News and Views
Your gateway to news, information, and resources that can influence the specific, day-to-day operations of your facility as well as the overall goal of increasing the professionalism of jail personnel at all levels.
Cost-Effective Training Management
AJA is now part of the Corrections Online Training Collaborative, a partnership between the American Correctional Association, AJA, and Essential Learning, an established online training management company. COTC members have joined together to bring high-quality staff training solutions to the correctional industry.
COTC offers correctional staff online training through its Learning Management System. Correctional agencies large and small have been adopting this online training to train correctional staff in a "blended training" approach. Courses are accessed through any computer with Internet access. The training can be started, stopped, and restarted again and again as the learner’s schedule requires. It also can help reduce training costs by saving on travel expenses, staff turnover, and overtime pay.
Other features include:
Largest catalog of online courses for corrections.
- Testing and survey capabilities.
- Online management of your training program - robust reporting.
- Add your own courses (without limits) to your training system.
- Meet certification and AJA requirements.
To learn more, visit www.CorrectionsOTC.com; e-mail COTC@essentiallearning.com; or call Janice MacDonald, Corrections Online Training Collaborative, 800-729-9198, ext. 201.
Justice Department Solicits Public Comments on Prisoner Rape Standards
 In an important step to implement the U.S. Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), as of March 10 the Department of Justice is soliciting public comments on the recommended Standards for the Prevention, Detection, Response, and Monitoring of Sexual Abuse in Detention..
Developed by a bipartisan commission created under PREA, these recommendations are the product of years of input from corrections officials, criminal justice experts, advocates, and others. They have the potential to become the most important tool so far in the effort to end sexual abuse behind bars. The public comment period will run until May 10, 2010.
Notably, today's Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking also states that the Attorney General is seeking to eliminate a regulation that bars the use of Victims of Crime Act funds to assist incarcerated prisoner rape victims.
Although PREA stipulates that U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder take no more than one year to review and formalize the standards, which were released on June 23, 2009, it is clear that Holder will not meet that deadline. This delay is due, in part, to a time-consuming cost projection study currently underway, contracted to Booz Allen Hamilton.
"Discover Corrections" Website To Address Workforce Issues
The Bureau of Justice Assistance is addressing workforce development issues in corrections by providing funds to the Council of State Governments/American Probation and Parole Association to develop and implement the Discover Corrections website.
This innovative project will be a collaborative effort overseen by core project team of corrections stakeholders that includes the American Jail Association, American Probation and Parole Association, American Correctional Association, and the Center for Innovative Public Policies.
Discover Corrections will establish a central location on the Internet for job-seekers and students to learn about entry and advanced level careers in corrections, locate job opportunities available in correctional agencies nationwide, and enhance strategies to improve the effectiveness and retention of correctional employees.
For more information, visit www.appa-net.org/eweb/Dynamicpage.aspx?webcode=IV_ProjectDetail&wps_key=4b181e51-373a-4eb5-97ca-7e7164140276.
Women Working in Corrections and Juvenile Justice Conference
The 13th National Conference of Women Working in Corrections and Juvenile Justice will take place September 19–22, 2010, at the Marriott at the Denver Tech Center, Denver, Colorado.
With the theme “Soaring to New Heights,” this year’s conference will offer networking opportunities, dynamic speakers and workshops, professional growth, and personal growth and wellness.
For more information, visit www.womenincorrections.com, www.denver.org, and www.mariott.com/hotels/travel/dentc-denver-marriott-tech-center.
Fallen Correctional Officers To Be Honored
In recognition of National Correctional Officers week, the Corrections Chiefs Committee of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments will sponsor a Wreath Laying Ceremony in honor of fallen corrections officers at 10 a.m., Saturday, May 1.
The ceremony, which commences National Correctional Officer/Employee Week, May 2-8, will take place at the National Law Enforcement Memorial at Judiciary Square, Washington, D.C.
Slain correctional officers from across the nation will be remembered during this solemn ceremony. Immediately following the ceremony, honor guard teams from jurisdictions in Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia will meet in the annual honor guard competition. The public is invited, and there is no cost to attend.
For more information, contact Vicki Duncan of the Prince George’s County Department of Corrections at 301-952-7013 or cell 240-581-4913.
The Council of Governments is an association of 21 local governments working together for a better Washington, D.C., metropolitan region. For more information, visit www.mwcog.org.
Court Rules Strip Searches of Inmates Constitutional
The U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals says searches are needed to prevent the smuggling of contraband into detention centers. The decision replaces a smaller panel's more critical ruling in 2008.
Blanket strip searches of incoming jail inmates are constitutional and necessary to prevent the smuggling of contraband into the detention centers, a Federal appeals court ruled recently.
The decision by a full 11-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals replaces a smaller panel's ruling in 2008 that strip searches are so dehumanizing that they violate a person's constitutional rights if conducted without good reason to suspect the individual is carrying drugs or weapons.
The ruling undermined one of several civil rights violations that antiwar protester Mary Bull and eight others alleged in their class-action lawsuit against the city and county of San Francisco. The protesters alleged that they were mistreated by authorities when they were arrested during a November 2002 demonstration.
"This is not a final defeat at all. It opens the case to move forward," attorney Mark E. Merin said of Tuesday's fractured ruling, noting that the arrestees' complaint was headed for trial by jury in federal district court.
Writing for the majority, Judge Sandra S. Ikuta, an appointee of President George W. Bush, said the court had found the strip-search policy "reasonable under the Fourth Amendment." She pointed out that the searches had produced hundreds of caches of drugs, money, shanks, knives and other items that can pose risk to jail personnel and other inmates.
Four separate opinions were filed by the 11 judges, including a dissent written by Judge Sidney R. Thomas and joined by three fellow appointees of President Clinton.
Thomas had written the 2008 ruling against strip-searching without probable cause, saying that "the intrusiveness of body-cavity searches cannot be overstated."
In his dissent, Thomas recounted how Bull had been arrested at a peaceful protest, slammed to a concrete floor during booking, stripped and subjected to a body-cavity search, then left naked in a cell for 11 hours. She was subjected to a second strip search before being released without charges.
Open Government Plan
At the direction of the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is in the beginning stages of developing its Open Government Plan. Because of the importance of your group's role as a significant stakeholder in the actions of the department, we invite you to help us launch this initiative.
 Through a temporary website, http://www.opendoj.ideascale.com, DOJ will be soliciting ideas on how to make our activities more transparent. The department would be grateful if you would share this information with your members, and encourage them to participate in the plan's development.
The goal of the Open Government Plan will be to improve the department's fulfillment of its core mission by making appropriate use of more transparent, participatory and collaborative approaches to its activities.
The department would appreciate your ideas on areas in which it can improve its services through these means. We encourage you to read more about the Open Government Initiative (http://www.whitehouse.gov/open); think about areas where the department can be more transparent, participatory or collaborative; and submit your suggestions through a public dialogue at http://www.opendoj.ideascale.com -- or through a private email to the Open Government team at opengov@usdoj.gov. The top ideas will be presented to senior leadership and the Open Government Working Group, for consideration for inclusion in the DOJ Open Government Plan.
You can also watch the department's progress at http://www.usdoj.gov/open.
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