Michael BlakeSergeant Michael Blake earned her Bachelor's Degree in Law and Justice from Central Washington University in 1993. While in College, she volunteered for the local Crisis Line and completed an internship with the Attorney General's Office. That internhip included compiling statistics for the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting and she was introduced to the Homicide information and Tracking System (HITS Program) in which crime statistics are coupled with GPS in order to solve Crime in Washington State. Since 1994, she has been employed off and on in Corrections with the Yakima County Department of Corrections in Washington State. In 2002, she promoted to Corporal and in 2003, began working as one of the Training Coordinators for the Department. During her tenure as Training Coordinator, she wrote the first training model for corrections officers based on the Reno Model for training Law Enforcement officers. She also co-authored promotional training models for Corporals and Sergeants with her partners in training. All three of these training models were accepted and approved by the Washington State Criminal Justice Training Academy as qualified curriculum for certification processes. Michael was fortunate to travel to Longmont Colorado to participate in the National Institute of Corrections Training program for Training Coordinators. She also became a Certified Field Training Officer in the Reno Model. In her spare time she began bringing the training records into compliance with the American Correctional Association's standards for records retention and destruction. While working with the Department of Corrections, Michael was invited to be an Adjunct Professor at Yakima Valley Community College, teaching an Inmate Populations Course, for which she developed the curriculum, guidelines, and tests. Michael helped implement the first Peer Support Team for the Yakima County Department of Corrections. She was one of the founding Peer Support members and has assisted staff after numerous crisis events. During this time she was asked to teach the Corrections portion of the Crisis Intervention Training course being offered to Law Enforcement by Comprehensive Mental Health. In 2007, Michael promoted to Shift Sergeant, running a team of thirty plus officers where she remained for two years, helping to guide her shift through several crisis events, including the death of an officer. In 2009, Michael transferred to the position of Population Liaison Sergeant. This position included the supervision of the Classification Division in the jail as well as helping to manage the population of State Contract Inmates in the facility. Michael was requested to help develop a pre-release program for Yakima County. She, with a team of professionals, developed and implemented the Release Analysis Division. This division provided recommendations to the court regarding the risk and release factors of inmates. As that position was closed, Michael went back to being a Shift Sergeant, adamant that it is the best job in Corrections. Read More Read Less