Correctional facilities managers face unique challenges. They must secure buildings from the inside out and carefully monitor access to certain items/areas in the facility. Inmates outnumber the number of staff on facility premises, and they don’t want to be there. The potential for violence is constant, and staff must be prepared. Facilities need to be carefully maintained to ensure that inmates are where they’re supposed to be, cameras and surveillance are working properly, and that walls, fences, or any barriers are kept in their proper place.
Recently, inmates at a correctional facility in Louisiana escaped after pulling a “defective” cell door off its tracks and tearing away the toilet and sink unit, according to Orleans Parish Sheriff Susan Hutson. To learn more about maintaining correctional facilities to prevent these kind of incidents, Facility Executive spoke with Bryce Peterson, Senior Research Scientists with CNA, an independent not-for-profit analytical organization.
Facility Executive (FE): What are some unique facility management challenges when it comes to correctional facilities?
Bryce Peterson: This is a hard question to answer succinctly, so I’m summarizing a few thoughts here. One big challenge is that many correctional facilities have aging infrastructures. These were built decades ago and have remained in continual operation while being sustained by tight governmental budgets. As a result, facilities often deal with dilapidated or broken security features like fences, walls, cameras, and so on. Similarly, many facilities have been forced to retrofit or upgrade many of their systems (e.g., HVAC, plumbing, IT). Prisons and jails have also had to adapt their environments to new supervision modalities and realities; this could include adding additional beds to account for overcrowding, updating a housing unit to move to a direct or indirect supervision model, or installing new infrastructure. All this must be done with minimal interruptions to day-to-day operations.
Another general challenge is managing the populations movement within facilities. On any given day, prisons and jails may experience dozens of people coming into and out of the facility, including incarcerated people being admitted to or released from the facility, staff, visitors, vendors, and contractors. Each of these entrances creates management challenges for contraband introduction, escapes, and other security issues. Correctional staff must also process hundreds of packages and letters, which likewise introduce several management challenges. Facilities use a combination of manpower and technology to screen/process the individuals and mail coming into facilities.
FE: How are correctional facilities engineered to keep inmates inside? What are some standard building features included to secure the space?
Peterson: The overall strategy to prevent escapes involves “target hardening” the facility. That is, correctional administrators want to strengthen the security of the building to make it harder for people to break out. Standard features include physical infrastructure (perimeter fences and razor wire, reinforced walls, security cameras, electronic or physical key-based access control systems), as well as policies and staff routines (perimeter patrols, housing unit checks, population counts). There are many other less common technologies and approaches that facilities might employ, such as RADAR or ground sensors, automated perimeter alerts (e.g., motion detection, microwave and infrared intrusion detection), thermal cameras, drone countermeasures, and inmate RFID bracelets.
FE: With the recent prison break situation that happened in Louisiana on May 16, what do you think are some lessons facility managers can take away from this incident? What do you think went wrong?
Peterson: There seems to be several things that went wrong, including with the facility’s infrastructure and personnel. In terms of infrastructure, reports suggest that the jail had broken surveillance cameras and inadequate access control (i.e., defective doors and/or locks). The escapees were also able to remove a toilet and cut through steel bars in the wall. There are also reports of several issues with personnel–the escapees could have been prevented or discovered earlier during regular security rounds within the housing unit, monitoring of surveillance cameras or door-lock sensors (if present in the facility), or the breakfast service the following day. Staffing shortages likely contributed to all these issues. And, of course, there are reports that at least one staff member colluded with the escapees. Facility managers should therefore (a) regularly inspect/audit their infrastructure to identify and address physical vulnerabilities, and (b) review their policies, hiring practices, and trainings to identify and address staffing vulnerabilities.
CNA is a not-for-profit analytical organization dedicated to the safety and security of the nation. With nearly 700 scientists, analysts, and professional staff across the world, CNA’s mission is to provide data-driven, innovative solutions to our nation’s toughest problems. It operates the Center for Naval Analyses—the federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) of the Department of the Navy—as well as the Institute for Public Research. The Center for Naval Analyses provides objective analytics to inform the decision-making of military leaders and ultimately improve the lethality and effectiveness of the Joint Force. The Institute for Public Research leverages data analytics and sophisticated methods to support federal, state, and local government officials as they work to protect the homeland, the American people, and industry.