Organizational Assessment and Recommendations Report

Running Head: Florida Department of Corrections 1

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Florida Department of Corrections

Florida Department of Corrections

Shawnette Howard

SNHU

CJ550Q

5/22/2021

Florida Department of Corrections

The Florida Department of Corrections runs state prisons of the United States specifically the state of Florida. It is headquartered in the capital of Florida, Tallahassee. The Florida Department of Corrections runs the United States’ third greatest state prison system. As a matter of fact, it is the biggest agency under the State of Florida, having a budget of about $2.4 billion, more than 95,000 prisoners imprisoned, as well as over 115,000 law breakers on some kind of community supervision (Shukla et al., 2021).

The said Organization has 143 facilities spread across the state, comprising of 15 Annexes, 43 major institutions, 6 road prisons, 20 work release centers, and 33 work camps. The Organization has over 23, 000 employees most of which are either probation officers or officially acknowledged corrections officers. There are K9 units for the Florida Department of Corrections spread across the state, which are often used for looking for and rescuing missing individuals, and looking for escapees.

The structure of the organization is in accordance with Section 20.315 and 20.04, Florida Statutes. Section 20.315 stipulates that the organization be led by the Secretary of Corrections. The said Secretary is the Governor’s appointee, ought to be confirmed by the Senate, and ought to operate in accordance with the Governor’s whims. The Secretary’s roles include: planning, as well as managing and synchronizing the system of corrections in the state. The Florida Department of Corrections is subdivided into four major departments.

The departments include: finance, community corrections, administration, and institutions. There are also three more departments for development, internal affairs, as well as managing legal counsel. The former four major departments are further broken down into some subdivisions. The subdivisions ought to work together for the major departments to work cohesively in an interdependent manner for the growth of the entire organization. The Florida Department of Corrections has numerous divisions as well as subdivisions emphasizing on Community Corrections and the main objectives being to reduce the rate of employee turnover, employee corruption, inmate escapes, as well as inmate deaths (Lucken & Fandetti, 2019).

All these objectives contribute to the overall goal of the organization which is the safety of persons under their care (Shukla et al., 2021). The subdivision that I selected is the Florida Re-Entry Subdivision (aka Recovery, Treatment, and Rehabilitation). The responsibility of this subdivision is to offer standard programs to prisoners, instilling in them competencies required for them to be productive and make them shy away from crime. Besides the Florida Department of Corrections’ mission, this subdivision has a mission of its own.

The mission is to offer rehabilitative care that is effective for prisoners of all kind, as well as being involved in research, development, as well as other programs of lowering dependency. Therefore the subdivision’s objective can be simply put as to ensure seamless transitions of prisoners into the society at the point when they are released. The subdivision is operated on a principle that the individuals in question are clients and not offenders. In cases where the inmates that are about to be released are regarded as offenders, state agencies responsible for their re-entry into the society tend to apply a one-size fit all approach which ultimately fits none (Lucken & Fandetti, 2019). On the contrary, persons are regarded basing on their attitudes towards work and crime, thereby helping them get and maintain their jobs, thus lowering the probability of such individuals to re-offend.

References

Shukla, R., Peterson, B. E., & Kim, L. (2021). Contraband and interdiction strategies in correctional facilities.

Lucken, K., & Fandetti, R. (2019). Offender reentry as correctional reform: finding the boundaries of meaning in post-prison supervision. Journal of Crime and Justice, 42(2), 184-200.