Criminal Justice Integration Project

Criminal Justice Integration Project University of Phoenix Javon Lewis, Prysanthum Armstrong, Brigit Williams, and Deon Hagerty AJS/502 Harry Kirk, Instructor November 12, 2012 Criminal Justice Integration Project There are many prison facilities that are ran privately today. These facilities are known to better rehabilitate those convicted upon entering society again. Team B has developed a private prison to house those individuals who are convicted of committing crimes. Team B has also implemented different programs within the facility in hopes to deter the convicted of being repeat offenders.Unlike other privatized facilities, our major focus is not to lock up as many people as possible. We will actually focus on making them better individuals so that they can reenter the world without having criminal thoughts. The remainder of this paper will include the policies for our facility. This paper also discus the budgets, projected revenue sources and expenditures, communications, and technology. In addition, it will elaborate on cultural or sub-cultural aspects of the organization as a whole. Policies and ProceduresIn order to properly run the private facility, we will have a set of policies to abide by. Without rules and regulations, any organization can and will be chaotic. There will be a zero tolerance for harassment, whether it is towards correction officers or the prisoners. Harassment can lead to law suits and will in turn cost the facility unnecessary money that could have been used for something else. Some forms of harassment can include sexual and discrimination. It is considered unlawful to harass an individual because of their gender.Sexual harassment can include unwanted sexual behaviors, sexual favors, and other verbal sexual content. Harassment does not always have to include sexual intent. It can contain remarks about a person’s gender. This is where discrimination comes into play. If any employee practices harassment in the workplace, the y will be reported and possibly terminated depending on the circumstance. We will also follow a code of ethics. The code of ethics will help the company to remain fair in any given situation that may arise. Budget Our budget will consist of grants, donations, and tax payer dollars.We will apply for state funding yearly and follow all necessary steps in order to receive that funding. According to the state, we will need a certain amount of prisoners in order to receive the amount of grants that we need. Other funding will come from donations. We will hold monthly meetings where the public can share their ideas and views for our facility. At the meetings, we will collect donations to help support our facility and the different programs that we will offer. Last but not least, funding will come from tax payer dollars. This portion of funding will assist the organization out a great deal.Tax payers may be upset about their money going towards a facility but it will help them out as well. They are helping to keep criminals off of the streets. Over the years, we will come up with other ways to generate funding for our facility. Communications Communication is a very important aspect of any venue. In this Criminal Justice Integration Project our communication with inmate to inmate, inmate to guard, guard to guard, and so on. These communication techniques are how we stay accessible to the world. We share information with the family of the prisoners, by using the telephone.If their loved one is in our facility and they have a major issues such as they are gravely ill or in need of a major surgery, we contact them by telephone. The prisoners are entered into a database once they enter into our facility. The database will be on a website on the internet and will be searchable by name, date of birth, or prison number. This database will be available for anyone who has access to the internet as well as to the government site we participate in. They must have the informatio n of the prisoner correct in order to see the prisoner information.When visitors enter the facility they must be on the visitors list. Anyone who comes to the facility without prior authorization will not be acknowledged. Visitors will be allowed to visit the prisoner for a limited time. Conversations between visitors and prisoners will be monitored at all times and maybe used later if needed in a case. In our facility, help groups will be established with the prisoners. Our duty is to try to rehabilitate the prisoners in the system if they want to be rehabilitated. We will have a group of prisoners in a guarded room in the facility, with counselors who can speak to them in a group.The prisoners at some point may be able to help one another understand what their issues have been in the past that helped to lead them to the situation that caused them to be sentenced to this facility. Our goal as a helping group for the inmate is to get them to understand if they are ever eligible for parole what they can do in life to avoid the situation that put them in prison in the first place or ways to think quickly to a less dangerous situation where they will be able to make a better choice in life. Our facility offers one-on-one counseling.This counseling will take place between a prisoner and a criminal social service counselor in a guarded room. The counselor will be able to have multiple sessions with prisoners to find the root of their problem and hopefully be able to work on ways to