Worrying conditions for Danish prison officers
Understaffing, overload and post-traumatic stress disorder describe the working situation in the Danish correctional system, according to the head of the Danish Prisons Association.
– Where three prison officers went yesterday, maybe one goes today. Where four prison officers went yesterday, it might go today. In some places we go alone.
This is according to the head of the Danish Prison Association, Bo Yde Sørensen. He visited the national meeting of the Norwegian Prison and Probation Association in Bergen on Friday.
The situation for prison officers in Denmark, he says, is thought-provoking. But then he is diplomatic. If he’s being honest, it’s deeply worrying.
No wonder
In 2020, there was a research report on mental illness among Danish prison officers and police officers. For the first time, it was documented that prison employees are most exposed to post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) of all previously investigated occupational groups.
The figures showed as many as 14.2 percent of prison staff had PTSD. 27 percent of the employees had either PTSD or another mental disorder, such as anxiety or depression.
– This is not surprising to us. We have been trying to shine a spotlight on the problem for many years, but we have not heard. However, this report has been an eye-opener for employers, politicians and government. It has led to an understanding that we have to do something, and that is the most important thing for us, says Sørensen.
Since the investigation became known, the Danish Correctional Service has had its budgets increased. In 2025, 3.5 billion Danish kroner will have increased to 4.5.
COOPERATION PARTNERS: Leader of the Norwegian Prison and Probation Association, Asle Ase (TV) thanks Danish Bo Yde Sørensen for the visit during the national meeting. The two are respectively head and deputy head of the Nordic Prison Functionaries Union (NFU).
Paul S. Amundsen
Think the solution will be painful
During the last ten years, the number of prison officers has increased at the same time as the number of inmates. 2,700 employees have become 1,900, while 3,600 inmates have increased to 4,400.
This increases work pressure and puts the profession in a difficult position in the labor market, according to Sørensen.
– We are a low-status and low-wage country in a country with full employment. In the years before the financial crisis, the situation was the same, but after it happened in 2008, we suddenly got as many prison officers as we could wish for because unemployment was so high, he says and continues:
– I hardly dare to say it, but it is probably something similar that is needed to solve the problem.
Facing gang members, robbers and murderers can be tough in itself. If you are alone, the pressure is even harder.
Prison officers in Denmark work twelve-hour days to make up for the staffing problem. Every day they are in the same, often conflicted place, hour after hour. It’s hard pressure.
To compare, Sørensen points to the police.
– Police officers come to a crime scene, solve a problem and go home. The next day, they arrive at a new crime scene. We can’t escape.
It’s Norway’s turn
Here in Norway, a similar study will be carried out during January next year. The mental health of Norwegian prison officers and police employees must be surveyed.
The target group is those who in the period 2017 to 2022 have been in a position that may have been exposed to stress reactions through daily work with inmates and convicts.
Bo Yde Sørensen believes the result here will be better than in Denmark.
– I neither believe nor hope that the numbers are just as bad for us yet. In my opinion, Norway has a complete and well-functioning penitentiary service which focuses on getting the prisoners to function in society after serving their sentence.