Corrections_Today_May_June_2020_Vol.82_No.3

I n the Greek language, the meaning of the word “trauma” is “wound.” 1 There are many ways correctional clients have been wounded throughout their life. It is important for correctional staff to understand it is not just the events that happened to individuals while in the justice system, but their psychological and physical abuse can accumulate over the years creating deep psychological and emotional wounds. Many of our clients become inoculated and are not even aware of how their wounds have impacted their life decisions. As correctional staff, we often see the results of individuals with justice involvement who can be reactionary, impulsive and extremely angry. We often do not “connect the dots” and do not see how their current anger issues, institutional violations and psychological issues are connected to past trauma.

the streets or within their families. They may never have processed any of these abandonments. The third major area is chronic stressors, which are more global areas including poverty, racism, historical trauma, invasive medical procedures, and family mem- bers with substance use disorders. These chronic stressors are cumulative and can wear the system down and add to low self-esteem and feelings of helplessness. Most of our clients have experienced traumatic events in all three of these areas. For some clients, a serious loss and chronic stressors can be just as debilitating as physi- cal and/or sexual abuse. Prevalence of trauma in males and females with justice involvement It is has been found that up to 48% of women with justice involvement and 30% of men with justice involve- ment have been found to have Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). 4 As a result of trauma(s), symptoms are experienced in the areas of: avoidance of people, places and things associated with traumas; intrusive dreams and memories associated with the trauma(s) and alterations of arousal and reactivity as a result of the trauma(s). Trauma histories for women with justice involvement can be as high as 90%. 5 This suggests that in our institu- tions, we are dealing with clients who are having active symptoms that are hindering their self-esteem, productiv- ity and treatment of others. This points to the important need for correctional staff to be aware of how their interactions can affect posttraumatic symptoms and help or hurt the women they are trying to serve. The Moss Group did a study of gender differences in confinement and found in females and males with justice involvement, physical abuse was historically reported by both groups to be between 50-60%, but when the indi- viduals were questioned about sexual abuse, men reported much less abuse than the women. 6 Since this is self- reported, it may not be totally accurate, as often men do not want to talk about their abuse and seem to bury their feelings. Laura Bedard, Ph.D., found that women tend to internalize stress, which may explain some of their self-harming behaviors such as cutting and burning them- selves and more frequent suicide attempts. 7 They seem to use much more medical and mental health services than

Trauma affects every aspect of an impacted person’s life, as trauma can imprint on the soul and holistically impact someone’s spiritual, emotional and physical life.

Trauma affects every aspect of an impacted person’s life, as trauma can imprint on the soul and holistically impact someone’s spiritual, emotional and physical life. Potential traumatic events can be in three major areas of abuse, loss, and chronic stressors. 2,3 Direct abuse is sexual and physical abuse, or domestic violence. This can include bullying, cyber bullying and institutional miscare. Many clients who lived in brutal environments can nor- malize the abuse and see it as “no big deal,” often because they had no personal power to stop what was occurring. The second major category is loss. This includes aban- donments of all kinds, including death, neglect, separation from key family members, natural disasters and accidents. Many clients have experienced many losses in their lives, especially from death, that they may have witnessed on

Graphic opposite page: edited from istock/MHJ

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