12 spring-summer 2019/HesaMag #19 Special report 3/36 Employment quality of staff in Europe: trapped in a vicious circle?

What is the employment quality of prison staff in Europe after a decade of austerity measures for public services? That was the highly relevant research topic of a study carried out by HIVA-KULeuven, commissioned by the European Federation of Public Service Unions (EPSU).

Yennef Vereycken and Monique Ramioul Researchers at KU Leuven – Research Institute for Work and Society (HIVA)

The United Kingdom has the greatest proportion of (85 000 men) in Europe, housed in 120 (mega) , of which 65% are overcrowded. Image: © Belga 13 spring-summer 2019/HesaMag #19 Special report 4/36

To answer this question, four countries were examined: Sweden, the United Kingdom In a context of widespread austerity policies, (UK), Italy and Greece. The study focused on prison officers and their work experiences, there are no (additional) resources to enable the tasks they perform, their working envi- ronment, their working conditions and their prison officers to deal with this increased concerns, referred to as the employment qual- ity of prison staff. Wages, contracts, working complexity. hours, training opportunities, representa- tion, collective bargaining, rights to strike, occupational health and safety but also work organisation and autonomy are key factors of employment quality. We observed a general conditions. However, after a violent attack Surveillance is the main task of prison of- deterioration in the employment quality of on a prison officer, Swedish prison policies ficers and rehabilitation tasks are assigned prison staff in each of the participating coun- have undergone several changes. Additional to different specialised professions. Never- tries, although not to the same extent. security rules and administrative procedures theless, the work of Italian prison officers is have been implemented, there has been a challenging, although for reasons different to general trend towards shifting decision-mak- those in Sweden: overcrowding and under- Different stories? ing to the central administration, individual staffing as a result of austerity combined with coaching has been increasingly replaced by a harsher societal environment against When we analyse employment quality and group sessions, and prison staff now have to makes the job of prison officers much more recent changes in the countries covered by specialise and choose between surveillance complex. Although the /staff ratio is our study, we see significant differences. The or rehabilitation roles. In addition, the trade relatively low (1.67 in 2018), living conditions Swedish prison system is historically embed- unions feel that the government is making for prisoners and working conditions for pris- ded in a welfare tradition and focuses more unfair use of temporary employment con- on officers in Italian prisons are generally on the rehabilitation of inmates. This vision tracts, thereby increasing the job insecurity poor. Irregular working hours, low wages and is first of all reflected in staffing numbers: in of prison staff. Although not as severe as in the discrepancy in the training provided in 2018, 5 000 prison officers were employed in other EU countries, prison services have also hard skills (surveillance and ) and 48 prison facilities that accommodated 4 000 experienced some budget cuts due to auster- the necessary soft skills (communication and inmates (with a total capacity of 5 000). This ity policies. These changes, together with the conflict resolution techniques) explain the gives a prisoner/staff ratio of one-to-one. Pris- growing diversity of inmates, are putting in- general low level of employment quality (and on officers combine surveillance duties with creasing pressure on what has hitherto been service quality) in Italian prisons. Signifi- their role as personal coach, counselling one a very successful combination of high-quality cantly, prison officers have no right to strike or more inmates. To this end, prison officers prison services and decent employment qual- in Italy so trade unions are obliged to find undergo extensive training. This combination ity of Swedish prison staff. other strategies to influence policy. of training and challenging (rehabilitative) On paper the Italian prison system ech- Prison services in the UK are charac- tasks result in a rewarding job. Moreover, oes the rehabilitation goals of the Swedish sys- terised by an unfavourable combination of the prison officers have decent employment tem, but this is far from the case in practice. complex objectives, low budgets and a harsh 14 spring-summer 2019/HesaMag #19 Special report 5/36

