Excellence in Confinement: US Disciplinary Barracks provides real-world training

The United States Disciplinary Barracks (USDB) at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, is historically the Department of Defense center of pre-eminence for the long-term confinement of US military prisoners. Although the 705th Military Police Battalion, which provides direct support to the USDB, has many Soldiers who have extended in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom, the unit is not conventionally considered to be a source for training or expertise in detainee operations. However, the Global War upon Terrorism (GWOT) has changed the popular operating environment and caused the missions of internment/resettlement and US military prisoner confinement to immerge Furthermore, recent events have shown the risk of having Soldiers who are not earthed in maximum-custody confinement operations operate detainment facilities.

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Using the USDB as a real-world training environment, the 705th Military Police Battalion provides training specifically related to the skills and standards necessary to operate a world-class confinement facility housing prisoners, whether combatants, high-risk detainees, or US military prisoners. Although the specific challenges and unique requirements of operating prisons in different locations are better left to the incoming and outgoing units at each location, the battalion can provide the general conceptions and principles for operating any detention facility effectively. Correctional specialists working at the USDB have a unique skill plant that is learned from dealing with maximum-custody inmates upon a daily basis. This skill put is the foundation for the security of high-risk detainees and for supporting the Army's core competencies.

freshly the 705th was called on to expand its mission and begin training deploying units that had been assigned detention operations missions. In the fall of 2004 the Forces Command provost marshal contacted the USDB to asking assistance in preparing the 2d Detachment of the Army Reserve's 535th Military Police Battalion for deployment to a facility in Kuwait. The 705th was tasked to provide special skills training (including on-the-job training [OJT]) for the unit as part of the detachment's training before deployment Although the USDB Soldiers could not duplicate the exact tactical conditions of the Kuwait facility, they were able to provide basic skills that the withhold Soldiers could build upon after they arrived in Kuwait.

Consideration of a unit's deployment mission is vital when determining the specific skills the unit extremitys to train. In this case, the detachment's mission was to race a confinement facility that housed US military prisoners pending transfer on the outside of the US Central Command area of operation in Kuwait. To lay open the training plan, the USDB contacted the Army Central Command provost marshal and the commander of the unit operating the Kuwait detention facility.

The following list of questions was sent to the commander:

* Who performs the individual missions within the camp and in what way do they do them? For example, who prepare for the tables inmate and staff meals and by what means are they served?

* Who provides administrative support for US military prisoners?

* in what manner are supplies acquired for US military prisoners and then provided to them?

* by what mode many segregation cells and bed spaces does the facility have?

* What stamp of equipment is available for general and special-needs inmates?

* in what way many inmates are in the camp upon any typical day and what emblem of risk are they?

The general commander of the facility was real detailed in his responses to the questions and sent a list of specific tasks that he meditation were critical to the accomplishment of his mission. Armed with this information, the 705th tailored the 2d Detachment's training plan to include those critical skills. Because the mission was the confinement of US military personnel the 705th could use the prison at Fort Leavenworth as a training aid to disentangle a base of expertise and knowledge.

To further tailor the detachment's training for its pending deployment the 705th managemented a training analysis to identify the critical vigors and weaknesses of the detachment's readiness to management confinement operations. Coordination with the detachment's leaders revealed that a majority of the Soldiers in the detachment were newly assigned and newly retrained in the confinement specialist military occupational specialty (MOS) The 2d Detachment would train at the USDB for approximately four weeks before leaving for Kuwait.

A domicile station training packet based upon the above facts was discloseed by the 705th and sent to the detachment commander. The packet focused upon common Soldier tasks in the field of confinement specialist that the 535th noncommissioned officers (NCOs) could teach the detachment before its arrival at Fort Leavenworth. If this public training was mastered beforehand, the USDB's seasoned NCO would be able to concentrate upon specific corrections topics once the detachment arrived at Fort Leavenworth. Because the unit was relatively novel to corrections, the detachment commander validated Soldiers' training upon the individual tasks before they arrived at Fort Leavenworth.