Resources

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.

Teambuilding Attitude Conflict Transformation© Training and Neuroscience

Law enforcement agencies are under intense pressure to change; corrections for its inability to significantly reduce recidivism and its high costs; police agencies because of over aggressive officers and their hostile relationship with minority communities.

Teambuilding Attitude Conflict Transformation Training The Philadelphia Prison System Experience

What makes the PPS invest two and a half years in this training? We will answer these questions and how other prison systems can establish this kind of ongoing training.

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.

Teambuilding Attitude Conflict Transformation [TACT] Training and Neuroscience

To understand the process by which the immersive-experiential methodology impacts attitude, it may be helpful to explain how the brain works [as we understand it today] and how attitudes are developed. An external [or internal] event or stimulus occurs and the brain first processes it subconsciously in the amygdala, our fight-flight-freeze center, which determines if there is danger.

Changing Prison Culture; TACT and AVP

One training design has proven itself with staff development training as well as inmate rehabilitation; it is the Attitude Transformation Model Training. Research proven, this model has been shown to be effective in a number of prison systems. The rationale for its success and examples of its impact are reviewed in this article.

Criminogenic Risk Factors and AVP

The Alternatives to Violence Project [AVP] has been very effective at changing attitudes and behaviors, reducing anger, increasing empathy and reducing recidivism. Focusing on this last outcome, reducing recidivism, it is generally accepted that there are nine criminogenic risk factors that are predictors of recidivism.

Pennsylvania DOC Parole Outcome Study

The Pennsylvania Department of Correction’s (PA DOC) did a Parole Violator Study. The study showed the critical importance of pro-social/emotional intelligence skills for successful re-entry. The Immersive-Experiential © training design has proven very effective as an Emotional Intelligence inoculation.

What Works in Corrections – Meta Study Summary Findings

Excerpts from “What Works in Corrections; Reducing the Criminal Activities of Offenders and Delinquents” A meta-analysis of thousands of studies by Doris Layton MacKenzie.

Suicide is not a Personal Defect, it is a Community Failure; We Can Make a Difference

Officer suicides, both law enforcement and corrections, have received a lot of attention. They are consistently near the top of the list of professions with high suicide rates (Frost, 2021, p.1). Any suicide is traumatic to those close to the person, but it is especially traumatic in a profession where the members’ identity is so closely tied to the profession itself. Twice as many police officers are lost to suicide than die from gunshot or traffic accidents combined (Heyman, 2018), and the Center for Disease Control reported that police have a 69% greater risk of suicide than the general working population (Territo, 2019, p.197).

American Jails: Correctional Career Survival Skills, Part 1

Staff turnover is a major concern for corrections leadership in both prisons and jails. In many states, it is at crisis levels. Some institutions have vacancy
rates more than 40% and turnover rates of more than 50%. Much of this turnover rate is among the new hires; many of whom don’t last beyond the first year. Of equal concern is the loss of staff with service of 8 to 10 years and more.

American Jails: Correctional Career Survival Skills, Part 2

Staff turnover is a major concern for corrections leadership in both prisons and jails. If it is to be reduced, the work culture needs
to become less toxic and the effects of unhealed trauma and chronic stress must be healed in individual staff. In addition, the leadership needs to provide their staff with the resilience tools that can enable them to remain on the job until retirement.

IACTP The Correctional Trainer: Emotional Intelligence Training

Many in the field of corrections realize the importance of emotional intelligence. It is what is missing in traditional staff training programs. Without it, we experience high staff turnover, low morale and many physical and psychological problems; including heart attacks, high blood pressure, suicide ideation, PTSD, depression and anxiety.

American Jails: Are We Training Our Staff to Fail?

The security and safety of any correctional facility are 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.

The Correctional Trainer: Are We Training Our Staff to Fail: Revisioning Staff Training

Staff orientation and inservice training have greatly improved in recent years; eLearning and cognitive behavior intervention training have been an important part of this. Yet, we are still experiencing a crippling situation with high turnover and staff burnout. Staff report leaving their positions mainly because of issues with other staff, poor supervisors and a feeling management cares more about filling positions than about staff well-being.

The Correctional Trainer: The Community Building Experiential Training Model

Just as with individuals, organizations grow and mature. An organization in which people feel disconnected from each other in immature. Whereas, an organization where people and departments feel connected with a high level of trust and cooperation can be described as mature.