Tales from the Local Jail

Correctional officers who have been in the field for some time realize that inmates are in many respects people-just like us. We all have needs and concerns; life is uncertain. We could fall ill, lose our job, have a traffic accident-we never know. It is an unsettling feeling at times and we all have been through it. The difference is that when one is a law abiding citizen, and not locked up, it is easier to cope with life’s concerns, problems and worries than if one were incarcerated. Correctional officers also know that if they work with the inmates and alleviating some of these fears, the inmates will be easier to manage.

Is this concept addressed in training? Hopefully in some correctional agencies it is. Besides the important concept of security and all it includes, it is important for officers to recognize the effects that being incarcerated has on anyone-especially the inmate. This column will attempt to show correctional officers that in many respects, inmates and officers think alike. Even the veteran officer who is a little jaded will realize that they and inmates are just…..human. Being jaded can come from dealing with inmates who are assaultive, are troublemakers and seem to exist in the facility just to give officers and staff “hell”. It becomes easy to stereotype inmates as all being negative when some are not.

I teach an in service class for jail officers called: From Booking to Release: How Inmates Do Time. Recently, I was presenting to a class of jail officers for several large, modern jails. I discussed the seven needs of inmates, first researched by Hans Toch and discussed by Robert Johnson in his book Hard Time: Understanding and Reforming the Prison, Third Edition. If correctional officers know these needs and preferences the climate of the facility will be more positive for the keepers and the kept.

First, these are the concerns needs researched and codified by Hans Toch. Each is followed by a concise description (Johnson, 2002):

• Activity: to be occupied, fill time, a need for distraction, entertained
• Privacy: being over stimulated (such as in a noisy, crowded environment)
• Safety: concern about physical attack, well being, harassment, theft of property
• Emotional feedback: desire to be loved, appreciated, emotional sustenance, empathy
• Support: concern about reliable and tangible assistance from persons and access to services that promote and support self improvement and advancement
• Structure: environmental stability, consistent rules, events and routines
• Freedom: being able to govern one’s own conduct

In summary, inmates are concerned about being occupied and not idle, seeking privacy where possible, being safe, being healthy, being loved and considered to be someone besides a law breaker, having access to ways to improve themselves, being in a facility where the routine is structured, predictable and has no surprises and finally to be able to govern their own behavior and to be treated like an adult. Inmate concerns can also include worry: asking what will happen? What will happen in court? Will I still have a job if and when I get released? How will my family survive while I am in here? When will I be released? Another concern could be remorse: Will I ever be able to make up for what I did? [Generally rare-but some inmates do think that way!]. Some inmates also worry about health: getting sick, being around other inmates who are not hygienic, etc.

Now-let’s take the class of jail officers. I asked them what their concerns and worries would be if they were locked up. What would go through their minds if they walked through a jail door, knowing that they will be incarcerated there for a while? The responses from the class in my view are very similar to Toch’s views of inmates’ concerns. So-let’s revisit the seven concerns and after each, I have listed in italics the views of the officers. I have also added the additional concerns. Keep in mind that some views of the officers can apply to more than one concern.

• Activity: getting fresh air [outside recreation], visits, phone calls.
• Privacy: will inmate housing be double or single [one or two inmates to a cell.
• Safety: who will I be housed with and what other inmates are like, will I get sick.
• Emotional feedback: visiting, mail, phone [keeping in contact with family].
• Support: substance abuse programs and help, legal help, mental health programs, religious programs, Alcoholics and Narcotics Anonymous groups and reintegration programs.
• Structure: health needs [sick call, medical services], property and money being safeguarded, food service and meals, rules being fairly enforced.
• Freedom: while class did not think of this, all agreed that inmates like to be treated as adults and be informed of the consequences of good behavior and bad behavior.
• Worry: what will happen in court, legal worries, money and job worries, when I will be released.
• Remorse: having emotional distress, guilt and remorse and what can they do about them.
• Health: maintaining a high level of hygiene, keeping healthy.

This discussion can go further in any class of jail officers. The point that I am making-hopefully clear-is that the concerns of inmates as indicated by research shows the human side of them. True-they are accused or convicted of breaking the law. They do live by a different moral code than correctional officers. The purpose of this exercise is to show to officers that if faced with incarceration, they would be worried and concerned in certain areas-just like inmates. If some considerations are shown by officers in understanding the worries and concerns of inmates, and staff behavior respects what inmates are going through-some of the worries and fears may be abated. For example, if an inmate is concerned about threats from other inmates and officers take quick action to protect him, word may travel through the cellblocks that in this place the officers will listen. Or-if an inmate is concerned about getting clean and sober and an officer assists with placement in a program-that inmate will get along with that officer. Correctional officers and inmates may get along better-and that benefits the institution.

