Our Year in Review

The Vermont Department of Corrections' Training Center

2009 has been a year of change.  The changes were challenging and hold promise for the future.
The Academy moved from its location in Rutland at the College of St. Joseph to our new location in Waterbury.  Our name has changed as well; we’re now the Vermont Department of Corrections' Training Center.  We’re located at the former Dale State Correctional Facility and you can find us on the 2^nd and 3^rd floors of the building.  We have two classrooms and meeting spaces that are all ours.  We have training cells, a mock control room, and beds for around 40 staff to stay overnight.

100th VCA on the Capital Steps 

The Department had its 100^th Correctional Academy Class graduate in February.  This was a milestone for the Department.  The Vermont Correctional Academy is the most tenured training program in our department and has touched almost every employee we have in some way. 

We also combined the entire HRD unit into one work site.  We all work together under one roof and can coordinate our tasks.  Some of the changes to the unit this year were the retirement of three co-workers and one who took a RIF.  This was a loss of talent that will take us a long time to recover.

Training Center Staff Photo from September 2009

As far as Academy programs this year, we completed five Academies 100^th – 104^th and had a hybrid class in July.  We added 108 new Correctional Officers to our work force, and delivered 1096 Classroom hours of training through our Academy Program alone.

We also spent a lot of time training Trainers in 2009.  Here are some of the training events that we completed for the year.

Suicide Prevention Instructors 2009

• Fire Safety in September, this class went for 5 days and had 20 participants;
• American Heart Association BLS Instructor Certification in October and November, each class for 2 days with a total of 19 participants;
• Suicide Prevention in December ran for 4 days and had 18 participants;
• Restraint Chair Instructor Certification was in June; it was one day and had 17 participants;
• OC Trainer Recertification was in May, was one day, and had 19 participants;
• MEB and Strait Baton Instructor Certification were in March and lasted 2 days.  There were 22 participants.
• We sent two Instructors to Monandnock Defensive Tactics System (MDTS) and Monandnock Expandable Batons (MEB) Instructor-Trainer for 5 days.  We now have the ability to certify our own instructors.

In addition, our Training Center staff was involved at the Center and around the state with other trainings.  Some of these trainings included staff instruction, coordination, data entry in TRMS, budgeting, and the creative process of designing the training courses themselves.

Here is a short list; it’s not a complete one by any means:

• Addiction Biology: 32 participants
• Arrest Certification: 18 participants
• Basic Cognitive Self-change for facilitators: 24 participants
• Basic Intensive Domestic Abuse Program Facilitation: 33 participants
• Central Emergency Response Team – Basic: 12 participants
• Central Emergency Response Team - Quarterly Drill: 41 participants
• Client Perspectives: 14 participants
• Co-Occurring Disorders: 24 participants
• DUI Victim Impact Program Facilitator Training 11 participants
• Ethics- Alcohol and Other Drugs: 22 participants
• Group Dynamics: 21 participants
• Hearing Officer Training- Basic: 15 participants
• Hearing Officer Training- Update: 28 participants
• Hostage Negotiation-Training Drill: 43 participants
• Intervention Strategies: 30 participants
• Introduction to TRMS: 13 participants
• Level of Service Inventory – Revised: 18 participants
• LSI-R Certification Workshop: 14 participants
• Pre-sentence Investigation Report Training: 17 participants
• Recovery Resources: 13 participants
• Seeking Safety: 23 participants
• Self-Direction Facilitator Training: 23 participants
• Sentence Computation Training- Field (Part 1): 7 participants
• Sentence Computation Training- Field (Part 2): 5 participants
• Sentence Computation/Legal Process: 6 participants
• Sex Offender- Computer Analysis: 25 participants
• Sex Offender Pre-Sentence Investigations: 25 participants
• Sex Offender Profiles: 29 participants
• Sex Offender Risk Assessment: 24 participants
• Site Legal Administrator Training: 38 participants
• Supervising Domestic Violence Offenders: 15 participants
• Supervision in the Real World: 11 participants
• Supervision of Sex Offenders in the Community: 28 participants
• Supportive Supervision: 21 participants
• Therapeutic Community Principles: 6 participants
• VANS - Vermont Automated Notification Service: 399 participants

That snap shot was taken from our Training Registration and Management System (TRMS).  There were 1128 participants in those events, add 117 for Training for Trainers, 108 that made it through the Academy, and you get a grand total of 1353 training opportunities for our staff.  There has been more opportunity to train then we have total staff in our department, and the number’s are not all in yet, data entry on PREA training and ADA training is still in process and is not included in the information above.
          Classroom One

With all of the above training going on you can imagine our space usage.  Classroom 1 is in use 75% of its available time, with our other spaces in use 40% to 50% of their available times.  We can only see this increasing in 2010 and our current numbers only go back to August.

Now, speaking of TRMS, we as a department have finally moved our training records into this new database.  All Department trainings, Central or local, can now be viewed online on the AHS Training Calendar.

This means that if you change jobs in the department or the agency, your training will follow you to your new worksite.  You can see available trainings in any part of the state or at any site.

Our Accommodations on Site are Sparc but Functional

The Training Center has been developing online trainings and meetings using ilinc. With this technology, staff can attend a training or meeting and never leave their worksite or drive all day.  If you have questions about ilinc and how it works, you should talk with one of our staff.

Finally, we would like to hear about your training experiences over the last year.  If you like to write and would like to be published online, we are excepting article submissions about academy or general training experiences that you had with the department.  All submissions will be screened for appropriateness for our blog and edited for grammar and spelling.  That being said, we would like to hear from our newest employees that just finished their training adventure with us.  Also, It would be nice to hear from some of our veteran staff about their times at the academy, or about any Training that has been meaningful to you.  Your article could be on our blog in 2010.

Until then, we’ll be working hard to keep you up to date and will continue to move our training programs forward.

The Staff of the Vermont Department of Corrections’ Training Center wishes you happy holidays, and all the Joys of the New Year.