Psychosocial Climate in Croatian Prisons: Prison Officers' Perspective

The psychosocial climate in prison refers to the extent to which the whole institution is perceived safe for prisoners and prison officers and supportive of rehabilitation and behaviour change. It encompasses the institution's social, emotional, organisational, and physical determinants and is important for prisoners and prison officers. Moreover, tracking the psychosocial climate can be used to indicate changes and evaluate treatment programs. Compared to other countries, there is a lack of systematic research on the psychosocial climate in Croatian prisons, and the existing research focuses more on the prisoners than the prison officers' perspective. The perceived psychosocial climate in prison officers is, among others, related to attitudes about work tasks, interactions with co-workers and prisoners, job satisfaction, well-being, motivation and job performance, stress, and burnout. Thus, this paper aims to provide an overview of research on the psychosocial climate in Croatian from the prison officers' perspective. Furthermore, the findings from the project Psychosocial climate in prisons – prisoners' and prison officers' perspective conducted in 2017 in Croatian penal institutions (seven penitentiaries and 14 prisons), focusing on prison officers' perspective (N = 699), will be discussed. Finally, methodological and practical issues related to research on the psychosocial climate in Croatian prisons will be considered.