Advancing Corrections Journal - Edition #8 - Investing in Staff (ACJ8-A010)

Article 10: Transforming Prison Culture To Improve Correctional Staff Wellness And Outcomes For Adults In Custody The Oregon Way: A Partnership Between The Oregon Department Of Corrections And The University Of California’s Correctional Culture Change Program (ACJ8-A010)

Abstract

In the 1970s and 80s, the U.S. experienced a national crime wave which gave rise to a “tough on crime” abandonment of rehabilitation in most jails and prisons and ushered in an era of mass incarceration. Despite an emphasis on institutional security and control in the following decades, U.S. jails and prisons became increasingly dangerous and unsafe. Currently, violence, sexual assault, and suicide remain disproportionately common in U.S. correctional facilities and the poor health and wellbeing of residents and staff alike has reached epidemic proportions. In this context, the Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC) developed the “Oregon Way” to improve staff health and wellness by enrolling in a correctional culture change program developed and facilitated by faculty at the University of California San Francisco and Santa Cruz (“UCSF”). The program focuses on restoring a commitment to rehabilitation, dignity and humanity as core to correctional mission and practice, modeled off the Norwegian approach to corrections. This article describes the ODOC’s investment in officer wellness initiatives over recent years and provides an overview of the partnership between ODOC and UCSF. It also presents findings demonstrating that chronic exposure of staff to stressful and violent incidents in their workplace and an organizational approach to correctional work that vests the majority of staff autonomy and decision-making among managers limits the full realization of staff wellness efforts. The participation of ODOC in UCSF’s culture change program has resulted in the implementation of novel work approaches that further advance correctional staff wellness by re-defining the nature of correctional work in the U.S., significantly reducing exposure to stress and violence in officers’ daily work lives, and improving staff members’ feelings of autonomy on the job and connection to the meaningfulness of their work.

Please log in to download the full article. Access is available exclusively to ICPA Full, Staff, and Professional Members.

Authors

Cyrus Ahalt

Associate Director, Criminal Justice & Health Program at UCSF, United States

Cyrus Ahalt, MPP, is Associate Director of the Criminal Justice & Health Program at UCSF where he designs and administers diverse projects aimed at improving the health and criminal justice outcomes of people who live and work in U.S. jails and prisons. As part of that work, he co-directs a consultation service that identifies and addresses deficiencies in correctional health care systems. As an academic, he conducts policy-oriented research to better understand and meet the complex health care needs of medically vulnerable criminal justice-involved people and publishes commentaries translating evidence into calls for prison and criminal justice reform. As co-Director of the UCSF correctional culture change program, Mr. Ahalt has collaborated closely with multiple state corrections departments to adapt core principles and best correctional practices from around the world for application in the U.S. correctional environment. That work has resulted in dramatic reductions in solitary confinement, reduced uses of force, and substantial declines in interpersonal conflict, including violence, inside institutions enrolled in the program.

Colette S. Peters

Director, Oregon Department of Corrections, United States

Colette S. Peters, MS has served as Director of the Oregon Department of Corrections (ODOC) since February 2012. She has ultimate oversight of an agency with 4,700 employees; a biennial budget of $2 billion; and responsibility for managing 14,700 incarcerated adults in 14 prisons across the state. Ms. Peters played a crucial role in Oregon’s justice reinvestment effort, which reduced the prison population and avoided opening additional institutions. Under Ms. Peters’ leadership, ODOC enrolled in the University of California San Francisco correctional culture change program and developed the “Oregon Way.” The goal is to improve employee health and wellness, and reduce the use of segregation, by transforming environments inside correctional facilities to be more normal and humane. The program has focused efforts on helping the adults in custody positively change their lives and become better neighbors. Ms. Peters holds a master’s degree in criminal justice from the University of Colorado in Denver, and a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the College of Saint Benedict in Saint Joseph, Minnesota.

Heidi Steward

Deputy Director, Oregon Department of Corrections, United States

Heidi Steward has served as the Oregon Department of Corrections (DOC) Deputy Director since April 1, 2019. Ms. Steward is a 23-year DOC veteran, beginning her career in 1996. During her tenure, Ms. Steward redesigned the department’s cognitive interventions toward evidence-based programs created specifically for criminal justice-involved adults. She implemented a new case management model allowing counselors to serve as change agents. Ms. Steward served as a representative on two trips to Norway to learn the principles of humanity and normality applied throughout Norway’s corrections system. She has applied those best-practices and innovations to Oregon’s corrections system – both in employee wellness and bettering the environment of those in custody. Ms. Steward’s focus is on the professional environment, family well-being, and the culture inside and outside Oregon institutions. This has yielded notable improvements to the health and well-being of ODOC staff and adults in custody.

Brie Williams

Physician, Professor, University of California, San Francisco, United States

Brie Williams, MD, MS is a Physician and Professor of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Williams collaborates with colleagues from criminal justice, public safety, government and the law to integrate a healthcare perspective into criminal justice reform. Her research has called for increased attention to the impact of solitary confinement on adverse physical health outcomes; a more scientific development of medical “compassionate” release policies for incarcerated patients with serious illness; and improved systems for defining, recognizing, and responding to disability, dementia, and serious illness in the correctional environment. Dr. Williams has served as a consultant for jails, prisons, and legal and policy organizations throughout the U.S. and internationally, including the National ACLU, the U.S. Sentencing Commission, and the World Health Organization. As Founder and Director of the UCSF correctional culture change program, her work is increasingly focused on transforming culture in U.S. prisons and jails as a vital strategy for restoring health and humanity to the U.S. criminal justice system and ending mass incarceration.

Advancing Corrections Journal - Edition #8 - Investing in Staff (ACJ8-A010)

Related topics

You may also be interested in