Corrections and Law Enforcement Family Support (CLEFS)

摘要

At the time that Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court applied for the Corrections and Law Enforcement Family Support (CLEFS) grant (June 1999), the Court was experiencing a period of wide-scale administrative changes that began in January 1998 and continued through 2000. The Court had also seen increases in both the volume of the complaints and the severity of the offenses committed by the youth coming to its attention. These changes were expected to increase the level of stress among the workers. In addition to these circumstantial stressors, it became apparent during a literature review in preparing the grant application that relatively little was known about the nature of the stress experienced by juvenile corrections officers and even less is known about juvenile probation officers stress. Research indicated that conditions such as job dangers, client vulnerability and communication with the administration for corrections (detention) officers and the lack of perceived job success, perceived career failure, inhibiting job requirements such as excessive paperwork accounted for much of the stress experienced. Other stressors reported by adult law enforcement personnel that seemed applicable to juvenile officers included courtroom delays, judicial procedures that question their judgement, the exposure to human suffering and role conflict (the expectation that they are supposed to rehabilitate youth, yet ensure that youth do not re-offend). Thus, the purpose of the Courts Comprehensive Wellness Program was to examine the levels of stress among these officers.