When you hold the keys and open the doors, as an officer, it might seem unlikely that the tables will ever be turned and you would be the captive --- but it can happen.

In the Klamath County, Ore., Jail last February, a female officer responded to an inmate's request for a pencil sharpener. Bringing it to his cell door in ad-seg, she never imagined that he could end up a hostage, but she did. The inmate inside, who had been extradited from California and faced serious charges in both states, was waiting for her with his foot pined against the bottom of the cell door. As she turned the key, the door sprung open and he had her pepper sprayed, beaten and handcuffed within seconds.

"We had cert policies in place that what she did should not have taken place," said Chris Montenaro, Commander for the jail.

He said that most situations like this don't have to happen, if staff follow the procedures that they are trained to follow.

"Staff complacency plays an enormous role in safety issues as they related to functions inside our jails and prisons. We have a tendency to get focused on the task at hand and fail to recognize things around us," he said.

Luckily for the officer and others at the Klamath County Jail, the incident was resolved quickly with minor injuries to the female CO. Although the two inmates involved threatened the officer's life unless jail officials released a third inmate and provided a get-away car and a second inmate, the jail's tactical team was able to launch a surprise maneuver to subdue the inmates and extract the officer.

One of the security changes made to the jail prior to the hostage-taking helped officers make a successful tactical maneuver.

The sheriff had seen in another jail that one-way mirror material was on the windows of the inmate pods and common areas so that officers could see in, but inmates could not see out.

That material was covering the windows of the ad-seg area where the two inmates held the female officer hostage that February day last year.

"The inmates can't see what is going on in the common areas of the sections of the jail. When I entered [the pod] again, they saw me and assumed that I was bringing them the [third inmate], instead I brought them 10 deputies. The whole incident lasted less than nine minutes," Montenaro said.

With these types of emergencies in mind, many agencies are preparing their staff for how to survive until help can arrive.

The academy of the Virginia Department of Corrections has created a component of the pre-service courses for new recruits that focuses on hostage situations.

According to Barry Elgert, Training Supervisor for the Academy Field Operations Unit of the DOC, new recruits get hostage survival training right away.

"We teach them the primary objective is to save lives, secondarily to apprehend the subjects. The life they save may well be their own," Elgert said. "We give the officers an overview of hostage situations and how they can best protect themselves, then we tie it into communication skills and trying to look for potential problems."

The training touches on a number of rules for hostage survival:

* Recognize and accept the role of the hostage. Realize that you have lost the control you'd normally have.
* Prepare yourself to remain a hostage for an extended period. You almost need to calm yourself down, said Elgert.
* Do not increase the stress to host taker or other hostages. The other hostages are under extreme stress and the taker is under extreme stress, don't ignite them. Rater be quiet and off in the corner as you can.
* Increase your personal resources. Use mental images, try not to panic or get overanxious. Cool yourself down as best you can.
* If you are in a situation where you talk with the hostage taker, try to avoid getting into intellectual or philosophical discussions. They may well be doing it as a political statement and you don't want to provoke an argument, Elgert said.
* Be cautious of heroics. Don't try to be a hero. Be cooperative and obey the hostage- taker's demands without appearing submissive or antagonistic.
* Look for a protective place where you could dive or roll if the authorities attempt to take the area by force.
Don't make threats. Don't give any indication you'd testify against them. If the inmates are attempting to conceal their identities, try to avoid the non-verbal cues that you know who they are.
* Show emotion, but try to retain personal control and dignity. By trying to retain your dignity it shows your professionalism.
* If there are negotiations ongoing, and the hostage taker talks with you about the negotiations, try to give some credibility to the negotiator whenever possible.
* Before you are ever put in the situation, talk with your family and cover the possibility that you might be taken hostage the job. It is a tough job and that is the worst-case scenario but it's important that the family know this is one of the risks you might entail.

In terms of communication, the academy emphasizes to new officers that it represents an important part of their job.

"Communication with the inmates is 95 percent of their jobs. Being able to talk with the inmates and if they are in charge of a group, making sure the job gets done and treating the inmates as human beings themselves are key," said Elgert.

The academy tells officers that inmates want the facility to be safe for them as well and may communicate with officers, if they feel comfortable, when a negative situation is brewing.
 
"The inmate in that element is thinking if the other inmate does a bad thing, it will hurt me. [But] the only way they can report it is if there is an element of communication," said Elgert. "Hostage situations are always a possibility but thankfully they are rare."

To reach the Virginia DOC, call 804-674-3574.