REPORTS OF THE COURSEGROUP 1ENHANCING THE ORGANIZATIONAL STRENGTHSOF CRIMINAL JUSTICE ORGANIZATIONS

Chairperson
Co-chairperson
Rapporteur
Co-rapporteur
Members

AdviserMr. Peter Kimani NDUNGU
Mr. Beresford Henry HEATHER
Mr. Lap-yip LO
Ms. Elizabeth MIRIO
Mr. Henry Karani LIMANYE
Mr. Ezekiel Gitonga THAIMUTA
Ms. Yun-jeong CHOI
Mr. Hayato HIMURO
Mr. Shingo OTOMO
Professor Toru NAGAI(Kenya)(Cook Islands)(Hong Kong)(Papua New Guinea)(Kenya)(Kenya)(Korea)(Japan)(Japan)(UNAFEI)

I. INTRODUCTION
Group 1 started its discussion on 27 August 2015. The Group elected, by consensus, Mr. Peter Kimani
NDUNGU as its Chairperson, Mr. Beresford Henry HEATHER as its Co-chairperson, Mr. Lap-yip LO as
its Rapporteur, and Ms. Elizabeth MIRIO as its Co-rapporteur. The Group was assigned to discuss the
topic of “Enhancing the Organizational Strengths of Criminal Justice Organizations”. Though members of
the Group come from different sectors, including prosecution, the judiciary, correctional services as well asprobation offices, it was agreed without dispute that all criminal justice authorities should maximize theperformance of their staff members in order to pursue the ultimate aim, a safe and inclusive society.
Therefore, it is worthy to explore the ways of enhancing organizational strengths and its personnel.

II. SUMMARY OF THE DISCUSSION
In the course of the discussions, the Group identified four major common issues that the criminal
justice authorities are now facing, i.e., (A) Developing an Organizational Culture of Integrity, (B) Stress
Management for Correctional Personnel, (C) Passing Knowledge and Experience to the Next Generationand (D) Promoting Cooperation in Capacity Building with Other Organizations. The following is asummary of discussion of each issue:
A. Developing an Organizational Culture of Integrity
Upon discussion, it was found that the corruption situations of all the authorities of various members
were under control and there was no sign of the resurgence of syndicated corruption, though somemembers expressed serious concern about the “ethical climate” of their police and prosecution authorities.
Nevertheless, all members of the Group shared the view that there was a need to strengthen the capacityof their own authority in order to tackle the potential corruption cases, as there were also several separatecases that occurred in the past, such as receiving advantage for the introduction of unauthorized articles,
including dangerous drugs and mobile phones, into correctional facilities for inmates.
It was stated by the visiting experts that the lack of resources, poor management and the absence ofleadership or supervision were the causes of corruption. In response to the above, on top of the nationwide
policies, such as regular vetting of officials, introduction of internal and external organizations to keep
track of government services, strict law enforcement against corruption, declaration of assets, applicationof new technology (such as video recording) during investigation as well as adopting the anti-corruption
strategy of introducing an adequate pay scale, the government of Kenya had introduced and promoted aService Charter indicating clearly the performance and obligations of their service, with a view toenhancing transparency and accountability. The Hong Kong participant also pointed out that their correctional department had adopted a participative approach in creating its Vision, Mission and Values (“VMV”)
statement, which encouraged its staff to maintain positive values against corruption as the participative
approach allowed all staff to own the VMV as a shared statement, as well as to carry it through.

