The majority of bread-earners have a routine of visiting their offices, meeting the deadlines and corresponding to the needs of their bosses. But what would be their reaction when they get to know that their place of work is just paving the way to their cremation ground? The terror would definitely seize them when they reckon that their faithful service is just for the sake of leading them to their ultimate fate. Massachusetts correction officers die by suicide at an alarmingly high rate, and the state Department of Correction is concerned. It’s gotten to be such a big botheration that it has drawn the attention of lawmakers, compelling the state legislature to form a commission to study the phenomenon.
It also has captured the attention of Natasha Frost, a criminology and criminal justice professor in Northeastern College of Social Sciences and Humanities, and her research partner, Carlos Monteiro, a Northeastern University’s alumnus who studied criminology and criminal justice policy. There’s clearly growing evidence that people that work in prisons do suffer the effects of working in those environments. Frost exclaimed, “Certain professions have higher rates of suicide, but even for the corrective service, the Massachusetts rate at the moment is elevated.”
Building on their work, the researchers continue to visit the state’s 16 prisons daily to interview officers. They are not agitated about why behind officer suicides as much as they are in identifying any tell-tale signs of struggle at work and in their personal lives. They are just aiming at trying to predict suicidal ideation; things that may be predictive of suicide or suicidal thoughts.
Harminder Singh