全球智库信息集成服务系统

Expert workshop participants identified 11 high-priority needs for preventing threats to institutional security

• Understaffing is a major threat; staffing ratio standards are needed, as are recruitment and retention strategies to meet these standards.
• Supervisors need better training and a manageable span of control in order to properly develop staff.
• Tools are needed to identify staff prone to compromise.
• Better technology and best practices are needed to detect drugs, cell phones, and weapons.
• Fully electronic mail systems should be explored to reduce the influx of drugs and protect staff and inmates from harm.
• Research and testing centers are needed to evaluate emerging technology solutions to threats (e.g., cell phones, drones).
• Administrators need greater awareness of cyber threats and information technology–related risks and need increased capacity to address these risks.
• Best practices are needed to balance inmate access to technology for reentry purposes with security concerns.
• Best practices are needed for security threat group management.
• Technology is needed to automate analysis of inmate communications.
• Best practices are needed for the development of continuity of operations plans.

Some threats to correctional institutional security — e.g., violence, escape attempts, contraband — are as old as the institutions themselves, while other threats — e.g., computer hacking, synthetic drugs, cell phones, drones — have evolved with societal and technological changes. Many of these threats present risks to public safety as a whole. In light of the ongoing challenges the corrections sector faces in countering these threats, RAND researchers convened an expert workshop to better understand the challenges and identify the high-priority needs associated with threats to institutional security.

Unfortunately, resource and staffing challenges limit the ability of correctional institutions to adapt to shifts in threats and to adjust security and staffing strategies over time. Furthermore, a perpetual lack of empirical data hampers efforts to effectively develop interventions to address threats. Addressing the research needs and developing the tools and resources — as prioritized by the workshop participants — is one route to providing correctional institutions the support needed to confront security threats going forward.

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