The Body-worn Camera Partnership Program is for law enforcement agencies, including tribal law enforcement, seeking to pilot, establish, or enhance body-worn camera policy and implementation practices. BJA’s Body-worn Camera Policy and Implementation Program (BWCPIP) addresses how to develop and implement these policies and practices for effective program adoption, including the purchase, deployment, and maintenance of camera systems and equipment; data storage and access; and privacy considerations.
Correctional Officer Wellness Project presents: Building a Comprehensive Mental Health Program. As the criminal justice reform movement is taking shape with bipartisan efforts to effect change, lasting systemic reform can only occur through approaches that address the mental health crisis facing correctional officers today. Comprehensive mental health programs need to address a number of unique challenges facing correctional officers, including privacy concerns, whole-family impacts, and need for sustained mental health care through retirement. Above all, programs must include the flexibility to adapt to new information as more surveys and studies are conducted to determine what’s working and what isn’t—and as more correctional officers come forward seeking help.
The U.S. correctional system is at a breaking point. Every American touched by the system—officers, administrators, the currently incarcerated and their family members—experiences challenges that can, and do, negatively impact their mental health. Among America’s nearly 450,000 correctional officers (COs), PTSD and depression are at near-epidemic proportions, driving extreme rates of psychological and even physical harm. The Correctional Officer Wellness Project presents an infographic focusing on Mental Health.
The crisis of correctional officer (CO) mental health is reaching a breaking point. Correctional Officer Wellness Project: Solutions offers approaches that can help address these challenges. Administrators need to do more than just make these solutions available—they need to work to create a culture where mental health care is encouraged and valued. Long-term, lasting reform cannot be achieved through tactical shifts alone, but requires psychological, cultural, and strategic change as well.
Correctional Officers’ Perceptions of Training and Organizational Values provides facts from a national scan conducted by Improving Institutional Corrections Academy Training, consisting of on-site observations, surveys, and curriculum evaluations. It examines training academies' focus, content, and quality and develop guidance for building and supporting correctional staff to increase public safety by improving outcomes across the corrections community.
The Corrections Analyst Community Forum is a place for corrections analysts to ask questions and get advice from the corrections analyst community.
Coming soon! Corrections analysts will be able to take the Virtual Academy self-guided Online Courses (Learning Management System-LMS), accessible from any computer with an internet connection, to expand existing skill sets across a range of relevant topics. All courses will provide static and interactive components with a range of instructor-guided materials and can be completed at users’ own pace.
Training is an integral component of every correctional agency, influenced by factors such as agency mission, organizational priorities, and budget considerations. Improving Institutional Corrections Training Academies: Guiding Principles is intended to provide a tool to organize priorities for a contemporary correctional training academy and a framework for best practices in the field to ensure staff receive the highest caliber training available.
The Collaborative Crisis Response Training Program funds the implementation of transdisciplinary crisis response training to educate, train, and prepare law enforcement and corrections officers so that they are equipped to appropriately interact with people who have behavioral health conditions (including mental health and substance use) and intellectual and developmental disabilities while completing their job responsibilities. The program supports states and local law enforcement, and correctional entities to plan and implement training, engage in organizational planning to deploy trained officers in times of crisis, and sustain a best practice crisis response program.
The Integrating Adult Learning Theory Practices in Correctional Training course reviews the tenets of Adult Learning Theory and the value of applying these principles to the development of all training curriculum. There is a clear connection between effective training and the enhancement of safety and security practices through employee readiness, satisfaction, and retention.
The Child Friendly Family Visiting Spaces in Jails and Prisons Program provides federal funds and training and technical assistance to correctional facilities to construct, renovate, or modify child-friendly family visiting spaces. It also provides funding to review, modify, and implement visiting policies, procedures, staffing, training, and implementation plans to support family strengthening and the best interests of child visitors.
The Bureau of Justice Assistance National Training and Technical Assistance Center (BJA NTTAC) facilitates the delivery of training and technical assistance (TTA) to the criminal justice community. By providing rapid, expert, coordinated, and data-driven TTA, the BJA NTTAC team supports practitioners in their efforts to reduce crime, recidivism, and unnecessary confinement, making communities safer. Utilizing a vast provider network, the BJA NTTAC team connects state, local, and tribal justice agencies with subject-matter experts to address their communities’ specific public safety needs.
The PREA Brochure: Template is intended for essential inmate/resident education on PREA, including definitions of sexual abuse and sexual harassment and how to make a report. The brochure was created to allow facilities to modify it to make it facility-specific. Instructions for how to modify the template and how to print for best results are included.
PREA Poster Templates are intended to provide information on an individual’s right to report, how to report, and access to victim support services. The posters were created in a range of sizes and designed to allow facilities to modify them to make them facility-specific. Instructions for how to modify the template and how to print for best results are included.
Criminal justice agencies use risk assessments to assist with the allocation of limited resources to manage and rehabilitate people at various stages of the criminal justice system. The Public Safety Risk Assessment Clearinghouse (PSRAC) provides evidence-based information about how to use risk assessments effectively and properly to build safe families and communities.