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Prison System

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Institution Affiliation

Introduction

In any organization change is inevitable, and all the managers' and the stakeholders' have to be ready to embrace change at one time or the other. Change is the process by which an organization moves from the old method to new methods to making the production of its products better and complying with the latest technology (Carter, 2017).

Organizational background

Pelican Bay state prison is an organization within the Prison system based in California. This is an organization that was set aside to keep those who break the state laws and helps them reform to sit in the society again. It is home to approximately 2,200 prisoners with a vast area coverage of 275 acres. The prison was officially opened for operation in 1989 and has a capacity of 3,300. All the prisoners in this jail are to be confined until death due to the offenses committed. The prison has different workers but mainly the wardens who ensure that the security is at a maximum at all times to avoid chances of any of the prisoners escaping (Foucault & Sheridan, 2012).

Human resource role in the changes.

The prison is headed by a prison warden called Clark Ducart who is assisted by other officers to ensure the peaceful co-existence of prisoners. Apart from the wardens the prisoners also have their leaders who represent them at different cells and are responsible for coordinating them as well as raising their concerns in the cells. The kind of leadership is more of the military because of the group being dealt with. Most of the prisoners are hardened criminals and are always unwilling to cooperate. The role of the human resource management is primarily to ensure that peace and security are maintained in and around the prison to reduce the chances of escape. Other essential areas are health unit, food sector, and the religion department. The military kind of system has always failed this can be associated with the fact that the prisoners in pelican have no reason to reform. People will always strive to achieve something in life and in a situation where one is sentenced to life imprisonment it is like life coming to an end. The system should be changed such that whoever can be proved beyond reasonable doubt that he or she has changed should be relieved back to the society to influence others not to participate in the crime. Retaining a prisoner through life has no economic importance to the community. Therefore, the prisoners should be trained in different fields and left to go and transform the society positively (Carter, 2017).

Reasons for changes

The three reasons why I would advocate for the replacement of the policies are as follows. First, it traumatizes both the prisoner and the family on learning that the one arrested will never be released but will remain in prison for life. The trauma has led to many family members and the prisoners to commit suicide for fear of facing a permanent jail term. The prisoners sometimes grow wild with each other because they believe nothing awaits them in life apart from death and therefore will not fear to commit any crime because he or she has met the highest possible punishment and nothing can change the status. The economic hard times can make one commit a crime so that he goes to prison where the state takes the responsibility of taking care of the prisoners (Foucault & Sheridan, 2012).

Uneconomical activity in the nation. When the young and the strong are arrested and detained, it is the responsibility to feed and cater for their needs from the taxpayers’ money. It looks like when one commits a crime that warrants eternal imprisonment he becomes state burden. The confinement for an extended period deprives the state its economic driving force. This is because those who are needed to drive the economic wheel are behind bars (Jr, Kernan & Force, 2018).

Imprisonment was meant for behavior transformation so that one can fit in the society and mix without interference with the daily livelihood of others. Long-term imprisonment does not serve this purpose because the people arrested are not to be released. Questions keep on lingering on many as to what would the government have achieved for long sentences. A human being can only be known to have reformed if left to operate and intermingle freely with others without being watched at (Retish, 2017).

Readiness for change

It can be said that the organization is moving fast to embrace these changes thou reluctantly. Some of the moves that show that change is taking place are the prison training and learning. Today the prisons have created a forum for the prisoners to further their studies in academic and non-academic areas. Several prisoners have learned up to postgraduate and earned themselves an opportunity to learn in areas such as law, medicine, and education. Apart from the academics, the prisoners are today doing well in hand work, and these bring income to the prison department thus depending on themselves and not on the federal government for funding (Carter, 2017).

The organization has started appreciating that a lot of talent go to waste in prison. This has come as a wake up the prison department is making use of the available resources of human resources to produce various goods and services. Several projects have been initiated by the prison department and done by the prisoners and bring income to the organization. The academicians are allowed do their professional duties, and part of the dues go to the prison to cater for the financial aspect of the prison. There is artwork that has also been made in prison and sold. Lastly, some of the prisoners who were initially meant to serve for life sentence have been released once they have been proved to have reformed completely (Foucault & Sheridan, 2012).

Expected changes

Some of the changes have started trickling in pelican state prison. The prison has begun using peer training to make the prisoners realize that being imprisoned is not an end to life but rather an opportunity to re-examine oneself and come to the realization of what needs to be done. The second is that police brutality has decreased drastically as the police realize that there is no solution in violence rather discussion bring more information than force. Finally, the prison has changed tack on how to hand prisoners. The prisoners today are well organized like one big family where they are offered the necessary human requirements and not deprived all the human elements (Jr, Kernan & Force, 2018).

Prisoners can now be visited by family friends, and they feel the warmth. The interaction has brought a new life to prisoners as they think still recognized and appreciated.

The result of the restructuring of the system has brought so much life in prison. The prisoners now recognize the benefit of going through the recommended reformation as this is one way out of prison. Introduction of education has made some achieve their educational dreams thus living a life of satisfaction. Lastly, the prison is now recognized as a correction Centre and not a human destruction Centre (Retish, 2017).

References

Carter, J. (2017). Mass Incarceration, Co-Governance, and Prison Reform in Honduras. NACLA Report On The Americas, 49(3), 354-359. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10714839.2017.1373965

Foucault, M., & Sheridan, A. (2012). Discipline and punish. New York: Vintage.

Jr., E., Kernan, S., & Force, W. (2018). CDCR - Pelican Bay State Prison (PBSP). Cdcr.ca.gov. Retrieved 25 January 2018, from http://www.cdcr.ca.gov/Facilities_Locator/PBSP.html

Retish, A. (2017). Breaking free from the prison walls: penal reforms and prison life in revolutionary Russia. Historical Research, 90(247), 134-150. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-2281.12171