Lt. Keith Harmon of the Collier County Sheriff’s Office was among the 36 jail professionals from across the country who made up the eighth graduating class of the National Jail Leadership Command Academy (NJLCA) in November.
The goal of NJLCA is to assist in succession preparation and development of leadership skills for successful transitioning into senior leadership positions within jails. Topics covered included leadership skills, human resources, accountability, emerging issues, communication, ethics, collaboration, discipline, finance and budgeting, statistics, and managing change. Academy faculty included subject matter experts representing field practitioners and criminal justice academicians.
The academy is a collaborative effort of the American Jail Association (AJA) and the Correctional Management Institute of Texas (CMIT) in cooperation with the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) and the National Association of Counties (NACo).
AJA, a national, nonprofit, educational organization representing more than 70,000 jail professionals and 3,200-plus facilities, focuses exclusively on issues affecting today's jail professional. CMIT operates out of the George J. Beto Criminal Justice Center, within the College of Criminal Justice at Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. Established in 1994, CMIT provides training and leadership development opportunities to the corrections professionals from around the country.
NACo is the only national organization that represents county governments in the United States and provides essential services to the nation's 3,066 counties. NIC is an agency within the U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Prisons, that provides training, technical assistance, information services, and policy/program development assistance to federal, state, and local corrections agencies.