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Where can I find an updated "Directory of Programs Serving Families of Adult Offenders"?
Published:This directory was funded by the National Institute of Corrections and first published in 1985. NIC continued to publish the directory until 2005. It is now available for download on the website of the National Resource Center on Children and Families of the Incarcerated at Family & Corrections Network.
This revised directory lists programs in the United States and around the world that offer services specifically for children and families of the incarcerated.
NRCCFI is the oldest and largest organization in the U.S. focused on children and families of the incarcerated and programs that serve them.Do you have information on the use of volunteers in prisons, jails, and the community?
Published:This Knowledgebase focuses on the use of volunteers in criminal justice settings. Volunteers can and do provide a variety of services within state and local correctional systems. These include but are not limited to the following:
Providing special instruction in a particular area such as tutoring and conducting classes.
Assisting staff in daily office activities to free them for more direct work with inmates.
Organizing or officiating games during recreation and sports related activities.
Providing assistance to facility's library by collecting books.
Serving as resource to advise inmates on various topics such as developing a budget or employment preparation.
Assisting with religious related activities such as worship services or study of scriptures.
Participating with an organized group already active at facility such as Yokefellow Prison Ministry, Alcoholics Anonymous or Prison Fellowship.
Providing or coordinating special entertainment events such as singing groups and plays.
Assisting in locating suitable residence and/or employment plans for an inmate before release.
Providing transportation to employment or for family to visit facility.
Serving as a role model by being a sponsor for an eligible inmate and escorting them to approved activities in the community.
Serving as member of facility's Community Resource Council.
Coaching and Mentoring Staff
Published:Coaching of staff offers agencies a win-win method for developing their employees. It not only helps individuals reach their potential but also helps the agency improve its productivity and competitiveness. In a rapidly changing world, coaching can also help employees adjust and adapt their skill sets. Coaching is about encouraging, confronting, challenging, questioning, as well as consistently respecting and supporting staff in developing and achieving their goals (from NIC e-Learning course "Business Coaching: Getting Ready to Coach").
National Institute of Corrections, 2014
The National Institute of Corrections offers self-paced e-courses that you can access online any time, any place via the NIC Learning Center. More than 20 courses on coaching, mentoring, and leading teams are offered. Topics covered include building trust and commitment, coaching styles, mentoring fundamentals, improving performance, establishing goals, and more.
Access is available to corrections professionals whose jobs are categorized as executive management, middle management, first line supervision, offender programming, or training/staff development through the NIC Learning Center.
Heaton, Jason; Gene Atherton, 2012
"This article will describe our version of the best characteristics of leadership; the characteristics that are need for success in the 21st century. We believe they are basically human characteristics" (p. 1). Topics discussed include: the willingness to suspend belief systems; being receptive to new and creative ideas; managing and coaching staff challenges; lifestyle; long term success and contributions; listening; successful leaders bring contagious energy and upbeat attitude to the job; successful leaders are sensitive to the emotional impact of their behavior on others; words are reality successful leaders give definition to reality through the spoken word; leader as mediator; and successful leaders establish performance expectations and parameters.
Document ID: 026662
National Institute of Corrections, 2011
Mobile Edition Making the transition from line staff to supervisor calls for developing new skills and competencies as well as a major shift in mindset from doing one's own work to supervising the work of others.
Contents of this comprehensive resource for the new supervisor include 2 data DVDs:
- The National Institute of Corrections training program 'Essential Skills for New Supervisors'. This 36-hour DVD group training program focuses on core competencies for supervisors. These competencies include developing personal and professional goals, demonstrating leadership, solving problems, thinking critically, making decisions, managing conflict, coaching, counseling, providing discipline, and encouraging staff performance.
- A 3-hour training program, broadcast September 15, 2010, shows how to use the newly developed DVD series curriculum from the National Institute of Corrections, titled 'Self-Directed Essential Skills for New Supervisors'. This is a training program designed to be taken by one person, with modules played on a computer at a pace set by and directed by them - "self-directed". The DVD series helps fill the gap and focuses on core competencies for supervisors, including developing personal and professional goals, demonstrating leadership, problem solving, critical thinking, decision making, managing conflict, coaching, counseling, providing discipline, and encouraging staff performance.
