Dr. Catharine Booth joined HM Prison and Probation Service in 1997. During her career she has worked with men, women and children in custody and currently works in HMPPS North West Psychology Services. Cath has been involved in the management of serious incidents in prisons for over 20 years as a practitioner and trainer. She acts as a Silver and Gold negotiation advisor (NA) and is involved in training prison officers and psychologists to become negotiators and negotiation advisors, respectively. Cath completed her doctoral research in exploring the experiences of prison officer negotiators.

Dr. Carol Bond has been a forensic psychologist for over 30 years, spending most of her career working in prisons as well as practicing in secure psychiatric hospitals, working as a specialist member of the parole board and lecturing in academic settings. Throughout her career she has been involved in the management of serious incidents including training staff, advising negotiators and commanders during incidents, developing specialist training courses and working with other professionals involved in crisis management. She is the national lead for HMPPS negotiation matters and has recently completed her Doctorate exploring hostage incidents in UK prisons.

Key references:

McMains, M., Mullins, W., & Young, A. (2020) Crisis Negotiations: Managing Critical Incidents and Hostage Situations in Law Enforcement and Corrections (6th ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429505225

Cialdini, Robert B. (2021) Influence, New and Expanded: The Psychology of Persuasion. New York: HarperCollins.

Grubb, A. (2010) Modern day hostage (crisis) negotiation: The evolution of an art form within the policing arena. Aggression and Violent Behavior. 15. 341-348. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.avb.2010.06.002