The recent hostage stand-off between Arizona corrections officials and two inmates in January has caught the attention of people across the country and raised awareness of how dangerous working in a prison or jail can be.

Although the 15-day hostage situation ended peacefully through the negotiated surrender of the inmates and the release of a female officer, the situation served as a wake-up call for many to the need for tight security, better classification and training for staff.

"This is a very dangerous environment. You can look at the paper, watch the news and see horrendous violent acts against people and we bring them to one common place and bring them together. We try to tell staff that no matter how accustomed you get to being around them they are very, very dangerous," said Captain Chris Montenaro, Jail Commander for the Klamath County, Ore., County Jail.

Montenaro, who worked as an officer in the Ohio prison system during the Lucasville riots in 1993, helped resolve a hostage situation at the Klamath County Jail last year.

Although hostage situations are relatively rare in corrections, the threat of those and other security break-downs has caused corrections agencies and officials to place a greater emphasis on preparing staff for the most unpleasant aspects of their jobs.

The hostage-taking at Klamath County Jail, in which two inmates who had been extradited from California held a female officer captive for a short time, ended with a tactical maneuver. During the incident the officer was beaten and stabbed, but the injuries were not life threatening.

Montenaro said the incident helped his staff understand the importance of following procedures to the letter and being keenly aware of who they are working among at all times.

"I had a administrator tell me once that we [in corrections] often write most of our policies in blood. We have to go through a hardship first," he said. This is why Montenaro is so strict about security, even in the 144-bed Klamath County Jail.

"I have a credo - security is not convenient - every time I institute a policy," he said. "We have to be aware of what we are dealing with. These people need to be treated as potentially harmful at any given point."

Agencies across the country have addressed the issue of staff safety from multiple angles in the hopes of avoiding any incident that might prove dangerous or harmful to staff and offenders.

In Texas, for example, the Department of Criminal Justice has, over the last several years, instituted a number of changes including new technologies and a new training emphasis to improve staff safety.

TDCJ Brings New Focus to Staff Safety

Over the years, Texas' prison system has expanded from 30-plus prisons to more than 100, which meant many new staff members and many new leaders with little supervisory experience. That combination also led to some high-profile security breaches that brought staff safety to the forefront.

"We look at staff safety as a multi-faceted approach. It starts out with staff being able to come to work in a safe environment, but it is also directly correlated with offender safety. With that, you have a more positive prison environment and programs work better for offenders to change behavior. When you have a safe prison environment good things can happen and positive things can happen," said Doug Dretke, Director of Correctional Institutions Division for the TDCJ.

To promote individual officer safety, the department has purchased Carry on Person - COP -  pepper spray devices that give staff an additional tool to protect themselves in the event of a disturbance or other incident. Dretke said the devices have been helpful in breaking up inmate on inmate assaults as well.

The TDCJ also identified 12 maximum-security facilities where staff in the housing units now must wear body alarms. These systems alert other officers with a distress alarm given through the officers' radios, which will bring them to assist.

"We are very pleased with it. There are a lot of body alarm systems out there from the Volkswagen to the Cadillac. The officers are very pleased with that and feel good about that," said Dretke.

Also, in line with personal protection devices, the TDCJ began requiring officers in close custody or administrative segregation housing units to wear thrust vests that protect against an attack with a sharp, knife-like instrument.

Aside from these devices, the TDCJ has changed its approach to training and concentrated more on defensive tactics as well as a focus on Back to Basics training, borrowed from the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction.

The enhanced defensive tactics program is a risk-based self-defense program with the goal of teaching officers how to survive for 60 seconds or more during an attack.

"In prison we are good at response. So if you can protect yourself for the first minute, we will be there," Dretke said.

The tactics taught in the training will help officers to keep an assailant away, by using pressure points, choke holds and blocking techniques. In addition, officers learn about vulnerable parts of the body where they could strike someone to defend themselves.

An important component of the training was to reach out to as many potential trainers of these defensive moves as possible. To do this the TDCJ encouraged officers to take part in a grueling program for defensive trainers that, once completed, would enable them to train other officers back at their home institutions and units.

