FACTS
- Correctional workers can be bitten or stabbed during an inmate assault, punctured with a used needle, or splashed in the face with blood. Exposures to bloodborne diseases can happen in any of these situations.
- Research has shown that correctional officers experience high stress levels, burnout, and a variety of other mental health-related consequences as a result of their jobs.
- The negative physical and mental health outcomes for correctional officers can have harmful effects on the wider prison institution.
- Jails and prisons can be unpredictable work settings.
- Security issues are often a higher concern than infection control.
- Inmates may have a higher rate of bloodborne diseases.
STATS
- According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), correctional officers had one of the highest days away from work (DAFW) nonfatal injury rates (445.6 per 10,000 full-time workers) among all occupations (117.2 per 10,000 full-time workers; BLS,).
- Prison is a controlled environment and occupational injuries are often the result of assaults by inmates or restraining an inmate during a fight (BLS,). According to the Bureau of Prisons, there were 1,902 inmate-initiated work-place assaults reported by federal prison officers.
- The majority of nonfatal injuries occurs to male correctional officers.
- Half of the nonfatal injuries were among officers ages 35 years and older.
- Of the nonfatal assaults and violent act injuries, more than one-third (37 percent) occurred while restraining an inmate or interacting with an inmate during an altercation.
- Nonfatal injuries primarily affected the upper limb, with approximately two-thirds affecting the hand and fingers.