By TJJD Communications —
The Texas Juvenile Justice Department Training Department has been working on multiple developments for Juvenile Correctional Officers (JCOs), including; a new training program that blends classroom-style lessons with hands-on training and allows them to gain college credits for completed agency-provided training. Concurrently, the department has worked with several other states who have reached out for support, highlighting Texas’ national leadership within the juvenile justice industry.
JCO Academy
In September, TJJD piloted a new training academy for newly hired JCOs. The program was revised to provide a blend of orientation, classroom style training, and on-the-job training (OJT) working with current staff in specific dorms. This change in the training curriculum came as a direct result of a staff suggestion in response to a call for safety proposals by Executive Director, Shandra Carter.
“We recognized that giving new recruits the best understanding of what they were walking into was by incorporating that into their training” said Chris Ellison, Director of Training for TJJD. The new training curriculum has been taught to dozens of new JCOs and has now been rolled out across all facilities. JCOs who went through the old training program will be provided pocket trainings, so they are getting the same updated material and information as the new employees. This is critical for successful execution.
Partnership with Lamar State College
Additionally, over the summer Chris Ellison and his team were able to work with Lamar State College Orange to develop a partnership that would allow JCOs to receive college credits for their TJJD training and continuing education. To date, over 200 JCOs qualify for 16 college credits – that’s over one full semester of credits, and the agency isn’t done yet. With the success of this program in the early phases, the training department is continuing to work closely with Lamar College to find trainings that could count towards college credit hours, not only for staff but youth as well. The updated training curriculum and staff’s ability to obtain college credit hours have had a positive response, both internally and with external stakeholders.
To hear more about this partnership, check out this podcast interview with Chris Ellison and Lamar State College Orange President Wendy Elmore.
Industry Leading Training Department
TJJD’s is a leader in the juvenile justice industry across the nation for training and programming, resulting in multiple working relationships with other states requesting guidance and advice to improve their programming. We are proud to work with our colleagues across the nation to best serve youth in our various systems. Below is a snapshot of some of the states that engaged with TJJD over the last few years and the areas we provided support:
- North Carolina requested information on our STAR Teams and use of force policies and practices.
- Wisconsin contacted TJJD about Handle with Care, de-escalation questions, and other use of force policies and practices.
- New York requested information on boundaries training, use of force, curriculums on understanding professional liability, and managing the dorms.
- Ohio reached out about TJJD’s use of Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) and the development and implementation of the Texas Model.
- Louisiana contacted TJJD about our use of TBRI
- Alaska also engaged TJJD about TBRI and help with developing their violent offender program.
- New Hampshire asked us to help them build out their crisis stabilization unit (CSU) programming.
- Hawaii toured our CSU and we engaged with them on our best practices related to managing youth with mental health needs.
- Oregon regularly reaches out about various programs such as suicide prevention and power source. They’ve also inquired about other various policies and practices.
- Washington has reached out about strategic engagement with community leaders.
- Colorado engaged the training department to inquire about TJJD’s body worn cameras and how we’ve achieved over 96% recording time agency-wide (well above industry standard).
- Alabama reached out to ask about TJJD’s Covid protocols and practices.
- Connecticut is currently engaged with TJJD about measuring results from implementing Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT).
- Kentucky inquired about TJJD’s mental health programming.
- Arizona asked for support in developing a suicide prevention program.