Enhancing Idaho’s Correctional System
Introduction
Idaho Department of Corrections is one of the most significant correctional facilities in the USA. It has nine prisons, seven probation offices, and five community re-entry centers in Idaho states (Idaho Department of Corrections). This facility, whose headquarters are in Boise, has about eight thousand prisoners in the nine prisons and community entry centers. Individuals locked in this facility are those sentenced by the court to serve a term over one year, those who violate parole terms, and those who have a restrained jurisdiction. This facility aims to ensure that Idaho state is safe and has few individuals in its correctional facilities. The facility has four strategies for the success of its operation. It includes increasing success for individuals under its jurisdiction in the facility, ensuring the well-being of its staff members, maximizing resources in areas that bring success to their goal, and improving the relationship with the stakeholders. This essay will summarize and discuss the current Idaho system and give recommendations on what should be improved in the current system.
Main Body
Director of the Idaho Department of Corrections, Josh Tewalt, oversees the activities of the prisons, community release centers, and probation and parole offices. Each department plays a different but important role in meeting the final goal. Parole and probation offices are responsible for helping sixteen thousand people who are either on parole or probation by educating, conditioning a behavior, supervising, and investigating them(Caputo-Levine 54). The courts of Idaho oversee Idaho probation services. Probation is the suspension of a sentence of an individual jailed for a felony offense and giving them a chance to live in the community instead of imprisonment. The Office of Probation and Parole helps the court ensure those on probation comply. Parole, on the other hand, is the release of an individual from prison back to the community before his term is finished. The probation and parole values are the same, and the office of parole and probation ensures they are followed to the latter.
Prison or adult correctional facilities is a department of the Idaho Correctional Department that ensures the residents have a safe environment and keeps them until the term is over. In their period there, they ensure their behavior is corrected as they prepare to return to the community as new people (Idaho Department of Corrections). Those locked in prison include parole violators, those sentenced for more than one year by the court, and those with retained juristic. The Idaho prison works toward positively keeping the imprisoned engaged in education, work opportunities, and treatment.
The other important system in the correction facility is the community re-entry centers. Idaho Department of Corrections uses these facilities to help the prisoner get ready to be united with the community after their release. When a resident is about to complete his/her term, the community re-entry center allows them to work while reuniting with their families and community. This helps them adjust from the prison to the community and allows the community to see them as reformed people who should be welcomed back into society. Another reason for this center is to ensure the community’s safety by ensuring the resident’s accountability and security. This ensures that the resident can cause no harm.
Recommendations
Idaho correctional department should consider them to reach their goal, including talent management, staff well-being, and reducing prison population for better management and service delivery. Talent management includes the recruiting, performance management, and retention of staff. When this is done, it ensures that the staff shortage, a problem many organizations have, will be dealt with. This approach will help manage the 2000 staff the facility has (Idaho Department of Corrections). Managing 2000 staff is not easy; hence, talent management is essential to ensure that services delivered by staff are of high quality.
Subsequently, there is a need to improve staff welfare. The organization’s management should understand that dealing with people working in prison. This should be done due to the possibility of the felonies experiencing mental health problems, burnout, and physical injury (Idaho Department of Corrections). For these reasons, the facility should have a practitioner who should help the Idaho Department of Corrections staff deal with mental issues through guidance and counseling.
Finally, there is a need to develop policies on how to deal with residents. This approach should be made to ensure the safety of the staff is free from any physical harm. These guidelines should include measures to follow during an emergency to help prevent staff from being injured. Reducing the number of prisoners can increase the department’s efficiency since it is easier to provide quality to a few people (Caputo-Levine 54). This trend can be achieved by focusing on probation services for people with minor terms and offenses rather than imprisonment.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Department of Corrections in Idaho is crucial in keeping the state safe from criminal activities. The probation and parole services help in conditioning unwanted behavior, investigating and monitoring people on probation and parole, and ensuring a safe Idaho. For improvement, the department should ensure talent management and staff well-being and work toward a reduced number of inmates to reach its goal, Idaho, with fewer people in its correctional system.
Works Cited
Caputo-Levine, Deirdre. “Idaho: A Case Study in Rural Reentry.” Prisoner Re-entry in the 21st Century. Routledge, 2019. 53–65. Web.
Idaho Department of Corrections. 2022. Web.