American Correctional Association Case Study

The National Prison Association, known later in 1954 as The American Correctional Association, is widely known as the oldest correctional association; whose mission is to "provide a professional organization for all individuals and groups both public and private that share a common goal of improving the justice system” (ACA, N.D.). The ACA has since established Corrections Online Training for all states to have the opportunity to become ACA accredited facilities and trained personnel. Equally important, Lending (2004) acknowledged that gaining ACA accreditation provided correctional personnel with the chance to positively impact their lives through enhanced: education, growth, professionalism, and opportunities to secure future objectives and missions; through utilizing ACA’s public training and career development program and by maintaining certification with college educational courses, training events, and attending professional conferences (Lending, 2004). The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections recognized the importance of gaining ACA accreditation; from improving facility standards of operations and implementing new programs; accreditation obviously proved immensely successful in the execution of: security and training practices for personnel, offender re—entry and health care; which consequently released the facility from the past two decades of: court, public, and, legislative supervision (Lending, 2004). Lending has also illustrated that; ACA standards have helped aid correctional facilities in the management of resources saving inventories, equipment and supplies (Hobbs, 2012). In 2010, The Arkansas Department of Corrections, ordered all personnel to additional training hours in hopes of improved leadership, management and supervision abilities. By doing so, the ADC achieved and sustained highly trained and motivated personnel; particularly unique, as corrections is known for having high personnel turnover rates due to chronic exposure to high stress situations (Slate &Vogel, 1997). The yearly turnover averages range from 16.2 to 40 percent in corrections (Peak, 2007). Reported by Hobbs (2012) in 2010; 200,000 training hours were completed with two different operational components and training concentrations, in-service and basic training. The ADC produced a cost efficient program; creating an online internet learning and training program “ eCademy”, which offers 350 plus classes to personnel with 200 main courses accepted as ACA standards as an optional opportunity of gaining additional knowledge in corrections (Hobbs, 2012). In agreement Haasenritter (2012) believes, ACA accreditation is one of the most important aspects that the corrections field has the opportunity to achieve, stating” Accreditation provides a road map to excellence, and the standards are a tool to sound correctional practices"(p.6). The past four decades of the correctional industry regarding prisons and jails have extensively increased the standards of operational levels …show more content…
The correctional field standard for promotion for supervisory personnel needs to be addressed for both gender and race as well. Griffin, Armstrong & Hale’s (2005) research exposed percentages of different supervisory roles in personnel that obviously pointed to discrimination of gender and race in upper management ranks. They found that 57.7% white males dominated these positions leaving the rest of the breakdown as 28.5% minority male, 9.7% white female and 2.1% minority female (Griffin et al., 2005). There is a higher need for women correctional personnel due to supervising the increasing number of female residents, conducting searches of female offenders; the demand for female personnel needs to meet the demand of female offenders (Peak,