Sergeant Academy: Corrections Officers Get Advanced Training

Sergeant Academy was created five years ago by Correctional staff, trainers and sergeants at Clallam Bay Corrections Center and Coyote Ridge Corrections Center. They came together to develop the training to close the gap that they were seeing with new sergeants’ performance on the job.

“We decided we would work on a Sergeant Academy and help to bring the sergeants to a higher level of training and then they could go back to their facilities and then train out from there,” said Sgt. Ron Poynter, a Sergeant Academy creator, instructor, and corrections sergeant at Coyote Ridge Corrections Center (CRCC).

The Sergeant Academy is a hands-on learning environment — besides learning in the classroom, sergeants got training with scenarios that incorporate on-site supervisor duties and they are faced with emergencies such as a prison escape scenario based on one that happened at CCCC.

“Some of the topics that we covered here — on top of leadership, mentorship — have been Atlas, OMNI . . . assaults and fights, and PREA [Prison Rape Elimination Act] and all of the things that are important to us in our department,” Poynter said.