AJA & JCH Partnership Webinars

While many citizens see jail as a place where accused and convicted lawbreakers are housed in modern facilities under the watchful eyes of corrections officers, there are dynamics behind the scenes. Jail populations are a potpourri of people with varying criminal backgrounds, health issues, ages, and behavioral issues.   Some are young, some are old, some are suffering from mental disorders and some pose management problems.  Corrections is a people profession; we have to keep safe inmates in our care. They are responsibility-like it or not.  

Thanks to studies and data collected during the past several decades, we are continuing to learn about offenders and their problems.  This two-part online seminar will discuss several key special populations in jail:  the young, the old, LQTBQ offenders, medical issues, mental health issues and special housing.

The first step to reducing litigation is to know where lawsuits begin. Walk through a step-by-step guide on how to evaluate an inmate’s religious requests and how to provide alternative means to free exercise while still upholding the safety and security of the facility.

Part 2 will discuss the following groups:  LGBTQ offenders, inmates with medical issues, inmates with mental health issues, and inmates in restrictive housing.  Each has serious issues, which are magnified in severity by incarceration.  These issues range from serious medical conditions to depression, suicidal behavior, and violence.  Ways to manage them, identify their problems, and take steps to prevent liability will be explored.  Staff failures that resulted in liability, as well as staff successes in management, will be discussed.

When you decided to take the leap to management, did you ever realize how difficult life could become? You were a solid employee completing projects and doing amazing work.  When that promotion arrived, did you ever consider how former co-workers would react to your achievement?

What if you moved quickly and now you are managing a supervisor who was once your boss? Just when you thought work couldn’t get any more complicated, it has.

Today’s webinar will consider the difficulties of leading others who may not be thrilled that you surpassed them.  From co-workers to managers, we’ll consider how to lead others who may not be excited about your success. We’ll discuss how hard work and competence can encourage others to follow you and even join your team, ideas for connecting with individuals on a variety of levels, and what to do if they simply don’t want to embrace the change that has come.  Becoming the boss isn’t always easy but we will examine some proven solutions that work.

As more is learned about the impact of long-term exposure to the correctional environment, agencies must offer their staff a resource—a safety net—to navigate the challenges they face in their professional and personal lives.

Creating a Peer Support team is the foundation of that safety net. But what is Peer Support, and what does it look like in the correctional space?

In this webinar, we’ll discuss how to build, train, and maintain a Peer Support program that your people will actually use and how to navigate obstacles and attitudes that can hinder such a program’s success.

A legal-based training plan can save your agency time and money. Through discussions centered on training theory, philosophy, and litigation-tested strategies, you will learn why you need to spend more time on effective training and how to provide train

The largest generation in the history of the United States is retiring in record numbers.  This shift in workforce demographics is going to impact your operation, whether it’s about your bottom line and productivity or being a good steward of public resources.

This webinar will focus on ways to identify and turn around underperformers who are approaching retirement.  We will discuss how to identify and mitigate this strain on your human resource capital.  Attendees will learn about policies and procedures that may exacerbate underperforming team members and how to coach up and plan to get great outcomes from senior personnel right up to the retirement reception.   We will also explore opportunities to use retirees as a resource to strengthen your remaining team.

Attendees will be introduced to the aspect of emotional intelligence, more specifically, the Mixed Method Model by Daniel Goleman and how it can influence/i

In this lively session, discover how social media and community outreach can transform your correctional department’s image and foster positive relationships. Learn hands-on strategies to boost your agency’s online presence, engage with the community, and attract top talent. Unlock the potential of outreach to strengthen connections and humanize your staff. This presentation will cover best practices, lessons learned, and real-life examples of how social media can improve public perception. Additionally, we’ll explore navigating the unique challenges of social media in corrections while building a transparent and trusted brand. Join us to explore creative ways to engage your community inside and outside the facility walls!

• Effective Social Media Strategies: Learn how to craft and manage a compelling online presence that enhances your correctional department’s image and fosters positive community engagement.
• Best Practices in Community Outreach: Discover actionable outreach techniques that strengthen public connections, humanize your staff, and promote transparency.
• Navigating Social Media Challenges: Gain insights into handling the unique challenges of social media in corrections, including managing public perception, privacy concerns, and crisis communication.
• Real-World Examples and Lessons: Explore real-life case studies and lessons learned from other correctional agencies that have successfully used social media to improve public relations and boost recruitment.

Since the global pandemic, the opioid epidemic has progressed to a crisis stage. With over 80,000 annual overdose deaths attributed to opioids and with cheap fentanyl readily available to those suffering from opioid use disorder, significant challenges to public safety and public health systems are a day-to-day reality in America.

Jails are at ground zero of the epidemic. More than 30% of people incarcerated in jails suffer from serious opioid withdrawal and often have little to no control over opioid use. Individuals are brought in directly from the street, often actively under the influence of opioids and/or actively withdrawing from opioid use. Left untreated, there are risks to the safety of the patient, risks to facility staff due to the potential for a critical incident, and potential liability for facility and correctional health services administrators by not providing treatment.

“Staff Wellness” is the new trendy talking point in the correctional world. Jail Administrators and Executives from all over the country are assembling leadership teams and think tanks, organizing Zoom calls, and attending retreats and training sessions, all in an attempt to address the wellness of their staff.

The problem is that addressing the wellness of staff is not an easy task to tackle as the correctional culture does not allow for such things to flourish. But we’re at a breaking point. We’ve reached critical mass. We can no longer afford to ignore the effects that the correctional environment has on those who are exposed to it. Our traditional ways of doing business are neither productive nor sustainable. We must adapt if we want to adopt an approach that adequately and appropriately addresses the needs of our staff.

In this webinar, we’ll discuss five potential challenges to starting and sustaining a successful Staff Wellness program and how an agency can navigate those challenges to create an emotionally supportive and psychologically safe environment for staff.