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Apart from the challenge arising from corruption, the Group had also discussed the issue of inappropriate treatment of offenders by correctional officers, including the use of unnecessary force, indecent andabusive language towards inmates, or treatment in breach of human rights. In the discussions, the Group
had shared various measures to prevent the recurrence of inappropriate treatment of offenders, including
the introduction of outside human rights organizations to keep track of government services, sufficientchannels of complaints, publishing departmental brochures about the expected conduct of criminal justiceofficers, tailor-made training on the latest appropriate treatment of offenders as well as the enactment oflegislation on offenders’ rights and treatment. Notwithstanding the above, the Group considered that it was
not easy to change the attitude of officers in the course of implementing a human rights approach for
offenders. In this regard, the member from the Cook Islands pointed out that they had tried to position
prison officers and offenders as father and son, in which their relationship was mentorship instead of
opposing force. Under such positioning, it relieved the tension between the prison officers and offenders,and also facilitated the implementation of the human rights approach.
Furthermore, the handling of difficult offenders, including their threats and seductions of criminal
justice personnel were also discussed in the meeting. All members shared the views that most of thethreats and seductions come from offenders serving long-term imprisonment in correctional institutions,and the correctional officers were therefore identified to be the group most affected. It was pointed out by
the members of the Cook Islands and Kenya that the lack of sufficient resources, including manpower, accoutrements or hardware facilities, has long been a source of challenge to their correctional services. In
fact, due to the difference of social and economical development, they might sometimes require some low
security risk inmates to provide assistance to the prison management in ensuring smooth daily operations.
Such arrangement had attracted considerable discussion and quite diverse views. Though the privilege ofthe above low security risk inmates could be treated as a motivation for offenders to rehabilitate, allmembers shared the view that the arrangement of seeking inmates to provide assistance to the prison
management was not desirable in principle.
To tackle the challenge arising from difficult offenders, it was agreed that clear, precise and concrete
guidelines on handling such circumstances should always be maintained. Besides, an effective classificationof offenders should be conducted upon admission in order to segregate problematic offenders from normal
associations. Specific medical treatment for offenders suffering mental sickness had also been mentioned in
the discussion. In conclusion, it is important to develop an organizational culture of integrity. In this regard,apart from strict enforcement of prison discipline by means of legislation as well as appropriate equipment(weapons), some members further suggested to introduce some tailor-made training on integrity management for staff members, with a view to enhancing their awareness of the importance of staff integrity.
Emergency control plans should always be ready with regular rehearsal in order to make staff members
familiar with the procedures. The member of Hong Kong had shared their experience on developing astrong culture of professional ethics and probity among staff by launching a series of educational andpublicity campaigns on staff integrity and healthy lifestyle. He also suggested that a mentorshipprogramme might assist in bridging experienced and newly recruited staff so as to pass the knowledge on
handling difficult offenders as well as working under temptations.
B. Stress Management for Correctional Personnel
Due to its job nature, it is not difficult to imagine how stressful the life of a criminal justice agency/
officer can be. After discussion, the source of stress could be categorized into five major areas which aresummarized as follows:➢ Job Nature
a. Remote working stations
b. Long and irregular working hours
c. High-risk and life-threatening job natured. Frequent contacts with criminals
e. Tight daily routine procedures➢ Insufficient resources
a. Uncompetitive pay scale
b. Overload of work
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c. Very tight deadlines for reports
d. Insufficient manpowere. Insufficient equipment➢ Poor working environmenta. Potential exposure to infectious diseases
b. Potential threat/attack from gangsters or terrorists
c. Poor housing arrangements
d. Violence within the workplace➢ Self-expectations
a. Strong power and responsibilities under legislationb. Keen competitions among colleagues➢ Change of social developmenta. Rise of public expectation for government services
b. Rise of human rights concernsc. Dealing with difficult offenders during criminal proceedings
It was agreed without dispute that it was stressful for them in daily operations. Although stress is acommon problem among people in modern societies, the Group saw the importance of stress release andstrength building in helping our staff to maintain a work-life balance. To achieve this, the member from
Hong Kong stated that they had rolled out a Health and Balanced Lifestyle campaign for staff members formaintaining a healthy and productive workforce, in which various healthy activities had been held for theirstaff members and their families in bridging staff members to healthy life style, family support as well as asense of belonging to the service. Moreover, members agreed that family fun days and parent-child activities should be held in order to strengthen family bonds. Also, thematic talks should be regularly organizedwith the help of professional expertise, such as clinical psychologists, which help staff members to enhancetheir abilities to cope with adversity. Furthermore, staff members should be invited to share their healthy
and positive life experiences in the departmental newsletter so as to promote the positive values acrossthe Team. In addition, counselling, team building and sport activities were also common practice indifferent countries to release staff stress. A proposal on paid leave had also been suggested and discussed
in the meeting.
In the context of Kenya, apart from the similar measures aforementioned, they had also widely introduced technology devices to assist the work of officers (installation of CCTV, new design of uniforms, distribution of personal computers, etc.) and improved staff welfare by conducting enhancement of staff
quarters. The Group had reached a consensus that the enhancement of staff welfare had a positive effecton productivity.
The member from the Cook Islands pointed out that the complicated rules, regulations and practices
was one of the main causes of stress for staff members, especially for the new recruits. In this regard, hesuggested that a comprehensive training programme with clear guidelines and a manual provided to staff
members was definitely effective to help officers to gain a better understanding of complicated rules andregulations. Meanwhile, the management had the responsibility to promote the ideas of team work andmutual support among colleagues at work. The Japanese participants mentioned that management should
be reminded of the importance of staff deployment in ensuring a team of officers with different characteristics, which helped to maintain the creativity of the team. It was also agreed that management should beaware of the imperfection of reality and should avoid falling into the ideology of perfectionism, whichcauses unnecessary stress to staff members. Last but not least, it was pointed out by the visiting expert
that the resource shortage was definitely the most critical cause for the stress of staff members. With theabove in mind, management should always be reminded that it is their responsibility to fight for adequate
funding to relieve the resource shortage problem.
The Group had also found the importance of communications among officers in improving stressful
work environments. Some members from Kenya raised the point that it was necessary to improve themeans of communication between the line officers and management in order to facilitate the sharing and91

