An Ethical Approach to Ending Recidivism: The Optimal Guide to Moral Practice and Effective Communication with Inmates in the Department of Corrections

By Michael A. Gray M.A.Ed.

Law enforcement in a free society must strike a delicate balance between protecting individual rights to professional service, especially from government-sponsored agencies and the societys interest in professional ethical decision-making by law enforcement professionals. Often this is seen as one between a principal defense of civil rights and a mere Unitarian interest in improving the continuity of customer service. There is no certain place to fix the line between appropriate and Impermissible correctional officer and custody staff professional conduct. What is most conspicuous about this area of ethics in Department of corrections is the lack of controlling standards for defining the roles of correctional officers and custody staff. The purpose of the correctional Leadership and Ethics Training is to prevent breaches of the peace; enforce the laws, directives and regulations which govern the correctional institutions to protect its employees, the facilities, its assets and the nation's currency" which function in synchronization. Trainees will be able to consult a menu of techniques and be encouraged to contribute ideas of their own.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Dec 28, 2015
• ISBN: 9781514436028

Michael A. Gray M.A.Ed.

I worked as a special deputy sheriff early in my young life, and there were times I lost my temper to the point where I wanted to cross ethical boundaries. I wrote this powerful, high-impact workbook to help fellow officers by educating all officers in police ethics so that they won’t become a victim of poor decision making, placed in the lime light of shame, and made the poster child for law enforcement ethical dilemmas. Using this ethical workbook in your organization will show your employees you’re serious about their professional growth and achieving critical ethical goals and objectives. This ethics in law enforcement workbook allows you to train entire police departments for less than the cost of traditional public seminars or other training options. Give your correctional officers and custody staff the skills, knowledge and confidence they need to meet tough workplace challenges while on patrol or while working as custody staff. This workbook will help them realize their full potential and perform at their peak, provide them with the tips and techniques they will need to stay calm and productive in any situation.

Book preview

AN ETHICAL

APPROACH TO ENDING

RECIDIVISM

THE OPTIMAL GUIDE TO MORAL PRACTICE AND

EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION WITH INMATES IN THE

DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS

MICHAEL A. GRAY M.A.ED.

Educator/Trainer

Copyright © 2016 by Michael A. Gray.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 12/22/2015

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

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Contents

The Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill Of Rights

Introduction

What Do Sworn Officers and Civil-Service Workers Do That Makes the Public Angry?

A Man Who Holds The Key To His Own Prison Will Soon Be Persadued Fit It Into The Lock

Custody Guidelines For Correctional Officers And Custody Staff

Guidelines For Learner-Subject Matter Relationships

Guidelines for Teacher-Subject Matter Relationships

Being your best

What Do Correctional Officers and Custody Staff Do That Makes Inmates Angry?

How to Keep a Handle on Your Own Emotions

10/5 rule

Connecting Officers And Custody Staff To The Mission Appreciated Inquiry

Emotional Intelligence

LISTENING AND EFFECTIVE COMMUNICATION OF OFFICERS

LEADERSHIP

White privilege exercise

Culturally Responsive Teaching

Correctional Institutions Teaching and Management Conditions

Guidelines for Teacher-Learner Relationships

Creating and

maintaining your beliefs

Reality check for living with an angry person

teaching tools that help inmates manage their anger

Teaching tools for helping inmates Control and understand their anger

teaching Tools to help immates Remove anger so they can develop healthy relationships

Dealing With Stress in the family

Intimacy versus anger

Definition Of Terms

References

The Law Enforcement Officers’ Bill Of Rights

Though the law enforcement officers’ bill of rights varies from state to state, the most common provisions include:

• Officers should be informed of any pending investigations against them, unless informing them would compromise the integrity of the case

• Officers should be informed of the outcome of the investigation and of any recommendations made regarding discipline

• Interviews should be conducted while the officer is on duty whenever practical or possible

• Officers should be informed of the name, rank and command of the officer overseeing the investigation

• Officers should be permitted to have an attorney or representative present with them during any interrogation

• Officers must not be threatened or promised rewards in exchange for their testimony

• Officers should be entitled to a hearing regarding the final disposition of the investigation, with access to the allegations and evidence presented against them

• Officers should have the opportunity to provide written commentary and attach it to any adverse information, such as complaints and disciplinary action that is placed in their personnel files.

• Officers should not be subject to retaliation for exercising these rights

Introduction

Every sworn officer knows, or at least should know by now, that they live in a glass jar. Friends, relatives, neighbors, and strangers watch every move Correctional Officers make both on and off duty. The fact is that the public scrutinizes police officers more than most other professions, either because they’re cynical or hope to catch them screwing-up or because they’re hopeful and are looking for a good example and a strong leader. In either case, it’s up to the officer or custody staff to be above reproach in both his public and private life. The major difference between most correctional officers or custody staff and extremely successful officers or custody staff is the gap between what they know and what they do. Both groups have about the same knowledge base. Extremely successful officers and custody staff are just better at doing what they should be doing.

