Supporting Mental Health for Correctional Staff
Correctional staff are some of the most resilient, resourceful, and committed people I know.
They’re counselors, educators, case managers, officers, and program leaders who walk into high-stress environments every day, places where trauma, grief, and volatility live side by side with courage, hope, and transformation.
But let me say this clearly: The mental health toll of this work is real. And we cannot fix it with pizza parties and wellness posters.
If we want to sustain our workforce, if we want people to stay in this field without burning out or burning up, we need leadership to show up differently.
The correctional workforce is often told to “take care of yourself.” Get more sleep. Meditate. Drink more water. Use your PTO. And while all of that matters, it misses the point. You can’t mindfulness your way out of systemic stress. You can’t yoga your way through a culture that normalizes trauma and expects emotional suppression as a condition of employment.
Wellness shouldn’t be an individual burden. It should be an organizational priority. We don’t just need self-care; we need system-care. We have to build a culture of care.
If you’re an administrator, a superintendent, a warden, or anyone with authority in this space, here’s what your staff need from you:
1. Acknowledge the Trauma
Start by saying it out loud: “This work is hard. It changes you. And we see that.” Normalize check-ins. Normalize therapy. Normalize the fact that working in a correctional setting affects your nervous system. No shame. No stigma.
2. Provide Real Mental Health Support
This means access to qualified, trauma-informed counselors who understand the correctional environment. Offer confidential resources that don’t go through HR. Host optional debriefing sessions after major incidents. Make support visible, available, and voluntary.
3. Train Supervisors in Trauma Stewardship
Your front-line supervisors set the emotional temperature for your staff. If they dismiss, belittle, or ignore stress signals, your culture will suffer. Train your supervisors to recognize compassion fatigue, secondary trauma, and burnout, and give them tools to lead with empathy and boundaries.
4. Respect Time Off And Make It Possible
When your people are working double shifts or using PTO to manage childcare because the schedule won’t budge, burnout isn’t just possible, it’s inevitable. Honor breaks. Cover shifts. Stop rewarding overwork. Make it safe to say, “I need a day.”
5. Ask, Don’t Assume
Wellness isn’t one-size-fits-all. So before launching another mandatory training about self-care to satisfy a KPI, try asking your team:
What do you actually need?
What would make your job feel more manageable?
What support systems are missing here?
Then (this part is key) act on what they tell you.
The reality is: if you want a staff that shows up whole and stays engaged, you have to build a workplace that honors their humanity.
That means:
Centering wellness in onboarding
Embedding trauma stewardship into leadership development
Allocating actual budget to mental health supports
Tracking staff wellbeing, not just turnover
You can’t just say, “We care about staff wellness.” You have to build systems that prove it.
Because when staff are well, everything works better. People who are struggling with their own wellness aren’t in the best position to help others with theirs.
Staff wellness isn’t a luxury.
It’s not a perk.
It’s foundational to safe, effective correctional environments.
When staff feel supported:
Retention improves
Incidents decrease
Culture strengthens
Students and residents thrive
It’s all connected, because people who feel safe and seen at work are more likely to create those conditions for others.
Let’s stop treating wellness like a side dish. Let’s make it the main course of our leadership approach, because if we want our people to stay and grow in this field, we have to start leading like their wellbeing matters.
And speaking of mental health care and wellbeing, I hope your Thanksgiving holiday is truly full of thanks, and people you love, and great food, and (of course) steaming, scrumptious cups of coffee. With pie. Lots of pie.
See you next Sunday! ☕
