Definition

Rationale/Benefits

In order to be a successful CI operation, it is imperative that the agency educate and communicate with stakeholders to gain support for its programs.  Correctional Industries maintain many complex relationships with their stakeholders.  The valuable support that stakeholders can provide can be sustained if the relationships are properly managed and nurtured. The underlying value inherent to each individual stakeholder must be identified and reinforced.

It is crucial that every organization proactively manages its messaging to sustain ongoing support for its program and maintain and improve stakeholder relationships. It is likewise important that CI practitioners educate potential stakeholders who may have little understanding or knowledge of Correctional Industries. 

Ongoing communication with stakeholders will:

• Validate the CI program’s proven success
• Inform decision-makers about the positive impact of your program
• Demonstrate how resources are being used responsibly and effectively
• Share best and evidenced-based practices 
• Attract new partners for collaboration or strategic alliances

The more stakeholders know about Correctional Industries programs, the more likely they will support them. This can be accomplished by:

• Recording program successes and sharing this information with stakeholders.  Stakeholders can become champions for the agency and can serve as advisors and spokespersons in support of the organization’s mission and goals.
• Forming strategic alliances to develop new or improve existing collaborations can provide many benefits, including opportunities for program innovation, access to new resources, and increased positive visibility through shared contacts.  

Practices

1. Identify stakeholders, both internal and external.

   Methods to identify stakeholders include: 

   • Brainstorming
   • Reviewing organizational charts
   • Surveying
   • Using social media to conduct research

   Examples of common stakeholders for CI include:

   Internal

   • Correctional Industries Employees
   • Incarcerated individuals (whether or not they work in a CI program)
   • Correctional Staff
   • Corrections Administrators
   • Employee Unions

   External

   • Customers
   • Boards of Directors/Advisory Boards
   • Legislators/Elected Officials
   • Government Agencies
   • Media
   • Special Interest Groups (e.g., victims’ organizations, faith-based groups, etc.)
   • Suppliers
   • Private Sector Businesses
   • Community Constituents
   • Community Groups (that provide services to formerly incarcerated individuals)
   • Criminal Justice System
   • Incarcerated individual family members
   • Trade Unions
   • Competitors

2. Conduct a stakeholder analysis.

   Once stakeholders have been identified, conduct a stakeholder analysis.  This will include categorizing stakeholders according to their level of impact upon your organization, and it will help tailor appropriate messaging in line with relationships.  The stakeholder analysis attempts to identify stakeholders who:

   • have the greatest influence on the program
   • are directly and/or indirectly involved
   • require more attention
   • need ongoing communication and updates
   • need to be monitored

3. Map stakeholders.

   Place each stakeholder’s position on the Stakeholder Map (see Tools section) according to the extent of their influence and interest in your program. If a stakeholder rates a high interest level and may exert a significant degree of influence, fully engage and manage this relationship closely.  Conversely, if a stakeholder rates a low interest/impact level and has less influence over your program, monitoring the relationship may be all that is required.  

4. Develop a plan to manage stakeholders.

   After stakeholders have been identified and categorized, a communication plan should be developed to manage your relationships.  Be certain to consider what drives each stakeholder and determine how they feel about your organization’s mission and strategies.  Having a clear understanding of what motivates your stakeholders makes it easier to gain their support.  

   The following questions can be used to better understand CI stakeholders:

   • What interest do they have in your work?
   • Do they find value in your work?
   • Do they have emotional interest in your program?
   • What is their current opinion about your work?
   • Is their opinion accurate?
   • If their opinion is negative, what can be done to change it? What information do they need from you?
   • What is the best way to communicate with them?
   • What information do they expect and how often do they expect it?
   • Who can best influence the stakeholder?
   • How can Correctional Industries benefit the stakeholder? 
   • How can Correctional Industries benefit from the stakeholder’s support?
   • If a stakeholder’s support cannot be obtained, identify if there is something that can be done to manage or neutralize their sphere of influence?

