Shapeshifting for Correctional Facility CNT/HNT

Effective Scenario Training for Crisis/Hostage Negotiation Teams

Hostage Negotiation Within Correctional Facilities

This book concerns crisis/hostage negotiation within correctional facilities. It is not only for ‘in-house’ CNT/HNT teams within prisons. Most jails and other community level correctional facilities do not have their own negotiation team and when incidents occur, an outside law enforcement team is often called in to negotiate working in tandem with the facilities Emergency Response Team. This book, therefore, can be used for interagency practice when the team will, by necessity, come from outside the correctional facility.

Crisis negotiation is one of the most remarkable areas of expertise for the correctional officer. Through a combination of tactical communication, empathic connection and, at times, subterfuge, negotiators persuade enraged, suicidal or homicidal individuals, often intoxicated, or mentally ill, to relinquish their position of power and submit to correctional authority.

Not all barricaded or static situations, however, are truly negotiable. Some perpetrators may merely desire an audience to their crime, or someone to keep them company before committing suicide. In other cases, they are trying to set up either a ‘suicide by cop’ or an ambush. In all such cases, the negotiator serves a vital function: focusing the subject’s attention upon his or her voice to give tactical officers time and position to directly intervene to stop the crime in process.

In this book, the reader will  find thirty-two different training scenarios that cover the gamut of mental illness and personality disorders, as well as common situations that lead inmates (and very rarely, others associated with the correctional facility) to commit desperate acts. Most of them are based on cases that one or the other of the authors have actually encountered.  There are full instructions on how to set up the scenario, and how to brief the role player so that he or she plays it true-to-life.  The scenarios are colorful, unpredictable, and multi-layered, and require active involvement of the secondary negotiator and the rest of the team for intelligence gathering. Just as a real situation can change radically when new information is acquired, most of the scenarios will have unexpected twists that require the negotiators to think on their feet, and sometimes diametrically change directions. Many include tactical response, and some are specially crafted so that tactical officers can practice various skills during the scenarios, such as food deliveries, release of an injured hostage, delivery of the throw phone, or documents the subject has demanded. They can plant listening devices, or attempt to get a visual on the scene. Team leaders can program the negotiation exercise for ‘failure,’ something that neither the emergency response team nor the negotiators will be informed. When it is suddenly time to go, they must be ready to tactically respond.

Comments of Two Veteran Negotiators

Once again, co-authors Ellis Amdur and Lis Eddy have created a comprehensive, but straightforward, 'how to' book on the complex blend of science and art that is Crisis/Hostage Negotiation. This can only occur with authors who have the experience, knowledge, skills and abilities to successfully place themselves  in the shoes of those they seek to train--and Amdur and Eddy fit this profile perfectly. - James Treacy (former FBI Crisis Negotiation Team Leader, Seattle)

Great scenarios and recommendations on the handling of the varied individuals involved. Some were terrifying and moving at the same time. This should be a great training asset for crisis teams in the corrections setting. - Ret. Sgt. James Detrick (HNT/CNT Negotiator, Auburn Police Department)