societal environment against crime. The their increased training needs. Many prison UK has proportionally the largest number officers now do not know how to deal with The education and of prisoners in Europe (85 000 men) spread the rising number of conflicts and the multi- over 120 (mostly mega-) prisons, of which 65 % dimensional problems that are characteris- on-the-job training are overcrowded. In addition, the number of tic of increasingly diverse prisons. Although prison officers has decreased by more than a rehabilitation has recently been included in of prison officers in quarter since 2010, mainly due to mass layoffs. official policy documents, the funds have not These factors have led to poor-quality prison been forthcoming. In 2017 only 120 special- private prisons has services and corresponding low employment ised staff worked actively in the area of rein- quality. Most alarming are the health and tegration, compared to 4 000 custodial staff. been revealed to be safety conditions for those living and work- ing in prisons, as illustrated by the annual largely insufficient, increase in the number of violent attacks and Common trends? even riots within British prisons. Moreover, accompanied by prison officers are expected to combine sur- Although the national settings and differ- veillance and rehabilitation yet the struc- ent policies make it difficult to provide a full inadequate staff tural understaffing, overcrowding and lack comparison, several common trends can be of training – the latter being particularly identified in the four countries included in replacement. evident in privately run prisons – make this the study. Essentially, work in prisons has impossible, resulting in a major source of become more complex. On the one hand, work-related stress. British prisons are or- governments have added rehabilitation tasks ganised hierarchically, which limits both par- to prison officers’ roles, and these are much ticipation opportunities and the autonomy of more demanding in terms of staffing, time prison officers, and again this is particularly and competences; at the same time the ad- noticeable in private prisons. Other elements ministrative burden is increasing. On the for their local needs. Finally, this lack of re- that have a negative impact on employment other hand, prison populations have become sources also leads to a general lack of staff quality are the low wages, limited career op- much more complex and demanding, with training, most notably in Greece. Training is portunities and the ban on strike action. Aus- greater cultural and national diversity, age- crucial in helping prison officers cope with the terity seems to have played a major role in the ing and often very high levels of recidivism. extra complexity of, for example, self-harm deterioration in the quality of both employ- The increasing number of prisoners suffer by inmates. Employment conditions, such ment and services in British prisons. from (mental) illnesses is another urgent as wages and secure employment contracts, Finally, the employment quality of problem. In Greece, two out of three inmates are negatively influenced by this budgetary Greek prison officers has suffered significant- have a foreign background; this figure is 30 % situation, too. The combination of the high ly as a result of austerity measures. Wages in Italy. Swedish prisons have experienced demands of the job and limited resources (I) have decreased by up to 50 % of the annual a significant rise in mental health issues, explains the high turnover among prison of- net income. As a result, many prison staff while suicides, cultural differences and drug ficers in each country and (II) is likely a key have quit or taken early retirement. As there abuse have become extremely problematic factor in the deterioration in the employment has been no budget to recruit new officers, in UK prisons. In addition, there seems to quality of prison staff. prison services are suffering structural un- be a growing discrepancy between training Two additional common risks to this derstaffing, resulting in situations where two demand and training supply. Although soft employment quality have been identified. prison officers are responsible for 400 pris- skills are more and more important in deal- Firstly, the combination of understaffing and oners. In addition, overcrowding in prison ing with the increasing diversity of inmates, overcrowding seems to be the perfect breed- facilities has further exacerbated the difficul- prison staff training is still predominantly ing ground for unsafe working environments. ties of the work. Although the understaffing focused on so-called hard skills (surveillance If the health and safety conditions of both in- and overcrowding have improved slightly in and detention). In Greece, 44 % of prison staff mates and prison officers cannot be secured, recent years, the situation has had a serious do not know how to deal with inmate conflicts the quality of services and employment qual- impact on the health and safety conditions and problems. ity will suffer considerably. Secondly, experi- of prison staff and inmates, with a number In a context of widespread austerity ments with the privatisation of prison servic- of lethal accidents the unfortunate outcome. policies, there are no (additional) resources es, e.g. in the UK, also have a negative effect Moreover, prison officers are being given less to enable prison officers to deal with this in- on employment and service quality. The ed- training: initial training has been cut from creased complexity. Most urgent is the under- ucation and on-the-job training of prison six months to one month (or less) and contin- staffing in Greece, Italy and the UK. However, officers in private prisons has been revealed uous training is only given on an ad hoc basis the increased centralising of decision-making to be largely insufficient, accompanied by if the funds are available. This lack of train- and administration results in prisons having inadequate staff replacement. Indeed, staff ing for prison staff contrasts sharply with less autonomy to use the available resources in private prisons suffer worse employment 15 spring-summer 2019/HesaMag #19 Special report 6/36

