Managing Inmate Behavior in Jails (2024)

FAQs

Managing Inmate Behavior in Jails? ›

Effective inmate management is the key to resisting manipulation and maintaining a facility that's safe for you and the inmates. Following are the “4 Cs” of inmate management: communication, control, comportment, and conscience.

These elements are: assessing risk and needs; assigning inmates to housing; meeting inmates' basic needs; defining and conveying expectations for inmate behavior; supervising inmates; and keeping inmates productively occupied.

Experience has shown that staff can influence inmate behavior by setting high standards, conveying those expectations, and giving the inmates the means to comply. These positive expectations need to be supported by a system of incentives for desired behavior and disincentives to discourage unwanted inmate behavior.

The five bases of correctional power are: Legitimate Power, Coercive Power, Referent Power, Expert Power, and Reward Power.

A long-term offender is a prisoner that serve an extensive sentence. The three main principles in managing them is to maximize opportunities for the inmates to exercise choice in living conditions, help the inmates maintain contact with the outside world, and create opportunities for meaningful living.

Inmates may show examples of artful and unfair means to manipulate a correctional staff member. This can include: “Buttering up” and being overly complimentary.

The inmate code consists of two primary rules: 'do your own time' and 'don't inform on another convict'. These rules emphasize serving one's own sentence without interference and remaining loyal to fellow inmates by not informing against them to staff.

Instilling discipline is one of the critical roles of correctional facilities. Inmate discipline is a management tool to ensure the safety of the inmates and the corrections staff, maintain order and control within, and safeguard the facility's security.

Reinforcement is practiced to increase the likelihood of a desired behavior. Positive reinforcement offers a reward in return. Negative reinforcement imposes a penalty when the behavior is absent.

It involves using appropriate language, organizing thoughts coherently, and conveying messages with clarity and precision. Active Listening: Communication is not only about speaking; it also involves actively listening to others.

What are the two models of inmate behavior? ›

The deprivation model relies on the idea of a total Institution where prisonization occurs as inmates adapt to being deprived of basic rights and needs. The importation model asserts that experiences and socialization from the outside world are brought into prison and contribute to behavior while incarcerated.

In the controlled prison environment, inmate leaders were those who had developed effective attitudes and behaviors that enabled them to cope with the prison environment to ensure personal safety and a minimum of problems.

INMATE PLACEMENT (SECURITY LEVEL)

(1) An inmate with a placement score of 0 through 18 shall be placed in a Level I facility. (2) An inmate with a placement score of 19 through 35 shall be placed in a Level II facility. (3) An inmate with a placement score of 36 through 59 shall be placed in a Level III facility.

To effectively de-escalate a stressful setting, isolating the inmate away from the rest of the population is the first priority. Talking to an inmate about their behavior includes asking why they acted out and why the situation escalated so quickly. Of course, these questions should be asked from a safe distance.

Understanding a prisoner's thinking and emotional state can help us minister to them more effectively. The five stages of incarceration—denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance—are derived from the traditional stages of grief outlined by American Swiss psychiatrist, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross.

Prison culture refers to the customs, beliefs, attitudes, values, and behaviors of inmates within a specific prison. Prison culture also includes the prison code, which is an unwritten set of rules that inmates are expected to follow.

Keep Keys Secure

Electronic key control provides higher security than manual methods. An electronic system creates an automatic verifiable audit trail that records information about who checked out a key and when. This creates a more safe and organized facility while also enforcing employee accountability.

Regular check-ins and monitoring of inmate behavior are key components of inmate accountability policies and procedures. Inmate accountability policies and procedures aim to ensure that prisoners are held responsible for their actions while incarcerated.