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| Hostage Negotiators In Corrections |
| By Keith Martin, Assistant Editor |
| Published: 05/18/2001 |
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During any hostage negotiation situation, time is critical. A team of negotiators must act quickly towards the safest resolution of a situation, while relying on their training to do so. The men and women who serve as hostage negotiators in corrections do so because they want to use their skills to prevent one of their peers from being harmed. 'Every [negotiator] has a friend or even family member that they care about in their facility and wants to give them the best they can in an emergency,' says Bob Collins, Statewide Coordinator of the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections' Hostage Negotiator Teams (HNT). While largely a volunteer position for officers and other facility staff, Collins notes that the role of negotiator is not for everyone. In Pennsylvania, beyond agreeing to serve, the volunteer must have a satisfactory performance ranking in their last three reviews. Those who take on the added responsibility should also be able to function properly under stress, apply common sense and demonstrate good listening and communication skills and be slow to anger and instill calm in others, he says. Negotiators undergo hours of training to hone their communication skills and learn the tools of negotiation, like 'hooks' and 'barbs.' 'Through something like looking through his visitor list, we can see that a guy has a close relationship to his children - that's a 'hook,'' says Collins. 'We may work that into our negotiations and bring the emotions down a little. We may tell the hostage-taker about the hostage's kids or talk about what will happen to his own children [if he is suicidal]. If we look at a guy's file and see he was abused as a child, that is a 'barb,' and we will stay away from that.' While learning techniques like this, J.C. Allen, President of the California Association of Hostage Negotiators, says that the basis of negotiation is something officers have to do during every shift. 'This is something we do everyday - communicate and confront conflict,' he says. 'Don't wait for a situation to take place before learning how to talk to an inmate.' Saving Time Through Intelligence One advantage those in corrections have over law enforcement in dealing with negotiation situations is they know whom they are dealing with. When a hostage negotiator on the street responds to a situation, the person they are dealing with is unknown, whereas in prison, the inmate is someone the negotiator has most likely interacted with before. '[Knowing the inmate] is more of a good thing than it is bad,' says Jim McMillian, Training Coordinator for the California Department of Corrections' (CDC) Negotiation Management Teams. 'During the selection process for negotiators, we look at who has good communication skills along with who has a good reputation not only with the staff, but with the inmates as well. If we have a situation where an inmate has to talk to a person they know and respect, they may [not have trouble believing] what they have to say and put them off [like they would with a stranger].' McMillian adds that this level of respect is especially important in correctional institutions because negotiators may find themselves dealing with the same inmates again and even outside agencies like law enforcement and the FBI are changing the way they deal with hostage-takers. 'You used to see [these agencies approach a situation with] lies and anything else to get the person to release their hostages,' he says. 'Now, that philosophy has changed, especially with those who are suicidal and barricade themselves. If they have talked to that person before and lied, they lose credibility the next time. Our policy is 'be straightforward and professional.'' Another positive from knowing who you are dealing with behind the prison walls is the level of intelligence available on that person. By having quick and easy access to a person's criminal and medical records, as well as having monitored their mail and phone calls, there is a great deal of information for negotiators to utilize. 'We have a better grasp to deal with this person versus law enforcement, who don't know who the person is or what they are dealing with,' says McMillian. 'Lots of time is saved having that intelligence and with that information, we can often narrow down the causes [of what has lead to the situation].' Multiple Teams, One Goal Like California, many other states have separate hostage negotiation and CERT teams that train and work together, but that was not always the case. 'The 1970's saw [tactical team] members who happened to be glib with the tongue [as the negotiator],' says Allen, who is also an instructor for conflict management training with the CDC. 'Separate negotiation teams didn't get established until the late 1980's, with the thinking that negotiators did not need to be a tactical person, in terms of physical condition or [shooting skills].' With the separation in teams comes an increased need to work together to resolve a conflict, including joint training. According to Allen, with teams usually located at each institution, training together gives them the opportunity to know how each other operates, including codes the teams will use in a real situation. While both Allen and McMillan note that there can be personality clashes among negotiation and emergency response teams, one needs to rely on the other. 'Each of the team's are not successful alone,' says Allen. 'If negotiations don't work, that team knows they have the back-up of the emergency response team and more importantly, the inmate knows that.' McMillan adds that each team simply wants to do what they were trained for and that he stresses to negotiators that there are situations where negotiations do not work and that those are not considered failures. He recounted a recent hostage situation where negotiators talked face-to-face with the person for two hours. In the end, they had to use the tactical team to go in and get the hostages, not because the negotiators 'failed,' but because intelligence and other information they received indicated that the situation was more likely to end up a murder-suicide. 'The point is that every situation is different and can change at any moment,' says McMillen. 'The mission is the same for both [negotiation and emergency response] teams - hostage recovery with safety as the main goal.' Resources J.C. Allen, President, California Association of Hostage Negotiators, (619) 220-5459, www.cahn.org Bob Collins, Statewide Coordinator, Pennsylvania DOC's Hostage Negotiation Teams, (717) 975-4860 Jim McMillian, Training Coordinator, Negotiation Management Team, CDC Emergency Operations Unit, (916) 445-7688 |
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