NCJ Number
89066
Date Published
1982
Length
20 pages
Annotation
A review of stress theories and research addresses their relevance to prison management, emphasizing that such studies should not only help inmates and guards cope with stress but profit from it.
Abstract
Research aids stressed persons by allowing them to recount their experiences, providing momentary social support, and generating data that can be used in preventive programs. Theorists divide stress into specific phases: an overload or underload of demands that are prerequisite to stress; recognition of the stressor, such as inmates seeing prison as controlling their fates; responses; and the consequences of these responses. The line between stress and life is always tenuous, and problems become crises if stress-induced behavior occurs in lieu of problemsolving behavior. Thus, prison administrators should not arrange for tension releasing mechanisms but focus instead on teaching problemsolving techniques. For a situation to be a stressor, it must represent a sharp and unwelcome change from past experience. Therefore, prison is not stressful to inmates whose lives have been spent successfully in prisonlike institutions, whereas life in the outside world is stressful. Ameliorating stress in prisons cannot be accomplished without involvement in inmate rehabilitation and staff development. Studies of stress take two forms: a correlational design tracing the consequences of stress and a transactional approach centering on the experience of being exposed to stress and the consequent reactions. The latter has the greatest potential for prisons because it moves easily and directly from research to reform. The paper includes 6 footnotes and 31 references.