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reporting system. Line officers should be allowed to report and to seek advice from management, while
management is encouraged to share their experience. Meanwhile, the idea of regular conferences for casesharing was also discussed and agreed to as a useful measure to help officers to further improve thequality of their case handlings. A Staff Complaint Register was also introduced allowing staff to raise theirgrievances against their supervisors through the established mechanism. Staff welfare services and activities, such as regular staff relation meetings, professional therapy seminars, sport activities, mental
treatment with financial support and even specific facilities (mental illness due to stressful work) were
provided. The Japanese participants had also shared their regular conference on case sharing, which had
the effect of passing experience to new staff members and helping the supervisors understand the difficulties of frontline staff. It was also mentioned that the criminal justice authorities should be aware of theimage in the mass media. With a positive image in the public, it not only helps staff members to deliver
services, but relieves staff from stressful the working environment.
C. Passing Knowledge and Experience to the Next Generation
The Group reached a consensus that good succession planning was extremely important to maintainthe stability of the criminal justice authorities and to sustain the smooth-running of services. In fact,
passing knowledge and experience to the next generation is an on-going process which takes years todevelop and accomplish. During the discussion, members of different countries had shared their practices,which are summarized as follows:➢ Comprehensive Training Programmes
Rationale: Effective formal course training is always a key to success. It is important for management to provide comprehensive training to all staff members to facilitate their understanding of thedepartmental mission, job requirements and operational knowledge. It was agreed that a step-bystep principle should be adopted, i.e., the content of the courses and trainings should be based on
the actual needs of officers concerned, having regard to their career development.
➢ Diversified posting policy/internship programme
Rationale: To deliver continuous improvement in performance, new thoughts, mindsets, strategies
and dynamics are necessary. Throughout different postings and attachments, criminal justiceagencies can generate new ideas and learn alternative practices during professional exchanges withother parties. It helps our criminal justice agencies enhance competence and adapt to the fastchanging environment.
➢ Clear documentation on emergency control plans and daily operations
Rationale: To tackle challenges arising from the ever-changing environment swiftly, it is important
to maintain a proper records of relevant experience, in particular those experiences accumulated
over decades in the handling and management of offenders. Otherwise, the valuable knowledge andexperience will be lost upon the retirement of experienced staff. Besides, apart from making a goodreference for the next generation, these kinds of records facilitate the new generation to have a wellstructured and well-organized sharing of knowledge and experience.
➢ Mentoring and coaching scheme
Rationale: Mentorship and coaching schemes offer not only an opportunity to share their work experience, but also helps new staff members adapt to the work environment and the organization at an
early stage of their careers. It also provides opportunities for different generations to work together
and to share.
➢ Cooperation with outside bodies to conduct research and refine training curriculum
Rationale: Under the ever-changing environment, the efforts of the criminal justice authorities will
never be sufficient if they insist to continue working alone. With the collaboration with outsideacademic bodies, objective and scientific research can be conducted in a professional manner so as
to refine the current training content, methods, as well as the curriculum.
➢ Clear career path
Rationale: A career path maps out the journey that the new generation has to take in order to reach
their career goals. By making a clear career path for staff members, they will feel more secure in
