WITNESS
Michael Lee Van Patten is a Correctional Sergeant for Oregon State Penitentiary (OSP), a maximum security correctional facility located in Salem, Oregon. He began his career in corrections in 1985 and is a certified Journeyman Correctional Officer through the Bureau of Labor. As the OSP Special Functions and Training Sergeant, Assistant Emergency Preparedness Coordinator, and Security Threat Group Team member, he is in charge of developing and revising Individual institution post orders and training curriculums, teaching them to senior staff through In-Service training. He is also responsible for training newly hired Officers and Non-Correctional Officers through new employee orientation training that includes a wide range of correctional topics from the Use of Force to Inmate Supervision.
Mr. Van Patten is the Force Skills Instructor for the Oregon Department of Corrections and is also an Adjunct Instructor for the Criminal Justice Department of Chemeketa Community College. Mr. Van Patten currently holds the office of President for the Oregon Correctional Officer Association, a fraternal Correctional Officer association, and serves on the Board of Directors for Corrections U.S.A., a national corrections organization representing approximately 43 corrections organizations and about 120,000 Correctional Officers.
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STATEMENT
The continual threat of inmate assaults, inmate manipulation, the negative environment, critical incidents, the fear of contracting diseases, and organizational factors have profound affects on the Officers in various different ways. …Although these are not excuses for Officers that abuse inmates within our nation's institutions, they are just some of the contributing factors that can increase the Officer's inability to control his or her personal actions during use of force incidents.
…Consistent and frequent training helps Officers to avoid falling into the trap of excessive force. Excessive force is when the type or amount of force is beyond what is reasonably necessary to control the situation and achieve the legitimate correctional objective or when continued force is used after it is no longer reasonably necessary. During use of force situations, Officers fall back on the training when Survival Stress Reaction (SSR) kicks in. SSR and the other stressors mentioned will threaten to cloud and actually can impair the good judgment of the Officer(s) during uses of force and other critical incidents. If good quality training (training directed at the stressors of the correctional environment) is not provided on a regular or yearly basis, the Officers have nothing to fall back on when they are in the SSR mode.
…The U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training, in cooperation with Officers working in different states, developed a training standard for Correctional Officers. Administrators across the nation were asked twice to help participate in developing this training apprenticeship program, but they did not get involved. State Departments of Corrections universally refuse to recognize or initiate the apprenticeship program. This program sets national standards for training hours and various training topics that should be covered (Corrections and Criminal Justice Coalition and Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training, 1998).
…Police agencies across the nation have an average of 16 weeks of pre-service training, FTO programs, and required 40 hours of in-service. …Correctional Officers during their first five minutes on the job will work around more convicted felons than the average Police Officer will see in a full career. Correctional Officers with the risks and dangers truly do work the toughest beat in law enforcement.
Excerpted from a written statement submitted to the Commission
Download the complete written statement
Note: Some witnesses submitted documents in addition to the written statement they prepared for the hearing. In most cases, those documents are not available on the Commission's web site.
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