Unfamiliar accents and uniforms mingled in a room at Stafford Creek Correctional Center on Monday afternoon as corrections personnel talked with each other, comparing experiences.

Members of the British and Norwegian prison systems made the trip around the planet here to Grays Harbor, as Stafford Creek seeks to lead the state in implementing Amend— a program reevaluating public health challenges for both those incarcerated in Washington’s prisons, as well as those who work there.

“It’s a public health model,” said DOC Secretary Cheryl Strange in an interview. “How do you make a healthier community? It’s not just the incarcerated. It’s for the staff as well.”

Stafford Creek personnel worked with their international colleagues as the other countries strive to bring or to show change and improvement to their systems as well. Amend, which models itself on the human-rights heavy Norwegian approach to corrections, seeks to apply those to U.S. facilities.

“Where this all starts is a ground-up initiative. This is where we’re heading,” said Sean Murphy, deputy secretary of the DOC. “This is important work, noble work, work that’s sometimes seen as thankless.”

International guests talked about issues they faced, as well as solutions for fixing them.

“I’m a big believer in international cooperation for problems we all have,” said Officer Niamh Donnelly of His Majesty’s Prison and Probation Service, one of the six British officers that came over as part of the initiative. “We can share our challenges and talk about how we overcame them.”

Michael S. Lockett / The Daily World Stafford Creek Corrections Center is the first prison in Washington to have an Amend program, a human-rights focused approach to corrections derived from Norwegian facilities.

A new way of thinking

The initiative at Stafford Creek began in earnest last year, said Lt. Lance Graham, the project manager at the prison. Previous experience in programs supporting the wellness of DOC personnel made him interested in being part of the program here at Stafford Creek, Graham said.

“We were brought a concept. No part of the concept was developed,” Graham said in an interview. “They said, ‘this is a concept. How do you build it?’”

Graham traveled to Norway last year for the first time, a destination he freely admitted he hadn’t expected his work with the DOC to take him to. The atmosphere in Norwegian correction facilities is sharply different than those here, Graham said.

“Everybody is happy. The incarcerated are happy, the officers are happy,” Graham said. “The time I’ve been here, there’s not a lot of happy people.”

Studying their facilities — and seeing the American approach to corrections technique role-played in front of them — was eye-opening, Graham said.

“A lot of people don’t understand it till they feel it,” Graham said. “It changes a lot.”

The Amend initiative prioritizes a health-focused approach, humanism and creating a climate for better outcomes for both the incarcerated population and those responsible for guarding them.

“Public perception is a little difficult with both sides,” Graham said. “It’s nice to prove people are people.”

A ways from home, a ways to go

Bringing members of other countries’ departments of correction helps pool knowledge, and promotes discussions about issues they face with their facilities. For the British, some of their facilities nearly predate the United States as a country, which leads to many structural issues. There are also difficulties comparing the American approach with other international ones, owing to a differences in the organizations as a whole, Donnelly said.

“It’s difficult to compare,” Donnelly said. “We are at different security levels.”

Donnelly and the other British officers that came over did so as part of the Unlocked Graduates program, which recruits college graduates to work for two years as corrections officers as a part of finding ways to reduce recidivism and improve prisons — and future prospects for prisoners.

“Part of it is better neighbors,” Strange said. “Part of it is healthier staff.”

By recognizing the humanity of the incarcerated, something not always taken for granted, Graham said they hope to help those released will become part of the community instead of dropping them straight into the deep end of reintegrating into society. Members of the Amend resource team work with inmates about their goals, wants and needs.

“The team gets a chance to dedicate time to that,” Graham said. “They’re not just walking out of here, going to Walmart, and having a nervous breakdown.”

The Amend program is also getting off the ground in other states, as well as other prisons in Washington, Strange said. Graham said he visited prisons in California and Oregon. Strange said she hopes to see the program expanded in the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla and in the Washington Corrections Center for Women in Purdy.

Contact Senior Reporter Michael S. Lockett at 757-621-1197 or mlockett@thedailyworld.com.