A Correctional Emergency Response Team (CERT), Special Emergency Response Team for Correction (SERT), or Special Operation Response Team (SORT) is a team of highly trained corrections officers in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 tasked with responding to incidents, riots, cell extractions, mass searches, or disturbances in prison

Prison

A prison is a place in which people are physically confined and, usually, deprived of a range of personal freedoms. Imprisonment or incarceration is a legal penalty that may be imposed by the state for the commission of a crime...

s, possibly involving uncooperative or violent inmates. CERT team members are required to be contactable and available to respond at all times. CERT is founded upon a team concept and is made up of highly motivated and experienced Correction Officers.

Duties

Possible duties of a CERT team include transport of high risk inmates, extracting uncooperative prisoners from their cells

Prison cell

A prison cell or holding cell or lock-up is a small room in a prison, or police station where a prisoner is held.Prison cells are usually about 6 by 8 feet in size with steel or brick walls and one solid or barred door that locks from the outside. Many modern prison cells are pre-cast. Solid doors...

, searches and high profile security, barricaded persons, Riots, mass arrest

Mass arrest

A mass arrest occurs when the police apprehend large numbers of suspects at once. This sometimes occurs at illegal protests. Some mass arrests are also used in an effort combat gang activity. This is sometimes controversial, and lawsuits sometimes result...

, high risk/high profile transport and hostages situations. While, in the United States various details regarding CERT organization and training requirements differ from state to state, a standard CERT team organization is similar to that employed by the Monroe County Police Department, as shown below:

1. Team Leader "Leads". Spoken communication skills, anger de-escalation techniques.
2. The Equipment/Video Member "EQV" To capture the entire response on video.
3. CERT Member "1" Lead member, first in to deal with the inmate.
4. CERT Member "2" Second team member in.
5. CERT Member "3" Minimal protective gear on to allow for maximum speed
6. CERT Member "4" Same as CERT-3.

CERT team members are outfitted with extensive gear, including body armor, helmet, tactical gloves, Batons, Handcuffs, riot shield

Riot shield

Riot shields are lightweight protection devices deployed by police and some military organizations. Most are a clear polycarbonate, though some are constructed of light metals with a view hole. Riot shields are almost exclusively long enough to cover an average sized man from the top of the head to...

and firearms.

Requirements

While requirements also differ from state to state, the Monroe County Police Department lists the following physical requirements for CERT team members:

• Aerobic capacity - 1.5 mile run in less than 16mins. and 28sec.
• Anaerobic power - 300 meter run in less than 71sec.
• Muscular endurance - 25 push-ups 1-min. 29 sit ups 1-min.
• Power - vertical jump of at least 16 inches high.
• Muscular strength - 1 RM. bench press- (.64 ratio of 1b. pushed to body weight).