Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response Planning: Guidelines for Community Corrections

• NCJ Number: 228287
• Author(s): Patricia Bancroft
• Date Published: August 2009
• Length: 40 pages
• Grant Number(s): 2006-MU-BX-K014
• Sponsoring Agency: Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA)
• Corporate Author: American Probation and Parole Assoc
• Sale Source: American Probation and Parole Assoc
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Guideline
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Downloaded October 26, 2009

Annotation

This report presents guidelines for community corrections agencies in their planning for preparedness and response to pandemic influenza.

Abstract

Regardless of an agency's operational structure and resources, the guidelines are designed to ensure that all pandemic preparedness and response plans include measures that ensure the agency will meet the overarching objectives of pandemic planning. The objectives are to ensure the continuation of mission-critical functions that protect the safety of the community and the health and safety of agency employees, as well as to promote the Federal Government's community mitigation strategies intended to lessen the pandemic's impact. The guidelines are presented in five sections that address pandemic planning and decisionmaking, prevention and detection, human resources, communication, and offender supervision strategies. Each guideline within these sections specifies an action the agency should perform. The guideline is then followed by descriptions of "key points" whose performance facilitates complying with the guideline. In order to develop the guidelines, the author collected information from community corrections processionals, literature searches, and online resources. The American Probation and Parole Association (APPA) solicited input from the field by disseminating a Web-based request for information from community corrections agencies across the country. The purpose of this solicitation was to assess the status of pandemic preparedness planning initiatives and to obtain information on the components of existing pandemic policies and procedures as well as continuity of operations plans (COOPs). Correctional administrators jointly constituted and convened the Pandemic Preparedness and Response for Institutional and Community Corrections Working Group. This working group of 10 subject-matter experts identified essential information and critical elements to be included in two separate but compatible sets of pandemic planning guidelines, one for community corrections and one for institutional corrections. A 147-item bibliography