The Detention Mini-Skills Academy is a 40 hour Detention specific curriculum designed to develop and/or enhance critical skills necessary to be a Detention/Jail Officer. The academy is a partnership between the County Sheriffs of Colorado and the Colorado Jail Association and is gratefully funded through Colorado POST.
The Detention Skills Mini-Academy is designed to provide interactive and hands-on skills training to Colorado detentions officers. The content of each day is as follows:
Day I addresses professionalism, including ethical behaviors required of a detentions officer, development of critical thinking skills, problem solving and decision making, crisis management skills and an introduction to leadership and management;
Day II is Who’s in Your Jail: Managing Inmate Behavior, Liability and Principles of Direct Supervision;
Day III is Incident management, presented via scenarios and case studies designed to prepare the detentions officer for managing incidents within the jail;
Day IV is Assessing and Responding to Emotionally Disturbed Inmates, De-Escalation Techniques and Crisis Intervention tactics;
Day V provides drills and scenarios on handcuffing and restraints, searching both inmates and the facility, transporting inmates and other physical skills.
The instructors for the week are drawn from facilities across the state and have many years of experience in the field.
Students are selected based on proximity to the training site, with preference given to rural detentions staff. POST Certification is NOT required for this course.
The 5-day course begins each day at 8:00 am and is limited to 20 officers, subject to room size at the host facility.
The class is funded through a grant from Colorado POST. Although it is free to individual certified law enforcement students, POST has committed a substantial amount of funds to bring this class to this area. If you cannot attend, please email Karen Pendergraft at kpendergraft@csoc.org to withdraw at least 5 business days before the start date of the class to allow others to attend.