Accreditation: Building a Resilient, Risk-Adverse Correctional Facility with Technology
As correctional facilities around the country address growing inmate populations, they are also struggling to hire and retain quality officers to ensure safe and secure operations. When officers are stretched thin to cover shifts, critical procedures are followed incorrectly or missed entirely. Something as simple as forgetting to provide an inmate with his or her toothbrush can lead to large lawsuits down the line. Every single activity and round that an officer completes provides two opportunities: one for the inmate and one for the officer. Correctional facilities are sued all the time and most commonly, it’s due to an inmate claiming he or she was denied a meal or toiletry. Every corrections officer can probably recount several interactions with defense attorneys looking to review logs for missing medication, meals, or showers. Those civil rights lawsuits can be a headache and a drain on the budget for counties without the ability to disprove inaccurate claims. Not only does inmate litigation create a risk of payout, but officers and lawyers need to invest hours into looking through evidence and building a case. With an industry already so swamped, it’s a recipe for disaster.
To ensure facilities are compliant and risk-averse, many counties or states look to accreditation programs to ensure they are meeting standards that reflect updated policies and procedures. Accreditation has many benefits including increased protection against lawsuit claims, improved personal and professional development for staff, and overall facility efficiency. It’s a lengthy and complex process, and it’s not required, so many agencies don’t complete it. For example, the American Correctional Association (ACA) has an accreditation process that typically needs six months to a year and requires facilities to meet over 100 core standards. One of those standards, for instance, requires facilities to prove that housing locations have access to natural light, but that requirement could vary across adult correctional institutions, jails, or juvenile detention facilities. The process of becoming an accredited facility requires a series of comprehensive, sometimes unscheduled, audits and physical inspections. It’s a challenging process and relying on paper documentation can make it messy, so it’s no surprise that some facilities avoid the process entirely.
Desoto County
Desoto County Jail is no stranger to the accreditation process as well as the challenges that come with it. Their accreditation journey started in 2018 when the county was facing numerous requests for documentation from the attorney’s office for issuing items such as toilet paper or feminine products. When working to dispute the claims, the Sheriff’s office quickly learned the important phrase: “‘If it wasn’t documented, it didn’t happen.‚ Video surveillance could only do so much. County lawyers quickly realized that the existing paper logs were often slightly inaccurate, making them inadmissible in court. Even if the paper logs included delivery of toilet paper, inaccurately recorded time of delivery can render the entire log useless as evidence.
This wouldn’t be the first time Desoto had trouble with paper logs. In 2018, the facility also began its first accreditation process and learned that its paper logs were making record keeping and management impossible, thus delaying the accreditation process. They even went as far as hiring someone from the ACA team to manage the project. After months and months, leaders at the Sheriff’s Department realized that to achieve ACA accreditation, they would need to leverage technology to eliminate paper logs, enhance compliance, and defend the agency from frivolous lawsuits.
Desoto County is not the only facility that has struggled due to paper logs. Large facilities that rely on paper documentation for daily activities develop massive volumes of paper files, often unorganized and hard to find. Files can be easily lost or damaged, and in some instances, officers must spend hours or days manually searching for a single line item that proves they completed a task. Making the switch from paper logs is daunting for many, but when officers are questioned by attorneys about the specific minute, they completed any given cell check or task, the value of technology in corrections quickly proves its merit.
Using Technology
There are plenty of reasons why the corrections industry has historically been resistant to digitization. One major reason: cost. It’s easy to get sticker shock when evaluating Officer Experience Platforms (OXPs) as facilities are funded by the county. Luckily for Desoto County Jail, the quick math made it clear that a technology investment would pay for itself after preventing even one hefty lawsuit payout. Another technological deterrent: officer adoption. Understandably, new technology can make some officers hesitant of change. At the time the department was searching for a technology partner, their officers spanned across three different generations. The youngest officer being 18 years old and the eldest being 71. How would they deploy technology that could be easily used by the entire team?
After reviewing options, the Desoto team found an inmate tracking system that uses modern cloud, mobile, RFID, and artificial intelligence technologies that enable real-time situational awareness and record management. The department implemented a range of digital solutions such as mobile inmate tracking devices, operational intelligence, and medication management. With enhanced digital logs and compliance modules, Desoto County Jail was ready to jump back into the accreditation process.
Achieving and Maintaining Accreditation
The Desoto County Jail is in Hernando, Mississippi, where there are no state-mandated corrections standards. The only way for them to hold themselves accountable to professionalism and best-practice, was to seek outside accreditation. They decided to try for their ACA Accreditation again after undergoing a major digital transformation which allowed them to streamline their processes and significantly improve the documentation of their inmate tracking, supplies, and movements.
Risk-adverse facilities can mitigate potential legal actions, but they also foster a healthier work environment that promotes officer retention. Not only did the audit and accreditation process help Desoto County Jail understand its reporting and documentation gaps, but it also helped them ensure that staff received ample professional
development resources to promote safety and well-being for all. When onboarding the new tool to the full team, the facility found that pairing younger, tech-savvy officers with senior officers for training resulted in improved adoption and collaboration across the entire facility. Since tapping into the technology, Desoto County has also completely overhauled its officer promotion program. Because of programs like operational intelligence, the report on officer efficiency and compliance, lieutenants can reward proficient officers and spend more time developing those with performance gaps. At Desoto County Jail, they found that the reporting capabilities created healthy competition, comradery, and pride across the facility.
Since receiving ACA-accredited status in 2019, Desoto County Jail remains one of only 27 core jail facilities that have met the intense requirements. DeSoto County Jail leadership now has real-time access to see that staff have completed the necessary checks including medical checks. Along with increasing compliance, safety, and officer retention, the facility has yet to have a successful lawsuit against them after implementing the new technology. As described by one lieutenant at Desoto County Jail, the digital transformation journey was like “a phoenix rising from the ashes‚ as it empowered the facility to raise the standard of professionalism, enhance safety, security, and conditions for all, and save the county hundreds of thousands of dollars in liability.
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Jeff “Trip” Jackson, CJM, is a veteran of the U.S. Army, as well as a veteran of corrections after serving eleven years with the Desoto County Sheriff’s Office in Hernando, Mississippi. His notable career achievements include attending the NICIC’s Jail Administrator Course in 2015, the National Jail Leadership Command Academy in 2016, earning facility accreditation through the American Correctional Association in 2019 and earning his Certified Jail Manager with the American Jail Association in 2020. For more information, he can be contacted at jeff.jackson@guardianrfid.com.