Document ID: 025151
Coaching P&P New Staff
The following trainings are available for new Probation and Parole staff.
Missouri Department of Corrections In-service Training Probation & Parole Training, 2014
Participants will be trained to effectively deliver On the Job Training (OJT) modules to new P&P staff via Coaching and the 11 step teaching process. PowerPoint, Lesson Plan, Coaching Final. Follow this link to Request a copy from the Information Center.
Document ID: 029586
Mentor Handbook, Minnesota Department of Corrections, 2009
Information about effective mentoring a protégé, is provided. This guide is comprised of these chapters: an introduction to mentoring; being a mentor; being a protégé, how to have a successful mentoring relationship; and mentoring resources. Follow this link to Request a copy from the Information Center.
Document ID: 023908
Copyrighted Publications
The following publications are copyrighted. You can purchase your own copy or borrow from your local library.
Coaching Skills for Nonprofit Managers and Leaders: Developing People to Achieve Your Mission
Wilson, Judith; Michelle Gislason, 2010
The main purpose for this book is 'to provide [one] with useful ways to master key coaching skills and practices that will improve [ones] ability to better lead, manage, develop, and support others' (p. xxx). While it was written for the nonprofit manager/leader, the advice it imparts can be applied to most any organization. Chapters cover: what coaching can bring to ones role; foundational coaching skills; the coaching framework; the coaching mind-set; knowing when to use a coaching approach; coaching in the nonprofit workplace; and what's next developing a coaching culture in your organization.
Document ID: 024763
Successful Manager's Handbook: Develop Yourself, Coach Others
Gebelein, Susan H., et al, 2010
This book 'is a library of practical suggestions, ideas, tips, and resources. It's the place to turn to when you're put in charge of something you've never done before, when you want new ideas, or when you want to help one of your people develop' (p. xii). Twenty-eight chapters cover managerial proficiencies and are organized into the four areas of results, people, thought, and self-management (personal). Topics range from meeting customer needs, influencing others, analyzing issues, to establishing trust. Earned Release Time, September 2015.
Do I need to have a law library in my jail?
Published:Question:
I want to know if I need to have a law library in my jail. What kinds of issues should I consider? What information do I need?Answer:
Like so many issues in corrections, the answer is: it depends. The point is not necessarily having a law library, but rather providing reasonable access to legal materials and the courts.Nothing below is a recommendation or opinion from NIC. What is provided is information and resources so you can make an informed decision concerning how inmates at your facility can have access to legal materials and the courts - which can include a law library in the jail itself.
If there are prevailing state jail standards or relevant case law in your jurisdiction, you will need to meet those concerning access to legal materials and access to courts. Absent that, you might want to consider the American Correctional Association (ACA) Adult Local Detention Standards as well ACA's Core Jail standards as a basis for your policies. Here are the two relevant standards:
ACA standard 4-ALDF-6A-03 (Accreditation standards)
"Inmates have access to a law library if there is not adequate free legal assistance to assist them with criminal, civil, and administrative legal matters. Inmates have access to legal materials to facilitate the preparation of documents"
ACA Standard 1-Core-6A-03 (Core Jail Standards)
"Inmates have access to legal materials"
You will want to consider what the courts have said. Take a look at the following:
"Jails and the Constitution: An Overview"
NIC publication authored by William Collins
Text from page 68:
"Over the years the Supreme Court decided several access to the courts cases involving inmates. The most important came in 1977, when the Court said that prison administrators have the affirmative duty to provide inmates with assistance or resources to allow them to meaningfully exercise their right of access to the courts, Bounds v. Smith. Assistance could take the form of persons trained in the law (such as lawyers, paralegals, or law students), adequate law libraries, or some combination of these. A 1996 Supreme Court decision dealing with access to the courts reaffirmed the core principle in Bounds, i.e., that the institution has an affirmative duty to provide some form of assistance (libraries or persons trained in the law) sufficient to give inmates the capability of filing non-frivolous lawsuits challenging their sentence or the conditions of their confinement, Lewis v. Casey.""The principle from Bounds (and now Lewis) has been extended to jails, although application of the principle may be slightly different in the jail context depending in part on how long inmates remain in the jail. The longer an inmate remains in a jail, the more the right of “access to the courts” places the same demands on the jail as it does on the prison"
