Surely the Correction Officer’s are at risk trying to control the inmates. The very nature of their jobs requires them to well trained in combat skills to defend themselves and also to discipline the inmates.I’m surprised more CO’s don’t talk about this. Its insane that we face the most potential hazard on a daily basis and we get the shaft when it comes to training. I myself have been training in Gracie Jujitsu and MMA just to condition and prepare myself. private louvre museum tour

I just finished combat training. The class was an 8 hour class, and as the instructor said, if you don’t practice, you loose it. I had a black belt in Tae Kwan Do, but that was in 90s. I was also a bit younger. So I will take my 8 hours of training and what knowledge I have, and hope it is enough until I can learn more. He was pointing out that as a prison guard, if a guard got into trouble, he might have to hold his own for up to 3 minutes. I work in a small town and at nights, many times we have one deputy on and maybe one city police officer. If they are both on calls, I could wind up holding my own for 10-15 minutes. I think combat training should be a minimum of 40 hours.

The problem in my agency is we are unionized, so no matter how much you “work” you’ll still get paid the same, depending on your seniority/longevity. Being an Instructor Trainer in self0defense for the state I get to talk with instructors from all over the state and I’ve noticed a trend. At each institution across the state you have about 5% of the C.O’s (usually your SRT trained and former military personnel) that will go hands on and attempt to control inmates. These are the same people that are often referred to as, “the goon squad or knuckle draggers”, if not for US neanderthals there wouldn’t even be anything slightly resembling the facade of control that we now have.

FYI to help with the budget concerns facing most facilities, there are new training courses available for the individual and small groups of officers through US C-SOG
http://www.corspecops.com/us-c-sog-host-school-schedule/us-c-sog-host-school-schedule

I’m surprised more CO’s don’t talk about this. Its insane that we face the most potential hazard on a daily basis and we get the shaft when it comes to training. I myself have been training in Gracie Jujitsu and MMA just to condition and prepare myself. My fellow CO’s aren’t that concerned about it. When things get exciting, It’s usually up to me to take the lead and handle it. I trust my partners to have my back, but I do wish they were in a little better shape and a little more skilled.

I agree it makes no sense to eliminate the training we were making progresas on with the ERU, Cert etc.. But I still recommend to officersa that if they are serious about survival skills the seek appropriate training on there own. The main focus here is survival. I my 30 years of experience involving officer assaults most end up on th ground or multiple assailants. Currently few defensive systems teach ground tactics. PPCT has a component called GAGE (ground avoidance, ground escape) however we don’t teach it. I agree with you that those with some experience had to be restrained to following the PPCT force continuem but ultimately survival is the goal. In my current facility those skills are not tauight to new hires. My opinion is having some skills is better than having no skills. I can and have defended (in court) officers using skills not taught within the training curricullem under the presumption that the current system does not address ground skills. The burden of proof for the inmate’s attorney is that the force was excessive and malicious. My sole point is again that in my facility we have digressed in the area of defensive tactics training and training for ERU, CERT appropriate applications. This is a result of lack of leadership from our current administration and lack of a stable leadership establishment. We have had 7 director/wardens for this facility in the 16 years I have been here.

Squeeze- that makes absolutely no sense. It’s the kind of backward thinking that gets people hurt. You have good cause to be concerned. And as for the litigation factor you and LockDownDogPa referenced, the BEST way to avoid lawsuits is proper training. An officer with good duty-specific defense training has the skill to properly act with the exact amount of necessary force appropriate to the situation. You take your average officer with NO such training and put him or her in a dangerous situation and your liability skyrockets. Even the average martial artist is a significant liability. for the last 25 years I’ve trained in everything from Tang Soo Do to Aikido to Kali and more- and MOST of what I learned is not appropriate for my job. Unless the situation is extremely dire, I can’t eye-gouge and throat-kick and re-direct-clothesline inmates onto the back of their heads on the concrete. When we get new hires, I worry about the ones who have martial arts training as much as the ones who have none. Are they going to have the proper skills and the ability to know what is appropriate for any given situation? This is an important question.

Smetimes we go backward. In the 90’s we here in my county in Ne. we began training CERT for forced cell moves and other Emergency responses, but during the current administration all our CERT and ERU training has been abandoned. No OC, no CERT or ERU teams. We even gave away our dog. We spent so much on ACA accreditation but 0 on tactical emergency response. I am concerned that if needed we cannot respond to any small inmate disobedience in any form of organized manner. We don’t even train new hires for forced cell moves. We are retreating.

Here in Nebraska we are taught PPCT/Warrior Science for certification on the initial year with yearly re-certification. Never enough training though. Like COGRIM I too have been an instructor and competitor in MMA long before it was MMA. When I started some 30 years ago training was purely rudimentary. Even today the training for most Corrections is minimal as compared to Law Enforcement, ie police/sheriff/patrol. While we have made inroads to the level of professionalism equivelent to Patrol we are still limited by our own Crminal Justice community to “less than Police”. We still are considered by many in our own community as “guards”. So the training is subsequently less intensive or extensive. In some facilities County Corrections Officers are even less trained than State Officers. Due to legal issues the counties don’t have the finacial resources to contest litigation concerning excessive force allegations. This sometimes ends in sacrificing the officer. I worked in several facilities including state(2) and Jails (2) and see the difference in training and standards of training. So in light of these issues some of use take the initiative to seek additional training on our own. For our own sake I encourage Corrections officers to do so if you intend to make Corrections a career.

No I don’t think they train anybody enough. The stuff they teach is basically to avoid lawsuits.

On Jan. 29th of this year, an inmate strangled Corrections Officer Jayme Biendl to death at the Monroe Correctional Complex in Washington state. She was working alone and unarmed in the prison chapel. The inmate, Byron Scherf, serving a life sentence without parole after being convicted of first-degree rape and kidnapping in 1997, was allowed free movement within the facility when he attacked and killed Officer Biendl. It really doesn’t take a genius to figure out the many, many things that was wrong about this scenario. AFTER the fact, the Governor vows reforms that will make the prison safer for officers. The time to do this is BEFORE someone is killed, not after!

The very nature of a C.O. job puts the officer in potential harm’s way on a daily basis. We’re in a confined environment and for several hours every work day we are outnumbered by, at worst very bad people and at best by people who exercise poor judgement. In light of this I am very annoyed that C.O.‘s are typically the LEAST trained to handle risk and the LEAST trained to defend themselves in a violent event in population or to defend themselves if attacked. I am lucky in that I have an extensive background in the martial arts- including MMA. Last year my department sent me to our academy for law-enforcement-specific combat training and I am now a certified SSGT instructor. It has made a HUGE difference in my ability to remain safe on the job. I now have a whole new skillset tailored to my environment and I’m more confident than ever I’ll know what to do when things go bad. I’m very interested in hearing my fellow C.O.’s thoughts and experiences with what training they are given (or NOT given) for the job. Are YOU trained and properly equipped at YOUR facility?