Performance Management in Prisons Essay

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Performance-Based Standards

Accreditation plan for the American Correctional Association

The accreditation of the correctional facilities is aimed at ensuring the well-being of the inmates but also is targeted at benefiting the employees, the victims, the courts as well as the legislators of a state. The standards that are set do allow the protection of the judicial system from embarrassment as well as allowing the correctional institutions to have and retain the autonomy from outside interventions.

Goals and functions of functional areas

Safety; this involves provision of conditions that are humane, protection of the inmates from rape and possible assault, giving of nutritious food as well as medical care, giving the inmates a hygienic living environment and recreation activities. This will ensure the inmates are safe from ill health or physical harm while within the walls of the facility as well as being safe from abusive guards.

Security; this functional are include the physical security of the inmate, protection from death and general control over who gets into the facility and with what. This ensures that there is no threat to the inmates he employees within the facility. In this same vain, the control of movement for security reasons will ensure that there are no outside citizens that are predisposed to danger from the inmates.

Order; this is yet another function of the correctional facilities that is aimed at ensuring that people who disturb the order that exists in the society are kept inside the facilities and in effect ensuring order in the society. This is very significant in the correctional facilities such that the Correctional Services Act of Manitoba, section 44 allows for the use of force in maintaining order in and control of the inmates (Manitoba Laws, 1999).

Care; the government has an affirmative duty to ensure that the inmates are well taken care of and in particular, they get good healthcare while in the correctional facilities. The other cares that must be provided to the inmates is proper food, good sanitation and hygiene and proper social services.

Program and Activity; the accreditation also requires that there are proper programs that are laid out for the inmates and the activities that are necessary for them. There needs to be good education offerings, good counselling offerings and god training for the staff members (David Ronald R., 2006). They need to have adequate work correctional industries, academic and vocational education, recreation and activities, access to mail, telephone and visiting, library and religious programs.

Justice; this is viewed as one of the oldest functions of the correctional facilities since it is within these facilities that the justice is served by the offenders for the offences they committed while on the outside. The officers will ensure the person reforms, learns new skills, makes the proper adjustments in behavior and serves the time stipulated in sentence.

Administration and Management; this function ensures there is proper general administration, good fiscal management, enough personnel to help in running the facility, there is proper training of staff and development, good management of case records, there is proper information systems and research as may be of use to the institution as well as allowing citizen involvement in the daily running of the facilities and volunteers as well (David Ronald R., 2006).

Correction standards according to American Correctional Association

Function

The standard

Care

Humane conditions

Provision of nutritious food

Proper medical care provision of decent hygiene

Safety

protection from assault and rape adoption of sanitation and safety minimums provision of a safe and secure living environment

Security

safety of the staff and offenders facility access control

Protection from harm

Order

work assignment participation educational program participation

Accountability and professional responsibility

Use of standards and accreditation process

Program and activity

Recreation provision

Provision of activities that defeat boredom enhanced family visitation offerings

counselling offerings educational offerings vocational training programs

Justice

providing humane conditions

Protection against frivolous lawsuits

Protecting the public

Adherence to legal procedure

Administration and Management

Maintain the goal of reflecting sound correctional practice

Provision of comprehensive mental care

Training of staff establishment of a functional physical plant

From American Correctional Association (2014)

Desired conditions

Care-there is need for the facilities that have successfully undergone accreditation to ensure that the inmates live in conditions that are humane and conducive for a human being to live under. They also need to be provided with a decent meal that is nutritious and suitable for consumption by human beings.

Safety- within the correction facilities, there is need to have procedures that help identify the inmates who are vulnerable and are prone to rape or sodomy and provide them with an isolated confinement area where they can be protected from the others and feel protected rather than mixing them up with other radical inmates.

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The inmates must also be provided with a living environment that is safe and secure where they can serve their sentences without fear of being harmed by other inmates or by people from outside. There is need to observe some minimums of safety that ensure both the staff and the inmates are safe and this must be done by adoption of security facilities and devices.

Order- within the correction facilities, there is need to have the orderly work assignment given to each inmate as is required, there is also need to have each inmate on an educational program that they deem fit for them to participate in. there is also need to have and maintain law and order within the facility and this can only be possible once there is accountability and responsibility on both the inmates and the security personnel. Use f the accreditation process and adherence to the set standards and continued improvement is also as a sure way of ensuring order is maintained within these facilities.

Program activity -- the desired condition herein is that each inmate has access to the recreation facilities and provisions despite the inability that may be, there is also the desire to give them activities that defeat boredom. Ideally the inmates need to have access to their families on regular basis and also have the counselling services offered to them when need arises. The inmates also stand to gain a lot if the vocational training is provided plus other educational offerings.

Justice- having a human condition within the facilities is the first justice that each inmate is entitled and the desired condition within the correctional facilities across the U.S.A. There is also need for the management to also be protected against rampant lawsuits from the inmates. There is as well need for the implementation of the conditions and the terms of the sentence that the inmate got to the letter with a view to protecting the public and adherence to the legal procedures that are laid down especially in line with the appeal cases that may still be ongoing.

Administration and management -- the desired condition here would be that the administration would ensure that the correctional practices are well adhered to by the personnel working within a facility, the administration offers a comprehensive mental care for the inmates with a good system in place to identify any mental disturbances that may be. The management ideally should also have a comprehensive training of their staff and continuous refresher courses that they go through to ensure they are up-to-date with the practices. Above all, ideally the management should be in a position to establish a well equipped and functioning physical plant.

Orange County Corrections Division

This is the correctional facility that has been selected for this exercise, and it is situated in Orange County as the name suggests. The mission of the Orange County Government of Florida is to offer services to al people within the county without willingly or knowingly discriminating against them on any grounds that are forbidden by the discrimination Act (Orange County Government, Florida, 2014). This facility has at the forefront the significance of open communication system as well as cooperation with the law enforcement agencies, the residents of Orange County as well as the government entities. The facility offers several community correction programs like the pretrial release supervision, pretrial diversion, home confinement, central intake, probation services, and alternative community service and also have a work release center.

The main facility jail has a bed capacity of 1,053 with another 2,152 bed capacity at the direct supervision facilities that has the female detention center as well and 592 bed capacity at the booking and release center. Their work release center can hold up to 308 inmates working in the community (Orange County Government, Florida, 2014). The facility has comprehensive public information systems and website that gives detailed and interactive way of knowing what is going on within the walls of the facility.

Accreditation Plan

The following chart will be used to gauge the standards of the facility and whether it meets the standards that are set by the American Correctional Association. This plan will be in line with the standards that have been stipulated in the above table….....

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