NCJ Number
191534
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 63 Issue: 6 Dated: October 2001 Pages: 86-89
Editor(s)
Susan L. Clayton
Date Published
2001
Length
4 pages
Annotation
This article offered guidelines on how to assess the extent of a jail’s safety.
Abstract
Managing safer facilities starts with the following essential elements of a jail’s security program: disciplinary systems; special management populations; incidents of force; inmate assaults; contraband searches; drug use; inmate grievances; and fire safety. The article reviewed each of these essential elements to a safer facility. It shares some simple yet important factors that if measured and communicated, will make the environment safer for both staff and inmates. Actions are the direct result of having a well-trained professional group of correctional officers accepting ownership for knowing what to do. Data can be manipulated, but actions cannot. When staff have a say in knowing how safe the environment in which they spend the majority of their own lives is or can be, the end result is a jail that runs in a safe and effective manner.