Instructional Designer Corrections Background

About the opportunity

We are a woman-owned learning design firm that builds behavior-changing courses end to end for corporate, government, and higher education clients. We are competing for a multi-year federal contract to modernize a corrections training curriculum. The scope includes revising existing e-learning courses, developing micro-learning courses that support annual training, building blended hard-skills courses that combine virtual instructor-led and resident classroom instruction, and revising resident instructor-led curricula.

If awarded, this position would be the technical authority on correctional practice for that program. It is not a reviewer role. You would design, update, modernize, and evaluate specialized correctional curricula, build lesson plans and interactive exercises, and set the testing metrics used to assess whether the training works. We are looking for a corrections practitioner who became a course builder.

If you came up through a corrections academy, worked inside facilities, and then moved into training development, this role was written for you.

A candidate who does not meet all four cannot be submitted. Each must be documented on your resume at the time you apply.

Education - Bachelor's degree or higher in criminal justice, criminology, psychology, sociology, public administration, or emergency management. A master's in one of these fields is strongly preferred and affects how the role is classified on the contract.

Note:

the Government sets an associate's degree as its floor for this role. We require a bachelor's because every labor category on our federal contract vehicle carries a bachelor's or master's minimum, and a candidate must meet that minimum to be billable. An associate's degree meets the Government's stated bar but cannot be priced. Please do not apply with an associate's alone.

2. Corrections academy certification

State- or agency-certified corrections academy training, completed through a state department of corrections, a county sheriff's office or jail authority, or the Federal Bureau of Prisons. Your resume must name the academy, the certifying agency, and the completion date. An academic degree in criminal justice does not satisfy this requirement. This is the credential you earn as an employee of a corrections agency.

3. Seven or more years of experience

Across correctional core subject areas, and that experience must include all three of the following:

• Recent in-field corrections experience, meaning work inside correctional or detention operations rather than work about corrections
• Development of occupational subject matter content
• Quality control of deliverables

4. Demonstrated dual capability

Deep familiarity with both the development of adult learning materials and current correctional facility operations, including safety and security operations.

You do not need depth in all of these. You should be able to speak with authority across most, and identify where you would need to consult.

Use of force and defensive control; less-lethal weapons including chemical agents, OC, tasers, impact munitions, and restraint equipment; cell search and transport techniques; tool, key, and contraband control; emergency preparedness for riots, escape attempts, hostage situations, and natural disasters; fire safety and evacuation; incident command for corrections.

Suicide prevention and intervention, including early warning signs and immediate response protocols before medical personnel arrive; staff mental health awareness, including recognizing psychosis, severe depression, and neurodivergent behavior among staff; crisis de-escalation and verbal defusing; trauma-informed practice; first aid, CPR, and AED knowledge components.

PREA, including investigating sexual abuse in confinement, coordinator roles and responsibilities, audit process and instruments, medical and behavioral health care for victims, and tribal detention facility application; inmate rights and constitutional law covering religious freedom, mail, cell searches, and disciplinary hearings; corrections ethics and standards of conduct, including anti-corruption, professional boundaries, and preventing exploitation of power; addressing inmate sexual misconduct; human trafficking.

Interpersonal communication with correctional offenders;…