   Determine the best method to educate stakeholders. Methods include:

   • Conducting one-on-one meetings or telephone calls
   • Conducting surveys or focus groups
   • Inviting stakeholders to agency meetings
   • Attending stakeholder-initiated meetings
   • inviting stakeholders to serve on advisory committees
   • Providing tours/open houses
   • Publishing Annual/Biennial reports
   • Publishing Newsletters/Program Briefs featuring success stories
   • Utilizing Social Media
   • Conducting Legislative Events

5. Create a communication plan to include talking points for stakeholder outreach

   Talking points are brief “sound bites” that persuasively support your organization’s messaging or mission.  It’s best to create a series of them to cover a variety of key topics and issues of importance.  These “sound bites” can be used in conjunction with presentations, media involvement, or other situations where immediate, “think on your feet” responses might be required.  It is important that each “sound bite” is supported by facts or anecdotal evidence from the organization and modified based on the target audience. For example, Correctional Industries:

   • Reduce prison idleness, increase incarcerated individual job skills, and help incarcerated individuals make a successful transition to the community
   • Reduce recidivism, thereby increasing public safety and reducing the need for additional general funding due to higher incarceration
   • Reduce correctional costs by engaging in self-sustaining initiatives
   • Create a better prepared workforce entering the community
   • Enable incarcerated individuals to support family members, and compensate crime victims
   • Reduce the burden to taxpayers, as the majority of CI programs are self-sustaining
   • Support the local, state and federal economy

6. Neutralize difficult stakeholders

   You may have stakeholders that will not support your mission or program under any circumstances.  In these instances, work with your staff and DOC administration to decide on a strategy to minimize the negative impact they may have on your program.

7. Build strategic alliances

   Building strategic alliances will help to advance CI’s mission. When building strategic alliances, it is important to establish desired outcomes. Identify key steps that each partner will take to achieve mutually agreeable goals. Strive to create “win-win” solutions. Celebrate and share successes.

8. Develop and maintain security relationships

   In any correctional facility, security is essential to protect the safety of incarcerated individuals, staff, and the public.  As a major internal stakeholder, it is essential for Correctional Industries to develop and maintain positive working relationships with security personnel for the mutual benefit of the facility’s security and to support CI’s mission.  

9. Formulate legislative strategy

   Supportive legislation and legislators are the foundation for creating a sustainable and viable Correctional Industries program. If the laws and regulations governing your operations meet your present and future needs, it may be sufficient to limit your legislative strategies to maintain or increase awareness among legislators and the public about the work of your CI program.  If not, a more comprehensive legislative plan may be needed.  Depending on agency policies, you may be required to gain approval prior to working directly with legislative bodies. If your agency has a legislative liaison, it is important to first educate the liaison, then work with them for legislative contact. 

10. Utilize media

    The exchange of information is key to educate, communicate and build stakeholder support.  Traditional media outlets have the capacity to broaden our reach to the three spheres of influence. Advances in technology require CIs to strategically utilize both the traditional forms of media while also developing a web presence and social media representation. The key messages could include CI research, products, success stories and defining CI’s respective mission. All contact with the media should be coordinated through your agency’s press or public information office, if applicable.

11.  Cultivate champions

    When a stakeholder is identified as a potential champion for your agency, be sure to collaborate on strategies so that ultimately they can be an effective advocate of the organization’s mission and objectives.

12. Formulate legislative strategy.

    Supportive legislation is the foundation for creating a sustainable and a viable correctional industries program that provides ongoing opportunities for offenders’ long-term prospects for reentry success. If the laws and regulations governing your operations meet your present and future needs, it may be sufficient to limit your strategies to maintain or increase awareness among legislators and the public about the work. If not, a more comprehensive and phased legislative plan may be needed. Depending on agency policies, you may be required to gain approval prior to working directly with legislative bodies. If your agency has a legislative liaison, it is important to first educate then work with them for legislative contact.

