Why Use Force, Bystandership and Review Processes Must Be Heavily Invested in and Tended to With Transparency and Care
Author: Felice Upton | Connect on LinkedIn
Published November 25, 2025
I have reviewed more use of force in my career than I ever imagined I would. And I believe deeply that nothing shapes a system's integrity more than how it handles force, how it prevents it, and how quickly it shines a light on it. These are often treated as individual issues when they are often pervasive structural and systemic issues.
Because here's the truth most people in our field already know:
Abuses don't grow in the presence of accountability.
They grow in the presence of silence.
And silence is still rewarded in too many places.
Years ago, I reviewed a case I will never forget. There is video from that day I can still see frame by frame. It was one of the worst things I'd ever witnessed. The force was excessive, abusive and showed clearly what happens when someone abuses their power, position and brings their own crap to the job.
One staff member was held accountable by me, but the deeper problem was terrifying: the people around them during the incident didn't feel safe to intervene or to report- they watched and did not intervene.
That case changed the trajectory of my work. It led me to build what didn't exist protocols, training, reviews, and culture shifts that ensured that kind of incident never happened again. I am grateful for every correctional leader who has taken a moment like this and used it as fuel for change.
Not on my watch. Not ever.
And it taught me this:
If your system claims to be trauma-informed, person-centered, or therapeutic but lacks robust de-escalation training, meaningful use-of-force reviews, and clear expectations for bystandership, then your values are aspirational not operational, and everyone inside knows it.
Whether you're running a psychiatric hospital, a correctional facility, a residential treatment center, or a juvenile justice facility, the same truth applies:
Coercion and harm reveal everything about your system's values.
Use of force is never just about one moment.
Across corrections, mental health, and juvenile justice, one truth shows up every single time:
Use-of-force incidents are rarely about a single staff member or a single misstep.
They are reflections of the system itself.
The culture. The training. The stress. The clarity or lack thereof on what "right action" looks like under pressure. The support structures that either ground people or leave them reactive, scared, and alone.
For that reason, the most effective safety tools aren't tactical.
They are relational. Cultural. Organizational.
Bystandership is a skill not a personality trait...
People often reduce bystandership to "speaking up."
But effective bystandership is far more nuanced:
Anticipation: noticing escalation patterns before a crisis becomes force
Interruption: stepping in when a colleague is overwhelmed or losing perspective
Regulation: bringing calm into chaos
Alignment: grounding the team in policy, values, and therapeutic principles
The best bystanders aren't always the loudest.
They're the most present, the most trained, and the most trusted.
When systems invest in bystandership, staff protect each other not just the people in their care.
Because most harmful incidents don't come from malice.
They come from fear, stress, understaffing, and a lack of relational support at the exact moment when it matters most. Especially now.
A review process should always be a mirror not a hammer.
Too many systems treat use-of-force reviews as punitive exercises: check the box, blame the person, move on. Maybe fire some folks. Blame one bad actor. But the bad actor cannot engage in excessive use of force if the culture does not permit it...
Meaningful review processes do something entirely different. They:
Reconstruct the full context—what led up to the moment, what was tried, what was missed
Examine systemic contributors—training gaps, policy ambiguity, communication failures
Identify relational dynamics—trauma, burnout, fear, pressure
Create actionable learning for the entire organization
When I lead systemic use-of-force reviews, the goal is never to shame. It's to understand. To make visible the conditions that made a harmful choice feel like the only choice.
Because here's what every good reviewer learns:
It's never just about the force.
It's always about the conditions that made it feel necessary
When Systems Get This Right
The transformation is real:
Staff shift from reactive to intentional
People in crisis experience more dignity and fewer traumatic interventions
Supervisors coach and support rather than correct and punish
Investigators identify system gaps not individual villains
Leaders finally get the data they need to invest in prevention, not just response
We begin to isolate patterns and contain issues
This is what a culture of safety actually looks like.
Not more restraints. Not stricter rules.
But more clarity, more alignment, and deeper shared responsibility.
In systems I've supported, we've reduced use of force by 40% we changed curriculum, we've empowered employees, we've created opportunity for a new more proactive way to do things.
And we did it not by tightening control but by strengthening culture.
Why This Matters Everywhere
Use of force is the moment when a system shows its truest self.
