Previous qualitative research suggests that prison officers can be classified into different prison officer types which shape staff-prisoner interactions and is related to whether prison staff are experiencing burnout. This mixed-methods study set out to test this assumption, drawing on semi-structured interviews with Irish prison officers (n=24) and a survey of Irish prison officers (n=406). The findings of this study make three main significant original contributions to knowledge. First, the findings from the semi-structured interviews indicated that participants felt that prison officer types were applicable to the Irish Prison Service, but they argued that people were fluid rather than rigid in what type they presented as, which could change depending on a variety of individual and external factors. These included personality, individual adaptability, the circumstances they were in, occupational culture, organisational culture, gender, regime, issues around workload and resources, and their perceptions of organisational justice. Second, a novel person-centred latent profile analysis (LPA) of the survey data found quantitative evidence for four distinct classes of prison officers. However, these classes do not reflect the distinctions made between prison officer types previously identified in the literature. Third, the results of the LPA four-class model with covariates and distal outcomes showed statistically significant differences in the perceived quality of staff-prisoner relationships and staff-burnout between the four distinct classes of prison officers, when other potentially confounding variables were controlled for. This study highlights the value of drawing together the literature on prison work, prison officer typologies, key work-related issues prison officers face, personality, individual adaptability, occupational culture, gender, perceptions of organisational justice, perceived quality of staff-prisoner relationships, and staff burnout. It is argued that using a MMR design which incorporated a person-centred statistical approach yielded new insights into this area of literature which could not have been captured using qualitative or variable-centred approaches alone. Accordingly, these findings contribute to the development of a more nuanced and unified theoretical understanding of prison officer types, their transferability to the Irish Prison Service, as well as their potential implications for the perceived quality of staff-prisoner relationships and staff burnout. The findings also offer valuable insights into how Irish prison officers can be better supported to achieve the ‘right’ kind of staff-prisoner relationships and reduce burnout.
| Date of Award | Dec 2024 |
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| Original language | English |
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| Awarding Institution | - Queen's University Belfast
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| Sponsors | Dun Laoghaire Institute of Art, Design and Technology |
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| Supervisor | Michelle Butler (Supervisor), Andrew Percy (Supervisor) & Shadd Maruna (Supervisor) |
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- prison officer typology
- staff prisoner relationships
- burnout
- latent profile analysis
“You have to be fluid”. Prison officer types, perceived quality of staff-prisoner relationships, and staff burnout in the Irish Prison Service
Meade, S. (Author). Dec 2024
Student thesis: Doctoral Thesis › Doctor of Philosophy