Classification of Inmates

750 Words3 Pages
| Classification of Inmates | | | | | Classifications systems help minimize the potential for prison violence, escape, and institutional misconduct. During the past two decades, professionals in prisons and those in other correctional systems worked to improve their approaches to classifying offenders according to custody, work, and programming needs. As a result of these efforts, control in prisons has been improved, custody decisions are more consistent, prisoner program needs are assessed more accurately and institutional violence has declined. Inmates are classified as soon as the person is convicted of a crime; he or she is sent to the level of a prison accordingly with respect to his crime. The nature of a crime determines the level of a prison, if a person committed a more violent crime; it is likely that he would be sent to a more secured level of a prison. A review is made of all the material collected about the prisoner, including the presentence report. A classification committee, which includes a custody staff member, makes the final decision at what level (there are five classifications levels - I through V) to house the prisoner based on recommendations made by a processor who has evaluated all the reports and test results. (Michigan.gov, 2014) In order to explain the classification levels for inmates, one must understand the levels of security. All prisons erected in the United States have some level of security where inmates can be housed. There are distinct features that classify each security level such as “external patrols, towers, security barriers, and detection devices”. These are classified as “minimum, low, medium, high, or administrative”. Level I security is assigned to prisoners that have no history of attempted escape and no history of violence. Level II is for inmates that have no escape history in the last 5
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