Rage Isn’t the Problem. It’s the Signal.By

By Jessica Charles – Healing Beyond Bars

Let’s talk about anger.....

The shouting, the kicking off, the verbal abuse, the explosive reactions that can turn a wing upside down in seconds.

It’s exhausting. It’s intense. And let’s be honest, sometimes it feels personal.

But here’s the thing we teach in trauma-informed training: Rage is never the first feeling. It’s the last defence.

🔥 What Rage Is Hiding

“Prisons are populated by the most traumatised people in our society.”– Dr Gabor Maté

This isn’t just a dramatic statement—it’s backed by decades of research and frontline experience. The vast majority of people in prison have lived through violence, neglect, abandonment, and instability. These experiences don’t disappear when the sentence starts—they show up in behaviour.

Rage, in particular, is often the surface-level emotion we see. But underneath it?

• Shame

• Fear

• Powerlessness

• Grief

• Deep emotional pain

  
  

In many cases, trauma and rage go hand in hand.When someone hasn’t been taught how to regulate, when they’ve never had a safe outlet for their feelings, rage becomes the only language they know.

It’s not a personality trait—it’s a survival strategy.

👁 When Staff Only See the Behaviour

If you take rage at face value, it looks like defiance, aggression, danger, and yes—there are times when safety needs to come first.

But when staff respond to rage without understanding the root, they often escalate the very thing they’re trying to stop.

People in survival mode don’t need punishment.They need containment. Calm, and someone who doesn’t match their rage when they lose it.

🛠 So What Helps?

In our trauma-informed training and workshops, we offer tools to recognise the build-up before the explosion—both for staff and prisoners. Because rage doesn’t just appear out of nowhere. There’s always a story behind it.

Here are a few things that work:

• Name it early: “You seem wound up—what’s going on?”

• Give space, without rejection: “I’m not going anywhere. Take a breather and we’ll talk.”

• Avoid power struggles: Stay calm, lower your voice, keep your body language open.

• Support recovery, not shame: “I can see that was tough. Let’s figure out what happened together.”

This is what relational de-escalation really looks like.

💬 What Prisoners Say About Anger

“If I don’t go mad, I’ll go under.”“No one ever asked what was behind it. Just ‘go bang up.’”“That’s how I know people care—if they stay when I lose it.”

Anger, in many ways, is a bid for connection.A messed-up way of saying, “Do you see me? Can you handle me at my worst?”

When someone shows rage, they’re not asking you to back down.They’re asking if you’ll stay present.

🔑 Final Thought

Anger isn’t a problem to fix. It’s a message. A flare. A survival response shaped by years of not being heard, held, or helped.

If we can stop reacting to rage—and start listening to what it’s protecting, we’ll change the culture inside prisons. Not just for the prisoners. For the staff too.

#AngerIsAMessage #RageAndResilience #HealingBeyondBars #TraumaInformedPractice #GaborMate #StaffTrainingThatMatters #ConnectionBeforeCorrection