Tell It Like It Is

One of the most significant things you can do to communicate effectively is what is called Active Listening.  Some people say the fact that a person has two ears and one mouth illustrates that you should hear twice as much as you speak.  One of the foundational keys to good listening is that the listener’s body language should demonstrate interest.  Interest is communicated by facing the person, having good eye contact, responding with facial expressions and head nodding.  The speaker will be able to see that you are listening and interested in what they are saying.  We will review some of the principals, which will assist in sharpening your listening skills.  Read more…

Tracy Barnhart Mental Preperation Add new tag, control, culture, federal, mob mentality, riots, security

Dedicated to Juvenile Correctional Officer William Hesson
End of Watch: April 29th, 2009
Cause of Death: Inmate assault

Everyone who knows me best knows that I am big on the warrior ethos and obtaining and keeping a survival mindset.  But in writing this training article I was very apprehensive on what to call it.  I wanted to call it, “The Survival Mindset” but in doing so it would have indicated that we are in a survival fight for our lives with extreme peril and most administrators would have disregarded it as not applicable.  I thought about calling it “The Warrior Mindset” but that would have given us a wrong public misconception that we are bloodthirsty combative killers, not good for appearances.   So I sat and thought about this article and came up with a great administratively PC correct title that seemed virtually calming and non-aggressive and above all, totally crap.  Read more…

Tracy Barnhart Mental Preperation, use of force control, culture, riots, security, terrorism

I have seen a consensus all across the country about institutional contraband and the desire to stop it. Especially stopping the introduction of cellular telephones being difficult to trace. You will never totally eliminate the contraband unless you automate personnel at your facilities with robots and totally take away the human factor. As long as there are people to bewilder, manipulate and intimidate there will always be contraband. I heard a story today where a mother of an inmate French kissed her son in visitation, passing contraband through her mouth into his. I mean, how are you going to stop that? In this article I want to talk about the “human factor” identifying people who are bringing contraband into the facility by staff, visitors, and volunteers and how to tell they are dirty. Read more…

Tracy Barnhart contraband control contraband control, control, federal, security, texas