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As defined by Fresno county it is the Correctional Sergeants duty to act as a lead supervisor for one or more national work areas. Correctional Sergeants then report to Correctional Lieutenants who serve as a watch commander for an assigned work shift. Correctional Lieutenants are also the first management level classification within the correctional officer classification series. This particular jail is used to detain individuals awaiting court appearance, and to house convicted inmates sentenced to serve terms in the local jail. As I am writing this paper the current population is 2,639 where only 231 of those are female inmates.
There are currently 959 sentenced inmates in the jail, and 1680 are insider to be “pretrial” The proposed budget for 2014-2015 shows $178,882,470 for the Sheriffs office which represents a six percent increase from the previous year. This budget would help increase the current need for more officers. The minimum qualifications for a Correctional officer includes the completion of thirty semester units from an accredited college or university, be tallest 21 years of age, possession of a valid California Class “C’ Driver’s License, and to successfully complete the training requirements set forth by Penal Code section 832 Title 15.
Inmates have medical, dental, and mental health services at their disposal 24 hours a day 7 days a week. The Jail Psychiatric Services has a crisis intervention service that is staffed by mental health clinicians and is available to all individuals that are incarcerated. If an offender wants to attain a GEED then they can with the Adult School that is available to them in the jail. There are several religious programs. Alcoholics and Narcotics anonymous meetings are also available if any offender wants to attend.
As far as observations go Fresno County Jail or the part of the jail we walked wrought seemed really old, and in desperate need of some renovations. The classification of offenders seemed really interesting to me seeing that Fresno County is the main stomping ground for bulldog gang members, and bulldog gang members are known to not have a real hierarchy and are mostly an “individualistic” gang in nature. I didn’t really see too many interactions between inmates and the staff other then the individual that was not leister to any orders so they needed to physically restrain him.
We did interact WI an inmate that talked to us about how he and several others get different reveilles because they volunteer, and help around the facility. Fresno County Juvenile Hall On October 1 10th we visited the Fresno County Juvenile Hall. According to the website there are two directors one of them is Joy Thompson which is TTL Detention F-agility Division Director, and Kirk Haynes which is the Commitment Facility Division Director. This new facility was opened in 200 and it cost the county $145 million dollars.
It currently has a capacity of 24 beds for juveniles currently going through court proceedings, and another 240 beds for minors that have already been sentenced. This institution ha: array of different services available to juveniles. These services include sat mandated educational services, the Floyd Barrow Substance Abuse Program The New Horizons Program, The Boys and Girls Clubs, Thinking for a champ faith based services and programs that focus on the juveniles sobriety. Tate mandated educational services is provided by the Alice Wordlessly Such where they provide a sufficient curriculum that works in conjunction with public school program. This program allows for the minor to take all of necessary courses needed in order to graduate High School. Individuals the re in the Floyd Barrow Substance Abuse program get individual counseling on an as-needed basis. These minors can work on their anger, drug abuse life skills, and many other activities to help them use their time in a constructive way.
This facility has proposed a budget for upcoming year that includes $36,151 , 1 91 which is a two percent increase from the prior year. This will them hire an additional ten juvenile correctional officers. The individual the gave us a tour emphasized often how they are severely understaffed at the, moment, and how many of them have to sometimes work two shifts per d They currently have 286 individuals within their staff.
Because of them bee understaffed they consistently encouraged my group to try to apply, and after further investigation the current minimum qualifications for a juvenile correctional officer is to have a minimum of sixty units of college work at an accredited college or university, possession of a valid drivers license, possession of a valid First Aid and Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation certificate, be 18 years old, and meet physical and peace officer standards/requirements I really enjoyed this tour due to the fact that it is one area of which that I am extremely interested in working in.
I liked the fact that many of the correctional officers acted as if they were teachers to the minors in custody. I also liked how they are required to scan them every so often, so their parents, know that they are still in custody, and they are doing fine. Many of the minors that I encountered were sitting down, and doing the work that they had gotten in class that same day, so that just shows how good of a job they are doing with most of the minors in the facility.
Another thing that I noticed was how the correctional officers interacted with each other which was more roundly then at the county jail, which makes sense due to the fact that at the county jail level you encounter many adults that will unfortunately never change their ways unlike some of these juveniles. Central California Women’s Facility On October 1 6th we visited the Central California Women’s facility which is a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation Facility. Deborah K.
Johnson is the warden of this particular institution. This is the largest female institution in the state of California, and their primary mission is to process, rehabilitate, and incarcerate California female offenders. They house Californians death row for women, as of December of 2012, 3,677 women were in custody at this institution, which is almost 1 600 more then the capacity it is intended for. Currently there is a total staff of about 1,200, but only around half are custody staff/correctional officers.
The other half are support services staff. This prison had an annual budget of $138 million, but was recently decreased to $92 million. In recent years it has been increasing, but only by a very small percentage. This prison allows inmates the opportunity to pursue an education, work, and vocational training. We were taken into three of the places where they are trained which include; cosmetology, auto-body, and the dental assistant program. There are also programs intended for the women to attain a GEED, as well as a college degree.
There are also programs within the different buildings for instance some of the women participate in the big sister, little sister program where they mentor incoming offenders in order to allow a smooth transition into the system. This prison and every other CDR prisons minimum qualifications to be a correctional officer includes having a high school diploma or equivalent, 21 ears or older, history of law-abiding behavior, and you have to eligible to own a firearm.
CUFF was a much different experience especially in terms of security since it is a California state penitentiary. We got to meet, and interact with several inmates which include Kristin Rostrums, which I later found out why she was incarcerated. She seemed really educated, and involved with the programs that are offered within the prison. I even found out that her case was mentioned in a true crime series which will eventually watch just because she spoke to us.
