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High Risk Inmate Transport

In the past several months, inmates have escaped custody during transportation. Because the escapes have been fatal to the transporting officers and dangerous to the public – and because they put the media spotlight squarely on the faces of administrators, corrections experts are taking a long, hard at inmate transportation. We’re corrections experts, and in this article we look at transportation from the emergency response perspective.

Traditionally, inmate transportation duty has been tasked to officers with seniority and/or officers who are liked or favored. Hmmm… you wonder why inmate transportation escapes are increasing?! Let us get one thing straight: Inmate transportation is the weakest link in the inmate chain of custody. You have only one chance to get it right. If you get it wrong, the consequences can be deadly.

High Risk Inmate Transport (HRIT) has long been taken for granted as the “cushiest” job in the inmate chain of custody. If you think we’re being facetious, just look at the majority of transport officers today. If we’re right, you’ll discover (as we have) that these positions are filled with senior officers. If we’re right, you’ll note that depending on the agency, inmate transport is detailed based simply on who you can get to fill the position.

Because we know we’re right, we say unequivocally that the traditional approach is flat-out wrong. We say – and we train to this standard – that High Risk Inmate Transport (HRIT) should be conducted by a department’s most qualified officers / deputies… Not some “Joey Bagadonuts” who has been at your facility for years and years… or who is high on the seniority list… or who is buddy-buddy with the duty assignment officer.

The Four Qualities of an Ideal HRIT Officer

We often hear the succinct phrase, “out of sight, out of mind.” If you think the traditional transportation officer isn’t out of sight, you’re out of your mind. As we’ve seen via the media, transportation officers are right there in the spotlight. The public sees them as representatives of the entire profession. If the public doesn’t like what they see, you’ll hear about it.

Understand this: If an inmate is planning an act of violence, an escape, contraband smuggling, or other illegal or dangerous activity, you better believe that the inmate is committed to do whatever it takes to follow through on his or her plan.

Below, we offer the four must-have qualities of the ideal HRIT officer:

• HRIT Officers are regularly seen by the public, so they must represent the professionalism of the modern CERT Warrior
• HRIT Officers work closely with the surrounding law enforcement agencies, so they must be tactful, politically astute and able to work effectively across jurisdictions
• HRIT Officers are the last first and last line of defense in the security of an inmate, so they must be physically and mentally fit
• HRIT Officers are one of the first points of custody that an inmate will deal with when they are convicted in a courtroom.

Your HRIT officer needs to be trained on how to understand the tell-tale signs of an inmate involved in illegal activity. Your HRIT officer must be trained – and certified – on how to implement your agency’s policies and procedures.

Inmate Classification

Depending on the agency, inmate classification is often a game of hit or miss. More often than not, agency classification personnel miss. Unfortunately, some agencies tend to waste time and resource because they misunderstand the difference between High Profile and High Threat.

For example, violent inmates might be categorized as HTI-1 – 4 depending on the inmate’s history, affiliation and background (the lower the number, the lower the threat). There are many considerations that make an inmate move up or down on the HT scale (for security reasons a classified version can be requested later).

HPIs (High Profile Inmates) for example require different types of resources and personnel, primarily due to the crowds and media attention they often receive. We use the HP1 – 2 scale as these inmates fall into two categories:

• The inmate is known to the public (Movie Star, Public Official, Community Leader or Activist)
• The inmate has committed a very public crime (like the Rhode Island Night Club Fire tragedy or the mother who drowned her four sons in Texas)

Normally the threat during transporting these inmates comes from crowds trying to get a glimpse, take a photo, or make a statement of support or outrage. These types of groups normally evolve into a situation that requires a large contingency of crowd control specialists.

Rethink Your HRIT Officer Training

Joe Numa is one of the nation’s foremost shooters – a leader in the field of tactical firearms training. Joe – a personal friend of mine – is considered in the Washington, DC and Northern Virginia areas as a true firearms teacher. Joe could probably teach a monkey to shoot and shoot well (no pun intended). “Nume” (to those who know him) understands what it takes to make a good shooter and the seriousness of getting into a shooting confrontation. Nume passionately, patiently and persistently passes on his real-world shooting experience to his fellow operators.

When I asked him about the shooting requirements of today’s HRIT Operator certification program, he immediately mentioned the following critical areas:

• Shooting from vehicles
• Passing a HRIT PT test
• Active DT Training
• Qualify and pass HRIT school
• Pass Agency SOP
• Knowledge of and ability to conduct Emergency Recovery Operations
• Plan and Conduct High Security Operations
• HRIT Driving: Advanced driver / Security Driving School

The New HRIT Officer

Even without the kind of advanced training advocated by Joe Numa and US C-SOG, if you want to become a modern HRIT Officer, here are some immediate actions you can take:

• Always search an inmate whom you are transporting – regardless of whether or not he or she has been searched before. Like the old Russian saying goes: “Trust. But verify.”
• Be familiar with the history of the inmate whom you are transporting: Once a rabbit always a rabbit.
• Try using those Colored ASP handcuffs: Many agencies have excellent code uses for these handcuffs.
• Get in shape. Start by improving your cardiovascular fitness, then move on to improving your bulk.
• Check in with your DT instructors and take a class on weapon retention.
• Check with your firearms instructors and get in some dynamic shooting time.
• Again: Never take anyone’s word that the inmate has been searched. Do it again. You can’t be too diligent.
• Always check your inmate seating area.
• Never transport an inmate in a vehicle that does not have a certified cage or shatter-resistant windows.
• Always scan the area when moving with an inmate.
• Be prepared to move and act decisively to counter an escape attempt.
• If attacked, remember your number one priority is to stay alive. Stay in control and stay in the fight.

A Note for Administrators

Inmates have 24 / 7 / 365 to plot and prepare their escapes. You only have one chance to get it right. Count for a second and ask yourself how many plans are being prepared by inmates to escape today or this week, this month, or this year? Whatever it costs you to train your team in HRIT, it’s far cheaper than the potentially disastrous results of a successful escape attempt.

Your people speak for you and your HRIT speaks volumes of how the public perceives your agency. Your HRIT program and its officers cannot afford to be lax. If an inmate escapes or an officer has a bad shooting, your department could be hurt or even worse an officer could be killed. We have seen administrators replaced, fired for such incidents.

The next time you see one of your transport vehicles leave your facility, ask yourself, have we done everything to train that team? If the answer is “no” and you feel your heart skip a beat, resolve that the next time you send out a transport detail, you’ll know for a certainty that it has the best personnel armed with the best equipment and that the personnel are fully trained.

Now is the time to move forward and do something before it happens!

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