To effectively assess and work with diverse communities, members of which may identify themselves based on race, ethnicity, age, sex, national origin, disability, sexual orientation, religion, and profession, correctional staff will need to work toward becoming more culturally competent in their understanding of and interaction with inmates and each other. Administrators should consider scheduling periodic training events to increase awareness and build such competency skills.

Achieving cultural competency is an incremental process, in which each stage progressively builds on the former one. The process requires an organization to assess the biases, prejudices, and assumptions its members make about people who are different. Corrections administrators should develop and implement policies, procedures, systems, and practices to foster cross-cultural understanding and communication and to guide progress toward full cultural competency. Existing cultural competency-building programs from other governmental agencies or local educational institutions may be adapted for use within the corrections setting.