Meet the Authors
William P. Sturgeon
William “Bill” Sturgeon has over 45 years of experience in the criminal justice field. An author, teacher/trainer, practitioner, expert witness and internationally recognized criminal justice consultant, he has received numerous awards and commendations for his work. He held supervisory and managerial positions in both law enforcement and corrections.
Mr. Sturgeon has been a consultant for the United States Department of Justice’s National Institute of Corrections Academy for over 27 years in the areas of management, operations, training, security and supervision. He has an extensive background in special operations training and management. Bill has also developed and taught “specialized” courses and curricula that assist agencies in “expanding” their emergency plans to deal with the potential of terrorist attacks.
Mr. Sturgeon has been certified as an expert witness in the Federal Court System and State Courts. Additionally, he has submitted reports on terrorism that have been entered into the Congressional Record.
Bill served as a consultant for federal, state and county governments, as well as national and international governments and corporations. He has served as a technical consultant for correctional training videos and in 1995 Mr. Sturgeon won a Telly Award for “Best Training” video in its class.
He has consulted extensively abroad in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Haiti, the Philippines and the Republic of South Africa.
Mr. Sturgeon has written articles on security operations, security enveloping, operational emergency planning, counter-terrorism, training, and the management of violent youthful offenders.
He has co-authored two other books, No Time To Play and Recess is Over, and two chapters for the Civic Research Institute’s Special Inmate Populations Volume I and II. In Volume I, Mr. Sturgeon addressed the management of violent youthful offenders, and in Volume II he detailed the security and management issues as well as other dangers associated with incarcerating terrorists in correctional institutions.
Mr. Sturgeon earned a Bachelor of Science and Master of Arts Degrees in Criminal Justice Administration. He received his training in Managing Complex Medical Emergencies, Health and Human Rights, Mediation and Conflict Resolution from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Bill is a decorated Vietnam veteran who served with the 101st Airborne Division.
Francesca Spina, Ph.D.
Francesca Spina, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor and the Chair of the Criminal Justice Department at Springfield College. Dr. Spina is also an adjunct faculty member in the Division of Online and Continuing Education at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She earned a Ph.D. in Criminal Justice and Criminology from the University of Massachusetts Lowell and a B.A. in Economics from Trinity College. Dr. Spina’s research interests include criminal justice policy reform, corrections, race and justice, and gender and crime. She has published and presented extensively on these topics.
Book Reviews
Your new book arrived this morning in the mail. I started to read it right away and intended to read just the first chapter or two. I have now read almost the entire book and I want to congratulate you on an incredible achievement.
I believe that your writing of this book is (yet another) public service you have performed. Every single person in law enforcement, corrections, counterterrorism, and intelligence should study this book.
Great job Bill – and thank you for serving our country so well, yet again.
Bill Sturgeon and Francesca Spina have mastered the ability of putting theory into practice. Quite often statisticians and researchers point us in the right direction, but in the end it is how this information is translated into realistic and practical advice that will effectively meet operational needs. Well done!
For any correctional practitioner, administrator, or student of the art this text is an absolute must read. With its four basic tenets outlining not only how terrorists behave and how staff can recognize these behaviors for what they are and how to combat them. It focuses on the importance of training staff to know how to recognize these behaviors and effect change to de-radicalize offenders while still in prison. From the correctional officer to the warden, it suggests concrete ways to help staff recognize behaviors, avoid being co-opted by the offenders and take immediate steps to address the problem. In some detail it encourages facilities to hire and train individuals from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds to not only provide positive role models to offenders as part of the de-radicalization effort but to also be able to collect intelligence and share with supervisors and managers what is and is not legitimate religious and cultural behavior. Because the text is co-authored by an experienced practitioner (Sturgeon) with decades of experience working in institutions and consulting with agencies on a myriad of security related topics and an academic (Spina) who is well published in the arena and continues to teach, lecture, and study the topic, the reader receives a well-balanced, practical approach to a very complex topic rooted in science and scholarly research. The text could also be excellent supplemental reading for any graduate or undergraduate class encompassing correctional management, security protocols or the study of cultural and religious groups in confinement.
Authors Sturgeon and Spina stress that our jails, detention centers and prisons are a petridish, a breeding ground for radicalizing terrorist inmates who one day will be released and possibly commit heinous terrorist acts. Their message to anyone involved in the corrections field is to educate yourself, provide for ongoing staff training, revised policies and procedures, facility improvements, and supplies, to safely incarcerate inmates, provide for everyone’s safety, prevent such radicalization and even deradicalize them. They provide clear direction for accomplishing this. And very importantly they send readers a message, that ignoring this growing problem is not an option, for to do so, will result in the growth of terrorist groups. If you are concerned about the post 9/11 world we live in, read this.
