A correctional emergency response team (abbreviated CERT or CRT) is a team of specially trained prison officers tasked with responding to disturbances, riots, cell extractions, mass searches, and other situations in prisons that are likely to involve uncooperative or violent prisoners.

Duties

Possible duties of a CRT include transport of high risk inmates, extracting uncooperative prisoners from their cells, daily full cell searches and high profile security, barricaded persons, riots, mass arrest, high risk or high profile transport and hostages situations, as well as crowd control. A standard cell extraction team may consists of the following:

Gear

CRT officers are outfitted with extensive gear, including body armor, helmets, tactical gloves, handcuffs, leg shackles, and riot shields. A CRT officer may also be outfitted with a less-than-lethal shotgun, taser, OC spray, or lethal weapons such as firearms.

Countries

China

Hong Kong

With a size of around 152 part-time personnel, the special response unit of the Correctional Services Department was set under the organisation of the escort and support group. The Hong Kong CERT handles emergency and riots with Hong Kong's prison system. Members are equipped with less lethal weaponry such as pepper spray. Firearms are used as a last resort.

France

The nine Regional Response and Security Teams (Équipes régionales d'intervention et de sécurité (ÉRIS)) - one for interregional directorates of penitentiary services in France - were created in 2003 after the successive mutinies in the central prisons of Moulins-Yzeure and Clairvaux. When the teams were created, they comprised 210 personnel; in 2010, the ÉRIS were made up of around 400 people from the French prison administration. (As of 1994, a regional unit made up of agents from various establishments of Marseille).

Japan

Malaysia

Singapore

USA

In the United States, CRT organization and training requirements differ from state to state.