Improvement of psychological support for Security Departments Officers in Russian Penal System

Abstract

We analyze the results of studies on predicting professional success of Security Departments Officers of penitentiary institutions and pretrial detention centers, and on socio-psychological climate in security units (2062 employees of eighteen territorial bodies of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia), as well as diagnosis and correction of borderline mental state of employees of these units (372 employees from four regional offices of the Federal Penitentiary Service of Russia). We describe the criteria for determining the psychological suitability to guardian activity in the context of penal system. Using “Questionnaire of social and psychological climate in special divisions of the correctional system in Russia”, we proposed a complex of measures aimed at optimizing the social and psychological climate in the security departments of penitentiary and detention facilities. The application of science based and experimentally tested diagnostic and corrective complex, we recommended a technology for short-term correction of borderline mental states in employees of these units.

Keywords

• professional development
• professional requirements
• distress factors
• professionally important psychological qualities
• psychodiagnostic examination
• experts evaluation of professionally important qualities of employees
• forecasting
• stepwise method of analysis