NCJ Number
163479
Date Published
1996
Length
473 pages
Annotation
Effective corrections management is an essential element in prison stability and safety, but challenges faced by correctional managers are distinct from those faced by managers in other fields.
Abstract
Prison administrators are responsible for protecting the public from incarcerated criminals while coping with problems of institutional crowding. They must supervise and prevent violence by poorly socialized, aggressive inmates and must provide drug treatment and literacy programming to poorly motivated subjects. Nonetheless, many insights and skills that have proven critical to successful management in the private sector and other public organizations are fully applicable to corrections management. Correctional managers need to realize that the population served is held involuntarily, that corrections has both social and security missions, and that many skills and personal traits necessary in directing correctional staff activities also apply to directing inmates. Book chapters are organized in four parts, and most chapters include prison-related case studies or exercises. The first part covers unique features of corrections management, the nature of supervision, and basic management functions. The second part focus on delegation, time management, self-management, and personal supervisory effectiveness. The third part looks at interviewing and hiring, supervisor-employee relationships, leadership, motivation, performance appraisals, criticism and discipline, problem employees and employee problems, and the human resource department. Chapters in the final part pertain to decisionmaking, change management, communication, effective meetings, budgeting, productivity, methods improvement, training and continuing education, the supervisor and the law, and unions. References, notes, and exhibits