The Impact of Correction Officer Suicide on the Institutional Environment and on the Wellbeing of Correctional Employees, Massachusetts, 2010-2019

The project involved a partnership between the research team at Northeastern University, the Office of Strategic Planning and Research at the Massachusetts Department of Correction (MA DOC), the Massachusetts Correction Officers Federated Union (MCOFU) and clinical direct service providers at the Riverside Trauma Center (RTC), a program of Riverside Community Care (RCC). The research was conducted in two overlapping phases, with findings from the first phase informing key elements of the second phase. In phase one, the Northeastern University research team conducted comprehensive qualitative case studies of the occupational and personal lives of the 20 correction officers and retirees who had died by suicide between 2010 and 2015. In phase two, researchers collected both qualitative and quantitative data to assess the impacts of the correction officer suicides on correction officers still working in the state's prisons. Researchers conducted on-site and on-shift in-person interviews with 440 officers and administrators to assess the impacts of officer suicide on attitudinal, behavioral, and psychological well-being outcomes. The phase two officer interview opened with questions designed to collect egocentric social network data from each officer and included assessments of behavioral, emotional, and psychological health using validated instruments. Researchers collected qualitative data for this study which are not currently available. The qualitative data will be made available at a later date.