Criminal justice agencies and various community-based organizations, such as mental health, workforce development, substance abuse treatment, and housing obviously have different traditions, missions, and values. Even the language used in each of these systems is distinct. To the corrections administrator, a person to be released from a secure facility is an "offender." On the other hand, someone working in a One-Stop would see that person as a "job seeker" or "worker"; a mental health professional would see the person as a potential "consumer." Depending on the system, the person could also be viewed as someone who is a "noncustodial father," "homeless," a "parishioner," or simply a "client."

Needless to say, staff working for each of the systems that may have some responsibility for a person to be released from prison have been trained very differently. To appreciate how each of these systems is organized and how it functions, and even to understand the language it uses, employees of different systems collaborating in a re-entry initiative should be cross-trained. Under such an agreement, staff members working in two or more systems receive training from each other in order to improve overall service provided to an overlapping target population. Mental health and criminal justice systems may cross-train to improve each system's response to people with mental illness in the criminal justice system. ^[1]   Substance abuse and criminal justice systems may cross-train to improve each system's treatment for people in corrections and community corrections settings. Housing and substance abuse treatment systems may cross-train to improve their provision of supportive housing for people with substance use disorders. These are just some of the combinations of systems that should think about cross-training their staff.

Example: Connecticut Jail Diversion Project

Mental health clinicians in Connecticut's Jail Diversion Project receive periodic in-service training about the missions and procedures of the different criminal justice agencies with which they collaborate. Representatives from the Department of Corrections, the State's Attorney's office and the Public Defender's office (among others) participate in the training and discuss case scenarios with the clinicians. The clinicians learn how to maintain the integrity of their role as treatment professionals while operating in the criminal justice system.

Determining in what situations (and for which staff) cross-training might be most useful should begin with a review of existing training materials and programs. Administrators should ask themselves where there are gaps and whether these gaps present opportunities to enhance familiarity with other systems. Furthermore, in developing a cross-training initiative, it is important to keep other potential dividends in mind. Not only does cross-training foster relationships between people working in each system and promote the sharing of ideas. It also provides staff with current information about how a system works, dispelling myths or stereotypes that employees in one system may have held about people working for (or served by) the other.

Example: La Bodega de la Familia/PARTNER, Family Justice, Inc. (NY)

La Bodega offers periodic cross-training for case managers and parole and probation officers working with La Bodega to improve community supervision through the involvement of family members. Topics vary per session (as does the facilitator), but all sessions follow an agenda, set by the facilitator and La Bodega's program director, which covers issues spanning community supervision and family systems. Case managers cross-train parole and probation officers in ways to use therapeutic intervention models, identify family strengths, engage the family, and increase understanding of alternative family structures and social and economic factors relevant to low-income families. Parole and probation officers cross-train to emphasize their organizational imperative to protect community safety and to discuss obstacles faced in community supervision. Starting broadly, conversations tend to focus on case specifics. Through cross-training, La Bodega hopes to create a forum to express concerns, probe assumptions, and work towards a shared perspective conducive to the La Bodega model.