resolve some of their underline issues. They will be able to find the reasons that lead to them ending up with a prison sentence and find out the base problems of why the prisoners begin to act the way they do and what can we do to change the way they think. What issued cause them to change from an innocent child to a vicious adult are more issues that they will address.Our facility will have prisoner interviews to see what are the thoughts and feelings of the prisoners is after their he lping program to analyze if they are being helped by the programs, if their ideas of life have changed, if they developed any goals and are there any chances or rehabilitation as we hoped. We will assess the prisoners weekly until we have made of final determination of rather they are leading in the right direction truthfully or are they faking their rehab just to try to get an early release. The Components of Prison SecurityAs all prison becomes more and more over crowded and the internal problems continue to rise, it is very important for the facility to be able to maintain control and stability both inside and outside the prison. Although there are several different means of security measures that are put in place, it is hard to say whether or not the security can be achieved because of the layout of the prison or is it due to the trained professional who makes the difference whether or not the facility is secure well enough or not. Both of these factors play a vital role in keep ing the prison facility as safe as it is going to be for both inside and out.Technology and Physical Security The physical layout of a prison is actually very important. The role is twofold: this is made in order to keep society out and the inmates in. This being said, this is why prisons are built with high walls, tall fences, and you cannot forget the different forms of security that are also being used according to the Department of Corrections Services. It is believed that the lay out, design and age and level of maintenance of a prison has a direct on impact on the safety and level of security. Department of Correctional Services, 2003). The department describes physical security as â€Å"the prison building itself, the layout thereof, the design as well as the fixed security systems that are attached to the building as close circuit television, security fences, alarm and detection systems, etc. â€Å"(DCS, 2003). With this being understood, you can understand why the prison designs play a major role in the prison system. Pretty much every day more and more innovations are being introduced as ways to be able to improve security form now and into the future.In 1999, the Federal Bureau of prisons had about 120,000 inmates under their watch, having this many inmates it is great to have technology to depend on in order to keep the prison safe as much as possible. With technology on the side of The Department of Corrections they were able to develop a new system that helps prisons to keep track of all vehicles that come in and leave their facility, this system is called AVIAN- Advance Vehicle Interrogation and Notification System, This system detects the presence of persons hidden in vehicles and notifies security guards of potential escape.Using the data from seismic sensors that are placed or the vehicle, the AVIAN reads the shock waves generated by the human heart, which then couples to another surface or object with which the body is in contact. It colle cts the data and analyzes them with advanced signals processing algorithms to detect hidden persons in less than two minutes. (Federal Bureau of Prisons, 1999)Another form of security is the classification and reclassification, combine with the proper placement of the prisoners, things like this are considered to be very important factors of security.Prisoners are divided up by their different risks they pose to their fellow prisoners, and the community. The prisoners are sorted by different levels or categories and this is decided by how much of a threat the offender is to society (Category â€Å"A† prisoner and very dangerous to society, the police, and the state. ) If someone in this category were to escape they would be considered to be very dangerous to the outside community. Prisoners that fall into the category B do not have to be in such of a high risk security facility, but escape is still made to be very difficult to do.Prisoners who are in the â€Å"C† still cannot be trusted in open conditions, but they do not have the ability or resources to make a determined escape attempt. The prisoners in the â€Å"D† categories are considered to be trust worthy and they are allowed to serve their time without being totally confined, they serve their sentences in an open environment (Price, 1999). An allocation refers to the placement of a prisoner in a certain situations, which can include certain institutions, which includes the local jails, a state penitentiary, or even a federal prison. Cultural AspectsThe culture of prison facilities is very important in terms of positive leadership. Culture sets â€Å"the values, assumptions and beliefs that drive the way people think and behave at work† (Flaherty-Zonis, 2009). It sets the tone of the prison facility and how it operates. In recent discoveries, there has been a proven need for a more unified prison system across the country. They have been shown to â€Å"often operate as if the y are comprised of independent parts—the silos we hear about and experience. The staff