The duty to intervene is a critical component of maintaining safety, accountability and professionalism within correctional facilities. Correctional staff, including deputies, officers, medical staff and leaders, are responsible for the custody and care of incarcerated people and for upholding the integrity of the profession by stepping in when they witness excessive force or unethical behavior by a peer.
While this duty is mandated by policy and reinforced through examples in the media, the reality is that intervening in these situations can be incredibly difficult. Factors like loyalty to coworkers, fear of retaliation and the pressure of high-stress environments can make it challenging to speak up or take action.
Shifting the status quo from policy mandate to creating a culture of accountability, the Heroes Active Bystandership program uses training to leverage the entire corrections workforce. The Heroes training program is designed to empower correctional staff to appropriately intervene in a range of situations to transform agency culture into one that adopts active bystandership through training, implementation, support and sustainability frameworks.
The idea for the program came from examining programs that were already in place, like the one created and adopted in 2014 by the New Orleans Police Department and the Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement project practiced by law enforcement agencies nationwide.
Heroes Active Bystandership is modeled, in part, after these initiatives, yet is uniquely designed for the corrections environment. By using a “train the trainer” system and approaching active bystandership as a perishable skill, correctional facilities across the nation weave the curriculum into their training to reach both new and seasoned staff members.
“You have to do more than just say, ‘Don’t do this bad thing,’” said Heroes Active Bystandership cofounder Abigail Tucker, Psy.D., ABPP. “You actually have to spend time learning about why it is hard to intervene and train people in skills to effectively step in and prevent harm. It works best when you have a culture that adopts active bystandership alongside the training and the policy that supports it.”
Active bystandership training for individuals
While implementing Heroes’ curriculum across and within entire agencies has proven to be fruitful, this model has not allowed individuals working in corrections to elevate their own knowledge, skills and confidence without their agency fully adopting the Heroes program. Until recently, the trainings have only been available to entire agencies in a “train the trainer” model – but that’s about to change.
“We know how valuable the training is,” said Tucker, who is a board-certified police and public safety psychologist. “We also know that organizations as a whole, for a lot of different reasons, might not be ready to jump in with a whole agency training. But that does not need to keep individual people working in the field from getting trained in active bystandership.”
Beginning in spring 2025, those working in corrections can enroll in the Heroes Active Bystandership program on an individual basis without needing to wait for their agency to formally partner with the group. This opportunity allows anyone working in corrections to become leaders in the culture shift from blind loyalty to the constructive loyalty of active bystandership.
Transforming use-of-force situations
Corrections agencies that have integrated Heroes Active Bystandership curriculum into their staff training find that a vast number of potentially dangerous situations have been avoided thanks to the ability of officers to intervene when appropriate. In some instances, intervention is cut and dry, but sometimes additional training is required.
“Our belief is that active bystandership is a skill that can be used every day at work in all of an officer’s training,” explained Tucker. “What we uncovered in our work is that people are going into their normal use-of-force roll call and simply saying, ‘Hey, don’t forget to be an active bystander.’”
This aligned with direct feedback from Heroes agencies who wanted to supplement their new culture of active bystandership with customized training modules to take their new skills to the next level and prevent harm. Heroes conducted focus groups with correctional staff across the country and heard two clear themes – to integrate Heroes principles into use-of-force training modules and reinforce the Heroes pillar of workforce wellness with additional training. Heroes immediately got to work and launched their health and wellness reinforcement module in the fall of 2024 to all Heroes programs.
In summer 2025, Heroes will be releasing their tailored use-of-force module for agencies that have adopted the Heroes program. The module is designed to complement an agency’s current use-of-force training structure by providing additional opportunities for critical thinking, skills practice and teachable moments.
“In addition to the customized module, we’re providing them with a worksheet where trainers will prepare officers, review key points and then modify the use-of-force scenario to include an opportunity for active bystandership,” said Tucker.
She says this module makes the situations more realistic – but the training doesn’t stop there. A debrief tool is also included with the module to help further reinforce the curriculum.
How active bystandership transformed use of force
Some facilities have already been able to implement the new use-of-force module, and the results have been dramatic.
“We have a client in California who has seen a huge transformation,” Tucker described. “He (a Heroes agency instructor and training Lieutenant) said he did a use-of-force training prior to the Heroes standard training and 90% of the officers joined in on the excessive use of force in the scenario. One month after adding the new curriculum, only 40% of officers joined in, and a month later, it flipped. He estimated that 90% of them did the right thing and intervened using the skills they learned.”
The shift didn’t happen after just one training session, she shares. The facility needed the tools provided by Heroes Active Bystandership to prepare and debrief multiple times so they could build the repetition and muscle memory.
Heroes is on a mission to prevent harm. Whether your agency is already using the Heroes curriculum to support active bystandership or you’re exploring ways to build these skills, Heroes is offering options to shift from good intentions to action, preventing misconduct, reducing mistakes, and promoting health and wellness for all working in corrections. Check out their website for no-cost thought leadership sessions, resources, their new one-day virtual training for individuals and avenues for agencies to explore department-wide solutions.
