Work–Life and Well-Being in U.K. Therapeutic Prison Officers: A Thematic Analysis
Open accessAbstract
Previous research has clearly demonstrated the positive impact of therapeutic interventions on offenders’ well-being. Much less is known about the impact on prison staff facilitating and delivering such interventions. We employed qualitative methodology to capture a deeper understanding of the work of therapeutic prison officers. Seven prison officers working in a U.K. Category B therapeutic community prison were interviewed about their working lives, including their own participation in therapy. Following a thematic analysis approach, key findings indicated that the physical and cultural work environment was very important to staff; the therapeutic element of their job role, although demanding, was both satisfying and rewarding; and that working in a therapeutic prison environment provided the opportunity for personal as well as professional development. We conclude that further attention should be given to the unique nature of therapeutic prison work and the positive impact it can have on well-being at work.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Many of the studies included took place in countries in which prisoner-officer relationships are fairly positive.
“many of the studies included took place in countries in which prisoner-officer relationships are fairly positive (Walker et al., 2018).”
From Group-based mindfulness interventions in prisons: a selective critical review (2024) · cites this paper as Walker et al., 2018
The supplied passages contain only the title and bibliographic details, with no findings about prisoner–officer relationships or countries where studies took place. Searches for positive prisoner–officer relationships returned only the title, so our copy does not establish the attributed claim. (LLM, conf=0.72)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
Using thematic analysis in psychology
Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006) · Qualitative Research in Psychology · doi:10.1191/1478088706qp063oa · Cited by 194,414 · see citing works
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Group-based mindfulness interventions in prisons: a selective critical review
Harding-White, M. F., Mojtahedi, D., & Carson, J. (2024) · The Journal of Forensic Practice · doi:10.1108/jfp-10-2022-0054 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
- Authors
- Walker, E. J., Egan, H. H., Jackson, C. A., & Tonkin, M.
- Affiliations
- University of Ulster (GB)
- Birmingham City University (GB)
- University of Leicester (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Walker, Emma J.
- Venue
- International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2018-06-07
- Volume
- 62
- Issue
- 14
- Pages
- 4528-4544
- ISSN
- 0020-7497 (ISSN-L)
- 0306-624X
- 1552-6933
- OpenAlex
- W2799805237
- Cited by
- 13
- References
- 1
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 4 · 2023: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 1 · 2019: 1
- FWCI
- 2.84
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- pure.ulster.ac.uk
- Locations
- International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Ulster University Research Portal (Ulster University) (publishedVersion, other-oa)
- BCU Open Access Repository (Birmingham City University) (acceptedVersion)
- Figshare (submittedVersion, cc-by)
- Leicester Research Archive (University of Leicester) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis
- Social Sciences › Public Administration › Social Work Education and Practice
- Social Sciences › Law › Criminal Justice and Penology
- Keywords
- work-life balance, therapeutic communities, professional development, offender treatment, job satisfaction
- MeSH terms
- Adaptation, Psychological, Female, United Kingdom, Health Status, Humans, Job Satisfaction, Male, Personal Satisfaction, Prisons, Professional Competence, Therapeutic Community
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
