Completion of the first VCSO Jail Academy

Over the past two weeks we have been holding our first ever jail training academy at the Sheriff’s Office. We worked for several months to prepare the classes and arrange for all the instructors that would be coming in to help teach.

This week they have graduated the academy and will begin their hands-on training in the jail. It has been encouraging to see how the class progressed over the two-week span and it was especially encouraging to hear the instructors comment on the improvement they had noticed from the students in such a short time.

They ate jail food together every day, they studied together, they were all sprayed with OC spray together and now they will be able to work on the floor of the jail together as coworkers in a line of work that is often overlooked, but essential to public safety.

It was easy to notice that all had certain strengths and weaknesses and as a group they were able to help each other along the way. The first class of the academy was “Uniform and Appearance,” and the second was “Chain of Command,” both given by Lt. John Randall who served in the military for more than 20 years. I was pleased with the training we were able to provide the students because of the staff that was available at the Sheriff’s Office to share, in many cases, a lifetime of experience.

Besides having a successful academy class, I was surprised to see how much the staff that I asked to help teach became involved with the overall function of the academy, and I think the process may have found some great instructors that did not know they liked teaching!

It has been hard in the past to get a jailor certified in all the areas they need to be certified in because of the cost of holding a taser class, pepper spray class, or Livescan class for just one or two people. With this method of training, all the new detention officers have now been certified in every area before they even start their hands-on training in the jail. Our next plan is to take the feedback we asked for from each of the academy students and meet with all the instructors to see how we can improve our training for the next time we hold an academy class.

After working with the commissioners to increase the detention officers pay after they have achieved certain training and reached the 6- and 12-month marks, my hope is to help increase the respect, not only the jail staff has for the job they do, but also how they are perceived by others.

They should be proud of what they do because they are members of law enforcement that help keep our county safe. When asked, most of them probably will not say they enjoyed certain parts of the academy, like being tased and OC sprayed, but they will say they have learned a lot for a new career they are excited to begin. I am looking forward to helping them become even more successful as they serve our county.