It reveals:
whether we practice what we preach
whether our values are real or performative
whether we prioritize healing over control
whether our people feel safe enough to intervene before harm occurs
Strong bystandership and rigorous review processes aren't "nice to have."
They are foundational pillars of safety, healing, and accountability.
When we get this right, we build environments where:
staff intervene early and effectively
teams protect each other
harm is prevented, not just documented
people in crisis leave with dignity, not more trauma
That is the system worth building.
That is the system worth defending.
And it's absolutely the system every staff member and every person in our care deserves all of the time.
The work is proven, and the path is clear.
Over two decades leading complex systems and investigating many use-of-force incidents, I've learned this: organizational change requires alignment across policy, training, de-escalation practices, physical interventions, and rigorous after-action reviews. When these elements work together, transformation isn't aspirational it's measurable. It requires understanding nuance and how facilities operate at their foundation.
The research backs what practitioners know: trauma-informed approaches that include staff training, policy changes, environmental modifications, and therapeutic planning can significantly reduce seclusion and restraint. Active bystandership training has helped correctional agencies avoid vast numbers of potentially dangerous situations by building staff capacity to intervene appropriately. And when systems invest in culture over coercion, interventions for institutionalized youth show nearly three times greater effectiveness in reducing recidivism than traditional punitive approaches.
This isn't theory. This is how systems become safer, more effective, and more humane—for everyone.
Now what.
If you're a superintendent, director, or executive leader, you already know your current approach isn't sustainable. Staff are exhausted. Incidents keep happening. Your values statement doesn't match what's showing up in your data.
Here's what needs to happen:
Invest in bystandership as infrastructure, not initiative. Bystandership Trainings have been successfully implemented in state prison systems and county jails nationwide, providing staff with research-informed strategies to intervene effectively. This is how you shift from silence to accountability.
Redesign your review process to be diagnostic, not punitive. Every use-of-force incident is data about your system's health. Treat it that way. Your reviews should reconstruct context, examine systemic contributors, and create actionable learning that does not assign blame and move on.
Align your training with your stated values. If your organization claims to be trauma-informed but your staff don't have robust de-escalation training, clear bystandership protocols, and psychological safety to intervene, your values are aspirational not operational.
Measure what matters. Track not just incidents, but near-misses, early interventions, staff-initiated debriefs, and psychological safety indicators. Culture change shows up in leading indicators, not just lagging ones.
Let's Build Something Better
I've spent my career in these systems not theorizing about them, but running them, transforming them, and proving what's possible. I've reduced use of force by 40% in facilities where people said it couldn't be done. I've built the protocols, trained the staff, and changed the culture that makes safety and dignity coexist from all levels in both adult and juvenile systems as well as in specialized behavioral health spaces.
If your organization is ready to move from reactive to intentional, from punitive to preventive, from silence to accountability let's talk. This work is urgent, it's possible, and it's long overdue.
The question isn't whether your system can change. The question is: when will you start?
Additional Resources:
Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention - Use of Force Guidelines Comprehensive framework covering policy, training, de-escalation, physical interventions, and after-action reviews https://ojjdp.ojp.gov/library/publications/juvenile-justice-use-of-force-continuum
Heroes Active Bystandership Training Research-informed active bystandership curriculum adapted from Georgetown Law's ABLE Project, specifically designed for corrections, fire rescue, and healthcare https://www.heroesintervene.com
Georgetown Law - Active Bystandership for Law Enforcement (ABLE) Project Original peer intervention training program with proven results across 429+ agencies https://www.law.georgetown.edu/cics/able/
NIH - Trauma-Informed Juvenile Justice Systems: A Systematic Review Research on trauma-informed practices and reducing seclusion/restraint in justice settings https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5664165/
The Sentencing Project - Effective Alternatives to Youth Incarceration Comprehensive research on what works to reduce recidivism and improve youth outcomes https://www.sentencingproject.org/reports/effective-alternatives-to-youth-incarceration/
CSG Justice Center - Restorative Justice and Credible Messengers Evidence-based approaches for improving outcomes for youth in the juvenile justice system https://csgjusticecenter.org/publications/restorative-justice-practices-and-credible-messengers-promising-innovative-approaches-for-improving-outcomes-for-youth-in-the-juvenile-justice-system/
