Tamms Correctional CenterOpened: June 1995Capacity: 700Level 1: Maximum-Security Adult MaleLevel 7: Low Minimum-Security MaleAverage Daily Population: 454 Total Average Daily Population: 454Average Age: 36Average Annual Cost Per Inmate: $58,994.00 VISITATION ALL VISITORS, INCLUDING ATTORNEYS, MUST BE ON THE INMATE'S APPROVED VISITING LIST IN ORDER TO VISIT. PROSPECTIVE VISITORS SHOULD CONTACT THE INMATE TO HAVE THEM PLACED ON THE VISITING LIST. Information on this page is intended to answer questions and provide guidance for individuals who want to visit an inmate at an Illinois correctional facility. You may download files to study the Visitation Rules that govern behavior of inmates and visitors.On the first visit to any correctional facility, the visitors will be required to have a photo identification, such as a driver's license, a state identification card, or acceptable documentation of non-US citizen including a current passport, Visa, or Matricula, and documentation that includes their date of birth.Please have two forms of identification; one should be a photo ID for additional visits.Maximum Security Unit: Pre-scheduled visits only. Hours are: 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and Holidays. Visits are 4 hours in duration. Minimum Security Unit: Hours are: 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. 7 days per week. Visitors must sign in by 4:00 p.m.Business Mail:200 East Supermax RoadP.O. Box 1000Tamms, Il 62988Phone: (618) 747-2042Fax: (618) 747-2062 Inmate Mail: 200 East Supermax RoadP.O. Box 2000Tamms, Il 62988Tamms Correctional Center consists of a 200-bed Minimum-Security Unit (MSU) and a 500-bed closed maximum-security facility (CMAX). The facility is situated on 236 acres of land just north of Tamms on Route 127 in Alexander County. The MSU, which opened in 1995, provides work crews to numerous locations in southern Illinois and also serves as a work cadre for the CMAX facility. The CMAX facility, which opened in March 1998, has been designated to house the department's most disruptive, violent and problematic inmates. Inmates approved for placement at CMAX have demonstrated an inability or unwillingness to conform to the requirements of a general population prison. Inmates transferred to CMAX are required to stay for a minimum, pre-determined length of time. Positive behavior, or a change in attitude to conform to stated rules and regulations, is considered in determining when an inmate returns to a general population environment. Highlights Construction of the firing range located on the northwest corner of the Tamms Correctional Center property was completed Feb. 1, 2003. The range has multiple firing lanes with pneumatically controlled targets and is used regularly to meet training needs of facility staff and the Illinois State Police, District 22. CMAX houses some of the most litigious inmates in the department's custody. The staff at Tamms has met the challenge of housing these inmates by ensuring policies and procedures are consistently followed. Staff's efforts of enforcing written policies have ensured consistent administration of programs and services resulting in significant success in defending CMAX in inmate litigation. The Early Retirement Incentive caused a significant reduction in staffing at CMAX and MSU. Due to the CMAX conditions of confinement, no inmate work details are allowed in any of the living units. This creates a very labor-intensive work environment for staff. All sanitation duties in the CMAX housing units are performed by staff and all inmate movement requires handling of the inmate in full restraints with a minimum escort ratio of 2:1 at all times and 3:1 for high security escorts. Even with staffing numbers at an all-time low, Tamms employees have pulled together and truly are doing more with less. In southern Illinois, 124 children have benefited from the generosity and caring of many Tamms Correctional Center employees. The Tamms staff participated in a toy drive from Oct. 29 through Dec. 6, 2002. The Alexander County Department of Children and Family Services office provided a list of needy children and staff participated by donating toys and gifts to the children. Three staff also took the polar plunge on March 1 at Rend Lake to benefit the Special Olympics. Staff pledged more than $700 during this event for the three brave employees who took the polar plunge. In addition, Tamms Correctional Center Golf Outing netted $1,800 on behalf of Special Olympics in September 2002. In July, Special Olympics received $2,100 from Tamms Correctional Center resulting from candy bar sales. More than 150 Tamms Correctional Center staff participated in three Red Cross blood drives during the fiscal year. The Red Cross collected 124 pints of blood as a result of staff participation. Sixty-two Tamms Correctional Center employees donated $7,885 to their favorite charity through the State and University Employees Combined Appeal. Reducing Recidivism Even though the agency's policy regarding renunciation of street gang membership is regularly challenged, it is apparent the high profile security threat group member is hindered from carrying out or directing others to commit felonious crimes by this policy. At Tamms, all inmates who are validated security threat group members must renounce such association as a condition to their transfer to another facility. The conditions of confinement are tough in one aspect regarding security procedures, yet contrast sharply with clinical and other daily personal contacts and small