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the career direction and they will be better prepared for the many uncertainties and difficulties thatlie ahead in their careers. It also encourages the new generation to make conscientious efforts toacquire the necessary skills and experience, so as to be fully prepared once opportunities arise.
➢ Standardization of training materials and content
Rationale: To maintain quality service delivered by the service, it is important to have a detailed
and standardized guide or manual for teaching a lesson. If the training content varies among
different instructors or divisions among the service, the department will have difficulty in providing
standardized services. Therefore, it should adopt a step-by-step guide that outlines the instructor’s
objectives for what the students will accomplish during the lesson to ensure appropriate information
is taught in the most effective manner.
➢ E-learning
Rationale: E-Learning is an interactive and highly efficient mixed-mode training ensuring extensive
staff coverage and substantial reduction in training resources in comparison to the traditional
learning process. Its advantages have been proven to be immense and far-reaching, not to mention
its flexible and versatile characteristics. All users can universally access the learning material invarious media formats anytime, anywhere and learn at their own pace. Its cost-effectiveness interms of cost, manpower and time is also crucial under the existing stringent fiscal environment. In
addition, the introduction of E-learning policy can engender a life-long self-learning culture amongstaff members.
At the end of the discussion, the visiting expert stated that it was extremely important to develop a
positive attitude among staff members to learn and pass on job knowledge and experience to colleagues.
Without a positive attitude, the impact and effectiveness of different succession programmes would deteriorate. Apart from that, he also mentioned that management should play a serious role in editing manuals
and guidelines, as it is a process of defining and selecting useful knowledge and experience. In addition, he
was of the view that an exit interview for retiring staff or officers leaving the service was a useful means
to collect opinions on useful job knowledge from the perspective of experienced staff, so as to refine thecontent of knowledge and experience sharing.
D. Promoting Cooperation in Capacity Building with Other Organizations
With the rising public expectations for rehabilitation of offenders, criminal justice authorities are now
expected to do more for offenders than just locking them up in jail. It is noted that the efforts by the government and the offenders themselves alone are never sufficient for the rehabilitation of offenders.
All members of various authorities collaborate with outside organizations to provide training to staff
members, despite variations in the level of involvement. With the collaboration with overseas counterparts/
institutions, or with the cooperation with other local governmental departments, advanced training onleadership or specific skills, such as peace keeping, treatment of offenders, management skills, counsellingand family support, are provided to senior officers to broaden their knowledge and experience so as tofurther improve their service. Experts from various backgrounds (both private and public sectors) havealso been invited to conduct seminars to share their experience on specific topics. Some countries, such as
Kenya, Papua New Guinea, Hong Kong and Korea have also collaborated with local and overseas tertiary
institutions to develop new training programmes to enhance officers’ knowledge and skill sets. Korea had
also gained resources from hospitals, libraries, museums, universities and other organizations to educate
staff and provide welfare.
Though various outside collaborations were mentioned, it is also found that there are several unsatisfactory issues under the prevailing practice. A participant raised that the shortage of funding was always achallenge for establishing collaborations with outside organizations, which made them lack exposure to international training and qualifications. Other participants shared the view and indicated that there wereinsufficient training places for all eligible officers. Also, though their government had adopted an open door
policy to boost cooperation and partnership, the criminal justice authorities in Kenya were required to
select partners carefully as some of the organizations were not meeting the required standard. There wasalso insufficient research on correctional training in some countries.

