NCJ Number
130620
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 53 Issue: 4 Dated: (July 1991) Pages: 86,88-90
Date Published
1991
Length
4 pages
Annotation
Physical characteristics of correctional facilities and security hardware are not sufficient to provide correctional staff, inmate, and public safety without a sufficient number of correctional personnel trained to supervise, interact with, and provide programs for inmates so as to reduce and contain dangerous behaviors.
Abstract
Corrections should ensure that convicted offenders do not continue to harm others as well as themselves, while they are under sentence. Expensive physical facilities and security hardware testify to this concern. The primary security feature, however, is often not given the priority it deserves; corrections personnel must provide the skills that can modify and control offenders' dangerous behaviors. Giving priority to this security feature means providing the resources to ensure an appropriate staff-offender ratio for the various custody levels. It also means funding programs designed to change offending behaviors. Adequate security is not possible without having the staff and the fiscal power to lock up those who require it, provide programs for those whose behavior can be changed, prevent antisocial behavior where possible, and treat those behaviors amenable to modification.