|
|
|
Correctional Facilities |
|
The Paradoxes of Corrections Security |
 |
|
Incarceration comes in every form, from the honor camp cottage to the maximum-security single cell. One
paradox is that the low security facility may be more vulnerable to staff injury than the high security
facility. This is due to the ratio of staff to inmates as well as the physical and procedural precautions
that are inherent in maximum security. A second paradox, however, is inevitably true of maximum security.
Ninety-five percent of the time the inmate is highly secure and so is the staff, but five percent of the
time that same inmate is in a dining hall, clinic, or infirmary, or in transit to or from some other
activity. The inmate is still secure, that is, the likelihood of his escape is small, but the security of
the escort or monitor has dropped significantly. Still a third paradox is that a staff member is much more
likely to be injured by an incarcerated youth than by a mature institutionalized inmate. It is also true
that the presentenced inmate is much more unstable and unpredictable than the sentenced inmate. Finally,
the danger from the inmate cannot be directly correlated with the institution. An inmate with homicidal
tendencies may be in the county jail, while the meek embezzler may be in the state penitentiary. |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