In closing I must remind officers to watch out for the manipulators and keep safety in mind. They are inmates-but they are people, too; people that have concerns-just like us.

Reference:

Johnson, Robert. (2002). Hard Time: Understanding and Reforming the Prison: Third Edition. Belmont: Wadsworth.

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In my career, I have been a member of many different organizations. In retirement, I hold membership in just several-the American Correctional Association, the American Jail Association, the International Association for Correctional and Forensics Psychology and the International Association of Correctional Training Personnel. Why? In “retirement” I use their excellent materials for teaching, writing and consulting. People join organizations for different reasons. Some join for the materials, some for the conferences, and some because they want to advance themselves professionally.

How about the correctional trainer? They are the ones who have to implement their agencies’ policies and procedures through staff training. Not only do standards have to be met, but problems come up in jails, prisons, community corrections, probation and parole and juvenile centers. For example, a jail experiences a suicide. The training committee meets-the sheriff wants an intense program of suicide prevention training-not just reading the general order at roll calls. It is up to the trainer-he or she has to come up with objectives, write a lesson plan, plan the scheduling and most importantly- presenting training in ways that keeps it focused and interesting. Also, training personnel track required hours for training and coordinate on the job training for new personnel coming out of the academy. However you slice it-training personnel have a tough job.

There is an organization for correctional and criminal justice trainers: the International Association of Correctional Training Personnel or IACTP. First formed in 1974, it is for correctional trainers. I have been a member since 1986 and currently serve on the Board of Directors, representing local adult corrections.

The economy is not where it should be; any informed citizen knows that. Budgets are tight and people both inside and outside of corrections want the most for the dollars that they spend. An individual membership to IACTP costs only $50.00 per year-and that membership has many benefits for the correctional trainer:

• Networking with other trainers: trainers who have a need for new material or to refresh training methods can contact the membership for assistance and get new perspectives and ideas.

• Trainer certification: IACTP and the American Jail Association (AJA) have joined together to certify adult and juvenile system trainers through a review and testing process. A two step process has been developed by IACTP and AJA Commissioners. Achievement of certification can enhance a trainer’s professionalism and career.

• The Correctional Trainer: an on line journal that contains a variety of articles about correctional training; it is a great resource. The Twenty Minute Trainer and other articles can give criminal justice and correctional trainers a new understanding of training ideas and topics. Want to write? The editor is always looking for new articles. Writing for the Trainer can be a great start of a correctional writing career-it was for me.

The best benefit? An annual training conference like no other. IACTP Conferences are held annually; the locations vary around the country both to make traveling easier and give attendees the benefit of experiencing local criminal justice agencies. Local corrections and criminal justice agencies host conferences and provide great tours of their facilities and a chance to network with their staff. I have attended several conferences and have attended many conference seminars on corrections training from the best, brightest and the most innovative thinkers in correctional training. I have also presented at conferences and the feedback, discussions and networking from members are always enjoyable and beneficial. Once you attend an IACTP Conference, you will come away with the thought: “It was well worth it”.

This year the IACTP’s 27th Annual Trainer’s Conference will be on October 21 through 24, 2012 in Charleston, West Virginia and will be hosted by the West Virginia Department of Corrections. The seminars will contain up to date correctional information training that will enable you to take material, information, contacts AND ideas back to your agencies.

The IACTP Conferences have a great exhibit hall, where many vendors from all over corrections display their wares. If you are like me and want to keep up with criminal justice and corrections’ technology, hardware, software and new training material, the exhibit hall is a great way to do it.

I hope that I have gotten you-the correctional trainer-thinking about improving training in your agency. The IACTP web site is www.iactp.org or you can link to it at www.corrections.com. We need members-and you will, if you become a member-get a very big “bang for your buck”.

Please go there-it worth a look. The contacts and friends you make in this organization will be lasting.

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On the bridge….”I was standing on the bridge waiting to jump”…..in the past two and a half years since I have heard those words I have discussed a different perspective when training jail officers that encounter the suicidal inmate.   These words were told to a class of jail officers in September 2009.  My teaching partner at ETC, Tim Manley and I had agreed to allow several mentally ill persons to speak to a class that we were conducting about dealing with the mentally ill offender.  The speakers were recommended by and came to us from the National Alliance on Mental Illness or NAMI.  They were an interesting addition to the class and trainers should consider contacting NAMI to use them; NAMI personnel trains and screens the speakers.

Several of the speakers spoke of being depressed.  One, who I will call “Linda”, told us of her history of mental illness, and she could not have been more than 30 years of age.  She had been hospitalized 29 times and had lived on the street and in shelters.  She has since been able to manage her mental illness (one is never cured) and has since successfully gone on to college.

