As a Jail Guard you'll be required to document events that you've been involved in. You document events by completing "reports". Through your report writing, others will determine important facts about events you were involved in, who, what and where. Based on your report writing, others will determine the guilt or innocence of people involved in those events. Based on your report writing, they will also judge you and find you competent, brilliant or an idiot. Through your report writing, others may even find you guilty or innocent. Competent report writing is an extremely important skill for today's Jail Guards.

 

Can I improve my report writing?
Report writing is a skill. Like all skills, some people are naturally better at some than others. But also like all skills, with a little work, we can all improve our performance. It just takes some effort and not looking like a moron should be pretty good motivation.

Getting Ready...

A. Organize your notes...

Get correct spellings for all names.

Get correct locations for everyone involved.

Make sure you have the correct rule numbers and infraction names.

Jot down the major things that you observed. This doesn't need to be detailed, just get the important stuff down.

1835 Observed inmates lining up against the glass in 8SUD and looking over toward UA.

1835 Turned and observed 2 inmates fighting.
Observed Smith strike Jones in the face with a closed fist several times.

Observed Jones trying to get away from Smith.

Called for a "Code Blue".

Ordered Smith and Jones to separate.

Ordered everyone to go their bunks.

1837 Sgt Blue arrived with several Officers and entered UA, placed both inmates in restraints and left 8South

1839 Medical Status 2 called

1845 Code Blue and Medical Status 2 cleared.

Inmate Jones made no attempt to fight back.

Inmate Jones had blood on his face, near his nose and mouth.

You shouldn't even try to get everything down yet. Just the important facts.

          

B. Be truthful...
I don't want to get bogged down in morality here but, you should always work to remain above reproach in your professional life. Don't do anything you can't comfortably justify in the light of day, on Main street, in front of your mother and grandmother. One of the biggest expectations your employer has for you is to be honest. But you shouldn't be honest for your employer. You should be honest because it's the right thing to do.
You should never compromise yourself for an inmate, coworker or anyone else. To err is human and to be expected. To lie is to slip the noose around your own neck!

Always be truthful, be truthful when reporting events, be truthful when documenting events, always be truthful! The job you save just may be your own. 

 

C. Remember who your audience is...
It's important to keep in mind who'll be reading your reports. Your Sergeant, Captain, Major or Commander? Who else could be be reading your reports? Your primary audience will always be people in your own department. It could be anyone up and down the Chain of Command, Classification, Court Services, your departments Criminal Investigators or Internal Investigations Unit .

Your secondary audience is the rest of the world. It could be local prosecuting attorneys, criminal defense lawyers, law enforcement agency detectives, the Department of Justice, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the public, the media. Virtually everywhere in America you'll fall under the jurisdiction of some form of the Freedom of Information Act. Nothing you produce, as a part of your job, is sacred and free from snooping by the masses. It's OK though, most people don't think about it. You're going to keep in mind that everyone could be reading your masterworks and that should help motivate you to produce outstanding reports.

Getting It On...

A. KISS
Keep It Short & Simple
Include all needed facts but not one word more than needed to communicate exactly what happened and who was involved.
Use the smallest words and make the sentences as short as you can.

Don't reinvent the wheel. For as long as there's been art, artists have been copying the works of others to learn and improve their skills. Do some scrounging around and find really good examples of reports and use them as the foundation to create your own masterpieces.

B. Great works of Literature, NOT!
Reports will never be great works of Literature. Not all rules and laws of communicating in the English language need to be followed. Reports are working documents that officially capture events. Your primary concern should always be communicating in a way that is easy to understand exactly what happened with all the pertinent facts and not one word more. You should never be trying to amuse or entertain others through your reports.

C. Review Your Work
When your report is done, print it and take a good hard look at it. Make sure you've included everything you intended to. Make sure you've spelled every one's name correctly and look for words that don't look right. Often we struggle with the correct spelling while writing but when it's actually in front of us we know it's right or wrong.
Read your report out loud. Reading silently isn't good enough. Your a smart cookie and your mind will fill in blanks and gloss over errors like they weren't even there.
Have others proof read your report. There are likely a few people you know of that are really good at writing. Ask them for their guidance and thank them for their effort in helping you.