NCJ Number
138312
Journal
Corrections Today Volume: 54 Issue: 5 Dated: (July 1992) Pages: 100-101
Date Published
1992
Length
2 pages
Annotation
As more facilities begin to consider using armed officers on certain posts, prison architects will have to develop facility designs that permit staff to carry weapons.
Abstract
The older, Auburn-style cellhouses are relatively easy to renovate to allow the positioning of armed guards on the exterior wall or walls opposite the cells. The recommended renovations would allow the staff to be easily reinforced during a disturbance and would place armed officers in direct physical contact with the area most likely to require use of deadly force. Today's podular-designed maximum security facilities would be more difficult to renovate. It might, however, be possible to station the weapon with the officer in the control station and deploy an armed officer to the intervening corridor as conditions dictate. Prison administrators should develop their deadly force policy early in the process of designing a new facility. A ballistics consultant can help locate and configure gun ports, predict the extent of collateral damage that would result from an initial weapons discharge and any rebound, suggest alternate materials that could reduce rebound, and discuss the use of security glazing in areas exposed to firearms discharge. 2 figures