Should I Stay or Should I go?

Abstract

Research on turnover in the correctional workplace has predominately focused on investigating the relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intent among prison staff. In an effort to broaden that level of inquiry to encompass the jail workforce, this study analyzes data from a national survey of 1,924 line-level jail staff to assess the impact of both work-related variables and personal characteristics on the intention of employees to resign. Although not randomly generated, respondents represent 46 states and are generally reflective of what is known about composition of the national line officer jail workforce in terms of demographics. Descriptive results indicate that the majority of jail officers are satisfied with their jobs and have no intention of quitting. Further logistic regression modeling confirms related literature indicating that the most influential variables are dynamic factors such as job satisfaction and work environment, rather than the static variables associated with individual employee characteristics, such as gender, age, or race. Since the environmental variables investigated are amenable to change, it would appear that, with greater insights into these dynamic precursors of thoughts about quitting, jail administrators can develop strategic initiatives targeted toward proactively reducing the fiscal cost and intangible impact of voluntary turnover.