"The officers get the training potentially on a monthly basis or more often; that was part of the defensive tactics initiative. If you only learn a move once a year, then when you are under assault you probably won't remember it," Dretke added. "We feel like we've gotten some good saves from that. There are some stories here and there and there have been some officers who were able to use it in the free world."

The Back to Basics training concept involves the unit (or facility) putting together a team of all layers, from line staff through to supervisors and other departments, to look at security systems and procedures, take input from the officers doing the job, assess if staff is following policy and procedure, and, if not, are there better ways to for them to do their job. Questions raised include, How well are staff following basic security procedures? What can be done better? What are the training issues? Are there policy issues? Are there resource issues?

With such a major focus on safety, other corrections staff have not been forgotten in the new training. The TDCJ has added personal awareness training for support staff to help them better recognize security problems and know what to do in a dangerous situation.

Possibly the most significant training change to positively affect staff safety is a Field Training Officer program where new recruits, after five weeks of pre-service training, spend two weeks in an on-the-job program with trained FTOs.

"We changed our program to focus on risk-based activities. What do we want COs to be good at already [when they come on the job?] Things like handcuffing an offender we want you to be more than familiar with, or pat searching, we want you to be competent at that activity. We see those as important safety components in the unit," Dretke said.

Based on a model promoted by the National Institute of Corrections, the TDCJ's FTO program requires new officers to demonstrate their ability to complete certain tasks and a level of competency before leaving the program.

In addition, the department took a look at how it classified certain offenders with long sentences. The classification system now takes their sentences into account when assigning certain jobs and housing.

The TDCJ also added a designator system to alert staff, when they look at an offender's file, to the fact that they have been involved in a staff assault, inmate assault, hostage situation, escape or potential escape or have broken out of restraints.

"It stays in their classification record and creates a flag [in their file] as we make decisions about housing in the future, and, it will have an impact on that offender for 10 years," Dretke said.

These changes are all part of ensuring staff members' safety, although other groups and systems have taken different approaches with the same goal in mind.

Oregon Emphasizes Staff-Inmate Communication

All staff members in the Oregon Department of Corrections know about the Offender Accountability Model - a plan that encourages offender accountability as part of  rehabilitation. Embedded in the model is a component that stresses positive staff/inmate interactions to ensure inmates encounter positive role models and, in the process, improve their behavior and make the state's institutions safer.

According to Stan Czerniak, Assistant Director of Institutions for the DOC, the staff are trained to interact with offenders using pro-social behavior based on the idea that the offenders will learn to behave better, both inside and outside the institutions, because of  those staff interactions.

"This is particularly important for COs because there is a body of research that shows that inmates, when they talk about their prison experiences, the most important influence came from their interactions with corrections officers. Those who they looked up to and who modeled pro-social behavior were the ones who gave them good ideas about how to be more successful on parole after leaving the prison environment," said Czerniak.

In addition to practicing pro-social behavior, the staff also make sure they encourage positive behavior and give the inmates suggestions about how to use pro-social behavior in their own interactions.

"Part of the model, too, is we recognize that we do a pretty good job of pointing out when inmates do something negative -- and we need to keep doing that - it's all a part of accountability. We can't ignore behavior that causes people to be hurt. But we also need to be aware of behaviors that are positive and let inmates know 'I like the way you handled that situation,'" Czerniak said.

Czerniak and others believe that if all staff embrace this model and treat inmates in a respectful, pro-social way, then there is a good chance that inmates will "internalize" this behavior themselves and be better offenders and, ultimately better citizens, as a result.

"What a powerful tool that potentially becomes to help change some of the behaviors that got them in trouble in the first place," he said.

Czerniak also firmly believes that this positive interaction between staff and inmates will make the institutions a safer place to work and for the offenders to live.

"When you have a lot of hostility between inmates and staff is when you have more dangerous environments. Ultimately we reduce the crime rate, improve attitudes and, quite frankly, the goal is to put ourselves out of business," he said.

