Quantifying the psychological toll of prison visitation: how negative staff behaviours affect visitors

Perceived negative interactions with correctional officers is suggested to increase prison visitors’ feelings of psychological distress. This study is the first to quantitatively examine visitors’ perceived negative interactions and their psychological distress. We recruited 207 visitors who participated in a self-administered online survey about their visitation experiences. Measures of negative interactions with officers included whether a prison officer was ever rude, aggressive, or intimidating towards a visitor. Results show a relationship does exist between these negative interactions and visitors’ psychological distress, with visitors who experienced all three negative interactions being 6.35 times more likely to report high to very high levels of psychological distress. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.