of each part knows very well their perceived level of importance and the power of their voice.All too often, voices that are not as highly valued, coming from staff who are nonetheless critical to the running of the facility, are not heard, or are stifled and disregarded† (Flaherty-Zonis, 2009). This process must change. The staff is one of the most important factors to the successful operation of a correctional facility. They know firsthand what it is like to deal with prisoners and the voice of the staff is what keeps the prison’s culture intact. It is very common for prison sub-cultures to exist and create differentiators.This derives from the camaraderie that is being sought. Some discoveries have shown â€Å"the cultures in corrections facilities to be dominated by the following characteristics: conventional, â€Å"don’t rock the boat† thinking; a pattern of dependence, with a value on following rather than leading; avoidance of conflict, leaving many disagreements unresolved and even unidentified; a high level of oppositional behavior, focusing on what is wrong and holding on to past wrongs rather than working to find solutions; and a limited willingness to share power and information† (Flaherty-Zonis, 2009).The goal of our facility is to create a culture of positive leadership for staff as well as prisoners to follow. In the implementation of our â€Å"Positive Leaders Program†, we strive to create conceptualizations to accomplish tasks and create common understandings amongst staff and prisoners. Due to the fact that employees have direct dealings in the facilities with prisoners, we want to give them added responsibility to ensure that they are completely involved in this program. This will allow them to have a distinctive voice and always be interactive.Having strong leadership and employee interaction calls for a gre at deal of readiness and willingness to be direct and straightforward. The involvement of the staff is very important because individual participation forms and strengthens cultural group dynamics. This is where the staff works together to create a common process or understanding. In order to implement a successful and positive culture, we need a strategic planning process which is composed of shared ideology and focuses on strategic thinking, planning, management and response.We believe that following a strategic plan and sharing the ideas of everyone will allow for a great respect towards our culture, organizational diversity and pride. We want to encourage employees to remain involved in the development of a positive culture so that inmates feel like more than just a number. We want to be able to effectively implement programs and community sanctions to help improve the personal lives of prisoners so that they find inspiration to maintain a positive attitude and outlook while ser ving their prison term. DiscussionThe private facility that Team B will start for housing convicted prisoners will indeed be a success. The many programs that we will offer and implement such as the one on one counseling and prisoner interviews will be life changing for them, and assist them with making the right decisions upon entering society again. The security measures that we have in place will secure all inmates as well as correctional officers. The cultural aspects leadership program will aide prisoners to be more positive individuals so that they will have a better chance at not being a repeat offender.Overall, this facility will attempt to focus more on rehabilitation rather than punishment. Everyone deserves a second chance at life, and that’s what we plan on giving our housed inmates. References American Jail Association (1993). American Jail Association Code of Ethics. Retrieved January 28, 2003, from http://www. corrections. com/aja/resolutions/index. html Associ ated Press (2001). Prison escape probe to focus on lax security. Retrieved January 28, 2003, from http://www. clickonsa. om/ant/news/stories/news-20010108-085202. html Department of Correctional Services (2003). Safety and security. Retrieved February19, 2003, from http://www. dcs. gov. za/OffenderManagement/Safetyandsecurity. htm Federal Bureau of Prisons (1999). Introducing AVIAN. Retrieved February 5, 2003, from http://www. heartbeat-detector-avian. com Flaherty-Zonis, C. (2009). Corrections Systems: Creating Positive Culture and Dynamic Leadership. Retrieved October 22, 2012 from http://www. corrections. om/news/article/22540-corrections-systems-creating-positive-culture-and-dynamic-leadership Goldberg, E. & Evans, L. (1995). The prison industrial complex and the global economy. Retrieved April 22, 2003, from http://www. prisonactivist. org/crisis/evans-goldberg. html Johnson, A. (2000, July 28). Security at prison in doubt, union says. The Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved February 19, 2003, from http://www. dispatch. com/news/newsfea00/jul00/364974. html Liberty (2002, August). Allocation. Retrieved April 22, 2003 from http://www. ourrights. org. uk Price, D. (1999). Questions and answers about security categorization. Retrieved February 5, 2003, from http://www. postcardsfromprison. com/research/catsecfq. htm Schlosser, E. (1998). The prison-industrial complex. Retrieved April 4, 2003, from http://theatlantic. com/issues/98dec/prisons. htm Vertuno. J. (1999). Prison official says guards receive more than recommended training. Texas News. Retrieved April 22, 2003 from http://www. texnews. com/1998/1999/texas/prison0130. html