This course builds on Evidence-Based Practices Demystified – Part A and expands on the EBP’s key components and concepts. Correctional staff learn about risk/needs assessments, criminogenic needs, offender engagement theory and techniques, stages of change, cognitive-behavioral therapies, incentives/sanctions, measuring outcomes, and program fidelity. The Part A course is reviewed, and new information supports retention and helps staff contextualize program shifts within their department and facility: a bigger picture begins to emerge.

Probation staff benefit from this mental preparedness course that equips them to be prepared for a variety of potentially dangerous situations. Apprehension is decreased when staff has more comprehensive planning and preparedness skill discipline. This course creates more confident field officers who have the insight, strategies, and ability to approach a variety of potentially violent situations with professionalism and control. This class replaces offender apprehension with solid real-world skills and abilities. This class is very scenario based and focuses on officer verbal skills, knowledge of one’s surroundings, and common attempts at deception and manipulation by violent offenders. This is a practical course.

The Public Safety Realignment has introduced challenges and opportunities in California. Perhaps more urgent than ever is the call for effective, dynamic leadership while maintaining the Public Trust. This 4-day course is based on tenets contained in NIC’s leadership training and includes a strong emphasis on ethics. This regional course offering is staggered over consecutive months and provides leaders at all levels of probation and sheriff’s departments with tools to lead with greater confidence and skill not only on the job but also in all aspects of life. Dynamic Leadership consists of four eight-hour sessions that include: developing a personal philosophy of leadership and ethics; leading others; organizational leadership, and ethics; and, the challenge of leadership. Through a variety of learning methodologies such as written case studies, video case analyses, and participant-centered, interactive learning processes, the participant not only studies leadership, but experiences leadership within this nurturing, learning environment.

This course is an engagement skills training for institutional staff. Some institutional facilities may find it difficult to implement certain practices in an institutional setting due to short length of resident stays, institutional variables, and staff resistance. The reality is that there are many successful ways to be effective with an institutional population despite these challenges. The use of evidence-based practices and effective practices are not limited to treatment programs and conducting assessments. Juvenile hall staff gains a deeper understanding of their role within the department and become armed with practices they can put into place the next day. This course challenges line staff to look at the current way they do business and explore research-based ways of increasing their effectiveness with youthful offenders in custody.

Supervisors and managers gauge their department’s progress in implementing evidence-based practices through the discourse facilitated in this course. Some departments may have successfully delivered initial trainings in evidence-based interventions, skill sets, and assessment, and now are experiencing the challenges associated with operationalizing the practices and making them a permanent part of culture and policy. This course addresses the importance of integrating evidence-based practices within each county’s unique department and offers strategies to move forward to attain the results the research proves are possible. Supervisors and managers dialogue and gain clarity regarding the details of their department’s EBP implementation; afterwards, action items are drafted, examined, prioritized, and assigned.

This course is an engagement skills training for institutional staff. Some institutional facilities may find it difficult to implement certain practices in an institutional setting due to short length of resident stays, institutional variables, and staff resistance. The reality is that there are many successful ways to be effective with an institutional population despite these challenges. The use of evidence-based practices and effective practices are not limited to treatment programs and conducting assessments. Juvenile hall staff gains a deeper understanding of their role within the department and become armed with practices they can put into place the next day. This course challenges line staff to look at the current way they do business and explore research-based ways of increasing their effectiveness with youthful offenders in custody.

This course trains probation deputies and institutional staff alike to facilitate the Thinking for a Change groups. When facilitated with offenders the “groups” teach social skills and problem-solving skills, and cognitive self-change. This cognitive-behavioral program, developed by the National Institute of Corrections (NIC), is free, and additional resources are easily accessed through NIC’s website. The principle of the program is that “thinking controls behavior.” If you change and redirect an offender’s thinking, you can change their actions and reduce criminal behavior. This is an intensive four-day training course that enables line staff to run groups. This is a two-instructor course: one instructor from field services and one from institutions. This can be a blended course. The instructor studied with and was certified by the Thinking for a Change co-author.

This two-day skills course increases probation officer competency to coach offenders to understand the nuts-and-bolts of finding and, most importantly, keeping a job. Additionally, probation officers are taught to identify job loss indicators and other specific factors that undermine offenders’ success in this area. Probation officers learn to help offenders create a pro-social network. They also learn to effectively relay information about local resources. Evidence-based offender engagement skills are practiced in the context of creating offender motivation to succeed in this life-changing area. Because employment is a key component of successful reentry and employment reduces recidivism, outcomes in this arena going forward will be enhanced by probation officers’ comprehensive understanding of all the barriers and learning gaps offenders experience, so offenders may be referred to appropriate services and/or be mentored from an insightful, supportive perspective. Probation officers meet and learn about department-approved and vetted resource providers on day two.

Being a probation officer is the opportunity to have a real career, a career that includes both professional and personal satisfaction and growth while being in service to your community. With Evidence-Based Practice and the Public Safety Realignment there is a huge need for skillful and inspiring leadership at all levels, and that need will increase as community corrections measure successful outcomes. To optimize this opportunity to grow with the growing role of probation in your county, it is key that probation officers chart their career paths! Think about what skills you want to acquire, what role you want to play in the organization, and the impact that you want to have on probationers. Leadership opportunities are available at every level if you are willing and prepared! This course helps you determine, as a group, those leadership skills that are most important and helps you identify the skills you’d like to develop within yourself, those abilities you’d like to hand select and work on to add to your toolbox. You can help identify and be part of the solution to departmental challenges. Some of the most potent changes come from the bottom up!

Evidence Based Practice (EBP) stresses the need to address gender differences in case planning and management. The needs of female probationers are often more diverse, and these differences should be carefully considered when interacting with, and case planning for successful outcomes. Since women are typically primary child caretakers this requires particular attention both for parenting skills as well as time allocation in case planning. This skills course covers a variety of other issues: particular strategies to deal with substance abuse, unhealthy relationships, self-care, building a peer support group, and mental health challenges that are specific to women. Case studies and real-life scenarios are effective as practice vehicles to allow probation officers to build competency in understanding and becoming more skillful in working effectively at interviewing, building, and maintaining a strong professional alliance with women of all ages. Particular and careful attention is paid to cultural differences and the impact of physical and sexual abuse, domestic violence, and limited problem-solving skills.