Correction Institutions Administration and Leadership Maintaining Order

¶ … Correction Institutions Administration and Leadership Maintaining order and control in correctional facilities -- while also presiding over well-managed facilities from a fiscal and ethical perspective -- is the goal of every conscientious administrator. The Center for Innovative Public Policies (CIPP) published a list of "core competencies" for leadership in correctional facilities.

Among the skills most vital to a competent prison leader are: a) to be able to "anticipate, analyze, and resolve organizational challenges"; b) to build and "maintain positive relationships with external stakeholders"; c) to "communicate effectively" and to "comprehend, obtain, and manage fiscal resources"; d) to create a diverse organizational that "promotes respect"; e) to be visionary and to engage in "strategic planning" and develop a vision for the mission of the institution; f) to enhance "self-awareness and maintain proactive professional commitment; g) to "establish organizational authority" and design roles and responsibilities; h) to make sound decisions, manage change, manage labor, manage time and manage "power and influence" in the prison; i) to "leverage the role of the jail in the criminal justice system"; and j) to be competent in the overseeing of the facility, of the inmates, of the physical plant and to "reduce jail-related liability risks" (CIPP).

Disciplinary procedures The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime has published literature on managing the prison population which has useful and practical materials. The prison manager needs to have very good, up-to-date information on every prisoner before he or she can be in a position to make the best decisions on "…security, food supply, transportation requirements, staffing needs" and also keeping good discipline means providing the adequate needs for the inmates. Those needs include clothing, food, medical needs, and providing separate cells when necessary.

The administrator should know the length of every prisoner's stay, why he is in the facility, and be updated on the "minimum standard for treatment of offenders" (UNODC).

The administrator should: a) never employ a prisoner "in any disciplinary capacity"; b) establish rules so inmates know what conduct "constitutes a disciplinary offence," what types and duration of punishment" may be inflicted for violation of rules"; c) never punish a prisoner "except in accordance" of those rules and laws; d) never permit "corporal punishment" (a dark cell or other degrading punishments); e) never use punishment prejudicial to the physical or mental health of the prisoner; and f) not use handcuffs as restraints except in the case of transfer or during a judicial proceedings (UNODC).

Physical layout of the prison facility Criminology professor Richard Wortley suggests that riots in prisons can be contained and even deterred depending on the prison layout. The riot in a New Mexico prison became less centrally organized because of the "telegraph-pole design" of the prison. "With no central meeting place, there was little chance for prisoner unity and centralized control" (Wortley, 2002, p. 199).

However, the notorious riot at Attica prison in New York State all the prisoners had congregated "…in one of the yards and were able to coordinate their actions" (Wortley, 199). The rioters at the Southern Michigan prison were "…easily observed and so deterred from perpetrating violence" (Wortley, 199). Moreover, there should be a safe place for staff to "withdraw" at the first sign that control has been lost, Wortley explains.

Gang control in prisons The American Correctional Association (ACA) states that gang members account for just 1.2% of all state and federal prison inmates. Some prisons have used a strategy that disperses gang members throughout the "entire system" and sends some gang members to other prisons outside their own state (to deter cohesiveness among members of the same gang). Other strategies include: "gang renunciation and debriefing programs"; rival gang "integration programs"; "informants"; "…in-prison prosecutions"; and "identification, tracking and information-sharing systems" (ACA).

Grievance procedures The United Nations Handbook states that "No prisoner shall be punished unless he has been informed of the offence alleged against him and given a proper opportunity of presenting his case"; moreover, when "practical" the prison should be allowed to make his defence through an interpreter" (UN). Humane Institutions Prisoners should be treated humanely even when they are being punished for violation of the rules that apply in any particular institution (UN).

Putting a prisoner in a dark small space for punishment is inhumane, and reducing a prisoner's nutritional intake is also inhumane (UN). Screening and classification The UN makes a point of how vital it is that the prison officials know "who are in their prisons at all times" and this information should be kept in a "central and secure place and be constantly updated" (UN). Competent prison management "is critical to ensuring that their human rights are respected" and it is critical in.