Measurements

Develop key data sets to gauge success, track and report.  Sample measurement criteria include:

• Recidivism reduction
• Post-release employment statistics
• Champions identified
• Skills provided to incarcerated workers/students
• Financial self sufficiency
• Customer satisfaction rate
• Positive economic impact to cities and the State
• Public service hours provided

Resources

(NCIA recognizes some of the resources cited do not align with the person first language updates. However, the resource provides pertinent information utilized in the development of this document)

• Publications
  Buchholz, S., & Roth, T. (1987).  Creating the High-Performance Team. New York, NY: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.  
• Carter, M., et al (2005). Collaboration:  A Training Curriculum to Enhance the Effectiveness of Criminal Justice Teams. Reston, VA: Criminal Justice Institute.
• Covey, S. (1989). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. New York, NY: Free Press.  
• Foley, J., & Kendrick, J. (2006).  Balanced Brand:  How to Balance the Stakeholder Forces That Can Make or Break your Business.  San Francisco, CA:  Jossey-Bass.
• Freeman, R. E., et al. (2007).  Managing for Stakeholders: Survival, Reputation, and Success.  New Haven, CT:  Yale University Press.
• Hansen, M. T. (2009). Collaboration: How Leaders Avoid the Traps, Create Unity, and Reap Big Results. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press.
• Larson, Carl E., & Frank M.J. LaFasto (1989). Teamwork: What Must Go Right, What Can Go Wrong.  Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications.
• Lencioni, Patrick. 2002. The Five Dysfunctions of a Team: A Leadership Fable. San Francisco, CA, Jossey-Bass.
• Swets, Paul M. 1983.  The Art of Talking So that People Will Listen: Getting through to Family, Friends & Business Associates.  New York, NY: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
• Watkins, Michael.  2003.  The First 90 days. Boston, MA.  Harvard Business Press. 

Websites

https://www.appa-net.org/eweb/DynamicPage.aspx?WebCode=NationalBranding
This site is maintained by the American Probation and Parole Association as is the home page of their National Branding Initiative.  It has links to a turnkey kit, a media training manual, and other valuable information related to branding.

http://lobbyingdisclosure.house.gov/index.html
The Lobby Disclosure Act governs lobbying efforts with the U.S. Senate and the House of Representatives.  This site provided guidance regarding the Act.

https://www.ncsl.org/
This site is maintained by the National Conference of State Legislatures and provides links to States' legislative ethics and lobbying laws.

https://www.bop.gov/resources/
This site is maintained by the Federal Bureau of Prisons and provides information on the Post-Release Employment Project (PREP) study report, showing the research findings and statistical significance of the UNICOR program in reducing recidivism and increasing incarcerated individual employment after release.

https://www.unicor.gov/
This site is maintained by UNICOR to provide details about their history, programs offered to incarcerated individuals. 

Tools

Stakeholder Mapping

Brand Identity Tools
Meetings can be used to provide staff with information about your brand, its value to the organization, how it should be communicated to your stakeholders.

Internal e-mails can be used to remind staff of your brand’s promise and build support for it.  They can also contain tag lines and/or logos that reinforce your brand identity.

Agency newsletters can feature stories highlighting activities that embody your brand’s promise.

When utilizing social media, such as Facebook or Instagram, consistently using your brand will help to keep the message current.

A tagline is a short and striking memorable phrase that sums up the tone and promise of a brand and reinforces your customer’s memory of a product or service.  You should use taglines on all your communications.

A key message is a brief paragraph that sums up the nature of your work and its impact upon incarcerated individuals and the communities in which they live.  Key messages should be backed up by research or other supporting evidence.

Because much of the news in the field of corrections is negative, it is necessary for Correctional Industries directors to be proactive in their relationships with the media and use outreach efforts to build and enhance their brands.  The media includes national broadcast networks, local radio and television stations, newspapers, wire services, national publications, and trade publications.  

A talking point is a brief statement that persuasively supports your position or organization’s objectives.

When developing a collaborative effort, it can be useful to assess the group’s strengths and weaknesses.  This Collaboration Inventory will allow you to address any deficiencies that might exist and increase the probability of the group’s success. 

Working with Legislators

CI Models with Data to Support Success

Indiana PEN Products

Illinois Correctional Industries