Bureau of Prisons: Evaluating the Impact of Protective Equipment Could Help Enhance Officer Safety
Publication year:
2010
| Cataloged on:
Jun. 27, 2011
ANNOTATION: “GAO examined the (1) equipment that BOP [Bureau of Prisons] and selected state departments of corrections (DOC) provide to protect officers, and the officers’ and other correctional practitioners’ opinions of this equipment; (2) extent to which BOP has evaluated the effectiveness of this equipment, and factors correctional equipment experts consider important to the acquisition of new equipment; and (3) institutional factors correctional accrediting experts reported as impacting officer safety, and the extent to which BOP has evaluated the effectiveness of the steps it has taken in response” (p. 2). Sections of this report are: background; BOP and selected states provide a variety of protective equipment to officers, but opinions on impact of equipment on officer safety are mixed; BOP has not evaluated the effectiveness of its equipment in ensuring officer safety and correctional equipment experts suggest several factors to consider in making equipment acquisition decisions; correctional accrediting experts cited inmate management and officer training among the institutional factors most impacting officer safety, and BOP has evaluated the effectiveness of its efforts in ensuring officer safety; conclusions; recommendation for Executive Action; and agency comments. Appendixes include: Trends in BOP Inmate Characteristics; Characteristics of State Inmates; Institutional Factors That Impact Officer Safety and Examples of Mitigating Strategies Either Used by BOP or State DOCs or Suggested by Correctional Accrediting Experts; and Comments from the Bureau of Prisons.
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