group activities. By housing inmates in small numbers of 10 or less on a housing unit wing, the goal is that anger management programs will prevail and the improved behavior, which the inmate has proven himself capable of demonstrating at Tamms, will carry back into society upon his release. Mental Health Tamms CMAX operates a Behavioral Incentive Program for all inmates in segregation status. Their disciplinary records are reviewed on a monthly basis for acceptable conduct during the previous 12 months. If an inmate's conduct is acceptable, he is authorized to have audiovisual privileges per approval of the warden. If the inmate's conduct deteriorates, he will be removed from the program and lose his audiovisual privileges. Twenty-one inmates are currently approved to participate in the program. Eighteen inmates were approved and removed due to disciplinary infractions. The Behavior Incentive Program provides a reward-based incentive for improved conduct, which will positively affect the inmate's behavior upon his transition to another facility or release. Tamms CMAX continues to facilitate a Specialized Treatment Unit (STU) for seriously mentally ill inmates who require CMAX custody. The STU has expanded mental health treatment programming to include additional privileges for inmates who have continued to display positive social behavior and engage in treatment. This has included the use of audiovisual programming as an incentive. All inmates meeting the criteria for STU placement have made progress over the past year. This has been demonstrated by receiving fewer disciplinary tickets, increased medication compliance, increased group participation, decreased crisis care calls and decreased clinical symptomatology. The focus of the Tamms Correctional Center continues to be prevention and early intervention. In this regard, additional anger management and addictive behaviors clinics have been initiated. These psychoeducational programs include interactive journaling and audiovisual presentations. Minimum-Security Unit Inmate work crews from the MSU continued to provide local communities with more than 14,000 hours of service and more than 2,000 hours of trash pick-up along major highways in the area. Work crews provided more than 1,000 hours of service to local and state parks and cemeteries. FY 2003 saw MSU offenders assist local communities in providing disaster relief for tornado victims by helping with extensive cleanup efforts over a seven-day period in the counties of Pulaski and Alexander. During that effort, 196 MSU offenders worked more than 1,467 hours. One of this year's special projects was washing, waxing and cleaning buses and vehicles for Southern Seven Head Start and Shawnee Community College. MSU offenders worked more than 282 hours on these projects, which were completed ahead of schedule. Education During the past year, the Tamms educational program has continued to serve the educational needs of inmates by providing televised and cell-front educational instruction, library services and paralegal assistance to inmates having a wide variety of educational needs. It is interesting to note that given this unique environment, the number of inmate grievances has been reduced in the past 12 month period-a fact which verifies an overall increased participant satisfaction with the program. Additionally, the GED program provided to inmates has shown a higher pass rate in the last 12-month period over previous years. During the past seven years, 73 students have taken the GED exam at Tamms MSU with 66 passing and being awarded with a GED diploma. This gives the MSU an over all pass rate of 90 percent. Security Initiatives A closed maximum-prison such as Tamms can generally be described to house the worst of the worst behavioral problems of the department. Staffing ratios are enhanced to provide full restraint escorts with staff to inmate ratio of 2:1 and 3:1 on several occasions. Inside the confines of CMAX, elevated security areas are also defined to permit no more than six inmates on each living area. The physical design by permanently attached service delivery boxes, non-destructible light fixtures, flush control valves and clear Lexan cell front coverings reduce the inmatesÕ ability to vent their anger toward staff and carry out felonious activity. All inmates assigned to these areas are reviewed on a quarterly basis and upon their demonstrating significantly improved behavioral traits, they graduate into other living units with increased privileges. To ensure that maximum efficiency of overall operations is obtained, system checks of departmental and facility procedures are periodically conducted with frequencies that far exceed the minimum standard established by the department. In addition, several staff members are cross-trained in their responsibility to understand others' duties in relation to their function in the facility command post structure during critical incidents. As a result of the extensive cross training received, key staff has displayed the ability to fully understand and resolve actual incidents that occur in a professional manner. Tactical operations remain a significant component of the center's success. Daily staffing of any given shift's operation requires a cell extraction team of six members to be on duty. All team members are highly trained and may be activated to gain compliance of unruly inmates or perform other tactical operations. Most often the unit's mere presence at the inmate's cell front via marching in an organized professional manner