Prison Environment Essay

  The prison environment could be define as a place to help persons convicted of crimes change their way of lifestyle, if it is a problem and serve out their sentence. The prison discussed in my readings is an environment where anyone from the cook to the janitor could influence someone to make a change in their thinking and their actions. What was once ran like a country under dictatorship, has now become a place where inmates are treated with respect and dignity. The environment of a prison is leaning more to a nurturing way of dealing with the inmates versus a clad iron system. Institutional management and custody are influenced by the constant growing population and the rise of gangs in the system. If there was less turnovers of correction officers in the prison the culture could possibly be change. Secure custody methods play an important role in the prison environment. Secure custody methods are how personnel keep a count of the inmates, keep them safe from one another as wel l as keeping order in the prison. A few of the methods used are; the count which is when personnel count the inmates to make sure that all are accounted for. During this process there is minimum to no activity until the task is complete. Another method is the sally port. This is basically two gates that can’t be opened at the same time. It operates by a person passing through the first gate in order for the next gate to open. Lastly, prison rules and contraband control are the other secure methods. Prison rules are likely broken on a consistent basis so that method of securing is probably not that efficient. The high count of gang members, more than likely play a large role in prison rules being broken as well as contra band being smuggled into the prison. The prison environment has improved over the years, but there is still room for improvement. The methods used to secure the facility should be revised. By revising these methods chances are the prisons will began to make a change towards the better.