Corrections In Colorado

Essay by batman47College, UndergraduateA+, December 2008

download word file, 6 pages 0.0

According to the annual reports presented by the Colorado Department of Corrections to the states citizens, the mission statement of the department has remained consistent for many years. The objectives of the Colorado Department of Corrections are to protect the public through effective management of offenders in controlled environments, which are efficient, safe, human, and appropriately secure, while also providing meaningful work and self-improvement opportunities to assist offenders with community reintegration (http://www.doc.state.co.us/Annual Report/2001). Affirmatively, the goal of the Colorado Department of Corrections is to prevail as the best Department of Corrections in the United States (http://www.doc.state.co.us/Annual Report/2001). Despite these aspirations, prison growth in Colorado is becoming an exacerbating issue to the state presenting new challenges to the Department of Corrections. As a corollary, the management of the individual prisons in Colorado must also respond to these challenges and produce effective solutions for each one's successful operation.

The Colorado Department of Corrections examines the security and custody needed for each individual offender in order to properly place an inmate.

Security as defined by the Department of Corrections is the level referring to the physical external and internal control system and devices of each particular prison. These range from the type of perimeter fence controls and detection systems to the housing unit structures, controlled movement and the ability to limit access and control to the individual cell to include programming/work assignments (http://www.doc.state.co.us/Annual Report/2001). Custody determines the degree of management, supervision, programs, and work assignments the inmate will require at any particular prison, or while he/she is under transport or supervision outside the particular prison (http://www.doc.state.co.us/Annual Report/2001). The Colorado Department of Corrections uses a specific classification system based on ten factors to measure an individual inmate so as to determine the institutional and public risk that he/she could potentially cause. These ten factors...