HAZLETON, Pa. — If you watch crime shows on TV, you might think that prison officials always deal with a hostage situation by sending in a heavily armed SWAT team to take control and free the hostages. But in reality, it’s all about using communication and active listening skills to figure out what’s going on, lower tension levels and keep everyone safe.
That’s what four members of Pennsylvania’s hostage negotiation team (HNT) recently told students in a criminal justice class at Penn State Hazleton. The team was invited to the class to talk about crisis response and resolution through negotiations, as part of a speaker series developed by Pam Black, professor of criminal justice and coordinator of the criminal justice degree program at the campus.
Each HNT member is a representative of Pennsylvania’s Department of Corrections and an employee of a state prison, known as State Correctional Institutions (SCIs). Because the team members often work in sensitive, challenging situations, and in order to maintain the safety, security and integrity of the program, they will not be identified by name in this story.
“There are a lot of things going on in hostage negotiations, but it all comes down to conversation,” said a retired police officer who trains corrections and law enforcement personnel across the state. “The longer somebody is talking to me, the harder it is for them to stay up in emotion [that might lead to violence].”
While prison guards and officials are responsible for the “care, custody and control” of inmates, he said, they can’t forget that they’re dealing with human beings — many of whom may be incarcerated not because they’re hardened career criminals but because they made a bad decision in a stressful situation. “We’re vastly outnumbered in the institution, and we have to give the inmates respect.”
Black said the speakers series helps the realities of work in the criminal justice system come alive for students.
“They might want to be a state trooper, or they might want to be an attorney, or they might want to be a forensic scientist, but they have no idea how to get there,” Black said. “But they hear it now [in class], they hear it in their first semester. And I think it helps them decide how to plan their educational career.”