conditions and have less decision-making is no need for autonomy among prison staff and upscaling of prisons, and austerity, and power than staff in public prisons. or decentralised decision-making, and the although the trade unions are historically emphasis is on flexible contracts and working strong in the sector, they feel quite pessi- times. This leads to cost-cutting strategies mistic about the likelihood of any future im- Towards an understanding that are likely to focus on labour costs and, provements in employment quality. Finally, in turn, result in downward pressure on em- the Greek situation resembles the Italian The employment quality of prison staff and ployment quality. Privatisation of prison ser- case and is characterised by understaffing, the quality of prison services are closely re- vices based on price competition is quite like- overcrowding and a deterioration in employ- lated. A deterioration in employment quality, ly. Privatisation or outsourcing also means ment conditions. Strong trade unions could such as that observed in the UK, goes hand in fragmentation of collective bargaining and a not prevent austerity measures from having hand with a decline in the quality of prison structural weakening of trade unions. This a severe impact on the employment quality of services. This relationship can be explained could lead to a higher incidence of labour con- prison officers. by looking at the societal and policy orienta- flicts such as strikes. In turn, the demand for tions regarding and its role in more flexible and cheap labour weakens em- broader welfare policies. In general, there ap- ployment protection. Consequently, a vicious General decline in well-being at work pear to be two contrasting policy orientations circle and race to the bottom is set in motion, leading to virtuous or vicious circles that af- with a gradual deterioration in the employ- European prison services seem to be stand- fect both the employment quality of prison ment quality of prison officers. ing at a crossroads. During the last decade, staff and the quality of the service offered to The common trends identified in our imprisonment policies and the growing di- prisoners. study seems to suggest that crime and justice versity of prison populations have made A virtuous circle can arise when im- policy in Europe is shifting towards a more prison work increasingly complex, yet the prisonment is embedded in broader welfare punitive rather than a rehabilitation orien- resources to handle this complexity have not policies focusing on the reintegration of tation in the area of imprisonment. Never- risen accordingly. The consequences of these inmates. Rehabilitation is a highly complex theless, there are considerable differences in policies are clear: overpopulation, under- goal, so it is important to have officers who employment quality in the countries exam- staffing, a general decline in prison officers’ are skilled and well trained, have sufficient ined in our study because previous policies well-being and a steady fall in both the qual- job autonomy and social support from their are still influencing employment quality and ity of prison services and the employment colleagues and superiors, and have stable will continue to do so in the future. Employ- quality of prison staff. Policy makers should contracts and decent wages. As the work of ment quality in Sweden is historically high consider this question: what is the role of im- prison officers adds a great deal of value, it is but there is increasing pressure from policies prisonment in our societies, an instrument crucial to attract and keep competent staff, that affect job content and employment con- for reintegration or a tool for ? which will in turn have a positive impact on ditions. Employment quality in Italy is histor- Recent policies in a number of very different employment quality. In this context, trade ically average and recent austerity measures EU countries seem to converge on the sec- unions can use collective bargaining to ne- there have aggravated existing tensions and ond option and risk causing a vicious circle. gotiate high standards for the overall wellbe- problems (such as the training gap). Employ- The basis of high employment quality among ing of prison officers, including job security, ment quality in the UK has plummeted in prison officers is a humane vision of impris- decent wages, and safe and healthy work- recent years due to a cocktail of detrimen- onment, in which prisoners and prison of- ing environments. Moreover, high quality tal policies of privatisation, centralisation ficers have equal interests.• standards and the related job requirements restrict the ability to outsource or privatise (parts of) prison services, which otherwise might have a negative impact on employment and service quality. Finally, trained prison officers and high-quality prison services will help to reduce recidivism and, thus, will de- liver a high return on investment, which gov- The common trends identified seems to ernments could then invest in even stronger welfare policies. suggest that crime and justice policy in A vicious circle, in contrast, is likely to arise when imprisonment is part of a crimi- Europe is shifting towards a more punitive nal justice policy that stresses the punitive function of imprisonment. It would seem that rather than a rehabilitation orientation in if the focus is on punishment and detention rather than rehabilitation and reintegration, the area of imprisonment. prison work is deemed to be low-skilled, there