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Administrative Investigation & Employee Discipline for Jail/Correction Centers

Length of Seminar: 2 Days
Instructor:  Randy Rider, Lieutenant

Course Overview:

One of the most essential elements in the management of any law enforcement agency is the manner in which the agency ensures that its employees are meeting the professional standards of law enforcement. A major component of this quality control mechanism is the way the agency addresses complaints made by the people it serves. A complaint originating from the jail or detention setting raises a variety of special issues due to the special population, (jail inmates), who are the chief complainants and perhaps witnesses in the case. The purpose of this program is to address the handling of administrative investigations in the jail or detention setting and provide participants with the necessary tools to properly handle these investigations from point of contact to conclusion.

Receiving The Complaint: This session will begin by defining what constitutes a complaint in the jail environment:
Discussion will include:

• The process of receiving the complaint.
• Where the complaint may originate.
• Procedures for taing a complaint and determining the initial course of action to be taken by the investigator.

Evidentiary Considerations/Scene Preservation: Jail and other detention facilities are exclusively controlled by the government entity that employs the person who may be complained about. At the same time the entity is charged with investigating the alleged misconduct. There is no more likely point of criticism or allegations of cover-up than the failure to properly process the scene of the alleged misconduct.
Discussion will include:

• The importance of preservation of the scene of an allegation of inmate abuse.
• The value of specialized forensic units tasked with processing this type of scene, where available to do so, will be discussed.
• A detailed discussion on the types of physical evidence that may be available in a jail environment.

Complainant/Inmate Background: The importance of the complaining inmate’s background cannot be overstated. This background examination provides a window to a person’s motivation or biases, as well as, behavioral issues that may have led to the conflict or the allegation. The background of all parties to this type of complaint takes on major significance if disciplinary action against the employee occurs following the investigation. The credibility of the complainant and the witnesses, particularly if the witnesses are inmates, will be the first point of attack by the employee.
Discussion will include:

•  Important areas of the inmate’s background that should be considered.
• The role that existing criminal charges as well as the sentence being served plays in motivation for making a complaint against a deputy or correctional officer, as well as the role this takes on in the administrative investigation.
• Determining the complainant’s prior history for credibility and complaints.

Interview and Interrogation: A significant aspect of any administrative investigation is the interview and interrogation process. This session will focus on the peculiar issues that an investigator may face in the jail environment, where in most cases, the complainant is in-custody and represented by council.
Discussion will include:

• Proper handling of in custody interviews.
• The validity of procedures used may be subject to attack by the disciplined employee as well as the inmate who brings a lawsuit alleging that his complaint was not properly investigated. This session will focus on the utilization of valid tactics and procedure during the interview process.
• Various techniques used during the interview process in order to develop more credible information. This session will explore some of the accepted techniques available.
• Avoiding the Pitfalls. This session will provide participants with a first-hand view of some of the mistakes/pitfalls that commonly occur in the process so that they may be able to avoid these issues in future cases.

Witness Interviews: There are generally two-types of witnesses in the jail setting. The first is other inmates: the second is other employees. This session will focus on the development of witnesses in the administrative investigation.

• Participants will gain knowledge as to who should be interviewed. In this setting, the “who” may go beyond those with first-hand knowledge of the event due to the fact that the players may have had prior contacts that had a role in the event under investigation.
• Due to the closed-environment of a jail or detention facility, investigators must consider all of the senses as potential witness factors:
• Who saw?
• Who heard?
• Who smelled?
• Who touched?
• This session will focus on identifying the potential pool of witnesses available in the jail environment..
• The locations of the alleged violation and who was present or near that location at the time also adds to the pool of witnesses. This section will focus on the various facilities/location issues that investigators should consider when determining their pool of witnesses.

Complainant Interviews: The two most important interviews undertaken in this type of investigation is that of the complaining inmate and that of the involved employee(s). The order of these interviews is also important and in many cases different from administrative investigations outside the jail setting. This session focuses on the complainant’s statement and how to obtain the answers of who, what, when, where and how the event at issue occurred.

Garrity Issues: Garrity v New Jersey and Gardner v Broderick provide public employees with protection when exercising their Fifth Amendment privilege against the backdrop of a threat of termination from employment. This session will focus on Miranda warning issues as well as the Garrity issue compelled statements of government employees. This session will also discuss the legal issues surrounding Miranda and Garrity in cases where the detention facility is a non-government entity.

Interview of the Accused Employee: An accused employee may be compelled to give a statement in an administrative investigation as long as that statement is not used against the employee in a criminal prosecution. This session will focus on the necessary elements of an accused employee’s statement;

• Discussion of the information that is needed to be obtained from the accused.
• The importance of establishing a chronological order for the sequence of events.

Polygraph Issues: The polygraph can serve as an investigative tool. This session focuses on the use of the polygraph and the potential pitfalls in relying upon the results. Participants will also be guided as to when the polygraph should be used and how questions should be formatted when doing so.

Findings and The Report Process: Documenting the investigation is one of the most critical aspects of any internal investigation. The documentation, good or bad will be the substance of any employee grievance, appeal, or lawsuit over the investigative process and findings. The discussion here will focus on how investigators can protect their investigations from scrutiny and failure. The materials here include:

• Documenting the investigators conclusions that result from the facts developed during the investigation.
• How to write the report.
• Diagram of the report.
• Writing skills will be discussed.
• The usage of verbatim statements when to use, or when not to.