Diffusing tempers. Escorting inmates. Keeping order.

Without corrections' most important asset - staff - prisons and jails would be chaotic. This is why agencies are spending time and money, even when it is hard to come by, to ensure that staff are safe, work in a secure environment and are performing at the top of their game.

"Obviously, they are the front line people in our facilities and we are all charged with the responsibility of these inmates and we govern these inmates with this front line staff and I think the inmates respect a well-trained corrections officer. They appreciate control and order," said Joe Williams, Secretary of the New Mexico Department of Corrections.

Williams took his leadership position a few years ago with a stated agenda that he would improve staff safety. Today many of the items on that list have been accomplished.

New training, enhanced emergency response, new technologies - all these are a part of an effort to make staff and facilities in New Mexico more secure.

Other agencies, including the Arizona Department of Corrections, have also worked hard to make dramatic changes to improve safety and security. In the case of Arizona, however, it was a near tragedy in January 2004 that sparked a new look at offender operations and whether staff were trained to keep themselves and inmates safe.

Arizona Refocuses on Safety

A little more than a year ago, Arizona corrections officials saw the harsh reality of what can happen when security improvements and enhanced training are necessary.

After inmates held two correctional officers hostage for 14 days last January, the new administration went into action to make drastic changes.

According to Sam Sublett, Division Director of Offender Operations for the Arizona DOC, the changes that have been accomplished are nothing short of amazing.

Following the hostage crisis at the DOC's Lewis facility, teams of correctional officials and staff were brought together to look at conditions at the Lewis facility and at other prisons. Included on their list for review were safety and security, policies, protocol and training.

As a part of this system-wide review one commission returned a list of 69 recommendations that Arizona correctional officials should consider making to improve the system. The DOC in turn set out to uncover other "opportunities for improvement" --nick-named OFIs - and came up with another 100 recommendations.

"It was a massive undertaking to bring about compliance in the department with the recommendations and OFIs. What is happening today is we have defined a number of core correctional competencies that are fundamental correctional practices that have to happen without fail or you can't do anything else," Sublett said.

To ensure these competencies are being adhered to, the DOC has developed a testing program for all employees -from custodial workers to wardens --to measure their degree of knowledge.

According to Sublett, employees who don't reach the 70th percentile are referred to another program for job re-training.

Accompanying the testing is a Back to Basics approach to managing the department on an administrative level. According to Sublett, officials are focused first on ensuring the facilities are safe and secure and the environment is structured before it can offer programs and other opportunities to the inmates.

In addition, the DOC has stressed to employees the importance of quality searches and the application of metal detection within the facilities, rather than the quantity.

"We have a whole protocol now to a look at every post that has a search requirement associated with it and we have varied our protocol to encourage randomness," Sublett said.

But the Arizona DOC has not stopped there. As part of this major overhaul of security, procedures and staff performance, the agency has also:
*expanded pre-service training from seven to nine weeks with the two additional weeks including subject matter on core competences, back to basics and self-defense techniques,
*created a peer audit program where each position is audited annually by peers from the area being audited,
*conducted a staffing analysis that found a significant shortage in officers at some prisons and a surplus of officers at others and prompted changes,
*created new risk assessments that can be applied after classification measures are applied. Included in this change is a matching of job assignments to risk level so that a high-risk inmate is no longer matched to a high-risk job.
*standardized procedures and shift rostering so that all facilities use the same system and staff shifts the same way whether it is a Monday and Tuesday or Saturday and Sunday.
*worked to revamp inmate classification with assistance from the National Institute of Corrections, and,
*requested funds to equip officers with technologies to improve safety such as new radios and distress capability technologies.

"In [my] tenure here I have never seen more accomplished," said Sublett. "The challenge for corrections administrators is we can do anything, but we have to sustain the effort."

Sublett said that as part of the year-long analysis of the DOC, administrators have come to see that action plans and changes were also proposed after other security crises in the past, but those crises did not rise to the level of last January's incident. Unfortunately, according to Sublett, the DOC has also learned that no follow-up was provided for the changes that were part of these previous action plans. Now, administrators have to re-double their efforts to make sure that action is taken this time.

"We are committed to make absolutely certain that we sustain this effort and this episode doesn't happen again.  We've come a long way but we have a long way to go. It's a work in process," he said.

New Mexico Invests in Safety

Although there was no major crisis to precipitate changes in security and safety within New Mexico's corrections system, administrators have seen opportunity for improvement.

After coming on board in 2003, Williams saw several ways that changes could help the officers on his staff do their jobs.

One major change was when Williams brought standardization to emergency preparedness training, providing between 16 and 40 hours of training for correctional staff, including specific instruction on use-of-force techniques.

"We wanted to make it real clear to our staff that if they are being attacked by an inmate and end up in an altercation, I want them to win," Williams said.

The department also improved communication during emergency incidents by giving the command role to staff at the incident scene.  Williams said by creating a unified system, different agencies and organizations can communicate better and understand what to expect from those responders.

"In New Mexico they are not going to have to call the warden at home and wake him up to get permission to deal with whatever situation they are dealing with. By outlining the roles and responsibilities, it's kind-of a one-size-fits-all emergency plan," he said.

Williams said the DOC has also moved its canine units to ensure they are used more frequently during peak inmate movement times and the department has standardized the training received by security threat group, gang intelligence, hostage negotiation and CERT teams.

It's a different department than it was when Williams began his career as a CO, he said. When he started, correctional officers had no training, rather they learned on the job and from their mistakes.

"I think we've come an awful long way. The way you train and treat your staff goes a long way. We try to be kind and demanding at the same time, and we hold them accountable," Williams said.

Another way that the DOC has tried to improve safety for officers is through the purchase of new equipment.

Recently the department has invested in a light-weight, stab-proof vests for all correctional officers, regardless of security level. In addition, all officers are equipped with OC spray.

The investment for the DOC was $1.7 million and the department has recently asked the legislature for additional funds for radios for each officer.

"You really have to make a commitment to it. We were projecting budget deficits and we decided to commit to our staff and find the funding to pay for these [things]," he added.

Williams believes that more and more correctional agencies have come to realize that the investment in staff comes back in dividends.

"I think sometimes people tend to forget the corrections officers. [But] people sleep better at night because of what these folks do. It's a tough job and not everyone can do it. You have to be a strong person and a good communicator and really care about people to be a corrections officer," Williams said.