Keep your distance as long as possible. Unfortunantly, most times an attack happens very quckly and without much warning, so the inmates already in close to you. Use ANYTHING you can for a weapn, and I do mean ANYTHING. If he’s going to attack you, he probably won’t hesitate to try and kill you. Use your knowledge of USD training, I know here at ManCI we do alot of training from ground positions, which is where most fights end up. Above all, don’t try and be a hero. Call for backup whenever possible, hit your man down, or blast them with OC spray at first chance.

Fight every fight like you were going to die if you lost.

BRANDNEWMP. I know you will or have had the defensive tactics classes in training for control techniques and the training is applicable but remember first and foremost, go home in one piece. Like DT says you must be as ferocious and and focused as you can possibly be. You never give up or stop until the threat is neutralized. Do what you do best if what you were taught doesn’t work and wait for the cavalry. As a expert witness is several court proceedings as well as Internal proceedings when all else has failed the courts will decide what is a reasonable response. Lately courts have drifted away for defined force continuum and closely inspected what is referred to as the reasonableness of the response. this gives more latitude for the officer’s response. this is what has been happening in my area of the country, but then here in NE we are a little on the conservative side (blood red) supporting the law enforcement view.

We don’t have body alarms, it’s just us, the radio and the gas. Last time I got punched pretty good it happened real fast and another CO was in it fast. Managed to get him down though, but if not for the backup I would have likely been hurt.

Run through them like a freight train and then call for help. Unless you have time to pull your cord.

Hit your alarm as soon as possible but don’t leave yourself open to do it. If your fighting with an inmate over a weapon or other situation that requires you to remain totally commited to the fight deal with that situation first, create an opening then go for the alarm. As Mick said, make all the noise you can and use any means needed to protect yourself. Your defense instructors should cover all this before your training is through. Ask questions and soak up everything you can but as always you’ll learn more as time goes by.

Just remember that keeping your distance can go along way. More than likely you will not have time to push buttons or make a call if an offender wants to attack you. The offender will usually attack you when you least expect it and you will need to jump into self defense mode to protect yourself. Leave yourself an out when doing rounds and walking among the offenders. When you go into self defense mode remember “closest weapon, closest target”. In other words you use what you can to protect yourself until you can eliminate the threat. Hopefully you will never find yourself in that situation. Be safe and I wish you well with your career in corrections.

To be honest the first thing going through your head is putting the inmate down. You most likely won’t have a chance to hit an alarm at first as most attacks will come with very little warning. If you get a chance to back away from the inmate after the initial assault then you will have time to think about alarms. But if you can’t yell, scream make as much noise as you can someone will hear it. And use every dirty nasty fighting trick you can think of and worry about the paper work later. If you have to bite, gouge or rip any soft part of his body. Because your life may depend on you coming out on top.

Okay so first off Im new and I am in training at the moment. I’ll be let loose on my own by the end of January. To anybody thats been in a unit by yourself and has gotten into a fight, were you able to hit your body alarm? If so did you go for that first or were you worried about protecting yourself and fighting the inmmate? Also our body alarms are on our radios so there very small, which is why Im asking what you guys have done.