06-17-2006, 01:23 AM
What is the single thing I would do to improve the Department of Corrections. Training! The funny thing about training is that it ties into everything you do. It affects leadership, personnel, turnover, resources and procurement. It affects budgets, planning, and administration. And for those that would say Florida is used as a national model; I would tell you that it just goes to show you how far the rest of the country really has to go:
• For the time being, move Staff Development out from under Administration, and place it directly under the Secretary of the Department. A signal needs to be sent that training is a high, if not the, number one priority.
• Stabilize the Bureau Chief position. In the last 9 years, there have been at least six heads of Staff Development. The position (in my opinion) has been used as a political offering for far too long.
• Initially organize the bureau into two sections: Corrections and Probation. After these stabilize, then add a third section: Staff Support. The ultimate phase would be to disband Staff Development as an entity and place Corrections under Central Office Institutions, Probation under Central Office Community Corrections, and Staff Support under Central Office Administration.
• Get Community Corrections Programs out of the training business (for the time being).
• Get all of Staff Development, to include those in the Regions out of the training execution business and into the planning and development business.
• Establish a training budget separate from CJSTC.
• Quit worrying about liability and ask yourself, “What is the right and reasonable thing to do?” This will solve your liability problem, and ultimately change the department from a reactive to a proactive organization. Besides. Who makes policy decisions- lawyers or those in charge of lawyers?
• Get out of ACA, or at least let them know that you are developing a training system second to none in the United States and they can either go along or not.
• Do a thorough task analysis of all CO, CPO, leader and collective tasks. Break these tasks down into functional areas, and rank. (Note: A history lesson. Approximately 7-8 years ago, FDLE (at a CJSTC Commission Meeting) was asked why it was they had spent two thirds of the CMS budget on developing CMS for law enforcement, and had yet to start on CMS for Correctional Officers. They didn’t have an answer. Subsequently, the department developed COBRA on its own, and left Probation to dangle in the wind. Probation decided (for whatever reason) to continue business as usual even though its mission fundamentally changed. In both cases, a task analysis was never done. Ultimately this means that we have been operating under a system that no one in Central Office or FDLE truly understands. In training liability lingo this can be called, “deliberate indifference”. Conducting searches without training, warrantless arrests without training, case management without training, officers dying on active duty because of heart attacks = deliberate indifference).
• Develop task conditions and standards of performance.
• Separate these tasks into common tasks (those performed by all), leader tasks (those performed by rank), and functional area tasks (those performed by individuals within a specific group (i.e. control room, dormitories, etc).
• Transition to a system where leaders (Sergeants, Lieutenants, Captains, Majors, Colonels, Assistant Wardens, Wardens, and Probation Supervisors are responsible for training their own people. You don’t need CJSTC certification to run a re-qualification range, nor do you need it to teach common and or area specific tasks. You simply need to teach them how to give and present training, which can be done in a basic leadership course. You can maintain FDLE certification requirements for Basic recruit. That is the only place you are required by law to have it).
• Develop Basic Recruit, Professional Development, and specialized training (collective training) based on these tasks. This includes advanced training for officers (example: Shoot, don’t shoot. Advanced searches. Et. Al), and advanced training for staffs (riot control exercises, emergency management exercises etc)
• Use lessons learned and operational feedback to tie back into the training system. This updates the system for future needs.
• Repeat the process for staff support, and then disband staff development.
If I were king…….
• For the time being, move Staff Development out from under Administration, and place it directly under the Secretary of the Department. A signal needs to be sent that training is a high, if not the, number one priority.
• Stabilize the Bureau Chief position. In the last 9 years, there have been at least six heads of Staff Development. The position (in my opinion) has been used as a political offering for far too long.
• Initially organize the bureau into two sections: Corrections and Probation. After these stabilize, then add a third section: Staff Support. The ultimate phase would be to disband Staff Development as an entity and place Corrections under Central Office Institutions, Probation under Central Office Community Corrections, and Staff Support under Central Office Administration.
• Get Community Corrections Programs out of the training business (for the time being).
• Get all of Staff Development, to include those in the Regions out of the training execution business and into the planning and development business.
• Establish a training budget separate from CJSTC.
• Quit worrying about liability and ask yourself, “What is the right and reasonable thing to do?” This will solve your liability problem, and ultimately change the department from a reactive to a proactive organization. Besides. Who makes policy decisions- lawyers or those in charge of lawyers?
• Get out of ACA, or at least let them know that you are developing a training system second to none in the United States and they can either go along or not.
• Do a thorough task analysis of all CO, CPO, leader and collective tasks. Break these tasks down into functional areas, and rank. (Note: A history lesson. Approximately 7-8 years ago, FDLE (at a CJSTC Commission Meeting) was asked why it was they had spent two thirds of the CMS budget on developing CMS for law enforcement, and had yet to start on CMS for Correctional Officers. They didn’t have an answer. Subsequently, the department developed COBRA on its own, and left Probation to dangle in the wind. Probation decided (for whatever reason) to continue business as usual even though its mission fundamentally changed. In both cases, a task analysis was never done. Ultimately this means that we have been operating under a system that no one in Central Office or FDLE truly understands. In training liability lingo this can be called, “deliberate indifference”. Conducting searches without training, warrantless arrests without training, case management without training, officers dying on active duty because of heart attacks = deliberate indifference).
• Develop task conditions and standards of performance.
• Separate these tasks into common tasks (those performed by all), leader tasks (those performed by rank), and functional area tasks (those performed by individuals within a specific group (i.e. control room, dormitories, etc).
• Transition to a system where leaders (Sergeants, Lieutenants, Captains, Majors, Colonels, Assistant Wardens, Wardens, and Probation Supervisors are responsible for training their own people. You don’t need CJSTC certification to run a re-qualification range, nor do you need it to teach common and or area specific tasks. You simply need to teach them how to give and present training, which can be done in a basic leadership course. You can maintain FDLE certification requirements for Basic recruit. That is the only place you are required by law to have it).
• Develop Basic Recruit, Professional Development, and specialized training (collective training) based on these tasks. This includes advanced training for officers (example: Shoot, don’t shoot. Advanced searches. Et. Al), and advanced training for staffs (riot control exercises, emergency management exercises etc)
• Use lessons learned and operational feedback to tie back into the training system. This updates the system for future needs.
• Repeat the process for staff support, and then disband staff development.
If I were king…….