Identify and explain eight auxiliary services and facilities and their challenges to institutional security.

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Kitchen Services and Facilities; Feeding; Food Service Facilities; Food Supplies; Laundry Facilities; Recreational Facilities; Religious Facilities; and Tool Shop Facilities. The design and development of kitchen facilities in prison environments require that equipment be able to service hundreds or thousands of individuals on a daily basis yet, at the same time, facilitate security needs of the institution. This is a difficult balance in design since any mass feeding operation is, itself, a challenging process. When adding security issues to the kitchen operation process, the physical layout of the kitchen becomes very important. Prison kitchens can be breeding grounds for contraband of all types within the prison. Naturally, contraband can include any sort of kitchen took or food items that can be used to make homemade alcohol. As a means of maintaining control over these items, an inventory is taken daily, and inmates are required to formally sign tools out. Food service facilities and equipment vary from one jail or prison to another. Some facilities may have equipment that is not up-to-date and where kitchen workers must work with challenges inherent to the equipment itself. In cases where lockdown facilities are being fed, officers in the department will usually provide the inmates with their food tray, utensils, and required liquid beverage. Food should be the best quality possible within budgetary constraints. However, the various kitchen products may have various security features not found in free-world kitchens. Kitchen appliances must meet functional requirements as well as security requirements, and this type of equipment often carries a hefty price tag. The need to continually clean clothes and bedding is also a routine issue in prison facilities. These facilities must be suitable for continual use and must also allow for adequate security over the inmate population. Laundry facilities should be designed so that security is able to be easily maintained. The ability to offer recreational activities can be an effective behavior management tool inside the prison. The threat of exclusion from participation in recreation programs usually does gain compliance from most of the inmate population, and this alone demonstrates some operational value for such programs. The implementation of these programs must also be amendable to effective security maintenance. Some types of recreation include tools or instruments that can, if not kept under tight inventory, be trafficked among the inmate population. Religious facilities are undeniably important within prisons. Given that different religious orientations may be found in prisons and that states do not wish to lay the ground for discrimination between different religions, it is probably prudent for administrators to simply provide space for religious services on an “as needed” basis. Tool shops tend to exist at many larger prisons where some type of industry is performed. Such facilities allow inmates to be productive while serving their sentence. Security risks exist as such equipment can be used to make weapons and/or effect escape attempts. Thus, the design of tool shops must accommodate security concerns and allow for the easy inventory and control of equipment and tools.