What Do Sworn Officers and Civil-Service Workers Do That Makes the Public Angry?

The public become upset for a number of reasons, many of which don’t have much to do with the police or customer service your department provides. These include:

Unmet expectations: This could be related to how the public expected to be treated or how they think police protective services should be provided.

Untrained personnel: People really don’t want to be the test subject for a trainee. They want their problems to be handled by people who know what to do.

This side of the organization: People who have had previous bad experiences with the department are had heard negative things about the department may react more angrily when something goes wrong than they would otherwise.

Is the only way: Some customers think the only way they can get their needs met is to be angry and demand better service.

Discourtesy: Naturally, people are angry when they feel they have been treated without respect.

Ignored: people who feel they are being ignored or, such as those whose phone calls are not return, react angrily.

Conflicting stories: When people are told one thing by one civil-service worker and something else by another, they naturally become angry, because it appears that someone is lying to them.

Argument: if someone in the department has argued with the customer, the customer will often have to be handled carefully in order to return them to a state of calmness.

Feelings invalidated: When you tell someone they shouldn’t feel a certain way, it often angers them, because it implies that their feelings are unimportant or wrong.

Previous state: if a customer is already upset, tired, or under stress when he comes in, it is easy for him to be upset.

Frustration: If the customer is having difficulty getting help, he can easily become angry. For example, a customer who is transferred from department to department may lose his temper, particularly if he feels helpless.

Honesty is challenged: A customer who feels that his integrity is being question will often react with anger.

Embarrassment: People are angry when they are embarrassed, and they often lash out unfairly.

Vindication: Some people are determined to prove themselves right, whether it is really necessary or not.

Failure to listen: To those who feel as if they are not given a chance to tell their side of the story often react extremely negatively.

Personality: Some customers are just naturally contrary, and they don’t need much of an excuse to fly off the handle.

Personal prejudice: Everyone has prejudice, and some people are unable to control them. The person may be prejudiced against your skin color, your department, your cologne; while virtually anything else conceivable.

Manipulation: Some customers may use anger as a method of intentionally manipulating others.

A Man Who Holds The Key To His Own Prison Will Soon Be Persadued Fit It Into The Lock

This book is specifically for new correction officers, custody staff and educators. This book teaches how to communicate effectively with offenders in a correctional educational setting.

This book is also written with the intent to remind teachers of where it is they work and the dangers they face if they work outside the rules while working in a correctional setting. The majority of inmates in the criminal justice system are undereducated and systemically powerless, mostly the black and brown men and boys already failed by a nightmarishly bureaucratic urban education system for who prison intensifies powerlessness. A few inmates enter prison with education as a critique- and acting on the critique may be what landed them there. In the end, the argument for or against this book or that for prison education is not the point.

The point is there are learning opportunities for inmates in prisons. That is no salvo to the system of corrections, rather, that is what people do dream, create, and grow against all odds and in the most horrifying circumstances. This wonderful accident of humanness does not, however, mitigate the unbearable conditions of prisons or the reasons they’re placed into them. What is needed is acute dual attention to structural sicknesses of our society regarding racism, sexism, and the classed system of economic inequity.

The department’s adult education system is based on the public school model. Each prison operates its education program as an individual school composed of academic, vocational, and life skills instruction. Because of repetitive reentry and exit of inmates from prison, the department of corrections (DOC) organizes classes on a model that provides an individual, self-paced programing for each inmate.

In order for adult education teachers to be effective while working in the Department of Corrections, they should begin with students’ prior knowledge, even if that understanding includes some misunderstanding, yielding to conceptual change as the goal.

Custody Guidelines For Correctional Officers And Custody Staff

Inmate Learner Relationships

You are a role model for your learners. How you think about a subject will affect your learners’ attitudes toward it. If you represent science as difficult, mathematics as boring, or history as a collection of facts, that is how your learners will view them.

You can limit your learners’ access to important subject matter by the social organization you create in the classroom. Ability grouping, tracking, and competitive learning arrangements can limit learners’ access to important knowledge and generalizations.

The style of leadership you assume in the classroom (authoritarian, laissez faire, democratic) or the type of power you exercise (expert, referent, legitimate, coercive, reward) can affect the willingness of culturally different learners to engage in subject matter learning tasks. If you want your learners to explore problems and ideas with others, consider how your own behavior and the relationships you establish with learners inhibit or promote such cooperation.

Guidelines For Learner-Subject Matter Relationships

Recognize that some inmates have certain attitudes, beliefs, and values about other cultures that have been acquired from their parents, peer group, and society at large. Many students have racial-stereotyped beliefs about people, like inferior or superior status that are acquired in their environment.

