and workplace stress is presented.