A recent segment of the 1A program on public radio addressed restrictive housing (aka Special Housing Unit or SHU; aka solitary confinement). (June 27, 2023, https://the1a.org/segments/the-problem-with-solitary-confinement-in-the-u-s/) The panelists included a journalist and two advocates for the rights of people who are incarcerated. The speakers made valid points about how bad it is for people to […]
Looking Deeper
In pre-sentence investigations, what might happen if we could take needs and personal assets as seriously as we consider risks? Imagine if we were serious about understanding how and why each person has gotten involved in the criminal justice system and about keeping them from getting deeper into it. Here’s what I mean. What motivations […]
“In it together” with Stacy Sinner
Stacy Sinner and I recorded an interview online in February 2019 using Zoom. View it at the bottom of this post. Stacy describes her consulting and technical assistance work with criminal justice agencies and jails. She recently retired from her position as a jail administrator from Olmsted County, Minnesota. Her focus areas as a consultant […]
Peggy Ritchie – woman of super powers
Peggy Ritchie and I are both veterans of the National Institute of Corrections in Colorado—Peggy was at both NIC’s Academy and the NIC Information Center. We collaborated on national assessments and surveys to identify trends in state corrections and elicit practitioners’ knowledge, with the aim of developing and improving NIC training programs. Peggy’s areas of […]
Alice Heiserman – editor and guide to getting published
Alice Heiserman was the manager of publications and research for the American Correctional Association (ACA) for more than 20 years before launching her editorial business, WriteBooksRight. At ACA, she guided more than 200 books to publication. Alice and I connected as she was helping some of her correctional authors generate buzz for their new books. […]
About John Eggers: A profile in corrections
Today I’m giving a shout-out to my friend and colleague, John Eggers. About 10 years ago, John and I worked together on a needs assessment for the corrections field, to shape the focuses of our agency, the National Institute of Corrections (NIC). John came to NIC from the Nebraska corrections system with assignments in designing […]
Don’t Get Shot – Community Education to Reduce Officer-Involved Shootings
[Update, 5/1/2019 – The Marshall Project posted this commentary on civilian deaths in law enforcement interactions: “How Fear Contributes to Cops’ Use of Deadly Force.”] Too many Americans are shot by police officers. The reasons why it happens are complex. In the spirit of addressing a complex problem, here’s a suggestion. Schools, churches, and community […]
What keeps them up at night?
Ever wonder what issues jail leaders have to deal with? At recent meeting, jail directors tossed out one or two of their top challenges. I tallied up my notes on what they mentioned. The themes – #1 = STAFF ISSUES. As in: facility staffing levels, overtime reduction, recruitment, retention, reliability of staff to do the […]
A word about #MeToo
Now that the #MeToo meme is getting around, sexual misconduct and abuse of power are open topics of discussion toward long-needed social change. The surprise to many is that the corrections field is so far ahead on confronting a culture of abuse and establishing a comprehensive methodology for reducing it. The Prison Rape Elimination Act […]
It’s a people business
When it comes to jail and correctional work, the demands made of people could hardly be more intense. Correctional officers (they are not “guards,” by the way) have to be 100% safety-aware and 100% open to the idea that the person they’re interacting with is a human being, too. They operate within these two very […]