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The Group agreed that management should keep on fighting for adequate budget to provide training.
However, with limited resources, management should be careful in selecting suitable officers to attend
available trainings. Apart from the above, another participant noted that the quality of the training content
should also be a concern, and it was important to choose suitable outside organizations to provide appropriate training to ensure the proper use of limited funding. Further, as the ultimate aim of training is toacquire useful knowledge or experience to improve each respective service, it is important to encourage
the officers having outside training to share their experience with colleagues and to adopt useful new experience and knowledge in practice, though it is noted that it is not easy to change the conservative
culture of organizations. Meanwhile, it is also worthy to mention that though it is a good practice for thecriminal justice authorities to track the level of public support for various policies, relevant authorities
should bear in mind their professional background and ensure that their decisions are based on professional judgement instead of public opinion.

III. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONSWith the above summary of the discussion, the Group concluded that the following should be recommended as possible ways of enhancing the organizational strengths of criminal justice authorities and theirpersonnel:
A. Developing an Organizational Culture of Integrity
1. Developing High-Integrity Personnel and Sound Organization as Well as the Prevention of Illegal
Conduct Such as Corruption and Inappropriate Treatment of Offenders➢ To provide adequate payment to lower the motivation for misconduct➢ To have staff involvement in setting departmental goals and objectives➢ To develop a positive departmental culture in enhancing the quality of service➢ To establish and promote service charters (performance pledges) to ensure the quality of service➢ To provide sufficient staff welfare and relations activities programmes, such as sports, music andfamily activities, etc.
2. Enhancing Organizational Strength to Address Difficult Offenders Who May Coax or Threaten Corrections Officers➢ To reposition the relationship between officers and offenders➢ To have effective classification and treatment of offenders➢ To provide sufficient and appropriate training➢ To introduce mentorship programmes
B. Stress Management for Correctional Personnel
1. Mitigating the Stress of Officers Who Work in Stressful Environments➢ To provide sufficient resources to eliminate the shortage problem➢ To improve communication between management and frontline by technology devices➢ To provide sufficient staff welfare and activities to release the stress of staff➢ To provide adequate training to make staff be effective with their work
➢ To provide specific medical treatments / therapy seminars to stressed staff➢ To improve the public image of various criminal justice agencies in the mass media➢ To prevent the ideology of perfectionism by streamlining complicated work procedures, so as to
avoid unnecessary workload and stress
2. Enhancing Communications among Officers to Improve Stressful Work Environments➢ Staff Suggestion Box / Complaint Register to receive feedback➢ Regular conferences / staff meetings on case handling and knowledge sharing➢ Use of Intranet / mass / social media to share useful information
C. Passing Knowledge and Experience to the Next Generation
1. Developing Effective Capacity-Building Programmes for Passing Knowledge and Experience to the
Next Generation, as Well as for Enhancing Organizational Strength➢ To provide comprehensive needs-orientated training programmes➢ To have cooperation with outside bodies to conduct research and have continuous and regular re94

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finements on the training curriculum➢ To standardize the training materials and content by clear teaching plans for instructors as well as
providing training-of-trainers programmes➢ To extend the use of e-learning in staff training
2. Building and Exerting Leadership in Order to Improve the Efficiency of the Organization and to
Enhance Organizational Strength, in Particular Developing the Capacity and Morale of Young Officers➢ To introduce a diversified posting policy / internship programmes➢ To have clear documentation on emergency control plans and daily operations➢ To have mentoring and coaching schemes➢ To stipulate clear career paths for young officers➢ To have “exit interviews” to collect useful information from the perspective of experienced staff➢ To invite retired professionals to participate in the criminal justice system and to share their richexperience➢ To collect and share useful training information on the ICPA website
D. Promoting Cooperation in Capacity Building with Other Organizations
1. Promoting Cooperation in Capacity Building with Other Organizations Including NGOs, Academics,
Research Institutes, Etc. in Order to Improve Capacity Building and Organizational Strength➢ To continue collaboration with outside bodies to provide appropriate training➢ To devote substantial resources to improve quantity and quality of training➢ To carefully select candidates for training➢ To encourage trained staff to share their knowledge acquired➢ To change the conservative culture and to apply new experience➢ To conduct regular customer satisfaction surveys➢ To have exchange programmes with overseas counterparts for benchmarking of services to international standards

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