The main desire and liability of any criminal justice system is securing the public safety. Holding up the offenders in the respective correctional facilitates assists in securing the public safety. The management of correctional system is associated with the rise of gangs in prisons. According to Berestein (2008), the criminal gangs are on a steady increase in correctional facilities. A gang is described as a group of persons where mostly three or more individuals considered as a threat due to their disruptive conduct to the management of the correctional facility. Criminal gangs cause violence in the facilities for the purpose of conferring benefits upon the members of criminal groups within prison. This has raised concern regarding effective management of correctional facilities (Carlson 2001).
The gangs are a real threat to public safety concerning the administration of correctional facilities. The rise in the number of these gangs is indeed a growing concern to public safety as well as the security of correctional facilities that need to be addressed effectively. The gangs engage in drugs which are attributed to cases of violence within the correctional institutions, criminal enterprises and other activities. These activities undermine the rehabilitation programs because the members of these gangs once released tend reunite with the gangs outside the prisons (Campbell 2009).
The activities of gangs in the correctional institutions are to blame for corrupting the members of staff. The members of these criminal gangs outside the correctional facility attempt to engage the correctional officers. They manipulate the correctional officials by influencing them to sneak drugs and contrabands into the correctional facilities. This has frustrated the precise purpose of these correctional institutions. Members of a gang have threatened, killed and harmed correctional officials who have attempted to stop the criminal activities of these gangs (Berestein 2008).
The gangs’ main activity is the importation of drugs to the correctional institutions, and maintenance of underground economic activities. These have led to violence in correctional facilities frustrating the management. These practices have undermined rehabilitation services within the correctional facility. The inmates’ activities have also weakened the educational programs which serve the rehabilitation purposes. These illegal activities within the correctional institutions have managed to compromise the running of correctional facilities in this country.
The function of correctional services is to restore the inmates and reintegrate them back to the society upon going through the correctional program offered in the facilities. However, the activities of gang members to a substantial extent have discouraged inmates from actively taking part in the correctional programs offered in the correctional institutions (Campbell 2009).
Proper understanding of management of correctional facilities is crucial for the purpose of accessing and developing proper control mechanism. Development of effective strategies is essential for the purpose of ensuring that correctional facilities effectively meet their mandates. There is need to ensure that prisons are not a fertile breeding ground for criminal gangs. It is important to review the management strategies of correctional facilities so that we can appreciate the true objectives of these facilities (Berestein 2008).
Correctional facilities play a key role in the growth of gangs in the country and this has raised concern on their management. Most of the inmates are either first offended or perpetual offenders. When convicts get arrested, they tend to engage in activities of criminal gangs. This is a way identifying with gangs within correctional facility. This explains why gang leaders are able to run their activities while they are in correctional facilities (Carlson 2001). This then raises the issue as to whether correctional facilities are effectively managing the offenders. The case management programs need effective supervision through partnership with the community members and stakeholders (Gran & Henry 2007).
A partnership between stakeholders of correctional facilities, the correctional officers and the case managers required, so that the offenders can get rehabilitation for re-entry to the community. This may help in preventing offenders from getting engaged in criminal activities. Effective reintegration of an offender can only be assured through the effective management of the correction facility (Campbell 2009).
The management of prisons can only be said to be effective when the activities of these criminal gangs get eliminated. This can be achieved through gathering information about the inmates and their relations with gang activities, development of segregation units for controlling the activities of gangs and the isolation of gang leaders from the members, monitoring of the communication of gang members both within the correctional facility and outside the community. There is also a need in rotational transfer of gang leaders among other ways that may be considered to be effective for the management of correctional facilities (Berestein 2008).
Most of the staff in correctional facilities should also get more trained in controlling and managing criminal gangs. They should be trained on assessing the effectiveness of these approaches. It is worth noting that the effectiveness of these suppression strategies on regulating the activities of these criminal gangs within correctional facilities has not been verified. Intervention by all stakeholders may be needed because we do not have adequate staff members to manage these correctional facilities (Carlson 2001).
The question as to whether the management of correctional facilities is effectively being a relative one. The correctional officers have confirmed that the correctional strategies used to reform the inmates are not fully effectively. The issue of prison gangs is posing a risk to the secure management of correctional facilities as well as the community. It is clear that there is a control mechanism that may be used to eliminate the activities of these criminal gangs. The environment in correctional facility influences the development of gang activities and the strategy used to suppress the development of these criminal gangs is not quite successful. The punitive control mechanisms used to handle this problem attribute to these developments (Berestein 2008).
Clear and effective policy actions in the management of correctional facility are needed for the management of correctional facilities. Although the current management strategies have not been enough, they have assisted in identifying the significant challenges associated with the management of facilities in the country. There is a need to adopt different strategies for the management to serve their role of correcting the inmates (Gran & Henry 2007).
More resources should be directed towards the management of correctional facilities. Most of correctional facilities have developed to a breeding ground for gang members and there activities. This is indisputable evidence and it shows that correctional facilities have failed to achieve the precise role for which they were created. There is a need to review the policy strategies with the establishment of collaboration between the law enforcement and the correctional agencies.
Reference List
Berestein, L. (2008). Lawsuits raise questions about private prisons/ immigration agency; contractors are accused of mistreating detainees, San Diego: Union Publication.
Campbell, S. (2009). One clique: Why rivals on the streets became allies behind bar, correction today, California: EBSCO Publication.
Carlson, P. (2001). Prison interventions: Evolving strategies to control security threat groups, Michigan: Department of Justice.
Gran, B. & Henry, W. (2007). Holding private prisons accountable: A social-legal analysis of Contracting Out prisons, San Francisco: Social Justice Publication.