Corrections Back to the Basics and Beyond
Christopher Chubb
Corrections is one of the greatest professions available within the Public Safety employment arena! Unfortunately, not many people are aware of the scope, challenges, rewards, or satisfaction that a career in corrections may provide. The many aspects of corrections include the obvious components such as security, training, management, and housing. This, these are just the small tips of the iceberg which people see. The fact is, corrections has so much more that is not “seen,” but is hugely present. It is an entire world in and of itself. From food service and medical treatment to mental health, behavioral health, and addiction counseling, to extensive operational needs which include laundry, commissary, facilities maintenance, and then beyond, to foundational needs such as religious services, education, and vocational education, and many more community-based supporting functions. An individual that enters the field of corrections has the opportunity to develop the skills necessary to run an entire city if he/she so desires. The potential for a correctional professional is endless.
New Generation Jails
I began working in corrections in Prince George’s County, Maryland in 1993. At that time, the field was drastically changing. I was fortunate enough to be a part of the evolution of the correctional mindset. Traditional, or “Old Management,” believed that jails were solely focused on punishment and confinement. Jails were designed to “pack em and stack em.” The jails were linear in design and the inmates basically governed themselves. In 1981, the concept of the “New Generation” jail was introduced in Contra Costa, California. This concept completely changed the design of the old-style jails by introducing direct supervision. This style of jailing allowed staff to be in the same areas as the inmates and gave them the opportunity to interact directly with the inmates. There were no bars or plexiglass separating the inmates from the officers. Additionally, the New Generation idea included providing inmates with comfort items such as a television and carpeting in a dayroom type of setting. This concept was implemented to eliminate the “I have nothing to lose” mentality of the inmates. By affording the inmates with some comforts, they now actually had something to lose if they violated institutional rules. This idea helped corrections become a more meaningful method of rehabilitation and began to provide a much more effective way to prepare inmates to re-enter society. It also gave the officers an opportunity to get rid of the title “Guards” and actually be a correctional officer. In fact, we became much more than officers. Our skill sets extended beyond to also include real-time counselors, managers, and mediators, thus developing interpersonal communications skills that were unmatched.
Struggling With Recruitment and Retention
With such successes, why has the correctional professional become so undesirable and so difficult to recruit new staff? One possibility is that because there are so many negative reports regarding corrections, that it’s difficult to see the positives that the profession has to offer. Reality is, corrections is only in the public spotlight when something bad happens. The daily successes of no incidents get zero public recognition. The public safety forum often focuses on the lane of policing and therefore, anyone that is even remotely interested in public safety often only considers this in terms of being a police officer. With so many things in the public spotlight, this has had large shifts in the past few years. Now that police are the target of much of the publicized negativity, and because only the bad stories make the news, it seems less desirable for those looking at careers in public safety to think about being a police officer. That said, it seems like just the right time for correctional leaders to re-introduce the field of corrections to the public, including audiences of current, former, and potential police officers.
Anyone interested in effectuating change in their communities, or society, can easily pursue a successful and rewarding career in corrections. The best part of this
endeavor is that they can work in a more “variable controlled” environment with plenty of tools, resources, and assistance very close by, versus in unknown conditions, like a dark alley down an abandoned road in a largely unfamiliar place. This “variable controlled” mindset does, however, mean that shifts must occur in terms of budget allocations to rebuild and reinforce correctional facilities.
Currently, due to the many years of other budgetary public focus points, most correctional facilities are unfortunately heavily burdened by deteriorating infrastructure, budgetary concerns, staffing shortages, and terrible staff morale. These conditions have impacted the ability of correctional leaders to be able to think outside of the box and focus on improving and promoting the brand of corrections. Not many jails have enough staffing resources to devote dedicated staff to get the word out to the masses. The good news is, it’s never too late to shift this thinking and to embrace change.
Correctional leaders can seize this opportunity to improve upon what they have and help others see the potential of corrections as a respected professional career. Building this excitement within the rank-and-file can tangibly promote current correctional officers happily promoting their profession to their family, friends, and community. Current conditions do get in the way of this, but small adjustments can be made. When officers are being held for mandatory overtime every other day, or when they’re working what they feel is a ‘terrible post’ because it’s short an officer but see their supervisor sitting idly in the office, this is certainly counter-productive to the bigger vision of building the profession. Again, small adjustments can make all the difference. The line staff need to see that everyone is doing their fair share, particularly during trying times.
Another area that correctional leadership should consider revisiting is the relationship between officer unions and administration. Over the years, this has increasingly become a strained relationship which is directly influencing the growth of the profession. Officer unions have increasingly become the opposition to administration. Both sides must realize that they have the same goals and the same mission. The time has come for both sides to come together and work as a team to promote the field of corrections and to improve conditions for staff and incarcerated individuals alike.
