UNIVERSITY OFFERS PROGRAM TO TRAIN AREA JAIL OFFICERS

A program to train jail staff and to protect them from civil and criminal liability will be offered next semester at Southeast Missouri State University.

Two 20-hour weekends, scheduled for Feb. 21-23 and March 6-8 in Crisp Hall's Dempster Auditorium, will provide quality instruction to help in protecting area law enforcement agencies against litigation by inmates. Cost of the program is $75 and is open to people who handle inmates in the Southeast Missouri region and who are sponsored by an area law enforcement agency.

The program will train jail officers and administrators in several areas, including: escorting of inmates, patrol procedures, contraband control, psychological disorders among inmates, key and tool control, recreation and visiting among inmates, sick calls, diabetic and epileptic seizures among inmates, medical problems confronting women inmates, drug withdrawal in jail, and suicide prevention in jail.

The training also will cover the rights and responsibilities of jailers, basic jail security principles, booking and admissions, classification of inmates, and written communications.

Linda Ferrell, former Cape Girardeau probation and parole officer, helped develop the jail officers' training program with the assistance of area jail administrators, sheriffs, attorneys and jail employees. The program is designed to help narrow the gap in jail training standards mandated for jail staff by the state of Missouri.

"It is an extremely responsible position to work in a jail," Linda Ferrell said. "But Missouri has few requirements for working in a jail. Now, you learn mainly on the job."

Missouri is one of just seven states nationwide that has developed jail training standards but has not implemented them, Ferrell said. Missouri also lacks a mechanism to enforce jail training standards, she said. In some states, jail training standards are enforced by courts, the department of corrections or a law enforcement agency.

Program instructors will be Mike Price and Larry Ferrell, both assistant U.S. attorneys, Scott County Sheriff's Department deputies, and professors from Southeast's criminal justice and psychology departments.

Southeast's Jail Officers' Training Program was developed in response to a changing legal system as it concerns corrections and to the increasing number of frivolous lawsuits being filed by inmates against jail staff, Linda Ferrell said.

Until the 1960s, prisoners in the United States had little hope of winning lawsuits protesting the unconstitutionality of the conditions of their confinement. In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the court was powerless in supervising prison administration or interfering with prison rules or regulations. State and federal courts followed by taking a hands-off approach in the area as well, Ferrell said.

But in 1961, the U.S. Supreme Court reconsidered and recognized that the Constitution did extend into prisons and jails, and the court suddenly became the instrument for change for correctional facilities. In the case of Monroe vs. Pape, the court extended the protections of the Constitution to prisoners in suits against prison authorities, Ferrell said.

Since then, federal courts have intervened in increasingly sophisticated ways to enforce minimum constitutional standards in prisons and jails. Recent history has seen a tremendous growth in the number of cases protesting prison conditions and an endless number of court rulings interpreting the constitutional rights of inmates. The courts now are exercising control over federal, state and local jails by imposing new duties and liabilities on prison and jail employees, she said.

Correctional administrators are now accountable for their actions and prison conditions, and they may be required to defend them in court. That's why it is important for jail staff to know how the courts work, the rights which are guaranteed to inmates and the types of conduct which may subject them to civil or criminal liability, Ferrell said.

"There are an enormous amount of suits that go on," she said, and many could be prevented if jail officers and administrators are properly trained in the handling of inmates.

"Lawsuits are timely and costly," said Michael Brown, chairman of the criminal justice department at Southeast. "We're trying to give (program participants) enough information to prevent these problems from getting out of hand."

The program builds on basic training that jail staff may already have received.

"If they've taken a correspondence course or have had on-the-job training, this reinforces their previous information and training," Ferrell said.

The goal of the program is to reduce the number of mistakes made by jail staff in the handling of inmates and to increase the safety of jail staff and inmates. The program also is designed to prevent successful lawsuits against jail administrators and staff and to improve the capabilities and efficiency of jail staff, Ferrell said.

To reserve a space in the program, call the criminal justice department at (314) 651-2541 by Feb. 7.