Abstract

Correctional officers are expected to fill a variety of roles in a complex social environment fraught with understaffing, underfunding, and overcrowding. To prepare officers for this highly stressful work, states rely on training academy instruction. Although other fields (e.g., policing) have extensively researched the quality of academy instruction, the field of corrections lags behind with no outcome evaluations to date. Using a pretest-posttest design, we analyzed responses from surveys of 519 trainees across 3 state training academies (one southern and two midwestern states) distributed before and after training. Dependent sample t-tests were used to examine the extent to which officers gain confidence in their core functions and the social skills necessary to navigate work in the prison environment. Results indicated that although officers gain confidence in their core skills and leadership over the course of training, they do not gain confidence in interpersonal skills or teamwork. Given the varied social backgrounds of those serving time in prison, it is crucial for officers to gain the social skills necessary to respond to conflict stemming from racial, religious, and gender identity differences. Based on these results, explicit diversity and interaction-based training may help ameliorate these concerns.

摘要

在人手不足、资金不足和过度拥挤的复杂社会环境中，惩教人员需要扮演各种角色。为了让官员做好应对这项高压力工作的准备，各州依靠培训学院的指导。尽管其他领域（例如警务）对学院教学的质量进行了广泛的研究，但惩戒领域却相对滞后，迄今为止还没有任何结果评估。我们采用前测后测设计，分析了分布在培训前后的 3 个州培训学院（一所南部州和两所中西部州）的 519 名学员的调查结果。相关样本 t 检验用于检查官员对其核心职能以及在监狱环境中开展工作所需的社交技能的信心程度。结果表明，尽管军官们在培训过程中对自己的核心技能和领导能力有了信心，但他们对人际交往能力或团队合作却没有信心。鉴于监狱服刑人员的社会背景各不相同，官员获得必要的社交技能以应对因种族、宗教和性别认同差异而产生的冲突至关重要。基于这些结果，明确的多样性和基于互动的培训可能有助于缓解这些担忧。以及性别认同的差异。基于这些结果，明确的多样性和基于互动的培训可能有助于缓解这些担忧。以及性别认同的差异。基于这些结果，明确的多样性和基于互动的培训可能有助于缓解这些担忧。