Are Criminals More Violent?
February 16th, 2010
Juvenile Detention Officer Leonard Wall succumbed to injuries sustained when he was severely beaten by three juvenile inmates at the Jack Jones Juvenile Justice Center. Officer Wall was conducting bed checks when the three inmates attacked him and took his keys. When another officer came to check on Officer Wall, the inmates attacked him too, inflicting non-life threatening injuries.
January 30th, 2010 Read more…
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Hot Tips, Mental Preperation
Corrections and law enforcement work by its very nature involves the slippery slope or the potential for gradual deterioration of social-moral inhibitions and perceived sense of permissibility for deviant conduct. In fact, the whole unspoken “dark” side of criminal justice work involves putting up with conditions that are at less than usual comfort levels. 
You should always attempt to gain voluntary compliance through selected verbal strategies. However, your personal safety is the highest priority. Your initial verbalization to an aggressive individual should be to slow down the conflict event. Attempt to calm the individual and give them clear directions and attempt to explain your actions if the event allows. Redirect the individual’s anger to the past. Utilize L.E.A.P.S. (Listen, Empathize, Ask, Paraphrase, Summarize) “We can work this out,” “We can come up with a solution,” “John, stop and think about how this will turn out later.” 
During my many years involved in law enforcement I have responded to thousands of domestic related incidents and been involved in countless family and live in partner mediations. Calls of this nature are just a part of being a police officer. Even police officers or correctional officers that cannot maintain a stable home environment for themselves and respond and perform outstandingly when called upon to mediate a dispute. I have seen incidents from family arguments to an aggravated assault in which the husband struck his wife in the mouth with a hammer, resulting in perminate disfigurement to the female. I hope that the following provides information that will assist you in your life from becoming a victim of domestic violence and assists you in recognizing behaviors exhibited by batterers. 
I got a lot of response to my initial article on criminal thinking errors requesting more information of the errors as defined. Well here are the criminal thinking errors defined and I hope they will assist you in understanding the personalities of the inmates you work with. 
Professional and college sports teams clothing worn by street gangs. The following information is an indicator as to how many gang members are using popular sports clothing to represent their individual gangs. Both professional and college teams are represented. It should be noted that the sporting of clothing does not always signify gang affiliation. This list was compiled to make the reader aware of possible gang involvement. It should also be noted that street gangs have become aware of the fact that law enforcement uses the wearing of colors as an indicator of gang involvement. 
When an officer recognizes the type of violence he is facing, he can customize his tactics for de-escalating it on the spot. By taking a general strategy and customizing it to specific tactics, he meets the needs of the moment. In doing this he greatly increases the odds of the situation being resolved without violence. However, not all situations can be resolved non-violently as some may preach. An inmate may want you to place your hands on them for various reasons one being; they think you can’t take them. Though we always attempt to resolve situations without violence and attempt to gain voluntary compliance we have to understand the environment we work in and that violence, intimidation and pain are a reality.