More than 180,000 people are working in more than 1,500 state prisons across the United States, and for years these staff have been working in environments defined by chronic understaffing, high turnover, and increasingly complex responsibilities. While these difficulties affect all state departments of corrections (DOCs), corrections staff are not a monolith. Given the substantial research on differences in how women and men experience the general workforce, we may expect to find these same differences manifesting among corrections staff. Understanding these gendered patterns is critical for DOCs seeking to improve workplace climate and ensure safe, equitable conditions for those who work in, and those incarcerated in, state prisons. Partnering with five state prisons and five local research institutions, the Urban Institute’s Prison Research and Innovation Initiative aimed to better understand and improve prison living and working conditions. This brief summarizes findings of differences between male and female corrections staff as expressed in three waves of surveys administered by local research partners to 1,750 corrections staff in five state facilities. 

Why This Matters

Prisons remain heavily gender-segregated workplaces, an occupational segregation observed within and between most industries, with men and women tending to occupy different roles. While the proportion of women in the corrections workforce has increased over the past few decades, the majority of officers overall still identify as men. With women increasingly filling security roles, possibly bringing new perspectives and priorities to the work while also potentially facing distinct difficulties from male corrections staff, it is in the interest of all staff, from corrections officers to DOC directors, to understand these potential differences. This is not only important for ensuring equal treatment of women and men in corrections work, it is also central to improving operational stability. Gender can influence how staff perceive their safety, their support from leadership, their relationships with colleagues, and their overall job satisfaction, all of which contribute to different overall work experiences. Identifying and addressing these differences in perspectives can strengthen correctional workforces and contribute to safer, healthier prison environments.

Key Takeaways

The climate surveys reveal several interesting findings about how men and women corrections staff report on workplace conditions:

• Female staff report more positive perceptions of workplace culture and higher levels of job satisfaction than male staff.
• Male staff reported more favorably on respect given to incarcerated people and the upholding of appropriate boundaries, but female staff felt they positively influenced incarcerated people more than male staff.
• An overwhelming majority of male and female staff agreed that three purposes (ensuring public safety, preventing future crimes, and helping people make changes for a better life) are important for prisons, but female staff felt they were important at higher rates than male staff.
• Female staff perceived two aspects of prison conditions faced by incarcerated people (access to food and ability to get adequate sleep) more harshly than male staff, while male staff had higher rates of concern about incarcerated people’s access to hygienic products.
• While 74.0 percent of male staff agreed that incarcerated people get enough to eat, 6 percentage points less of female staff agreed with the statement.
  • Forty-one percent of female staff believed that staff in their prison are more likely to use segregation over other disciplinary options, compared with 32.4 percent of male staff.
  • Regarding whether incarcerated people were allowed to make more free phone calls while visits were restricted during the COVID-19 pandemic, 84.1 percent of female staff agreed, compared with 79.6 percent of male staff, representing a difference of 4.5 percentage points.
• Overall, female staff responses more closely tracked overall responses from incarcerated people when compared with male staff.

How We Did It

Local research partners surveyed incarcerated people and corrections staff across five state prisons between 2021 and 2024. In total, they administered 14 climate surveys over three waves, yielding 1,750 responses from staff. Surveys included “cross-site” questions, asked in all facilities, across seven domains, such as workplace culture, job satisfaction, interactions between staff and incarcerated people, and the purpose of prison. Responses were anonymous and not linked across waves. Urban conducted analysis of these surveys to produce cross-site findings.