Strategies to Alleviate Violence in Correctional Facilities

2016 Most Violent Prison
Correctional facilities have the responsibility of holding convicts and ensuring that their character has transformed by the time they leave the correctional facilities. However, these correctional facilities often face several challenges in undertaking this responsibility. One of the major challenges in correctional facilities is controlling the violence of inmates both against each other and against police officers. The case study of 2016 Most violent prison demonstrates how prisons cope and manage the problem of inmate violence.
Sergeant Baldwin and his staff use various techniques to maintain order and prevent violence in correctional facilities. First, they use lockups for inmates when they turn violent, which ensures that they cannot interact because they are in their cells. Secondly, the officers get the inmates out in the open air in small groups ensuring that they can manage any violence when it erupts within the facilities. Thirdly, the officers are equipped with guns and may use this force when the violence gets out of hand.
The methods are effective in light of the challenges that the officers face in maintaining order and preventing violence within prisons. For instance, the lockup is useful in ensuring that violent inmates do not interact with each other as well as other inmates (Delisi et al., 2010). These interactions could potentially result in violence. Therefore, the lockups are effective in preventing this interaction and consequently preventing violence. Secondly, controlling the number of inmates who get into the open air space is equally effective in controlling violence. Therefore, the officers equipped in handling any possible violence when the inmates are interacting because they are in small and manageable groups. Lastly, the use of firearms may be effective in scaring the inmates from violence.
Various ethical issues arise from the methods adopted at the facility in controlling violence within these cells. For instance, the use of lethal force in controlling violence is not ethical. There is no ethical justification for injuring inmates to prevent them from being injured by other inmates (Brewer-Smyth et al., 2014). However, controlling the number of inmates who go to the open air area is ethical since it gives the inmates an opportunity to get out of their confinement in a way that prevents them from being injured through violence.
Terry Dibble is one of the inmates at the Statesville prison. He ended up in prison after killing one person using a gunshot. He was then transferred from a Downstate Prison to Satterfield prison after fighting with another inmate (Life Mystery, 2017). However, he has acquired a new girlfriend through his mother. He hopes to go back to his former prison so that he can be closer to both his girlfriend and his mother. He copes with his time in prison through his artwork. He draws pictures and makes tattoos for most of his time in prison.
The presence of armed guards within the prison has a significant and positive safety effect in prison. Reasonably, the armed officers help to create a sense of fear among the inmates and hence prevent them from violent activities (Life Mystery, 2017). Secondly, these prisoners use their arms in dispersing the violent inmates and hence create an environment of safety within the prison (Brewer-Smyth et al., 2014).
Isolation is a technique that has widely been employed in Statesville. The isolation has the effect of preventing inmates from interacting with other inmates as well as the public. Isolation helps create more violent inmates since such inmates consider themselves having lost everything and hence have nothing more to lose by being violent (Delisi et al., 2010). The ability to connect with the outside world helps inmates to reconnect with their families and friends will still serving their terms in prison. Consequently, the inmates get the feeling that they are still relevant to the society. Overall, it gives the inmates the emotional stability and the mental health that they require for their wellbeing within and outside the confines of the prison.
Gay inmates face two critical issues within the prison. The first issue relates to sexual abuse from fellow gay inmates. In the video, one of the gay inmates describes how other gay inmates have sexually abused him and raped him (Life Mystery, 2017). The second issue relates to the violence of other non-gay people who are against this sexual orientation. Various measures can be taken to protect the gay inmates. For instance, gay female people should be put in the same prison cells while the gay male people in their sell (Brewer-Smyth et al., 2014). Therefore, it will prevent interaction and possibility of sexual assault and equally prevent a physical assault from non-gay people.
Various strategies can be implemented to improve safety and security at the prison. The first step is to isolate the violent inmates and take them through a series of counseling. Most often, the violent inmates have suffered different forms of psychological and mental disorders. Counseling and other forms of mental therapy would help immensely in calming them down. Secondly, there should be severe punishment for inmates who engage in violent behavior to help in scaring other inmates from such behavior.
References
Brewer-Smyth, K., Burgess, A. W., & Shults, J. (2014). Physical and sexual abuse, salivary cortisol, and neurologic correlates of violent criminal behavior in female prison inmates. Biological Psychiatry, 55(1), 21-31.
Delisi, M., Caudill, J. W., Trulson, C. R., Marquart, J. W., Vaughn, M. G., & Beaver, K. M. (2010). Angry Inmates Are Violent Inmates: A Poisson Regression Approach to Youthful Offenders. Journal of Forensic Psychology Practice, 10(5), 419-439.
Life Mystery (2017). Documentary - The Most Violent Prison 2016 Maximum Security. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKHQ1nCQXec