The Jail Correctional Training Officer (CTO)
Field Training OfficER (FTO) PrograM
Strategies To Implement and To Improve Jail Correctional Training Officer (CTO) Programs
The Center for Innovative Public Policies provides this document to assist jails considering implementing, or revising, their on-the-job training program for correctional officers. This work was accomplished with the assistance of jail professionals from around the country.
These programs are often labeled: Correctional Training Officer (CTO), Jail Training Officer (JTO), or Field Training Officer (FTO). For this document, the term CTO is used.
Effectively training newly-hired correctional officers remains a critical issue, as well as a challenging one, for the field. There is little guidance, or models, or research focused on jail-based on-the-job programs.
The Center for Innovative Public Policies (CIPP) identified disparities across the country in CTO programs, with an absence of common language and procedures. These findings, identified through a survey of the field, resulted in development of this document to provide information to enable and encourage jail leaders, employees, and stakeholders to deliberate about the need for a CTO program, and to assess and evaluate an existing program.
There are essential elements of CTO programs fundamental to their integrity, and ultimately to assuring the safety of staff, inmates, and the community. Credible programs require:
Program success requires the agency select, assign, and train their best employees as CTOs.
This document’s resources include options, reports, examples, research-based general practices, and ideas to begin, or update, a CTO program.
Questions, contact susanmccampbell@cipp.org.
These programs are often labeled: Correctional Training Officer (CTO), Jail Training Officer (JTO), or Field Training Officer (FTO). For this document, the term CTO is used.
Effectively training newly-hired correctional officers remains a critical issue, as well as a challenging one, for the field. There is little guidance, or models, or research focused on jail-based on-the-job programs.
The Center for Innovative Public Policies (CIPP) identified disparities across the country in CTO programs, with an absence of common language and procedures. These findings, identified through a survey of the field, resulted in development of this document to provide information to enable and encourage jail leaders, employees, and stakeholders to deliberate about the need for a CTO program, and to assess and evaluate an existing program.
There are essential elements of CTO programs fundamental to their integrity, and ultimately to assuring the safety of staff, inmates, and the community. Credible programs require:
- An up-to-date written directive system;
- Trainee evaluation criteria anchored in a valid job task analysis;
- Trained coaches and mentors;
- Documentation of a new employee’s ability to perform essential tasks;
- Consistent and frequent program oversight; and
- Periodic review and evaluation of program effectiveness.
Program success requires the agency select, assign, and train their best employees as CTOs.
This document’s resources include options, reports, examples, research-based general practices, and ideas to begin, or update, a CTO program.
Questions, contact susanmccampbell@cipp.org.
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A workshop on this Toolkit will be presented at the American Jail Association Annual Conference and Jail Expo, in Aurora, Colorado, April 4 – 8, 2020. Presenters are Susan McCampbell and Commander Shawn Laughlin, Broomfield Police Dept., Colorado. The time/date for the worship is not yet set. Click here for more information about the AJA 2020 conference https://www.americanjail.org/conference_jailexpo
For more information about this project, email Susan McCampbell @ susanmccampbell@cipp.org. |
