Improving Institutional Corrections Training Academy Training

The Comprehensive Corrections Training and Technical Assistance Program provides comprehensive and high quality training and technical assistance (TTA) to BJA’s grantees and criminal justice practitioners to improve the delivery of correctional services and increase public safety by improving outcomes for people detained and incarcerated in correctional facilities.

Through this category the TTA provider will conduct a national scan of corrections academy training curricula and in-service trainings and, based on those results, develop recommendations and resources to enhance correctional academy training and correctional employees’ ability to succeed in their role as public safety partners.

The corrections workforce is increasingly expected to support behavior management of adults in their custody, in some cases delivering recidivism-reduction programming themselves. The number of high quality, tested curricula to comprehensively address criminogenic needs is limited, and even when they are available, agencies must be cognizant that how interventions are administered is equally as important as what is delivered, which hinges on the conduct of correctional staff. With the ever changing demands placed on correctional staff, improvements are needed to better support corrections’ role as an integral public safety partner.

The objectives of this award are as follows: conduct a national scan of state corrections agencies regarding the focus, content, and quality of their academy training programs and the extent to which jails and prisons utilize this training, identify high quality curricula and gaps in available resources, and develop guidance for supporting the development of the key skills and knowledge needed by today’s corrections workforce.

The Moss Group will use award funds to conduct a national scan of state corrections agencies regarding the focus, content, and quality of their academy and in-service training programs and the extent to which jails and prisons use this training. The results of the scan will be used to develop guidance for building and supporting key skills and knowledge needed by today’s corrections workforce and to produce user-friendly TTA resources with suggestions for trainers.

CA/NCF