The Influence of Organizational Climate on Detention Officers' Readiness to Use Force in a County Jail

Abstract

Jails are coercive organizations in which the use of force, or threatened use of force, in the control of inmates is a regular occurrence. Yet, with few exceptions, little attention has been paid to detention officers and their use of force against inmates. The present study explores use of force in the correctional setting, incorporating organizational climate variables as primary predictors of a detention officer's expressed readiness to use force against inmates. This analysis is based on a survey of all detention officers in Maricopa County, Arizona. Eight scales measuring a detention officer's perception of three dimensions of the organizational climate test the hypotheses that perceptions of climate have a direct effect on a detention officer's readiness to use force and that these observed effects remain statistically significant when individual characteristics of the officer are controlled. Results of the analysis confirm these hypotheses, indicating that expressed readiness to use force is influenced differentially by the three dimensions of climate and that individual characteristics of officers do not affect the expressed readiness to use force.