The priority in a correctional setting must be the safety of ALL, and this must include considerations for all staff, those that are incarcerated, visitors, volunteers, and support staff. This means that no matter what the budget or staffing roster says, you must maintain safety, security, and control of the facility. Counts, shakedowns, inspections, meetings, documentation, and supervision are all imperative and cannot be disregarded, canceled, or modified for any reason. Additionally, administrators, supervisors, team leaders, and line staff must all be involved in these processes together and understand the function behind them.
Addressing Communication
So, how might we get closer to reaching improvement milestones? The first obstacle to address is communication. Communication must be happening; real communication, with real motivation to work through challenges. This means meetings. You may ask, why meetings… who wants another meeting… are meetings even helpful anymore? Yes, they are. Meetings are the starting blocks where challenges can be identified, and tangible solutions can be determined. That said, meetings also need different approaches. Historically, these only include a select few. Instead, it’s important to include someone from every area within the institution in the meeting, because in the end, every area of the facility is impacted be even the smallest decisions. Unrepresented staff, rightfully, feel deliberately disconnected. Meetings should respect the time of all participants, therefore the staff member conducting the meeting should have a detailed agenda and discuss all the particulars, and once all the information has been covered, all meeting participants should explicitly provide input. All stakeholders should have a voice. If a stakeholder expresses a problem, potential solutions and/or resolutions are deliberately discussed, not just “noted” but never revisited. In my experience, a good meeting can resolve many issues and the more input you receive, the better equipped the managers will be to resolve them.
Overtime
The overtime obstacle. It’s real. It’s unsafe. Correctional leaders cannot reasonably expect someone who has been working for 15 hours to be as thorough as someone in who is in his/her first hour of work. Overtime is certainly unavoidable but, a good manager will be able to assign overtime staffing accordingly. This is one place where the unions must realize that fighting for the senior staff to get the “sweet overtime spot” isn’t the safest outcome. We must not sacrifice safety for seniority. We must not sacrifice safety for anything. Safety is the priority because with this, everyone benefits. If supervisors are actively involved in knowing who is
assigned to their areas, they should be able to manage their staff to maximize the productivity of their staff. Shift Commanders must be able to empower supervisors to manage staff to achieve common goals for prioritizing safely.
Sanitation & Facility Maintenance
It is always said that you are a product of your environment. With that said, if your facility is in bad shape, then your productivity and staff morale are probably in the same condition. We all know that jailing is a 24-hour operation, which means that maintenance and upkeep is equally a 24-hour need. This is essential to keep the ball rolling and a facility effectively, and safely, operational. When I was a young CO, my facility conducted a weekly preventative maintenance program that closed two housing units per week for a minimum of 4 hours to conduct routine maintenance and sometimes larger projects. They changed light bulbs, fixed leaks, changed filters, oiled squeaky doors etc. Over time, due to staffing issues or some other reason, the practice of preventative maintenance just disappeared. The natural consequence of this quickly becomes maintenance focusing on a band aid approach and daily practices simply look at “keep things moving for the day” but not thinking about the long haul. Before too long, there are more and more closed cells, then areas, then housing units themselves that are no longer operational. This seems to be the case in most facilities these days. The same goes for sanitation. Most jails have access to an endless supply of cleaning products, but don’t put them to good use. How can you expect staff or inmates to care about their environment if their conditions are poor?
My message to correctional leaders is that it is NOT hopeless. It is not beyond your control. Solutions are accessible. The reality is, many solutions to current problems are probably right in front of you. The hard part is to allow yourself to get out of the stagnant, repetitive, same old mindset, and embrace some creative thinking outside of the box. At the same time, revisiting previous experience isn’t a bad thing. If you remember how something used to work efficiently, consider a newer, updated version of that old concept. Ask yourself, can it be tweaked? Can it be expanded or extended? Look deep into the mindset of your team and get everyone on board to make necessary changes. Acknowledge there might be growing pains, and, that not everyone likes change. Know that everyone will need to feel ok to work through mistakes or adjustments, but the vision is for improvement for everyone. Don’t forget to utilize the knowledge, experience, and creativity of your entire team. You’d be surprised how many great ideas you can get if you ask for input.
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Christopher Chubb began his career with the Prince George’s County of Corrections in 1993. His duties expanded to include the role of Assistant Chief of Security Division in 2017, managing a staff of approximately 420 officers. Chubb retired as Lieutenant Colonel in September 2020. He remains current on issues and changes in correction because it is his passion, and the profession will forever be in his heart.