'We're both here to do a job and that's all that matters': Cisgender correctional officer recruit reflections within an unsettled correctional prison culture.

Reflecting on new trans prisoner placement policies within Canadian federal prisons, in light of recent changes instigated under the Canadian Liberal Trudeau government, we provide knowledge from cisgender correctional officer (CO) recruits regarding these policy changes and underscore their views of working with officers who identify as transgender. Canada's new policies recognize the presence of trans prisoners and create new protocols accordingly, simultaneously challenging some of the foundational tenets of the carceral system. While overwhelming support exists from cisgender recruits for their trans colleagues, support among a relative minority of COs is contingent upon notions like safety and security grounded in a dominantly cisgender prison culture; a culture we situate within the wider context of an unsettled correctional prison culture.

Critiquing the Conception of "Crimes Against Nature": The Necessity for a New "Natural" Law.

Drawing upon historical developments and legal interpretations of "crimes against nature" as it relates to bestiality, this paper endeavors to promote further discussions surrounding the conception of "natural" and/or extant law, by which an understanding of historical and modern objections to crimes against nature opens them up to the critique of thin-universalism-that is, that despite disparate socio-moral fundaments, laws of prohibition coalesce around evangelical totalities. We contend that a paradigm shift in respect of naturalness is necessitated-naturalness should be packaged and represented, in part, by the empirical. Thus, conceptions of vulnerability and sentience rooted in social scientific understandings and in hospitable forms of rights protections ought to provide a new understanding of governance of the natural. In turn, this naturalness ought to be reflected in law so long as the boundaries we propose are not unduly transgressed. If unnatural acts like bestiality have their prohibitions in the legal tethering points of Judeo-Christian and, later Victorian roots, the new natural law ought to be apprised of rights-based constitutionalism and informed by green criminological and animal rights logics. Law, apprised of these ethics, would evolve to expand protections for animals, human and non-human alike. Laws based on the new naturalness could protect species and environments as evidence demands.

CCWORK protocol: a longitudinal study of Canadian Correctional Workers' Well-being, Organizations, Roles and Knowledge.

INTRODUCTION: Knowledge about the factors that contribute to the correctional officer's (CO) mental health and well-being, or best practices for improving the mental health and well-being of COs, have been hampered by the dearth of rigorous longitudinal studies. In the current protocol, we share the approach used in the Canadian Correctional Workers' Well-being, Organizations, Roles and Knowledge study (CCWORK), designed to investigate several determinants of health and well-being among COs working in Canada's federal prison system. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: CCWORK is a multiyear longitudinal cohort design (2018-2023, with a 5-year renewal) to study 500 COs working in 43 Canadian federal prisons. We use quantitative and qualitative data collection instruments (ie, surveys, interviews and clinical assessments) to assess participants' mental health, correctional work experiences, correctional training experiences, views and perceptions of prison and prisoners, and career aspirations. Our baseline instruments comprise two surveys, one interview and a clinical assessment, which we administer when participants are still recruits in training. Our follow-up instruments refer to a survey, an interview and a clinical assessment, which are conducted yearly when participants have become COs, that is, in annual 'waves'. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: CCWORK has received approval from the Research Ethics Board of the Memorial University of Newfoundland (File No. 20190481). Participation is voluntary, and we will keep all responses confidential. We will disseminate our research findings through presentations, meetings and publications (e.g., journal articles and reports). Among CCWORK's expected scientific contributions, we highlight a detailed view of the operational, organizational and environmental stressors impacting CO mental health and well-being, and recommendations to prison administrators for improving CO well-being.

Understanding Needs, Breaking Down Barriers: Examining Mental Health Challenges and Well-Being of Correctional Staff in Ontario, Canada.

Mental health challenges appear to be extremely prolific and challenging for correctional service employees, affecting persons working in community, institutional, and administrative correctional services. Focusing specifically on correctional workers employed by the Ontario Ministry of the Solicitor General, we shed light on their interpretations of the complexities of their occupational work and of how their work affects staff. Using a qualitative thematic approach to data analyses, we show that participants (n = 67) encounter barriers to treatment seeking, which they describe as tremendous, starting with benefits, wages, and shift work. We let the voices of staff elucidate what is needed to create a healthier correctional workforce. Recommendations include more training opportunities and programs; quarterly, semiannual, or annual appointments with a mental health professional who can assess changes in the mental health status of employees; offsite assessments to ensure confidentiality; and team building opportunities to reduce interpersonal conflict at work and increase moral by improving the work environment.

Canadian Public Safety Personnel and Occupational Stressors: How PSP Interpret Stressors on Duty.

Canadian public safety personnel (e.g., correctional workers, firefighters) experience potential stressors as a function of their occupation. Occupational stressors can include organizational (e.g., job context) and operational (e.g., job content) elements. Operational stressors (e.g., exposures to potentially psychologically traumatic events) may be inevitable, but opportunities may exist to mitigate other occupational stressors for public safety personnel. Research exploring the diverse forms of stress among public safety personnel remains sparse. In our current qualitative study we provide insights into how public safety personnel interpret occupational stressors. We use a semi-grounded thematic approach to analyze what public safety personnel reported when asked to further comment on occupational stress or their work experiences in two open-ended comment fields of an online survey. We provide a more comprehensive understanding of how public safety personnel experience occupational stress and the stressors that are unique to their occupations. Beyond known operational stressors, our respondents (n = 1238; n = 828) reported substantial difficulties with organizational (interpersonal work relationship dynamics; workload distribution, resources, and administrative obligations) and operational (vigilance, work location, interacting with the public) stressors. Some operational stressors are inevitable, but other occupational stressors can be mitigated to better support our public safety personnel.