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Corrections professionals often hear this: “We need to get back to the basics.” It’s a phrase that surfaces whenever staffing is thin, incidents increase, or budgets are tightened. And while the sentiment is understandable, what does it mean? It is generally a call for tighter security practices. We challenge that “back to the basics” must mean more than simply tightening security or defaulting to lockdowns.
The Trap of Fear-Based Responses
When staff shortages or crises occurred, facilities often default to lockdowns or highly restrictive practices. These responses keep order and are an important practice in the short term, but come with long-term consequences.
Lockdowns cut off visitation, programming, and recreation—the very activities that have been proven to reduce stress and misconduct. Instead of creating stability, fear-based control often creates resentment, hopelessness, and an adversarial “us vs. them” culture.
We learned valuable lessons from previous uprisings and disturbances. When incarcerated people feel stripped of dignity, voice, and hope, unrest becomes more likely. Fair treatment is not just humane – it is a safety issue. In fact, environments where hope is stripped away tend to experience higher levels of violence, contraband use, and staff burnout. As correctional scholar Craig Haney observed that the harsh conditions of confinement can themselves be criminogenic, exacerbating the very problems they are meant to control.[1]
Interestingly, fear and anger may feel like opposite emotions, but biologically they share a remarkably similar foundation. Both activate the sympathetic nervous system—the “fight-or-flight” branch responsible for survival.
When a person experiences either fear or anger, the body responds almost identically:
- Adrenaline and cortisol surge into the bloodstream.
- Heart rate and blood pressure increase to push oxygen to large muscle groups.
- Pupils dilate, and senses sharpen, preparing for immediate threat response.
- Blood flow shifts away from digestion and toward arms and legs for fight or flight.
- The amygdala—the brain’s threat detection center—becomes hyperactive, while the prefrontal cortex (responsible for rational decision-making) is suppressed.
The key difference lies in the outward expression: fear often inclines the body toward avoidance or withdrawal, while anger pushes toward confrontation. But beneath the surface, both are stress states that narrow focus, reduce complex thinking, and promote short-term survival at the expense of long-term reasoning. Ultimately, the trap of fear-based responses come with costs:
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Reduced empathy and desensitization: Seeing others as less than human makes it easier to harm but harder to reintegrate into normal social life.[2]
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Chronic hyperarousal: Long-term stress activation leads to higher rates of PTSD, cardiovascular disease, and burnout.[3]
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Tunnel vision in decision-making: Fear/anger dominance suppresses prefrontal activity, impairing complex judgment needed in nuanced environments.[4]
A More Effective Path
By contrast, hope engages different biological and psychological systems. Hope theory[5] describes hope as a cognitive process involving both goal-setting and perceived pathways to achieve those goals. Unlike fear and anger, hope activates reward pathways in the brain, particularly dopamine circuits associated with motivation and forward thinking.[6]
Physiologically, hopeful states are linked to:
- Lower cortisol levels and healthier immune function.
- Greater resilience in the face of adversity.
- Enhanced problem-solving and creativity, because the prefrontal cortex remains engaged rather than hijacked by the amygdala.
Working in corrections is often described as one of the most challenging professions in public service. It is a field marked by high stress, chronic exposure to trauma, long hours, and an unrelenting demand for control, vigilance, and authority. Staff are tasked with maintaining safety and order in environments where despair, violence, and emotional numbness can become the norm. And in that environment, perhaps more than anywhere else, hope can feel out of reach.
But the truth is this: hope is not the absence of struggle—it is the decision to believe in the possibility of something better, even when all signs say otherwise. In corrections, finding hope isn’t naïve or optional—it is essential. It is a protective factor for staff wellness, a foundation for rehabilitation, and a beacon that keeps both individuals and institutions moving forward in the face of profound difficulty.
Hope is not about ignoring reality—it’s about engaging with it. It’s about choosing to keep going, to keep caring, to keep believing that your presence and your choices still matter, even when it’s hard.
Security Matters
None of this is to say that security doesn’t matter. Sound correctional practice starts with fundamentals:
- Consistent key control
- Accurate counts
- Vigilant searches
- Documentation
These security basics are the backbone of safety. Without them, no amount of programming or communication skills can maintain a facility's stability. Staff must be competent, confident, and consistent in carrying out these duties. “Back to the basics” absolutely includes these essentials.
Interpersonal Skills Are Not Optional
But the basics don’t end with locks and logs. The other side of the coin is interpersonal skills—effective communication, emotional intelligence, de-escalation, and relational safety. These are not “extras.” They are the tools that allow staff to prevent incidents before they escalate and to maintain order without relying solely on force or fear.
Research and practices demonstrate that officers who interact positively with incarcerated individuals, build professional rapport while maintaining clear boundaries, create safer environments than those who rely strictly on static security measures. Moreover, staff who use interpersonal skills not only reduce tension but also contribute to long-term outcomes such as lower recidivism and better reintegration. In other words, treating people with respect and fairness is not about “softening” corrections; it’s about creating more effective corrections.
The Balance in Today’s Reality
We can’t ignore today’s challenges. Staffing shortages are real. Budgets are tight. Demands on officers grow heavier every year. But these realities make balance even more critical. When posts are short, officers need both strong procedural discipline and the ability to use communication skills to manage more with less. A lockdown may seem like a quick fix, but it ultimately creates more problems—fueling hopelessness among incarcerated people and increasing stress for staff. It is intended for a purpose, and the intended results are short-term.
Instead, leaders and line staff alike can reclaim the whole meaning of “back to the basics”:
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Hold the line on security practices. Keys, counts, searches, and documentation must remain non-negotiable.
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Invest in relational safety. Encourage communication, fairness, and respect as daily tools for stability.
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Promote a culture of hope. Even small opportunities for programming, visitation, or skill-building can shift the climate of a facility from one of survival to one of progress. Shift the language from what is missing to what is possible. Understand the impact of the community culture on the facility culture.
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Support staff development. Provide ongoing training in both tactical and interpersonal skills so officers feel prepared, not cornered. This can include coaching sessions on the job, especially when staffing shortages challenge classroom training.
A Call for Balance
Corrections is at its best when staff are both guardians of safety and stewards of hope. “Back to the basics” cannot mean reverting to fear-driven practices that history has proven will fail. Instead, it must mean reinforcing the fundamentals of both security and humanity.
Every key we turn, every count we take, and every word we speak contributes to the culture of the facility. Fear creates short-term compliance but long-term instability. Hope, paired with structure, accountability and discipline, creates the foundation for safer facilities, healthier staff, and more resilient communities.
[1] Haney, C. (2006). The wages of prison overcrowding: Harmful psychological consequences and dysfunctional correctional reactions. Washington University Journal of Law & Policy, 22, 265–293.
[2] Kelman, H. C. (1973). Violence without moral restraint: Reflections on the dehumanization of victims and victimizers. Journal of Social Issues, 29(4), 25–61.
[3] Yehuda, R., et al. (2015). Post-traumatic stress disorder. Nature Reviews Disease Primers, 1, 15057.
[4] Arnsten, A. F. T. (2009). Stress signaling pathways that impair prefrontal cortex structure and function. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 10(6), 410–422.
[5] Snyder, C. R. (2002). Hope theory: Rainbows in the mind. Psychological Inquiry, 13(4), 249–275.
[6] Schmid, P. C., & Lopez, S. J. (2011). Positive psychology and the psychology of hope: A scientific foundation of resilience. Journal of Positive Psychology, 6(6), 469–470.
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