The following article is based on a keynote speech I gave this May at the Iowa Corrections Association Spring Conference. The good folks at the ICA are working hard everyday for their members, and it was a true pleasure meeting all of them.
In our profession, whether we work at our nation’s prisons, community correctional facilities, with parolees or within some other capacity of the department of corrections, we are rarely recognized for our efforts and quickly criticized for our perceived shortcomings. And as soon as the budget falls short, we are often expendable.
There are many different ways to serve in corrections. Our community is unique in the law enforcement field as it encompasses such a variety of roles and tasks. Within any given DOC, there are thousands of equally brave and talented people – with a wide range of skill sets - working together to accomplish a single goal: Public safety.
Yet, unlike our street counterparts, we are rarely recognized by anyone outside of our profession. Our mission is successful when no-one knows we exist. The only time people know we are out there, serving them daily, is when something goes horribly wrong. This can be in the form of an escape from custody, serious incidents or a crime committed by one of our charges on parole.
With this comes the risk of “burnout”. This form of burnout is not easily defined, but can be seen on the faces of many employees when you walk into almost any institution or community facility in our country. This burnout often comes from a lack of vision of our daily success. Recognizing success has not always been easy in our line of work. Our recidivism rates are high, and violence is rampant in our prisons.
So how do we avoid this burnout; this feeling that you do not matter in the big picture. To answer this, first we have to look at how we define success.
Defining success
Many people have been pressured their entire life by a predetermined idea of what success should look like. From an early age we are taught that our level of success in life is critical to understanding who we are and what we will become later in life. This is very true. However, what is never discussed is what exactly success is; especially in corrections.
So, for perspective, let’s talk about some things that could be considered failures, but, instead, are generally considered great successes.
The “premature landing”
The whole goal of a pilot is to fly an airplane from point A to point B, preferably without delays or incidents. Not too long ago, an airliner collided with some geese shortly after take-off and the plane made a “premature landing” in the Hudson River. Among pilots this is known as “crashing.” So by its very definition, this flight was a complete failure.
However, as we all know, Captain Sullenberger - the pilot of that flight - is now widely recognized for his amazing “premature landing” in the river, saving the life of every single passenger in that large airplane.
This is a prime example of where a strict definition of success does not apply. Did the flight make it to point B? No. Were the accomplishments of the pilot amazingly successful; responding to something out of his control with skill and talent? Yes.
The village fisherman
Consider this hypothetical: A tourist was exploring the backcountry of a small, third world country. In his travels he finds a small village on the river. The village is simple, unassuming, and the people are sitting in front of their huts enjoying the late morning sun.
The tourist sees that one of the men has caught several enormous fish that he is now cleaning. He asks the man if it took him long to catch those big fish. The man replies that it only took him a few minutes this morning, but that he has caught enough fish to feed the entire village for the day.
The tourist is amazed. He explains to the fisherman that he is a successful business man from New York and that he can help turn the man’s talent for fishing into an amazing business. He starts by asking the villager why he did not catch more fish. The man replies: “I have caught what I need. I will spend the rest of the day sleeping with my wife, having drinks in the sun, playing with my children and resting from a hard morning’s work.”
The tourist is shocked. “But you could catch more fish and then sell them at market!”
The man looks at the tourist and says, “And after I do that, what do I do?”
The tourist replies, “Then you use the money to buy bigger boats so you can catch more fish!”
The man skeptically asks, “And then what do I do?”
The tourist explains that in time, he would build a fleet of ships with his profits, and then be able to invest his money and make millions of dollars.
The man asks how long this would take. The tourist replies, “Ten or twenty years.”
The man asks, “And then what do I do?”
The tourist thinks about this for a minute and answers, “Then you retire. You find some small village or town somewhere and spend your days sleeping with your wife, have cocktails in the sun, play with your kids or grandkids, and relax after working hard your whole life.”
The villager turned to the tourist and smiled. “I am retired already.”
Applying new definitions of success to corrections
You may be wondering how these examples apply to corrections. Well, in short: We are often not in control of what happens in our prisons or community facilities, but we can control our own actions during these times and come out of a bad situation with a good reputation and a great attitude.
A great attitude comes from understanding that you cannot control everything, but if your experience and professionalism can help you come up with the right way to deal with a bad experience, you have succeeded. A failure to learn from our past mistakes and successes will lead to a true failure – a failure to keep the public safe.
In reality, it is rare that we truly do not succeed in this basic tenant of our profession. But if it does happen, most commonly it is a result of the “burnt out” attitude that I will discuss later.
For now, let’s continue defining success in our profession.
