The mental health of staff working in UK prisons during the Covid‐19 pandemic
| Published date | 01 September 2023 |
| Author | Amina Memon,Ashley Hunt,Ellamay Thelwall,Nick Hardwick,Sverre Urnes Johnson |
| Date | 01 September 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/hojo.12522 |
Received: 8 August 2022 Accepted: 3 November 2022
DOI: 10.1111/ho jo.12522
ORIGINAL ARTICLE
The mental health of staff working in UK
prisons during the Covid-19 pandemic
Amina Memon1Ashley Hunt2Ellamay Thelwall3
Nick Hardwick4Sverre Urnes Johnson5
1Professor of Psychology,Department of
Psychology, Royal Holloway University of
London
2MSc student in forensic psychology,
Department of Law & Criminology, Royal
Holloway University of London
3MSc student in forensic psychology,
Department of Law & Criminology, Royal
Holloway University of London
4Professor of Criminal Justice,
Department of Law & Criminology, Royal
Holloway University of London
5Associate Professor of Clinical
Psychology,Department of Psychology,
University of Oslo and senior researcher,
Modum Bad Psychiatric Center,
Vikersund, Norway
Correspondence
Nick Hardwick, Professor of Criminal
Justice, Department of Law &
Criminology, RoyalHolloway University
of London.
Email: nicholas.hardwick@rhul.ac.uk
Abstract
This article presents the results of an opportunistic,
cross-sectional, self-report survey of the well-being of
staff working in prisons throughout the UK. The sur-
vey was completed by 594 participants in the early part
of 2021 at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. Self-
report measures indicated concerning levels of burnout
and 43.4% of participants were above the established
cut-offs on the Generalised Anxiety Disorder (GAD-7)
scale. Eighty-one per cent reported that their mental and
physical health had deteriorated and many said emo-
tional support was lacking. Further research is required
to establish how typical and persistent these concerns
are.
KEYWORDS
Covid-19, mental health, prisons, staff
1 INTRODUCTION
Undertaken during the challenging circumstances of the Covid-19 pandemic itself, the goal of the
current study was to start to identify the causes of stress or ‘stressors’ among prison staff, at the
height of the Covid-19 pandemic, with a cross-sectional survey assessing the prevalence of anxiety
in some UK prison staff at this critical time and their perceptions of the support they received. The
This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and
reproduction in any medium, providedthe original work is properly cited.
© 2023 The Authors. The Howard Journalof Crime and Justice published by Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.
Howard J. Crim. Justice. 2023;62:357–373. wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/hojo 357
358 THE HOWARDJOURNAL OF CRIME AND JUSTICE
594 participants in this study came from a variety of roles in correctional settings in the UK and
for convenience respondents are referred to throughout this article as ‘prison staff’.
1.1 The national context
In March 2020, strict national ‘lockdown’ measures to prevent the transmission of Covid-19 and
minimise deaths were implemented throughout the UK. Measures differed slightly in the differ-
ent nations of the UK and at different times but broadly included social distancing from contacts
outside an individual’s household, mask wearing and restrictions on movement outside thehome
other than for essential workers. An immediate concern was for those responsible for managing
the health and safety of the public. Existing literature on stress, mental health and resiliency fol-
lowing events such as the 9/11 terror attacks and the HIV epidemic indicated that Covid-19 could
compound occupation-related stress in frontline workers, that is among employees in essential
industries who must physically show up for their jobs (Stogner, Miller & McLean, 2020).
1.2 The prisons context
Prison staff faced unique challenges during the pandemic because of their responsibility for the
care and management of prisoners, a vulnerable population known to have a high incidence of
post-traumatic stress disorder (Facer-Irwin et al., 2019), violence and self-harm (see, e.g., Haw-
ton et al., 2014; McGuire, 2018). The stressors in prisons were amplified during the pandemic
with staff, at short notice, being made responsible for administering safety procedures and plac-
ing severe restrictions on the movement and association of prisoners (Kothari et al., 2020). From
March 2020, UK prisons implemented extensive physicaldistancing and control measures against
Covid-19 (Braithwaite et al., 2021). These included requiring most prisoners to remain in their
cells for up to 23 hours a day, halting family visits for a time, and reducing the opportunity for
education, work and rehabilitation, as well as implementing increased hygiene measures (Fair&
Jacobson, 2021). The level of restrictions varied according to the prevalenceof the virus nationally
and in specific prisons but the most stringent restrictions were in place at the time our survey was
undertaken during the second national wave of the pandemic (GOV.UK Coronavirus (Covid-19)
in United Kingdom, 2022). Moreover, by not having the option to work from home, staff faced
additional worries about putting family members at risk of infection (De Camargo, 2022). It was
within this context that the POA (formerly the Prison Officers Association) agreed to support this
opportunistic, cross-sectional, self-report survey of the well-being of their members working in
prisons and other secure settings throughout the UK that was undertaken.
1.3 Surveying the health of the UK population during Covid-19
The prevalence of anxiety, depression and trauma symptoms in the UK population was moni-
tored during the pandemic by the COVID-19 Psychological Research Consortium (C19PRC).The
research involved an initial sample of 2,025 adults (Shevlin et al., 2020a, 2020b)inMarch2020
and a follow-up subsample in April 2020 (Wave 2) and July 2020 (Wave 3). Two further waves of
data collection occurred, one in November–December 2020 (Wave 4) and a fifth, in March–April
2021(Wave5)(seeShevlinetal.,2021a).
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