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Message from the Director
Engagement
Recently, I attended the annual conference of the American Correctional Association in Denver, Colorado. As always, I enjoyed my time there, spending time with other corrections professionals and learning from everyone whom I came into contact with.
My discussions with our colleagues provided insight into the correctional matters affecting jurisdictions around the country. I learned more about the issues in corrections that matter to you most. I noted your concerns about the continued need to address important corrections issues, such as the management of working with mentally ill inmates and the implementation of the Prison Rape Elimination Act standards.
Getting direct input from people in the field is really the best way that NIC can serve you. Your feedback and involvement is crucial to us, and the programs and services that NIC provides is based on your input. What you share with us has a meaningful effect on outcomes for the entire country. This is one of the reasons why NIC has scheduled its latest public hearing on cost containment.
Speakers at the hearing will include experts from the Pew Center on the States, the American Correctional Association, state departments of corrections, and more. Their discussion will help shape the dialogue of future NIC planning that could influence corrections on a national scale.
If you have the opportunity to join NIC at a future event, meeting, or discussion, I encourage you to seize upon the occasion. This month’s newsletter includes two such opportunities. As always, I thank you for your support.
Morris Thigpen, Director
Balancing Fiscal Challenges, Performance-Based Budgeting, and Public Safety
The National Institute of Corrections (NIC) is fortunate to have a 16-member Advisory Board appointed by the Attorney General to advise and assist the Institute in performing its mission. Later this month, the NIC Advisory Board will hold a hearing to focus on cost benefit and cost containment measures, emphasizing ways that corrections can improve its stewardship with taxpayer funds and apply its resources in smarter ways—through partnerships, effective programming, population management, and evidence-based practices—to save or stretch existing funds. The hearing will also include discussion of the costs devoted to addressing the needs of special offender populations, including those suffering from mental illness, chronic disease, and the ailments of age. Further key topics will include:
- Offender health care and pharmaceutical costs
- Cost-effective greening strategies
- Implementation of PREA standards in cost effective ways
In addition, NIC will highlight the newly created cost containment area of its website, which houses a library of real-world solutions for improving jail, prison, and community corrections operations through no-cost and low-cost alternatives.
The following is a partial list of speakers who will provide testimony during the cost containment hearing:
- Charles Samuels, Director, Bureau of Prisons
- Morris Thigpen, Director, National Institute of Corrections
- James Gondles, Executive Director, American Correctional Association
- Adam Gelb, Director, Pew Center on the States’ Public Safety Performance Project
- Bernie Warner, Secretary, Washington State Department of Corrections
- J. John Ashe, Superintendent, Hampden County, Massachusetts
- Michael Jacobson, Vera Institute of Justice
- Karen Wilson, PricewaterhouseCoopers
- Stan Hilkey, Sheriff, Mesa County Sheriff's Office
If you would like to attend the public hearing, please RSVP no later than August 10, 2012 by contacting Donna Deutsch at 202-510-9681 or by e-mail at ddeutsch@mossgroup.us. Be sure to note your needs for accessibility if required. Not all requests for attendance will be granted due to limited space availability.
The hearing will be held at the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, DC, on August 22 from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. EST and August 23 from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. EST.
For more information about the NIC Advisory Board and NIC’s recent list of hearings, please visit www.nicic.gov/publichearings.
Upcoming Thought-Leader Webinar from NIC
Clark N. Quinn, PhD, of Quinnovation will be the next presenter for NIC’s Thought-Leader webinar series. He will explore “e-Motional e-Learning” in a session that looks into the emotional aspects of the learning experience and how emotion for e-learners can affect their success.
Suggested audiences for this training include local, state, and federal adult corrections and juvenile justice training directors and administrators, training coordinators, and training and curriculum developers who are interested in ensuring their e-learning design delivers the optimal learning outcome.
Quinn is an advocate of design that respects how people really think, learn, and perform. With a PhD in applied cognitive science and long experience in technology, he has been responsible for numerous solutions that are both innovative and pragmatic, and ultimately successful. Quinn is a member of the Internet Time Alliance, an organization that helps clients "understand and embrace completely and adopt new ways of working and learning." To learn more about Quinn and the Internet Time Alliance, please visit http://www.quinnovation.com/ and http://internettimealliance.com/.
To register, please follow these steps:
1. Go to https://nic.webex.com/
2. Click Event Center.
Please test your system compatibility before the session. You can do so by following this link: http://www.webex.com/lp/jointest/
For more information about this course or the Thought-Leader webinar series, please contact Bernie Iszler, NIC Correctional Program Specialist at 303.338.6618.
Upcoming Satellite/Internet Broadcast – Health, Justice, Women
On August 15, 2012, the National Institute of Corrections will host its next satellite/internet broadcast. Titled Health, Justice, Women: Transforming Systems—Changing Lives, the broadcast will “explore research, strategies, and resources designed to effect health care practices used with justice-involved women.” Members of the health care fields; adult and juvenile corrections; government health, public health, and public safety offices; and local reentry coordinators are encouraged to attend. The broadcast is free.
For more information and to register, please visit www.nicic.gov/Training/SIB12S9002.
Employment Assistance for Offenders
Graduates of the NIC employment specialist trainings now have access to another tool that will help them find and place clients with employers willing to hire them. It is called The Next Step, a database of employers and agencies/facilities managing the reentry process for newly released offenders that has been developed by the Cooperative of Felon Friendly Employers. For more information, please visit https://www.thenextstep99.com/.
If you are just getting started or are looking for additional training to help further your success in providing employment services for offenders, please also visit NIC’s Transition and Offender Workforce Development webpage. This website has new information and resources about employment and working with offender populations. New contant is added regularly.
Police Involvement in Reentry
Part of its series of papers resulting from its Executive Session on Policing and Public Safety, the National Institute of Justice recently published Exploring the Role of the Police in Prisoner Reentry. The paper begins by asking simply, “Why should police care about prisoner reentry?” The answer the authors provide builds on many of the basic principles of reentry today, namely that collaboration and community involvement are important. It further suggests that police involvement in reentry can help promote not only public safety but also “police legitimacy [acceptance among a community of the legal authority of the police] by strengthening relationships with communities, particularly communities of color, through engagement in community policing activities.”
For more information about police and reentry, see:
Human Resource Directors Wanted
The NIC Prisons Division is assisting the field in taking a broader look at challenges impacting the work environment. Leaders continue to be affected by the complexities of workforce-related policies and procedures, including the Family and Medical Leave Act, succession planning, staffing deficiencies, the Americans with Disabilities Act, social media, and labor relations. NIC would like to discuss solutions to help improve operations by inviting Human Resource (H.R.) Directors to a special meeting.
Ten to fifteen H.R. Directors from around the country will be asked join and to discuss best practices, emerging issues, and workforce 2020. The meeting will take place the week of September 24, 2012.
Interested and available H.R. Directors should contact Evelyn Bush, NIC Correctional Program Specialist, at 800-995-6423, ext. 40376.
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