“You have to be fluid”. Prison officer types, perceived quality of staff-prisoner relationships, and staff burnout in the Irish Prison Service

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.<br><br>