Report Writing Training in the Penitentiary System

The Cantonal Office of Law Enforcement of the Canton of Thurgau approached us inquiring about a a seminar in report writing in the penitentiary system. The team leader explained that she and her team were facing challenges regarding their reports, as the quality of such reports must meet high standards. Report writing in the penitentiary system thus tends to be rather time-consuming. So, she inquired if it was possible for us to work with her team on their reports for a day with the goal of improving their reports’ quality and reducing the time they took.

The goal of the seminar was thus to sensitize the team to the important aspects of report writing and how to get reports done as efficiently as possible. The main challenge was the fact that the participants belonged to different units. Some of them were from the cantonal office while others worked in the prison. This meant that the former mostly worked with legal and official documents, while the latter reported more specifically on the development of inmates and their measures. In order to serve them all, we asked her to send us a few reports from both institutions beforehand for us to include them in the seminar.

The workshop went very well. At the outset, Danae gave an input on what the relevant aspects of report writing are – both in general as well as in the penitentiary system. Report writing in the penitentiary system faces the additional challenge of textual features of social reports melting with those of legal documents. This has certain effects on the text, and discussing these effects with participants will make their report writing more efficient in the future.

Danae illustrated all the theoretical input with examples taken from their internal texts. By discussing their own texts, participants learned what they need to consider when writing their own reports, and they practiced the most accurate wording. In addition, these discussions foster the skill of analyzing and enhancing everyday practices. At the same time, participants had the opportunity to exchange experiences among team members and to clarify frequent questions and doubts with Danae.

You'll find more information here: Reporting in the Penitentiary System

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