causes the inmate to comply with lawful orders avoiding the use of chemical agents or force. Tamms staff is continuing the effort to prevent drugs and other contraband from entering the institution. With the implementation of the Drug Interdiction Policy, Tamms is using all means available to accomplish this goal. A monthly schedule for the use of the ION Scanner has been implemented. The ION Scanner is used on inmate visitors, vehicles, volunteers, vendors, contract employees, inmates and inmate property to detect small traces of illegal drugs. An aggressive inmate drug testing policy is also in place. All CMAX inmates were drug tested during the FY 2003 with zero positive findings. All ports of entry into Tamms Correctional Center are closely scrutinized. All mail, packages, parcels and inmate commissary are searched first by using a fluoroscope machine, then a physical and visual inspection by staff. Inmate legal mail is delivered by a select group of specially trained staff. Biohazard procedures for the mailroom have been put in place. Upon opening mail in the mailroom, if any suspicious powders, spills or aerosols are emitted, the mailroom staff will activate the institutional procedure for this emergency. A comprehensive procedure has also been established and implemented for biological and terrorist threats. A secondary mailroom has been established for opening confidential mail, such as the warden's, personnel and business office. Fiscal Responsibility and Budgetary Compliance In FY 2000, the facility put an extensive effort in developing a five-year equipment plan, which serves as a roadmap for both anticipated and unanticipated needs. No facility or organization can foresee all possible needs five years in advance. However, the use of the plan for equipment expenditures enables virtually all actual needs to be anticipated, allowing orders to be filled with essential items rather than items which are simply desired. All staff is constantly reminded via staff meeting minutes or individual direction to provide justifications for all purchase requests prior to submitting them. Overtime expenditures are very closely monitored and graphed to show any spikes. All overtime is required to be approved by the duty administrative officer rather than simply at the immediate supervisor level. All spikes of overtime expenditures also receive additional administrative review to determine if any alternative practices should be implemented to offset reoccurrence. The facility received 100 percent compliance from the auditors' General Fiscal Compliance Audit for the two years ended June 30, 2002. Indicator Reports There were zero positive drug tests of CMAX inmates. And there have been zero suicides and escapes since the facility opened. New Technology and Automated Enhancements A closed circuit TV system has been installed in the CMAX inmate housing units. The system enhances the safety and security of staff and provides more flexibility for monitoring inmates. Inmates know their statements in many situations are verifiable by viewing video of the incident. As inmates are becoming aware of the administrations ability to review issues via video, the number of untruthful accusations have decreased. Health Care Outside medical writs are costly to a correctional facility and present security risks any time an inmate is transported off-site for medical services. Due to the security level of the facility, the Quality Improvement Committee in terms of necessity and cost factors scrutinizes medical writs monthly. During FY 2003, outside medical writs for the CMAX totaled eight. The previous year, the number was 58 and a majority of those were for one inmate who was receiving on-going treatment. Since the opening of the facility in March 1998, attention has been paid to ensuring off-site medical writs are confined to those cases that are absolutely necessary and can't be managed on-site. In CMAX, ensuring all inmates have access to medical services is essential. During this past year, there were 85 grievances related to allegations of denial or a delay concerning the provision of medical services. Each of these grievances was researched and there was no finding of delay or denial determined clinically by licensed medical personnel. In FY 2003, there were 121 grievances related to this category. Conclusion This facility has continued its success of having no suicides since opening. This is largely attributable to staff taking a responsible interest into intervening in crisis situations that occur and regularly making intermittent inspections of the living quarters of the offender. The mental health staff continues to play an active role in proactive crisis intervention techniques and regularly train staff in other departments in methods of intervention. There is a very high degree of interdepartmental communication that occurs daily and aids in handling and managing the inmate population with a teamwork approach. It is apparent that overall inmate behavior has vastly improved by inmates displaying sufficient positive behavior to be removed from elevated security levels, receiving transfers out of Tamms and receiving audiovisual privileges. The number of situations during which staff has to resort to force to gain inmate compliance has been very minimal compared to previous years. One of the reasons for inmates' improved behavior is staff's consistent application of rules and procedures coupled with the increased awareness by inmates of the expectations of staff. Inmates know what is expected of them.
