Medium Security Adult Male Institution

¶ … Opportunities to Improve Rehabilitation Programming at Joseph Harp Correctional Center, Lexington, Oklahoma

This paper provides an overview of Joseph Harp Correctional Center, a medium-security prison located in Lexington, Oklahoma, including its mission statement, population served, some examples of the programs offered at the facility and the number of uniformed personnel and other staff members employed. Finally, a description of a proposed strategic plan considering the major themes of Communication; Coordination; and Cooperation, four organizational objectives and corresponding strategies to address each of the objectives that include at least one employee or inmate program that can contribute to the achievement of the objective as well as appropriate methods for assessing success of each objective.

Review and Analysis

Name and location of institution

The largest facility of its type in the state, Joseph Harp Correctional Center is a medium-security prison located at 16161 Moffat Road, Lexington, Oklahoma (List of all DOC facilities in Oklahoma, 2011). The facility was opened in 1978 and the warden is Mike Addison (Overview of Joseph Harp Correctional Center, 2013). A recent photograph of the front of the facility is provided in Figure 1 below.

Figure 1. Photograph of Front of Joseph Harp Correctional Center, Lexington, Oklahoma

Source: Oklahoma Department of Corrections (2013)

Mission statement

The published mission statement of the Joseph Harp Correctional Center is: "To Protect the Public; To Protect the Employee; [and] To Protect the Offender" (History of Joseph Harp Correctional Center, 2013).

Population served

The Joseph Harp Correctional Center houses approximately 1,400 inmates (Joseph Harp Correctional Center, 2013).

Programs Offered

A number of rehabilitation and educational programs are offered at Joseph Harp, including a residential substance abuse program that also emphasizes the importance of pro-social behaviors. Three staggered groups comprised of 10 inmates each for a total of 30 members at a time are provided curricular offering from the Second Edition Criminal Conduct and Substance Abuse Treatment: Strategies for Self-improvement and Change (Overview of Joseph Harp Correctional Center, 2013). Based on the program's goal of reducing recidivism and facilitating the transition to life outside prison, curricular offerings include literacy, special needs, ABE, GED, ESL, as well as college-level programs (Overview of Joseph Harp Correctional Center, 2013). In addition, Joseph Harp features a modern library support team that provides reading opportunities for general population offenders (Overview of Joseph Harp Correctional Center, 2013).

Besides the foregoing offerings to help offenders improve their transition from prison, Joseph Harp also offers a pre-release class that teaches soon-to-be-released offenders general life skills (Overview of Joseph Harp Correctional Center, 2013). Finally, the Joseph Harp Correctional Center also has a law library, medical unit, furniture factory and contracts with two telemarketing companies for inmate employment, as well as a housing unit for inmates who have physical problems or who suffer from Alzheimer's or dementia (Joseph Harp Correctional Center, 2013).

Number of uniformed personnel and other staff members

This information is no longer published by the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.

Four proposed organizational objectives and assessment methods.

1. Improve clinical outcomes for Alzheimer's or dementia inmates by providing them with inmate mentors/caregivers with appropriate incentives for volunteers. This initiative would be assessed using historic benchmark data and periodically comparing clinical outcomes following adoption.

2. Implement a telemarketing unit for the prison's furniture factory, including a Web site and fulfillment center. Like the foregoing objective, this initiative would be evaluated based on future sales compared to historic benchmark performance data.