Corrections_Today_March_April_2020_Volume 82, Number 2

nEWS & vIEWS

NIJ Update

Understanding the Impacts of Corrections Officer Suicide By Natasha A. Frost, Ph.D.

Note: The research reported in this ar- ticle was supported by the National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice. The content is solely the responsibility of the author and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Justice or the U.S. Department of Justice. B etween 2010 and 2015, at least 20 corrections officers working for the Massachu- setts Department of Correction (MADOC) died by suicide. The average suicide rate for MADOC corrections officers over this period was approximately 105 per 100,000 – a rate that is at least seven times higher than the national suicide rate (14 per 100,000), and almost 12 times higher than the suicide rate for the state of Massachusetts (nine per 100,000). Some counties across Massachusetts also reported the loss of multiple officers to suicide over the same period, suggesting the phenomenon in state prisons was being mirrored in county correctional facilities. Even in the context of ris- ing suicide rates across the country, and recognizing the elevated risk for suicide in the protective service occupations, the number of suicides among corrections officers in Massa- chusetts has been unnerving.

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Our research team from North- eastern University initially learned of a growing suicide incidence through interviews we were conduct- ing with officers and sergeants who were taking part in an occupational stress study. During the interviews, a number of officers shared their concern about the recent suicides of colleagues, with several noting they themselves were only participating

in the stress study out of concern about those suicides. We had to stop interviewing at one of the correctional facilities temporarily when news reached us that another officer who worked there had just died by suicide. Around the same time, a local Fox news program ran several stories about the increases in officer suicide at the MADOC, featuring some of the families of officers who died.

14 — March/April 2020 Corrections Today