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Q&A
DOC priorities for transition to borough-based jails and culture change
0:32:27
·
108 sec
Council Member Sandy Nurse asks about DOC priorities for the transition to borough-based jails. Stanley Richards and Jonathan Lippman emphasize the importance of culture change and policy revisions.
- Richards stresses that culture change needs to start immediately
- They recommend reviewing and modifying policies, procedures, and training for officers
- The speakers suggest working with organizations experienced in correctional culture transformation
- They highlight the need for sustained leadership and appointed positions focused on these changes
Sandy Nurse
0:32:27
Thank you so much for that.
0:32:29
Mister Richards, as a former deputy commissioner of DOC, what do you think the department needs to prioritize in its planning for the transition to the borough based jails?
Stanley Richards
0:32:41
As we put in the report, and my colleague can answer this as well, as we put in the report, culture change needs to start right now.
0:32:49
And culture change is part about training that we provide to officers.
0:32:54
Culture change is about reviewing the policies and procedures and modifying those policies and procedures.
0:33:02
We need to do that right.
Jonathan Lippman
0:33:03
And, Stanley, in reviewing the definition of the job.
0:33:06
That's right.
0:33:06
That's right.
0:33:07
What they think they're doing is not obvious.
Stanley Richards
0:33:11
To work, we put in a recommendation and to work with an organization like AMEND who has done correctional culture transformation throughout the country and internationally.
0:33:23
And we know we can do it, but it's gonna take sustained leadership, and that's why we recommended the two appointed positions to focus on this every single day.
0:33:34
What happens right now is that officers go through the academy, they get the very basics about correctional law and correctional operations, and then they go into facilities where they have to deal with fifty seven percent of the people with mental illness.
0:33:47
Talk about disconnection.
0:33:49
We have policies and procedures in the department that was for a department that was twenty years ago.
0:33:56
But yet those policies and procedures are the key operating principles within the department.
0:34:01
So we need to do a total evaluation and revamping of all of those things training, policies and procedures, culture implementation before we get to the borough based jails.