U.S. Correctional Officers Killed or Injured on the Job.

The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. I n the U.S., approximately half a million correctional officers are responsible for supervising more than two million inmates. Correc-tional officers are exposed to unique workplace hazards within a controlled prison environment. Of all U.S. workers , correctional officers have one of the highest rates of nonfatal, work-related injuries. 1 In 2011, correctional officers experienced 544 work-related injuries or illnesses per 10,000 full-time employees (FTEs), which were serious enough to require that they missed a day of work. This was more than four times greater than the rate for all workers who missed a day of work (117 cases per 10,000 FTEs). 2 Also in 2011, correctional officers experienced 254 work-related injuries per 10,000 FTEs due to assaults and violent acts. This is considerably higher than the rate of injuries from assault and violent acts for all workers (seven per 10,000 FTEs). 3 Despite these high injury rates among correctional officers, injury prevention research has lagged. As an important first step in the development of evidence-based workplace safety programs for correctional officers, a complete picture of work-related injuries is needed. Here, the authors describe 113 work-related fatalities and an estimated 125,200 emergency department (ED) treated, nonfatal work-related injuries among U.S. correctional officers from 1999 through 2008. Information on work-related fatalities was obtained from the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI). 4 This database captures work-related fatalities from all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Nonfatal injury data were obtained from the occupational supplement to the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS-Work). It collects data on non-fatal, occupational ED-treated injuries from a national stratified probability sample of 67 hospitals. 5 Work-related fatalities among correctional officers from the CFOI database were identified using standardized numeric occupational codes. As NEISS-Work does not contain standardized numeric occupational codes, nonfatal injuries were identified by searching and reviewing the employment text fields for keywords related to the correctional industry; the cor-rectional officer occupation; and unique injury incidents related to cor-rectional officers' work activities (e.g., supervising or restraining inmates, altercations with inmates, on-the-job correctional training, contraband searches, opening and closing of cell doors and transporting inmates). Note: Fatal injury numbers were generated by the authors with restricted access to CFOI microdata.