Severe staffing shortages in prisons are continuing and even worsening in some jurisdictions, impacting on the ability of prisons to ensure safety and security, provision of adequate healthcare, rehabilitation programmes and daily regimes of prisons in the context of the pandemic.
The common and well-known challenges shared across prison systems worldwide in maintaining adequate staffing levels mainly relate to poor working conditions and inadequate remuneration. However, the global pandemic has brought additional challenges to prison staffing shortages. In the US, where prisons had staff vacancies in every state in 2020, the pandemic and its impact on the labour market is cited as a key reason for the worsening prison staff shortages.
Prison staff are facing new and changing responsibilities, reduced staff levels (in many cases due to the pandemic), which, alongside other challenges, are taking a heavy toll on their mental and physical health.
The pandemic also brought wide scale absences of prison staff due to infection and/or isolation rules in a number of countries. One analysis in the US found that at one point during the pandemic one in six jail staff had been absent due to infection or quarantine. Similar trends were noted in England and Wales and Ireland, where in early January 2022, over a third of all prison staff were absent on COVID-19 leave.
Vaccine mandates for prison staff also led to shortages where applied. Several states in the US and Australia which employ vaccine mandates, and some provinces in Canada, banned unvaccinated staff from working in prisons. In Western Australia, a union for prison officers stated that a vaccine mandate contributed to a shortage of some 800 prison officers across the state.
The pandemic has brought new and changing responsibilities for prison staff. As well as the challenge of managing infection prevention and control measures in detention settings, staff are absorbing additional duties and working overtime. In some prisons, staff without healthcare training have been required to undertake healthcare duties such as assisting with testing and vaccinations (see Mental health).
As COVID-19 vaccinations have been rolled out, there has been considerable variance in the prioritisation prison staff were accorded in national vaccination plans. Research by PRI and HRI found that of the 131 countries for which vaccination plans could be found, half explicitly mentioned prison staff and a third included prison staff in the highest priority for vaccination. As of 30 September 2021, vaccination of prison staff had started in at least 94 countries, with the situation in many countries unclear. A general lack of information on COVID-19 vaccination among prison staff was identified, partly because prison staff comprise a variety of professions which may place them into different prioritisation groups. Prison staff are also often vaccinated in the community based on general priority factors such as advanced age or health risks, and in such cases data on their vaccination as a group is usually not recorded.
Innovative ways to support prison staff in response to common challenges are emerging.
The pandemic has exacted a heavy toll on the mental and physical health of prison staff. In China, research found that frontline prison staff have been experiencing psychological stress as a direct result of managing the pandemic in prisons. In Ireland, prison staff stress levels have increased during the pandemic with 25% of respondents to a survey reporting ‘high stress levels’ at work prior to the pandemic, which increased to almost 60% during the pandemic.
In response to the demanding nature of working in prisons, new initiatives and programmes to support staff have emerged, some triggered by the pandemic and many provided by NGOs. In Tunisia, organisations with experience in psychosocial support have been able to provide such support to prison staff during COVID-19, and in England, an NGO is providing yoga and meditation classes to staff in 12 prisons to help them cope with work stress during COVID-19. In Kenya, the Psychiatric Disability Organization Kenya began providing psychosocial support to prison staff in Nakuru to help assist with mental health needs during the pandemic.
In Thailand, online support services were run for prison staff with a focus on assisting with work-related stress. The programme ran for over 10 weeks and involved therapeutic art sessions, group counselling and mindfulness, benefitting 30 members of staff, with 85% of them reporting that it had had a positive impact. Also, the country’s Department of Corrections recently published guidelines for mental healthcare for prison staff and people in prison to prevent stress or mental health problems during the pandemic, with recommendations for reducing anxiety and a mental health assessment form. Another government-led initiative was seen in Peru, where prison staff have received a bonus of around USD $190 in recognition of the additional risks they are exposed to due to the pandemic.