Media Relations Office:
Bart Graves, Media Relations Administrator
1601 W. Jefferson
Phoenix, Arizona 85007
(602) 542-3133

CIRT Training

The above photos were taken at a recent Critical Incident Response Team training session.

Prison sponsors crisis training
By Alysa Phillips, assistant editor
Eastern Arizona Courier

Co-workers, friends and family members are safer this week following a three-day training session aimed at teaching people to handle crisis situations.

A team of professionals in many fields exited the Graham County General Services building Friday armed with skills and techniques vital to handling situations involving addictions, suicide, child trauma, sexual assault, family violence and death.

The training, led by Viki Sharp and sponsored by the Arizona Department of Corrections (ADOC), is part of Director Dora Schriro's plan to take care of employees and the communities in which they live.

"Schriro is concerned for the 10,000 employees of the department," Sharp said. "Correctional officers don't have a glamorous job, but they do something that keeps the community safe."

Keeping the community safe means working with people society has labeled as outcasts, Sharp said. ADOC employees deal with the saddest people and situations, and their resulting stresses are not adequately addressed, she said.

"We can't let people just hurt and expect them to suck it up," Sharp said. "When tough stuff happens, we want to take care of each other."

Statistics show that those with stressful jobs have higher rates of addictions, domestic violence incidents and suicide, Sharp said, but ADOC employees don't have a monopoly on stress.

The training session was open to the public for anyone to train. Offering the training to the community is also part of the ADOC's vision of a parallel universe, Sharp said. The parallel universe program works on the assumption that prison life can mirror situations in the real world. Because people face crisis situations all the time, Sharp said the general public can benefit by knowing the skills, as well.

"All we're doing is training people to take care of each other," she said. "With the community involved, we're creating a big safety net. As a large community group all trained with the same skills, we can respond to major things in the community."

Approximately 50 people participated in last week's training, including ADOC employees, law enforcement professionals, educators and counselors.

Return To Latest News