Tamms Correctional CenterOpened: June 1995Capacity: 700Level 1: Maximum-Security Adult MaleLevel 7: Low Minimum-Security MaleAverage Daily Population: 454 Total Average Daily Population: 454Average Age: 36Average Annual Cost Per Inmate: $58,994.00
VISITATION
ALL VISITORS, INCLUDING ATTORNEYS, MUST BE ON THE INMATE'S APPROVED VISITING LIST IN ORDER TO VISIT. PROSPECTIVE VISITORS SHOULD CONTACT THE INMATE TO HAVE THEM PLACED ON THE VISITING LIST.
Information on this page is intended to answer questions and provide guidance for individuals who want to visit an inmate at an Illinois correctional facility.
You may download files to study the Visitation Rules that govern behavior of inmates and visitors.
On the first visit to any correctional facility, the visitors will be required to have a photo identification, such as a driver's license, a state identification card, or acceptable documentation of non-US citizen including a current passport, Visa, or Matricula, and documentation that includes their date of birth.Please have two forms of identification; one should be a photo ID for additional visits.Maximum Security Unit: Pre-scheduled visits only. Hours are: 9:00 a.m. - 2:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday, Sunday and Holidays. Visits are 4 hours in duration. Minimum Security Unit: Hours are: 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. 7 days per week. Visitors must sign in by 4:00 p.m.
Business Mail:200 East Supermax RoadP.O. Box 1000Tamms, Il 62988Phone: (618) 747-2042Fax: (618) 747-2062 Inmate Mail: 200 East Supermax RoadP.O. Box 2000Tamms, Il 62988
Tamms Correctional Center consists of a 200-bed Minimum-Security Unit (MSU) and a 500-bed closed maximum-security facility (CMAX). The facility is situated on 236 acres of land just north of Tamms on Route 127 in Alexander County. The MSU, which opened in 1995, provides work crews to numerous locations in southern Illinois and also serves as a work cadre for the CMAX facility. The CMAX facility, which opened in March 1998, has been designated to house the department's most disruptive, violent and problematic inmates. Inmates approved for placement at CMAX have demonstrated an inability or unwillingness to conform to the requirements of a general population prison. Inmates transferred to CMAX are required to stay for a minimum, pre-determined length of time. Positive behavior, or a change in attitude to conform to stated rules and regulations, is considered in determining when an inmate returns to a general population environment.
Highlights
Construction of the firing range located on the northwest corner of the Tamms Correctional Center property was completed Feb. 1, 2003. The range has multiple firing lanes with pneumatically controlled targets and is used regularly to meet training needs of facility staff and the Illinois State Police, District 22.
CMAX houses some of the most litigious inmates in the department's custody. The staff at Tamms has met the challenge of housing these inmates by ensuring policies and procedures are consistently followed. Staff's efforts of enforcing written policies have ensured consistent administration of programs and services resulting in significant success in defending CMAX in inmate litigation.
The Early Retirement Incentive caused a significant reduction in staffing at CMAX and MSU. Due to the CMAX conditions of confinement, no inmate work details are allowed in any of the living units. This creates a very labor-intensive work environment for staff. All sanitation duties in the CMAX housing units are performed by staff and all inmate movement requires handling of the inmate in full restraints with a minimum escort ratio of 2:1 at all times and 3:1 for high security escorts. Even with staffing numbers at an all-time low, Tamms employees have pulled together and truly are doing more with less.
In southern Illinois, 124 children have benefited from the generosity and caring of many Tamms Correctional Center employees. The Tamms staff participated in a toy drive from Oct. 29 through Dec. 6, 2002. The Alexander County Department of Children and Family Services office provided a list of needy children and staff participated by donating toys and gifts to the children.
Three staff also took the polar plunge on March 1 at Rend Lake to benefit the Special Olympics. Staff pledged more than $700 during this event for the three brave employees who took the polar plunge.
In addition, Tamms Correctional Center Golf Outing netted $1,800 on behalf of Special Olympics in September 2002.
In July, Special Olympics received $2,100 from Tamms Correctional Center resulting from candy bar sales.
More than 150 Tamms Correctional Center staff participated in three Red Cross blood drives during the fiscal year. The Red Cross collected 124 pints of blood as a result of staff participation.
Sixty-two Tamms Correctional Center employees donated $7,885 to their favorite charity through the State and University Employees Combined Appeal.
