Prisoners’ Perceptions of Prison Officers as Sources of Support

Obtaining social support is an important aspect of managing stress. Within the unit management model, prison officers provide supportive assistance to prisoners and provide access to other sources of support. Officers' capacity to fulfill these aspects of their duties relies, in part, upon prisoners' willingness to approach officers for support. Data from 187 prisoners in a male maximum-security prison indicated that they would rarely approach prison officers for support, although this varied according to the type of problem encountered. Prisoners reported a greater willingness to seek practical help than emotional support from prison officers. There were no differences between those prisoners who reported a history of self-harm and those who did not. The data suggest if prisoners' only access to support is through prison officers, then prisoners in need would be reluctant to seek help. Moreover, if efforts to identify prisoners at risk of self-harm were reliant on prisoners' self-disclosure of distress then these efforts would not be effective.