Document ID: 022570
Here are actual case law summaries:The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees state inmates the right to "adequate, effective, and meaningful" access to the courts. Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 822, 97 S.Ct. 1491, 1495, 52 L.Ed.2d 72 (1977); Green v. Johnson, 977 F.2d 1383, 1389 (10th Cir.1992). We impose "affirmative obligations" on the states to assure all inmates access to the courts and assistance in the preparation and filing of legal papers. Ramos v. Lamm, 639 F.2d 559, 583 (10th Cir.1980), cert. denied, 450 U.S. 1041, 101 S.Ct. 1759, 68 L.Ed.2d 239 (1981). The Supreme Court instructs that states may satisfy this duty "by providing prisoners with adequate law libraries or adequate assistance from persons trained in the law." Bounds, 430 U.S. at 828, 97 S.Ct. at 1498. Although this constitutional obligation does not require states to afford inmates unlimited access to a library, Twyman v. Crisp, 584 F.2d 352, 358 (10th Cir.1978), and there exists no rigid or static formula to assess whether a prison library's resources pass constitutional muster, Johnson v. Moore, 948 F.2d 517, 521 (9th Cir.1991), states must provide inmates with "a reasonably adequate opportunity" to present their legal claims.
In more understandable language:
"The Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment guarantees state inmates the right to 'adequate, effective, and meaningful' access to the courts." Petrick v. Maynard, 11 F.3d 991, 994 (10th Cir.1993) (quoting Bounds v. Smith, 430 U.S. 817, 822 (1977)).
The guarantee of court access is satisfied "by providing prisoners with adequate law libraries or adequate assistance from persons trained in the law." Bounds, 430 U.S. at 828.
Related resources:
Is there a general "profile" of prison inmates?
Published:Ashley Nellis, Ph.D., 2023
The Sentencing Project, 2021
Document ID: 027689Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), 2017
United States Sentencing Commission, 2018
...brings you the stories of life inside prison, shared and produced by those living it. The podcast is a partnership between Earlonne Woods and Antwan Williams, currently incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison, and Nigel Poor, a Bay Area artist. (2017)
Bureau of Justice Statistics, ongoing
Berzofsky, Marcus, Laura M. Maruschak, and Jennifer Unangst, Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), 2015
Document ID: 029736Sakala, Leah, Prison Policy Initiative (PPI), 2014
United States Sentencing Commission (USSC), 2013
Mauer, Marc, The Sentencing Project, 2013
Document ID: 027085
Do you have information on the award of good time or earned time credits in prisons?
Published:National Conference of State Legislatures, 2021
NCSL Criminal Justice Program, 2021
California Department of Corrections, 2017
Katherine Dwyer, Carease Gadson, 2017
La Vigne, Nancy G., Samuel Bieler, Lindsey Cramer, Helen Ho, Cybele Kotonias, Deborah Mayer, David McClure, Laura Pacifici, Erica Parks, Bryce Peterson, Julie Samuels. Urban Institute, Bureau of Justice Assistance, U.S. Department of Justice, 2014
"JRI policies improved the use of good time and earned credit and the operation of probation and parole."
Document ID: 027949
Larkin Jr, Paul J. Georgetown Journal of Law & Public Policy, Vol. 11, No. 1, 2013
For most of our history, clemency, parole, and good-time credits have offered prisoners an opportunity for early release. Over the last 40 years, however, clemency has fallen into disuse, and many jurisdictions have repealed their parole laws in favor of determinate sentencing. Given our increasingly crowded prisons and expanding correctional budgets, governments are beginning to rethink our approach to punishment. It is unlikely that clemency or parole will come back into fashion any time soon, however, or that severe sentencing laws will quickly disappear. But the federal and state governments have continued to use good-time credits as a means of rewarding inmates for positive, in-prison behavior, and legislators may believe that expanding the current good-time laws is the best solution. That approach is reasonable as a policy matter and sellable as a political matter because prisoners must earn good time credits. We therefore may see legislators seek to address prison overcrowding through an expanded good-time system.
