TABLE 1—

Findings From Posttraining Survey and Qualitative Evaluations of a Correctional Culture Change Intervention in the United States Based on the Norwegian Correctional Approach

Finding	Supporting Data
More humane, health-promoting correctional environments enhance prison safety and job satisfaction.	78% of participating staff said Norwegian correctional concepts will enhance officer safety. 94% said the training provided new perspectives on how prisons could change for the better.
The training demonstrates early efficacy in critical knowledge and skills transfer and changing correctional practice.	“[This program] renewed my hope for our profession. It has inspired me to focus on activities and prison life that will enhance the inmates’ lives and make them healthier, better neighbors.” “I am proud to say that this Father’s Day, inmates will wear their own clothing for visitation with their children. We started an inmate council and a new, more compassionate approach with suicidal inmates. We are making change.” “We have begun to get a highly assaultive inmate (42 staff assaults in 3 years) out of his cell without restraints on a regular basis. Yesterday officers took turns playing monopoly with him for 2 hours. It’s working.”
A workforce training that introduces correctional officers to an alternative approach to correctional work—one that emphasizes humanization, health, and rehabilitation—is feasible, well-received by the workforce, and can transform the professional lives of participants.	“I am forever grateful for the opportunity I had to see a different correctional model completely challenge everything we do.” “We take things from inmates that act out. We do this so they will behave, and also for staff safety or their own. . . . But [after this experience], I can’t go back to that way of thinking. It’s hard when you have seen the other side. When you have seen and know that it can be better for both staff and the adults in our custody.” “On the last day of training we had a big disturbance, I found myself touching a participant on the shoulder and saying, ‘I’m going to take care of you right now.’ . . . I went 10 years without touching an inmate in a non–use-of-force situation. I just didn’t touch people. More, I’m not about to tell an inmate ‘I’m going to take care of you.’ This has continued since then. I’ve seen it in all my interactions. I have more inmates saying ‘thanks for helping me’ and more inmates that are talking to me first before they bang on cell doors or kick and scream. It’s amazing.”
Residents say the intervention positively transforms their experience of incarceration and better prepares them for life in the community.	“On a 1–10, my depression was a 10 or 11. I made some poor decisions due to my unstable emotional state and my actions drew the attention of [staff]. To my surprise, shock even, I received a lot of outreach and support from officers. . . . All of these people went above and beyond their job, treating us inmates with a measure of humanity and dignity. . . . I realized that it may be time for a perspective shift. An update to my whole us-versus-them mentality.” “I was pulled out [of my cell] one day and brought into a conference room where 10 staff told me they all had a vested interest in my success. At first I was in shock, then skeptical . . . then they escorted me unrestrained outside for the first time in a long time [and] there was an overwhelming flood of emotional feelings that gradually turned into confidence I hadn’t felt in years. After meeting with this group several more times it became more of a protective feeling because they truly cared about me . . . [it has] changed my outlook on my life and gave me a strong sense of pride and accomplishment . . . these people treated me like anyone in society would treat me rather than being a burden. This ultimately has made me feel like I’m equally worthy of returning back into society with confidence and for this I am truly grateful.”

Note. Surveys were completed by 64 correctional staff participating in a multiday training delivered by Norwegian Correctional Service trainers and program leadership; the training followed a 10-day immersion learning experience in Norway in which 10 of the staff had participated. Qualitative data are excerpted from staff and resident comments in the 6 months following the training, during which program leadership provided Department of Corrections leadership and staff with strategy and technical assistance support to change correctional practice in participating housing units.