Reducing Recidivism
Even though the agency's policy regarding renunciation of street gang membership is regularly challenged, it is apparent the high profile security threat group member is hindered from carrying out or directing others to commit felonious crimes by this policy. At Tamms, all inmates who are validated security threat group members must renounce such association as a condition to their transfer to another facility. The conditions of confinement are tough in one aspect regarding security procedures, yet contrast sharply with clinical and other daily personal contacts and small group activities. By housing inmates in small numbers of 10 or less on a housing unit wing, the goal is that anger management programs will prevail and the improved behavior, which the inmate has proven himself capable of demonstrating at Tamms, will carry back into society upon his release.
Mental Health
Tamms CMAX operates a Behavioral Incentive Program for all inmates in segregation status. Their disciplinary records are reviewed on a monthly basis for acceptable conduct during the previous 12 months. If an inmate's conduct is acceptable, he is authorized to have audiovisual privileges per approval of the warden. If the inmate's conduct deteriorates, he will be removed from the program and lose his audiovisual privileges. Twenty-one inmates are currently approved to participate in the program. Eighteen inmates were approved and removed due to disciplinary infractions. The Behavior Incentive Program provides a reward-based incentive for improved conduct, which will positively affect the inmate's behavior upon his transition to another facility or release.
Tamms CMAX continues to facilitate a Specialized Treatment Unit (STU) for seriously mentally ill inmates who require CMAX custody. The STU has expanded mental health treatment programming to include additional privileges for inmates who have continued to display positive social behavior and engage in treatment. This has included the use of audiovisual programming as an incentive. All inmates meeting the criteria for STU placement have made progress over the past year. This has been demonstrated by receiving fewer disciplinary tickets, increased medication compliance, increased group participation, decreased crisis care calls and decreased clinical symptomatology.
The focus of the Tamms Correctional Center continues to be prevention and early intervention. In this regard, additional anger management and addictive behaviors clinics have been initiated. These psychoeducational programs include interactive journaling and audiovisual presentations.
Minimum-Security Unit
Inmate work crews from the MSU continued to provide local communities with more than 14,000 hours of service and more than 2,000 hours of trash pick-up along major highways in the area. Work crews provided more than 1,000 hours of service to local and state parks and cemeteries.
FY 2003 saw MSU offenders assist local communities in providing disaster relief for tornado victims by helping with extensive cleanup efforts over a seven-day period in the counties of Pulaski and Alexander. During that effort, 196 MSU offenders worked more than 1,467 hours.
One of this year's special projects was washing, waxing and cleaning buses and vehicles for Southern Seven Head Start and Shawnee Community College. MSU offenders worked more than 282 hours on these projects, which were completed ahead of schedule.
Education
During the past year, the Tamms educational program has continued to serve the educational needs of inmates by providing televised and cell-front educational instruction, library services and paralegal assistance to inmates having a wide variety of educational needs. It is interesting to note that given this unique environment, the number of inmate grievances has been reduced in the past 12 month period-a fact which verifies an overall increased participant satisfaction with the program.
Additionally, the GED program provided to inmates has shown a higher pass rate in the last 12-month period over previous years. During the past seven years, 73 students have taken the GED exam at Tamms MSU with 66 passing and being awarded with a GED diploma. This gives the MSU an over all pass rate of 90 percent.
Security Initiatives
A closed maximum-prison such as Tamms can generally be described to house the worst of the worst behavioral problems of the department. Staffing ratios are enhanced to provide full restraint escorts with staff to inmate ratio of 2:1 and 3:1 on several occasions. Inside the confines of CMAX, elevated security areas are also defined to permit no more than six inmates on each living area. The physical design by permanently attached service delivery boxes, non-destructible light fixtures, flush control valves and clear Lexan cell front coverings reduce the inmatesÕ ability to vent their anger toward staff and carry out felonious activity. All inmates assigned to these areas are reviewed on a quarterly basis and upon their demonstrating significantly improved behavioral traits, they graduate into other living units with increased privileges.
To ensure that maximum efficiency of overall operations is obtained, system checks of departmental and facility procedures are periodically conducted with frequencies that far exceed the minimum standard established by the department. In addition, several staff members are cross-trained in their responsibility to understand others' duties in relation to their function in the facility command post structure during critical incidents. As a result of the extensive cross training received, key staff has displayed the ability to fully understand and resolve actual incidents that occur in a professional manner.
