Wellbeing și presiune la locul de muncă în sistemul penitenciar

Abstract

Penitentiaries are considered workplaces where risk and aggression are omnipresent and where we often face improper material conditions. At the same time, they represent a special type of organization: a closed and "total" system, with a high level of professional isolation, maintained by strict routines and a hierarchy of regimes, an environment similar to that of mental hospitals (Goffman, 2020). Although there are many studies related to prison systems which addresses prison conditions and their impact on the condition of prisoners, little attention is paid to the wellbeing of prison staff, despite the important role they play in the reintegration process and in maintaining the health of prisoners. In the absence of critical reflection by the prison administrations, the trade union organizations took steps to address this subject. In this paper we present the results of the research carried out by the trade union organizations in Great Britain, Denmark, Norway and Romania in the period 2019 until now and we propose an explanatory model of the correlation between working conditions and the wellbeing of prison staff. Our approach can be a point of interest for the factors responsible for the development of policies in the correctional field in Romania and the Republic of Moldova, especially in the conditions of an accentuated dynamics of the penitentiary staff.