5 questions every corrections instructor cadre should ask before building the training calendar

.By Nate Jendrick, Ph.D.

It happens all too often: Throughout a year of in-service training, correctional officers attend defensive tactics, use-of-force, de-escalation, emergency response and other continuing education blocks, yet each feels as though it exists in isolation.

During a defensive tactics class, an officer may hear one set of terminology for use-of-force decision-making. Weeks later, an instructor conducting cell extraction training might teach the same concept but with different words, different acronyms or a slightly different emphasis. Neither instructor is wrong, and both are trying to prepare officers for the realities of working in a correctional facility. Yet they have inadvertently created two mental models that will collide in the same real-world moment.

And when officers are responding to an inmate assault or other emergency, there’s no time to stop and think about which version applies.

The problem isn’t that instructors are teaching different subjects; it’s that the training calendar was built as a schedule instead of a learning plan.

This happens more often than many agencies realize, and it isn’t a training failure so much as a planning failure. Most training calendars are built around schedules, but the best ones are built around learning. While it is understandably difficult for facilities to get instructors together to build an entire training calendar at once, it is extremely valuable to make it happen.

Fortunately, the fix doesn’t require a bigger budget or a new curriculum. It just requires instructors to sit down, or even collaborate electronically, before the calendar is finalized. By asking a short list of questions, instructors can ensure correctional officers receive standardized tactics and terminology that allow them to learn more quickly and retain more information.

Experienced trainers could undoubtedly add to this list, but here are five starter questions to ask when entering the planning conversation:

1. What operational themes should carry through the entire year?

Before assigning dates, identify two or three themes the facility wants reinforced across every discipline. It could be de-escalation, staff safety, communication during emergencies or decision-making under time pressure. Once those themes are set, ask each instructor how their block already reinforces them and where it could do more.

A defensive tactics instructor and a cell extraction instructor teaching toward the same decision-making theme produce something a single excellent instructor working alone cannot: repetition across contexts, which is how skills become durable under stress.

2. What recent incidents have exposed a gap that crosses disciplines?

Many correctional facilities already review use-of-force incidents, inmate assaults, complaints or close calls for lessons learned. The goal isn’t to criticize the officers involved, but to ensure the next officer is better prepared.

The question instructor cadres often overlook is whether the lesson belongs to one discipline or several. A cell extraction that goes sideways may appear to be a defensive tactics problem on the surface, but the root cause may involve communication, decision-making, team coordination or policy. Reviewing recent incidents as a cadre will reveal training gaps that no single instructor is likely to identify alone.

3. Are we using the same terminology?

Picture a scenario where one instructor tells an officer to “create distance.” Another later says, “maintain a reactionary gap.” A third tells the officer to “give yourself room to respond.” Are those three different tactics or three ways of describing the same one?

This is the simplest question on the list and the easiest to overlook. Compare the core vocabulary each instructor uses to describe decision-making, force options, restraint procedures and de-escalation. It’s common to find multiple instructors teaching the same concept under different names.

Standardizing terminology costs nothing yet pays dividends every time an officer must explain their actions, whether in an incident report, an administrative review or court. Consistent language improves recall under stress and helps officers articulate their decisions, whether responding to an incident or explaining their actions afterward.

4. Where can one instructor’s block set up another’s?

Once themes and terminology are aligned, look at the calendar itself. How can the training blocks build on one another?

If a policy update covers use-of-force requirements, a defensive tactics block later can explicitly reference it instead of starting from zero. Cell extraction or emergency response training can then use the same terms and decision-making framework already practiced.

None of this requires instructors to teach outside their discipline. It simply requires them to know what came before, what comes next and how their area of expertise fits into the overall training program.

Facilities rightly rely on instructors as subject matter experts, but too often only tell them when they will teach, not what role that instruction should play in the year’s training objectives. Without that guidance, continuity is left to chance.

5. What doesn’t belong anymore?

Training calendars tend to grow rather than evolve. Every year brings another required course, update, rollout or initiative. Without deliberate review, outdated exercises and obsolete terminology can remain in the mix.

Before finalizing the calendar, instructor cadres should ask what can be removed, combined or modernized to create more time for meaningful reinforcement. Every hour spent teaching outdated concepts is an hour that can’t be spent reinforcing the operational philosophy the facility wants officers to carry into their daily work.

A cohesive instructor cadre isn’t just responsible for adding new material; it’s also responsible for retiring what no longer serves the mission.

Planning in motion

None of this requires a separate meeting series or a new committee. It only requires making sure the people who plan the training calendar are working with the instructors delivering it. In fact, time can be saved by sending these questions to trainers and having them make notes before the planning session.

A simple planning agenda might look like this:

Facilities that build their calendars around these questions can get more out of the same training hours while delivering a better product. More importantly, preparing correctional officers to respond with one consistent operational philosophy allows for clearer, quicker reactions, better communication and enhanced decision-making.

A facility’s training calendar shouldn’t simply organize instruction. It should organize how officers learn, think and perform their craft.

About the author

Nate Jendrick, Ph.D., is a former K9 handler and current multidisciplinary instructor and patrol sergeant in Washington state. He is the author of numerous nonfiction books and holds a Master of Public Administration and a Doctor of Philosophy in Criminal Justice Leadership.