O'Hear, Michael M., 2011
“Good-time programs have long been an important part of the American penal landscape. Although good time is traditionally justified by reference to its usefulness in deterring inmate misconduct—credits can be denied or withdrawn as a penalty for violations of prison rules—the article questioned how it could possibly be just to impose additional incarceration based on mere violations of administrative regulations."
Document ID: 027946
Example Policies:
Staff/Inmate Ratios in Correctional Facilities
Published:The process for determining adequate staffing for a jail facility, and make it defensible, is to conduct a staffing analysis on a facility by facility basis. There are simply too many variables such as physical plant design, level of security, level of programs and activities, state and local standard and statutes, etc. to recommend a specific officer to inmate ratio.
Do Private Prisons Work?
Published:A private facility or for-profit prison is a place in which individuals are physically confined or incarcerated by a third party that is contracted by a government agency.
What is a DACUM?
Published:Question:
I've been hearing about DACUM in conjunction with training development. What the heck is a DACUM and how does it help me develop a lesson plan or training curriculum?
Answer:
A DACUM is a form of job analysis. When developing a curriculum for correctional employees, one task is to assure that the topic and content is clearly job-relevant. In fact, job-relevancy is a component of legally defensible training in corrections.
DACUM, which stands for Developing a Curriculum, was pioneered at the Ohio State University Center on Education and Training for Employment. It is a means of researching and analyzing a particular job that results in a chart listing the duties, tasks, and related information about the job. That information can be applied in the development of a curriculum (and individual lesson plans) to assure and, in fact, document, that the content is directly relevant to what is required on the job. Given the failure to train liability and the risks inherent in corrections today, developing job-relevant training grounded in job analysis is not just a luxury but a necessity today.
DACUM Process
While there can be some variations in the DACUM process, basically, a panel of incumbents in the job (usually those who perform it well) develop a list of all duties and tasks associated with the job based on consensus. The panel also develops a list of knowledge and skills, tools, equipment, etc. that are essential for success. This all becomes complied in a DACUM chart which is a roadmap for identifying relevant training topics. Often, since resources are limited and the DACUM chart can be quite extensive, the same panel or a panel of their supervisors (sometimes called a validation panel) will set priorities in terms of how frequently a task is performed and how critical it is to the mission. This can reduced the training burden to a more manageable level in a legitimate manner via the expert panel analysis.
DACUM Resources
Information on Staff-Inmate Boundaries and Inmate Manipulation
Published:Recognizing and understanding inmate deception, inmate manipulation, inmate set-ups.
What are criminal thinking errors?
Published:According to Don Andrews and James Bonta (The Psychology of Criminal Conduct, 2010), the following are risk factors contributing to an individual's criminal conduct.
Major Factors:
- Antisocial/pro-criminal attitudes and values.
- Pro-criminal associates and isolation from others who are anti-criminal.
- Temperamental and personality factors, including pyschopathy, impulsivity, and other cognitive deficits.
- History of antisocial behavior.
- Familial factors that include criminality, family psychological and dysfunctional patterns.
- Low levels of personal education, vocational, or financial achievement and unstable employment.
Minor Factors
- Lower-class origins (assessed by neighborhood conditions and parental achievements).
- Personal distress (strain, alienation, low self-esteem, anxiety, depression, etc.).
- Other combinations of biological/neuropsychological indicators.
Where can I find general guidelines for departmental ceremonies and events?
Published:District of Columbia (DC) Department of Corrections, 2015
Oregon Department of Corrections, 2015
Oklahoma Department of Corrections, 2014
Idaho Department of Correction, Standard Operating Procedure, 2014
Minnesota Department of Corrections, 2014
Alaska Department of Corrections, Policies and Procedures, 2013
Indiana Department of Corrections, Policy and Administrative Procedures, Manual of Policies and Procedures, 2012