Creating Organizational Culture Change

In 2016 and 2017, the Jackson County Detention Center was making national headlines for excessive use of force, federal indictments of officers for trafficking in contraband, assaults on staff, and facility conditions that had local media referring to the jail as an “eight-story human rights crisis”.

The changes that turned around the facility began with one small focus on better community relations and ultimately resulted in a 74% reduction in workers’ compensation claims.

This webinar and Q&A will discuss ways to get your message across, lead by example, and ensure that you have a leadership team that is on board with the forward momentum your agency and your staff deserve.

Speaker and Presenter Information

Diana Knapp's career in criminal justice spans more than three decades including work with adult and juvenile offenders in secure settings and in the community across state, federal, and municipal levels. She began her career with the Missouri Department of Corrections as a Probation and Parole Officer in Kansas City and was eventually promoted to managing the district probation and parole office in Boone County, Missouri. Her journey included work as an institutional parole officer and case manager, unit manager, and assistant superintendent at an adult male facility. After returning to Kansas City, she opened a juvenile residential program for delinquent youth aging out of foster care in the state of Kansas, followed by a four-year period managing a grant-funded mental health program for municipal inmates in the metro KC area. From there she managed a federally contracted halfway house for adult offenders and then transitioned to managing the juvenile residential and detention centers for the Jackson County Family Court. She returned to the Jackson County Detention Center as the Deputy Director in late 2017 and was appointed Director in March 2018.

She was elected to the American Jail Association's Board of Directors in 2023 where she serves on the Legislative Affairs Committee and has been appointed co-chair of the committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the 2024-2025 term. She has an undergraduate degree from Pittsburg State University in history and secondary education and a graduate degree from Columbia College in criminal justice administration. Diana is a Certified Corrections Executive through ACA, a Certified Jail Manager through AJA, and is a 2022 graduate of the Jail Executive Institute.