Tactical operations remain a significant component of the center's success. Daily staffing of any given shift's operation requires a cell extraction team of six members to be on duty. All team members are highly trained and may be activated to gain compliance of unruly inmates or perform other tactical operations. Most often the unit's mere presence at the inmate's cell front via marching in an organized professional manner causes the inmate to comply with lawful orders avoiding the use of chemical agents or force.
Tamms staff is continuing the effort to prevent drugs and other contraband from entering the institution. With the implementation of the Drug Interdiction Policy, Tamms is using all means available to accomplish this goal. A monthly schedule for the use of the ION Scanner has been implemented. The ION Scanner is used on inmate visitors, vehicles, volunteers, vendors, contract employees, inmates and inmate property to detect small traces of illegal drugs. An aggressive inmate drug testing policy is also in place. All CMAX inmates were drug tested during the FY 2003 with zero positive findings.
All ports of entry into Tamms Correctional Center are closely scrutinized. All mail, packages, parcels and inmate commissary are searched first by using a fluoroscope machine, then a physical and visual inspection by staff. Inmate legal mail is delivered by a select group of specially trained staff. Biohazard procedures for the mailroom have been put in place. Upon opening mail in the mailroom, if any suspicious powders, spills or aerosols are emitted, the mailroom staff will activate the institutional procedure for this emergency. A comprehensive procedure has also been established and implemented for biological and terrorist threats. A secondary mailroom has been established for opening confidential mail, such as the warden's, personnel and business office.
Fiscal Responsibility and Budgetary Compliance
In FY 2000, the facility put an extensive effort in developing a five-year equipment plan, which serves as a roadmap for both anticipated and unanticipated needs. No facility or organization can foresee all possible needs five years in advance. However, the use of the plan for equipment expenditures enables virtually all actual needs to be anticipated, allowing orders to be filled with essential items rather than items which are simply desired. All staff is constantly reminded via staff meeting minutes or individual direction to provide justifications for all purchase requests prior to submitting them. Overtime expenditures are very closely monitored and graphed to show any spikes. All overtime is required to be approved by the duty administrative officer rather than simply at the immediate supervisor level. All spikes of overtime expenditures also receive additional administrative review to determine if any alternative practices should be implemented to offset reoccurrence.
The facility received 100 percent compliance from the auditors' General Fiscal Compliance Audit for the two years ended June 30, 2002.
Indicator Reports
There were zero positive drug tests of CMAX inmates. And there have been zero suicides and escapes since the facility opened.
New Technology and Automated Enhancements
A closed circuit TV system has been installed in the CMAX inmate housing units. The system enhances the safety and security of staff and provides more flexibility for monitoring inmates. Inmates know their statements in many situations are verifiable by viewing video of the incident. As inmates are becoming aware of the administrations ability to review issues via video, the number of untruthful accusations have decreased.
Health Care
Outside medical writs are costly to a correctional facility and present security risks any time an inmate is transported off-site for medical services. Due to the security level of the facility, the Quality Improvement Committee in terms of necessity and cost factors scrutinizes medical writs monthly. During FY 2003, outside medical writs for the CMAX totaled eight. The previous year, the number was 58 and a majority of those were for one inmate who was receiving on-going treatment. Since the opening of the facility in March 1998, attention has been paid to ensuring off-site medical writs are confined to those cases that are absolutely necessary and can't be managed on-site.
In CMAX, ensuring all inmates have access to medical services is essential. During this past year, there were 85 grievances related to allegations of denial or a delay concerning the provision of medical services. Each of these grievances was researched and there was no finding of delay or denial determined clinically by licensed medical personnel. In FY 2003, there were 121 grievances related to this category.
Conclusion
This facility has continued its success of having no suicides since opening. This is largely attributable to staff taking a responsible interest into intervening in crisis situations that occur and regularly making intermittent inspections of the living quarters of the offender. The mental health staff continues to play an active role in proactive crisis intervention techniques and regularly train staff in other departments in methods of intervention. There is a very high degree of interdepartmental communication that occurs daily and aids in handling and managing the inmate population with a teamwork approach.
It is apparent that overall inmate behavior has vastly improved by inmates displaying sufficient positive behavior to be removed from elevated security levels, receiving transfers out of Tamms and receiving audiovisual privileges. The number of situations during which staff has to resort to force to gain inmate compliance has been very minimal compared to previous years. One of the reasons for inmates' improved behavior is staff's consistent application of rules and procedures coupled with the increased awareness by inmates of the expectations of staff. Inmates know what is expected of them.