Law Enforcement AND corrections in Crisis
Unprecedented high rates of Turnover, Suicide, Divorce,
PTSD, Depression and low morale in police and corrections staff.
We cannot hire our way out of this.
Realistically, we can only train our way out of it.
New book by John Shuford:
Mid 21st Century Criminal Justice: Transforming Work Culture
Stress is a part of the job, but toxic chronic stress does not have to be. It is absolutely avoidable. When present, it causes serious damage to staff physical and psychological wellbeing, including premature death by disease and suicide. The root cause of this toxic chronic stress on law enforcement and corrections personnel is the work culture, which boils down to relationships.
Policy and PowerPoint training have little effect on relationships, only actual real-life experience does. Focusing primarily on issues such as scheduling, poor pay and benefits, and alcohol abuse, does not address the work culture directly. The most effective approach is immersive and research based experiential trainings that rebuild trust and respect, transforming relationships and the work culture in real time.
Mid-21st Century Criminal Justice: Transforming Work Culture, published this year, contains hundreds of references to current and seminal research and publications in the law enforcement, corrections and neuroscience fields, compiling and cogently presenting in one place information and strategies that will transform the work cultures in those professions.
Australian Interview with John on Trauma From the Front Line
Contact Us
to start a conversation about Teambuilding Attitude Conflict Transformation (TACT) Training
If you do not change the direction you are looking, you cannot change the direction you are going.
If Your Organization is Experiencing:
- Staff conflict
- Inter-department lack of cooperation
- High staff turnover
- Too many call outs
- Negative staff attitudes
- Low staff morale
- Supervisory staff who are managers and not leaders
We can help you turn things around.
TACT training “is generally thought to be the best training program that staff has participated in. The labor unions are strong supporters of it and employee grievances have dropped to an all-time low. Thank you for helping us change the culture at MCI. It is the best investment of resources that we have ever made.
Resources for Law Enforcement and corrections
Training Law Enforcement in Emotional Intelligence
A number of progressive administrators and policy makers realize the importance of teaching emotional intelligence skills to police officers. This is because, as studies have shown, an officer’s job is only 5% apprehending suspects and the rest involves report writing, investigations and interacting with the public.
Transforming Police Culture
Many say we have a serious police problem in America. But, this is not true. Our police are doing what we have asked of them, even though they are neither trained nor equipped to perform many of those tasks.
Immersive Experiential Staff Development Training: The Need and Proven Benefit in Corrections
The security and safety of any correctional facility is directly and inextricably linked to the health and maturity of its internal working culture. The culture of a facility describes how staff interact with each other, with inmates, with outside people, etc. The more mature the internal culture, the higher the morale, productivity, creativity, teamwork [trust and cooperation], communication and institutional control.
TACT Trainings are Immersive Experiential Emotional Intelligence Trainings:
- TACT training does not teach about emotional intelligence. It is not a class. It’s a training experience. In fact, emotional intelligence is not even mentioned in the training.
- In TACT trainings, staff actually experience an emotional intelligence transformation in real time.
- They see themselves differently, so their perception of others changes. From this experience, staff naturally transform their work culture without being told. This is due to an increase in self-awareness, empathy, personal responsibility and emotional management.
- Staff evaluate trainings as 100% positive and over 80% of staff report continuing to use the skills six months later.
If you don’t think this transformation is possible, think about a 5-minute trauma and its long-term impact. TACT training is the inverse, instead of disconnecting, it is connecting, both within each staff member and between staff.
Our goal is to empower law enforcement and corrections to transform its working culture, not to change any specific policy or practice, but to empower staff to develop the skills and attitudes to make teamwork, security and rehabilitation work together within the existing structure and budgets.
OUR SOLUTION
The Immersive Experiential Training Model©
TEAMBUILDING ATTITUDE CONFLICT TRANSFORMATION (TACT)©
Encourage your staff to use:
ATTITUDE SKILLS + INTERPERSIONAL SKILLS + COMMUNITY BUILDING SKILLS
EFFECTIVE SUPERVISOR SKILLS TRAINING
Your staff will build skills in:
Leadership, Motivation, Self-Awareness, Negotiation and Mediation
These trainings have proven to transform hostile work cultures and are backed by current neuroscience, They are effective, enjoyable, engaging, energizing and empowering. Staff appreciate and value them.
So what is it really like?
I’ll bet when trainings like this come up you hear things like:
“Man, not another inservice! What a drag! And it’s on conflict resolution? I’ll show them how I resolve conflicts!”
Instead, this is what we heard after training in Philadelphia:
Feature Articles
American Correctional Association
Emotional Intelligence Training in Corrections
American Jail Association
Officer Suicide
Correctional Career Survival Skills, Part 2
Correctional Career Survival Skills, Part 1
Correctional Employee Wellness
International Association of Correctional Training Personnel
The 4 E’s of Transformational Trainings, Part II
The 4 E’s of Transformational Trainings, Part I
Emotional Intelligence Training
Conflict Resolution
Revisioning Training
International Association of Correctional Training Personnel’s
2004 and 2018 “Award of Excellence”
THE RESULTS
- 51 trainings for 729 staff at four North Carolina prisons experiencing serious staff morale issues. Evaluations rated the training 97% Excellent or Very Good and the result was a positive impact on the work cultures.
- Transformed a dysfunctional and embattled DOC training academy into a creative cooperative agency.
- Dramatically improved morale and interdepartment cooperation in the Philadelphia Prison System, where 70% of the staff were trained.
- Reduced documented use of force in intake unit by 94%.
- 6-months post training staff were continuing to use skills learned with co-workers (82%) and at home (84%). (With typical didactic or experiential training, skill retention rate is normally only 10% to 30%.)