Absolutely. I'll speak, if I can, to the eight complaints of harassment submitted by one inmate, with regard to which I brought in the external review group. Those complaints create a lot of anxiety for these individuals. They see personnel come from national headquarters and regional headquarters and from outside of the site, and their immediate reaction is, “What have I done wrong?”
I've spoken to these individuals subsequent to the review to indicate that it's about transparency. I can tell you there is angst that goes with being subjected to any type of review, and any of us would have it if we felt we were doing our job and all of a sudden we had an outside review come in to sort of peel the onion or look at everything.
So, yes, it absolutely creates stress.
It has a tendency to create animosity at times between, obviously, the offender population and the staff involved. It affects morale. Really and truly it affects the morale of those individuals, for some more than others. Some are absolutely okay with it. They say, “Hey, they can ask and I'm okay.” Others take it quite personally. They feel that it's a process under which they could be doing their job and still be subjected to what they feel is an unfair review or unfair supervision when they're simply carrying out their duties.
I can tell you from first-hand experience and first-hand conversations with those individuals that it absolutely can impact morale, and it can impact their interpretation and their everyday job.