GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS | CORRECTIONS IN THE FUTURE 
 
Impact of Criminal Justice Reform 
Many states across the country, including Georgia, have passed or are in the process of passing criminal justice reform measures in an effort to restrain skyrocketing prison costs by providing sentencing courts with less expensive community based sentencing alternatives for low-level, non-violent drug and property offenders. 
EFFECTS  Reduce number of offenders requiring incarceration  Significantly increase the percentage of violent and dangerous offenders 
Changes in Prison Design and Operation 
 Due to a high percentage of violent and dangerous offenders, prison architectural firms have designed facilities that are intended to be safer to manage and cheaper to operate 
NEW PRISONS  Rely on smaller, self-contained living units or "pods"  Each pod to house 100 or less offenders  Discontinue use of large-scale cell blocks and yards to eliminate the congregation of large number of offenders  Offender activities (i.e. eating, sleeping, visitation, showering, programming, education, medical and barbering) to be conducted within each individual pod 
Benefits of New Design  Effective management of violent prison population  Significant decrease in risk of officer safety by reducing staff intensive large-scale offender movements  Increase in flexibility in classification, offender housing and staffing in each pod  Increase in security by limiting an offender's ability to smuggle and distribute contraband as well as coordinate facility-wide disturbances 
 
Technology in Security and Operations 
Technological advances play an increasingly important role in maintaining prison security and operations. Shrinking state budgets and a nationwide prison population of approximately 2.3 million fueled a trend to find more efficient, cost effective and sophisticated means of maintaining control of facilities. 
VIDEO SURVEILLANCE  Increased role in facilities nationwide  Assists with officer surveillance  Cost effective  High video quality  Remotely controlled to zoom in and out as well as change point of view  Newer cameras are more durable and increasingly resistant 
VIDEO CONFERENCING  Delivers services to offenders within living units  Used primarily for offender visitation  Used in an increasing number of offender court appearances  Helps enhance officer and public safety  Reduces offender transportation costs 
TRACKING OFFENDERS  Future prisons will rely on technology driven counting and tracking systems  Some jurisdictions are using Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tracking systems to monitor offender populations  Electronic bracelets worn by offenders track movements  RFID is the wireless non-contact use of radio-frequency electromagnetic fields to transfer data, for the purposes of automatically identifying and tracking tags attached to objects  RFID can be programmed to sound an alarm if an offender enters a prohibited area or if there is an unusual concentration of offenders in a ceratin area  Other tracking technology exists, such as biometric entry point systems, but has yet to be deployed  Prohibits an offender to enter an area through the scan of an offender's iris or fingerprint 
 
 Deterrents 
Future prisons are likely to rely on technology to limit an officer's physical interaction with offenders during volatile situations 
 Electronic control devices such as tasers,  Proven effective in reducing injuries to staff and offenders 
 Equipment that produces high frequency soundwaves  Proven effective in disabling disruptive and combative offenders without the need for physical confrontation or restraint 
Hardening Project 
 Implemented in March 2013  Concept: to harden all Level V (close security) prisons 
through the construction, renovation and retrofit operations in order to establish a tiered disciplinary segregation mechanism for problem inmates, as well as increase security throughout all close security facilities 
MODIFICATIONS  Installation of barrel bolts, tray/handcuff slots, stainless steel fixtures, wall mounted beds and updated lockers, light switches and shower doors  Hardened light fixtures and heater vents  Issuance of OC spray and stab resistant vests to all on-duty Correctional Officers 
TIER SEGREGATION SYSTEM  Implemented in August 2013, estimated completion date November 2013  Divided into three tiers  Tier I and II - locations at Hancock, Hays, Macon,  Smith, Telfair, Valdosta and Ware State Prisons  Tier III - Special Management Unit (SMU) located at Georgia Diagnostic and Classification Prison (GDCP)  Purpose: to create a managed and measured stratification oriented pathway for offenders to successfully transition from Administrative Segregation to lower-security levels and it provides greater management of long-term Administrative Segregation offenders 
 
Tier I : Disciplinary, Protective Custody and Transient Housing 
 Involuntary and voluntary placement and management of offenders in short-term segregated housing  Formal hearing held 96 hours after placement in Tier I  30 days or less in Tier I  Assignment cannot exceed 30 days with the exception of involuntary/voluntary protective custody  30 day review conducted by Classification Committee  Offender appeal of placement must be submitted within three business days of receipt of notice 
Tier II : Administrative Segregation  Long-term Administrative Segregation stratification plan that manages the institutional conduct and programmatic need of offenders assigned to the program  Offenders eligible for placement in Tier II are General Population, Mental Health II and III  Offenders placed in Tier II are a threat to safety of facility, leaders in a major disturbance or riot, failure in Tier I, leaders in major disturbance resulting in assault or homicide of other offender(s), possession of firearm, escaped or escape attempt from a secure facility, assaultive histories and/ or attempting to introduce or trafficking of cellular devices, drugs, tobacco or illegal contraband  Three phases  Formal hearing held within 96 hours of placement  90 days per phase/per review  30 day contacts with Counselor  Nine months minimum stay 
Tier III - Special Management Program (SMU)  Established to protect staff, offenders and the public from offenders who commit or lead others to commit violent, disruptive, predatory or riotous actions, or who otherwise pose a serious threat to the security of the institution  90 day review by SMU Review Committee  Recommendation formulated by committee to transition offender to next phase, retain in current phase, reassign to previous phase, transfer to Level V (Tier II program) or assign to general population 
 
10/2013