During the time that her mental illness was out of control, she lived in fear and described her life as “being afraid of everything.”

She had our attention as she told a story of one of her suicide attempts.  She was standing on a bridge, thinking about jumping and ending her life.  Two police officers arrived, approached her and by their actions prevented her from killing herself.

This is where I pause in my instruction.  I tell the class that Linda described the officers’ behavior.  She finally said to herself that she thought that maybe the act of suicide was not the answer.

I then ask the class to describe these officers, which results in a discussion where each officer attendee that gives me a trait has to explain why he or she came up with that particular trait.  This exercise gets them to think.

The descriptions of the officers that Linda told us can be applied to any corrections officer that is trying to keep an inmate from in a sense, stepping off of the bridge.  When an inmate is thinking about ending his or her life and a corrections officer is dealing with him or her, the traits that Linda said that these officers displayed may prevent a suicide, and bring the inmate back from the edge.

Linda described these officers as:

Gentle: they did not act rough, tough or authoritative.

Kind: they realized that she needed help, and felt empathy.

Concerned: the focus of their interest was her well being.

Respectful: she was troubled, mentally ill, but she was a person, deserving of basic human dignity and respect.

Polite: they displayed well mannered behavior.

Did not get annoyed or bothered: she was the most important person in the world at that particular time; they did not try to “rush” the situation.

Linda described some of the things that the two officers said.  They explained what they were going to do.  They asked her several important questions:  “Can I help you?” and “Do you want help?” and “Do you have someone that we could contact?”

I think that the way that these two officers approached and handled this suicidal young woman can be applied to dealing with suicidal inmates in our nation’s jails.  In training we can learn about data such as profiles of suicidal inmates, the times that they attempt suicide, the rates of substance abuse among suicidal inmates, manipulation with some inmates, methods and so on.  This information is important and should be discussed.

But-the way that officers should manage, handle and communicate with suicidal inmates must be also explored.  My teaching partner, Tim Manley, has a good rule:  when dealing with a person who is thinking of suicide, it is important to let the person talk and stay with the person. Listen to what they are saying, and keep that human contact focused.    To do this-an officer must act like the police officers did that day-talking a young woman into continuing her life, instead of stepping off into the abyss. You, as were the police officers, are the lifeline. You have to stay with the person until the matter is turned over to the mental health staff.

One final word…..the job is stressful, and we jail officers deal with many different offenders-people that have gotten themselves into trouble and have found themselves seemingly at the bottom of life’s barrel.

But-they are still people……..people that want to live.

Author’s note:  The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) can serve as a great training resource.  The NAMI website can be accessed at http://www.nami.org.  The information telephone helpline is 1-800-950-NAMI (6264).

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Thanks for taking time out of your busy day to check out my new blog.  Please take a look at the photo on the right.  When the good folks at the Corrections Connection asked me about starting a blog-and I am grateful-I was asked to choose a photo.  I chose a desk within a cell for a reason.

To those of us familiar with working inside a jail-with its good days, bad days, pressures and stresses, it seems at times that we too are  inmates,  being locked in with them throughout our workday.   In my travels, I have spoken to many jail officers who have told me that they have to stay at their posts and reliefs are few.  One can feel locked in.

The “About” page can give you an idea about what this blog is about.  However, many of us have been asked by good citizens-“You work in a jail?”   This blog can help the jail staff by discussing ideas and training that can enhance the job inside a jail.

I have told people that work in a jail that they are part of a “noble profession”.  Why?  Jails are a critical component of the criminal justice system.  Jails confine lawbreakers who are newly arrested or are convicted in court.  Many of these criminals are angry or are experiencing serious problems, such as mental illness, substance abuse or behavioral issues based on a criminal lifestyle.  They have problems-and the jail officers and staff are on corrections’ front line in dealing with them.

The title of this first post is “A Noble Profession”.    Working inside a jail is a noble profession because:

• Jails generally have to meet standards which dictate training and operational guidelines.
• Jail officers receive good training which parallels training in other areas of law enforcement.
• Jail staffs must enforce rules, regulations and gain the compliance of inmates.
• Jails confine people that do not want to be confined and often are resistant to authority and supervision.
• Jail staffs are subject to assault and dangerous situations.
• Jail staffs protect the public by securely confining accused and convicted criminals.

I like the last one-jails protect the public.

The bottom line:  jails are keepers of the public trust.  By doing so effectively and professionally, jail staff-sworn and non sworn- are part of a:

Noble Profession

So-when you are on your post surrounded by offenders and working hard, don’t ever sell yourself short and forget that.

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