Be aware of these beliefs and be prepared to represent subjects such as math and science in ways that bridge or confront the perceptions of your learners.

Remember that inmates’ prior experiences with education may have been limited. Try convincing them that they can improve their ability in these subjects. Teach the subjects in ways that overcome these attributions.

Guidelines for Teacher-Subject Matter Relationships

Recognize your own racial-stereotyped beliefs about certain cultures.

Teach your subject in ways that overcome the negative attributions regarding race relations.

Use various examples and ways of representing your subject that do not reinforce racial stereotypes. For example, curriculum materials and teaching activities on the lesson of power should depict competent models of all cultures.

Take this little survey

(It’s a real eye-opener)

Let’s face it; most of us already understand how we should act in certain situations-: Cool in a crisis, positive when things go wrong, emotionally consistent with our loved ones, persistent when breaking a bad habit are taking on a new constructive one.

YET, WHY IS IT SO HARD FOR US TO DO WHAT WE KNOW IS BEST?

It isn’t. Not if you use the principles you’ll gain in this training.

Think about it-how much do you know about the topics listed below? And how much of that knowledge do you put to use in your life? Let’s find out.

Circle the number that measures your knowledge about a subject. Then, put an" X" through the number that measures your actual performance.

(1 Being low, 10 High)

Motivating people

Handling crisis

Weight control

Time management

Dealing with stress

Managing conflict

Being your best

What does the best mean to you? These three simple words, put together, have a profound meaning, a meaning that can change your life, totally and completely. Before you do anything, think these three words. Recite them to yourself. Make them your credo. And live by them. Whatever you do, give it your all, exceed your own expectations, surpass what you did yesterday, do everything with quality, think accelerants. Always being your best.

The two rules for success:

Rule # 1. Follow the Correctional Institution policies.

Rule # 2. If you think the Correctional Institution polices are wrong, see rule # 1.

What Do Correctional Officers and Custody Staff Do That Makes Inmates Angry?

Inmates become upset for a number of reasons, many of which don’t have much to do with the officer or custody staff service your department provides. These include:

Unmet expectations: This could be related to how the inmates expect to be treated or how they think correctional protective services should be provided.

Untrained custody staff: People really don’t want to be the test subject for a trainee. They want their problems to be handled by people who know what to do.

This side of the organization: Correctional officers or Custody staff who had previous bad experiences with the department or had heard negative things about the department may react more angrily when something goes wrong than they would otherwise.

Is the only way: Some inmates think the only way they can get their needs met is too be angry and demand better service.

Discourtesy: Naturally, inmates are angry when they feel they have been treated without respect.

Ignored: Inmates react angrily when they feel they are being ignored, or those inmates whose questions are not answered.

Conflicting stories: When people are told one thing by one correctional staff and something else by another, they naturally become angry, because it appears that someone is lying to them.

Argument: If someone in the department has argued with the inmate the inmate will often have to be handled carefully in order to return them to a state of calmness.

Feelings invalidated: When you tell inmates they shouldn’t feel a certain way, it often angers them, because it implies that their feelings are unimportant or wrong.

Previous state: If an inmate is already upset, tired, or under stress when he comes in, it is easy for him to be upset.

Frustration: If the inmate is having difficulty getting help, he can easily become angry. For example, an inmate who is transferred from department to department may lose his temper, particularly if he feels helpless.

Honesty is challenged: A inmate who feels that his integrity is being question will often react with anger.

Embarrassment: Inmates are angry when they are embarrassed, and they often lash out unfairly.

Vindication: Some inmates are determined to prove themselves right, whether it is really necessary or not.

Failure to listen: To those inmates who feel as if they are not given a chance to tell their side of the story often react extremely negatively.

Personality: Some inmates are just naturally contrary, and they don’t need much of an excuse to fly off the handle.

Personal prejudice: Everyone has prejudice, and some people are unable to control them. The person may be prejudiced against your skin color, your department, your cologne; while virtually anything else conceivable.

Manipulation: Some inmates may use anger as a method of intentionally manipulating others.

How to Keep a Handle on Your Own Emotions

There are things you can do to prevent yourself from overreacting to difficult inmates while still managing the interaction effectively. They include:

If things get overly intense, take a break from the situation, even if it is only for a few minutes. Excuse yourself in a polite manner, and be sure to give the inmate a legitimate reason for leaving.

If the inmate is making unreasonable demands try rephrasing and repeating yourself, for instance, if the inmate insists on an immediate answer but your supervisor will not be in until the next day, you may use the statements: my supervisor won’t be in until tomorrow. I’m sorry; he’s already gone for the day. I’ll see to it that he comes to your cell first thing in the morning. Eventually, if you remain calm, the message is likely to get through, particularly if your