Czerniak, who travels to other systems as a consultant, said he was recently approached by a warden from another agency about the Oregon model.

"The warden said, 'You guys in Oregon talk to inmates, don't you? I wish we did that here,'" he said.

Czerniak said there are plenty of agencies that do not encourage staff to talk with inmates, but they may pay the price.

"I can tell you inmates have an awful lot to tell you if you provide an atmosphere where they can talk to you. I've been in systems where staff are encouraged not to talk to inmates, ...and I'll see staff look at each other when a disturbance happens and say, 'We didn't see that coming,'" he said.

The positive side of a communication process in terms of staff safety, Czerniak said, is that inmates will share when something negative is about to happen in the institution.

"They are sharing with us the things that are going on to maintain a safe environment. If you don't allow that to occur, then inmates won't tell you," he said.

Czerniak is quick to add that he is aware of the questions some may have about this approach and the concerns that it encourages the wrong types of interactions between staff and inmates.

"This is in no way encourages staff to become personal friends with inmates; we want to maintain our professionalism, but we want to use all staffs' ability to change behavior," he said.

While communication skills are one way to maintain a healthy and safe work environment, some in the field say there are legitimate concerns about staff-to-inmate ratios that need to be addressed to keep staff safe.

Michigan CO Association Works to Maintain Safety

While the number of incarcerated individuals has continued to rise steadily across the country, the number of staff being hired to help manage those numbers may not be keeping up with demand. And, as budgets have become tight in most every state, it well may have an effect of the safety of prisons.

"Things get scarier as they lower security by using less people and [creating] savings in the budget. We certainly don't like it; it's fewer officers with the same prisoners," said Fred Parks, Executive Director of the Michigan Corrections Officers Association and a member of the American Correctional Association's Safety Committee.

Parks said in Michigan, corrections officials might be faced with having to cut the department's budget, which worries him because it will mean some sort of change in how things are done - and very well could affect safety.

"When the budget comes down and they have to start cutting, they say they will make them with safety in mind, and I believe them, but when you lower the security level from a 5 to a 4 you cut your staff [when you do that]," he said.

One current cost-saving suggestion that is under discussion involves closing, or at the very least changing, the state's supermax prison.

Currently, the supermax prison holds security level 6 inmates including those who have assaulted staff. Those offenders cannot leave until the DOC director decides they are ready to move, Parks said. The supermax system, Parks said, has led to a 75 percent reduction in staff assaults. One cost-saving proposal is to lower the security level of the prison back to a 5, meaning a cut in the number of staff required or to change a part of the prison custody classification back to security level 5.

Both of these ideas concern Parks.

"A lot of your safety breaks down in how do you stop something - usually you need sufficient staff to do that," he said.

Having sufficient staff also means that you will have seasoned officers working with new officers, which can make for a safer environment.

Parks said that investigations of Michigan's last series of riots, which started at the Jackson facility in the early 80s, showed that staff inexperience was a factor that contributed to the situation.

"Seasoned people can detect when something is going to happen; new people can be talked in to things. You have to know who the inmates are," he said.

This is one issue that has been raised in relation to Arizona's hostage taking in January. A panel investigating that situation found several problems with the facility where the incident occurred including poor training, supervision problems, low pay and staff inexperience.

Although Arizona in recent years instituted a major push toward staff safety and altered its training to improve staff preparedness for such incidents, staff there still fell victim to manipulation - and let two inmates disguised as officers into a guard tower, starting the hostage incident.

This proves that staff must always be prepared for the unexpected. And, agencies need to work toward this goal as well.

"The key word is best practice. Years ago we were worried about getting the job more than doing things the right way. What I've earned is these situations are almost all predictable; when we look, we nearly always could have taken certain measures to prevent them," said Montenaro.

Resources:

To reach Montenaro at the Klamath County Jail, email cmontena@co.klamath.or.us

For information about the Oregon Accountability Model, contact the DOC at 503-945-0925

To reach the Michigan Corrections Officers Association call 517-485-3310

To reach the TDCJ, call 512-463-7837.