Administrator Challenges Paper 1

RUNNING HEAD: Administrator Challenges Paper

Administrator Challenges Paper
Steven Griffiths
CJA454
Steven Gilliken
University of Phoenix
8/5/2013










Administrator Challenges Paper 2

Below average pay is one of the biggest reasons that state prisons have a hard time hiring new
employees to take the helm, and watch those who have been sentenced. Various state lawmakers have
been told that the low pay, coupled with long hours is leading to and ever climbing turnover rate. While
the issue of low pay is a contributing factor, there are also others that bring to the table their own sets of
issues such as forced overtime. State correctional facilities are seeing their senior most employees getting
hired at federal prisons where the pay and benefits are far better. Another issue is the setup of the actual
prison itself that leads correctional officers to think twice about staying at their current location. The
overall lack of private cells, or 2 man cells, means that most prisons are set up as a dormitory, where there
can be as much 100 inmates free to move around a specific area, with no way to really keep control and
custody, making the correctional officers feel extremely unsafe, as an attack can come at anytime from
anywhere. Most correctional officers tell you the inmates run the prison, Ferrell said. Youre just
there to keep order. At any time, they could take that prison if they wanted. Most are on good behavior.
Youve got about 10 percent of them that are not. (Rubenstein 2009).
Talk to any prison warden in any state and they will tell you that the biggest issue they face today
is that of prison overcrowding. Prison overcrowding is not just a local issue; it is a global issue as well.
Overall prisons in the United States are operating at 99% capacity. This operating figure puts the United
States right in the middle of the 15 most overcrowded countries when it comes to offender housing.
Prison overcrowding can be a toxic situation for both correctional officers, and prisoners alike, these
conditions contribute to an increase in inmate fights, and there is an increased fight for prison educational
and vocational training services. Lacking a meaningful work opportunity when one gets released is
another dismal situation created when states have nowhere for released offenders to go afterwards.
Diseases also run rampant in overcrowded prisons, the rate of tuberculosis can be as much as 100 percent
higher in overstuffed prisons than back in the community, and the issue of mental health cases are
prevalent as well. Despite falling crime rates noted in a Pew Research Center analysis in May, the U.S.
Administrator Challenges Paper 3

prison population has risen from 307,276 prisoners in 1978 to a high of 1.6 million prisoners in 2009,
before declining slightly in the past three years. (Caumont 2013).

References
Rubenstein, A.L. (2009, April 12). Prison Understaffing. New Jersey Sun, p. 2.
Caumont, B.P. (2013, January 20). Products of Prison Overcrowding. Chart of the Week, p. 2.