National Institute of Corrections News

The acronym for the WEST Region of the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) Academy Division where Richard Geaither spent the last six years, “Where Excellence Starts with Training” means just that.

In working toward achievement of NIC’s mission, Geaither’s work as a correctional program specialist always focused on achieving excellence in the field by providing training and development to fellow NIC professionals and others connected to the corrections field, including police departments, lawmakers, and involved community members.

Richard’s 26-year tenure at NIC builds on a career of experience and expertise that began over 40 years ago. Richard joined NIC unofficially in November 1987 on loan via the Intergovernmental Personnel Act from Jefferson County Jail in Louisville, Kentucky, where he served as the deputy chief. In 1989 he officially became a federal employee as part of NIC’s Jails Division. When NIC moved its headquarters from Colorado to Washington, D.C., in 2007, Richard remained in Colorado and transitioned to NIC’s Academy Division with a focus on management and development training for executives and senior-level corrections professionals.

Richard’s service contributed to many NIC advances, including most notably:

• Inside the Mexican Drug Cartel – Training with jurisdictions on how to address Mexican drug cartel issues in their community. The training not only addressed the problem within communities, but also highlighted NIC’s role in ensuring that corrections officials were addressing topics appropriate to meet the needs of their immediate community.
• Facility Development Program – Training, assessment, and development for identifying needs and solving problems at the facility level, including restructuring and new jail planning.
• Regional Training Initiative – Providing funding and vetting volunteers for regional training throughout the country, as well as developing training programs and resources for state and local agencies.
• Credibility, Commitment and Dialogue: Cornerstones of Leadership – An essay included in Corrections Today, Feb 1, 2012, providing a case study on the “Develop Leadership Credibility and Follower Commitment through Strategic Dialogue” training program, from the annual training conference of the National Association of Blacks in Criminal Justice in 2011.

When asked what he thought of as his most important contribution to the field, Richard modestly mentioned his ability to identify problems at their root, to get to the true need, and develop a suitable solution. His strengths remain in training others to differentiate symptoms from problems, to enhance their ability to identify needs and build capacity for finding solutions to problems.

Though he is retiring, Richard keeps high hopes for NIC, and most specifically, the Academy Division as they continue in the process of internal strategic planning, the development of new and creative perspectives on training, and the promotion of a positive influence on the corrections field in the next five years and beyond.

Through a cooperative agreement with the Correctional Education Association (CEA), the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) developed new training for correctional educators across the country as they face implementation of the education Common Core Standards with incarcerated offenders. The results of this partnership helped bridge the gap in training for administering the 2014 online General Education Development (GED) exam, encouraging inmates to opt for schooling past state requirements for a specific number of days.

The need for the new training arose as the GED exam moves to an exclusively online format beginning in January 2014. With the paper test no longer being available to inmates, facilities must weigh their security needs against the needs of reentry programs that rely on receipt high school equivalencies as a measure of success. In addition, GED will implement new guidelines that could potentially affect the success rate of even those who take the exclusively electronic exam.

The NIC training includes a new GED manual and a two-hour training DVD specific to the 2014 model and online structure. Both of these items will be made available to correctional educators across the country.

Thirty states and over 1,500 correctional educators received training on the new guidelines and instructions.

Professionals in offender job placement understand the challenge of keeping offenders employed. With a new perspective on workforce development, the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) provides the tools necessary to place and retain offenders in the workplace. NIC developed the Employment Retention Initiative with the ultimate goal of creating a Risk Needs Responsivity model for workplace development. To initiate the process, NIC created a new definition for workplace development—creating gainful attachment to the workforce—moving the focus past paid employment placement and toward an emphasis on job retention instead. Fulfilling the new definition, NIC set out to create a process for workforce development focusing on the offender as well as the corrections professional.

With the new definition for workplace development, NIC created a curriculum for corrections professionals (Offender Employment Retention Specialist or OERS training), implementing the new workforce development definition and teaching corrections professionals how to work with offenders to help them find gainful employment. This new curriculum teaches techniques on becoming an offender employment retention specialist. To date, over 100 professionals have been trained with the new curriculum.

Most recently, NIC began a 24-month cooperative agreement with the Urban Institute to study influences on an offender’s separation from the workforce. The results of the study have led to the development of an Employment Retention Inventory (ERI), which will help practitioners identify obstacles that could negatively affect offenders’ success in securing gainful employment. During the cooperative agreement period, NIC will continue with OERS training as it conducts evidence-based assessments with the Urban Institute to validate ERI and begins introducing the employment retention initiative into jurisdictions nationwide.

As NIC moves toward validation of the ERI, it is also working to develop a complimentary Risk Needs Responsivity model for the field. More information about the model and the ERI will be available in the months ahead. To apply for the next OERS training, visit NIC at http://nicic.gov/Training/14C2301.

The Second Chance Act means just that—providing a second chance to offenders, helping to create improved outcomes as they return home. The introduction of the Second Chance Reauthorization Act allows for the expansion of grant programs available to states, helping jurisdictions realize their goals of increased accountability and better outcomes toward helping offenders realize fewer repeat offenses.

The Reauthorization Act also created a way to measure and track consistency of offender recidivism rates over time. For states, helping offenders reduce repeat offenses means safer communities and better reentry outcomes.

As part of the Act’s introduction, the Council of State Governments Justice Center hosted a Second Chance Act Reauthorization event, which included the highlighting of Reentry Matters, a case study publication highlighting positive grant programs around the country and successes focused on employment, education, mentoring, and substance abuse, and mental health treatment.

Watch a video of the event and download a copy of Reentry Matters.