Thomas Jefferson said: I know of no safe depository of the ultimate powers of society but the people themselves; and if we think them not enlightened enough to exercise their control with a wholesome discretion, the remedy is not to take it from them, but to inform their discretion by education.
When the United States District Court intervened to take control of the foundering 500-bed detention facility in Chicago, it empowered its designee, the Transitional Administrator, to reform juvenile detention practices such that youth and staff would be safe from harm. One of the first initiatives was to revamp the staff training capacity at the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center (JTDC). While the court-ordered reform of the JTDC would require significant structural changes, there was a Jeffersonian quality to the strategy for enlisting and empowering the support of line staff. Systems changes, organizational changes, structural changes, and procedural changes are all important, but the critical factor remains: How will line staff exercise their “ultimate powers” of control and relationships with youth? The Transitional Administrator presumes that education is a key, that learning is an important process, and that training is the vehicle to inform staff discretion by education.
The Transitional Administrator turned to Carol Cramer Brooks, long time training leader for the National Partnership for Juvenile Services. Under her guidance, a training plan emerged to make the education of new staff and the re-education of veteran staff the cornerstone of the reform effort. Brooks took the plan developed by the Transitional Administrator and converted it into a comprehensive staff development initiative. Enlisting the support of nationally respected trainers, she implemented trainer development programs for the JTDC training staff, created a pre-service training for new staff, and developed a skills-based training program for the new cognitive behavioral behavior management strategy central to the development of the new living units.
While the process is about half complete regarding the development of the new centers, preliminary evaluations indicate that change is occurring, especially a substantial change in the way that staff interact with youth. Changing the role of the JTDC line worker is the hallmark of the training initiative. Brooks’ efforts appear to be working. The JTDC experience reinforces the value of training as a vehicle for institutional culture change.
As a result of her exemplary work as the Lead Trainer for the Cook County Juvenile Temporary Detention Center Staff Training Program, we are pleased to present the Juvenile Justice Trainer’s Association 2009 Individual Award for Excellence to Carol Cramer Brooks.
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