Success means that we go home every night, no matter the circumstances, in the same condition that we were in when we started our day. This is no small feat sometimes. Not only are many of us in physical danger, we are also subjected to some of the most horrific sides of the human condition. On a daily basis we work with our countries worst criminals and, in some way, try to make a difference. This can take quite a toll on us emotionally.
Success also means that the community is completely safe every second of every day from the inmates we are charged to keep or the parolees we monitor. This is a huge task! Community correctional facility employees and parole officers give up large parts of their personal life to work toward this goal. Everything possible is done by our nation’s correctional officers to keep the inmates we have in prison, and considering that inmates have 24 hours per day to figure out how to escape our custody, we are doing quite well.
The last part of success in our profession is that we are able to live our life, while conduction all of these duties.
In 2004, while assigned at another northern California prison, I was having a discussion with about 10 officers about life. We were on lockdown and had some spare time on our hands. We’d been locked down because one of our coworkers had been beaten so severely that she was medically dead on the tier when we responded. It was through the quick response of medical personnel that she lived; although she will have lifelong medical problems due to her sacrifice.
While speaking to the officers, the discussion turned to the impact that these types of incidents have on us. After some probing, I found that six of the officers, all in their late 20’s, had considered suicide at least once in their career. After some more talking, most felt that the job in one way or another contributed to this.
It was a bad time in California corrections. We were being assaulted on an almost daily basis and, before the age of 30, most of us had seen our fair share of dead bodies and horrific homicide scenes.
What the department failed to do was teach us how to cope with this. Sure there was counseling available, but in this testosterone laced profession, many saw going to counseling as a weakness. This incident really opened my eyes. I thought I was the only one who had nightmares; I thought I was the only one who could no longer be comfortable in crowds; I thought I was weak.
Work had become a chore; something I hated. I was burned out.
Burned out
People use the term “burned out” to describe a lot of situations. How many times haven’t we heard, or even said “I am so burned out!”
To be burned out means that you have lost sight of your goals, and dread coming to work everyday. To be burned out means that you are tired all the time. Ask yourselves these questions:
When you come home at the end of the day, do you ever do any of the following things?
Do you feel like your day is now done, you are ready for bed, even though it is only early afternoon? In other words, do you feel that once you come home from work, your day is over?
Do you run straight to the liquor cabinet for a drink? Now, what if you worked a night shift and it is seven in the morning?
Do you lack the energy to do anything with your family?
If you answer “yes” to any of the above (or any similar) questions, what can you do?
First, recognize your success!
I think we forget how successful we all are here. Regardless of what your assignment is within the department, you are part of a team that is extremely successful. Just like Captain Sullenberger, there are times that things happen that are completely out of your control. These incidents can make you feel like a failure. What is important to remember is that in a war - and make no mistake about it folks, there is a war on crime - there are battles. In every war ever fought, battles have been lost. The loss of a battle does not mean the war is lost. We need to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off and fight another day!
But how, you might ask, how can I go on, confident of what I do, when all this negativity surrounds me?
I have always been taught to leave my problems “at the gate.” Most of us have heard this term. It applies, and is taught to almost every correctional professional, regardless of where you serve. This means that you are supposed to leave your personal problems outside of work, and leave your work problems at work. This may sound good, but is it really possible?
For many people, it isn’t. And the stuff that burns us out doesn’t have to be dramatic. It can be witnessing violence, or even seeing the results of domestic abuse when you talk to the families of inmates on parole or in a CCF. This exposure, day after day, can gnaw at your very being.
Some solutions
Now for some good news: You can fix this. Try taking these two simple steps:
Recognize your success as part of a team and as an individual!
Look around you. In the group of people that work in our profession, there is one common theme: dedication to public safety. Just because you don’t get to save kittens out of a tree that is on fire, it does not mean you are not an integral part of the success of the law enforcement family. Whether you are an officer, a counselor, a medical professional or an office assistant, you are key to the team.
Recognize that you have a support structure.
Do not hide your problems from those who love you. Use your wife, husband, mother, father brother or sister as your support structure. Sometimes you just need a shoulder to cry on, sometimes you need to talk about anything but work. Make sure that many of your friends have nothing to do with LE. This by itself will be a great help.
Consider this, at a conference for correctional officers I was speaking at, a young officer approached me after reading my book and the advice I gave on getting support from family or friends.
“Sarge, I live alone, my parents are gone, I have no siblings, I am single,” he said, “I have no one.” He had recently lost loved ones and was having a hard time at work.
I told him to do what I am going to ask all of you to do when you get to work next time: Look to your left, look to your right, look behind you and look ahead of you: These people are your family, too.
The young man began to cry. Before I could do anything, there were at least ten other correctional employees including a doctor and a nurse who had surrounded the man to comfort him. You have the support… use it.
You do make a difference! Do not let your failure to recognize your own successes lead to your burnout. Stay safe everyone.