Corrections_Today_Spring_2025_Vol.87_No.1

STANDARDS & ACCREDITATION

identify core actions and equipment and develop comprehensive guide lines. Robinson further stated the committee would play a pivotal role in enhancing the safety and effi ciency of transportation protocols, and that there is no such thing as “routine transport”. She directed the proposed ex pected practices be ready for review and adoption by the Performance Based Standards Committee at the January 2025 Winter Conference in Orlando. Various correctional leaders on the Performance-Based Standards Committee and those in the audience acknowledged the need for such expected practices. Members believed this was badly needed and a long time in coming. Transportation Committee works diligently The Blue-Ribbon Committee had their first meeting on Wednesday September 4 th . Committee attend ees included: Committee Chair Charles Riley, Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Corrections; Bill Lewis, Texas Department of Crimi nal Justice; Wes Kirkland, Florida Department of Corrections; Sheriff Elias Diggins, Denver Sheriff De partment, and Randy Sauls Georgia

Department of Corrections. The committee was assisted by ACA Staff Jeff Washington, David Haas enritter, Orchid Powell, and Jennifer Stohr from Alvis Inc. ACA Execu tive Director Robert Green provided lists of key elements to ensure a safe and secure correctional transport of an inmate based on his experience as a transportation officer. Each committee member discussed how their agency is currently con ducting transportation and the need to establish uniform expected prac tices. In addition, each member was tasked to provide their current policy, procedures, forms and standards; and the members and ACA staff were tasked to reach out to other agencies to gather additional documents. The committee met weekly by Zoom through September, October and November and over two and half days in person at ACA head quarters in November. They had collected transporta tion policy and procedures from 17 county, state and military adult and juvenile facilities and agencies. They received two af ter action reports from agencies that had a transportation incident and received two presentations on transportation incidents, the results of the investigations and the actions taken by those agencies due to the incidents. While doing all this work, committee members were still working at their current jobs including one member having to move over a thousand inmates due to recent hurricanes. As of November 30 th , the commit tee identified 131 expected practices covering subjects like transportation administration, contracting, planning,

security, safety, equipment, train ing and health care. They will have presented to the Performance-Based Standards Committee at the Winter Conference in Orlando January 2025. Additionally, the committee presented a special workshop on the expected practices, how they were developed and on some of the recent incidents that influenced the committee. The work is not done yet, but I would like to thank this commit tee for all the time and energy they have put on this project, one I expect will impact and improve our safety and security conduct ing the difficult mission of inmate transportation. The next steps may include some test sites of these expected practices to further fine tune them before they are pub lished in a new performance-based standards manual. The field of corrections con tinually evolves as practitioners identify areas in need of review. Transportation of inmates was clearly one area that needed to be reviewed. Soon, facilities and agencies will have a thoroughly vetted and comprehensive set of expected practices for inmate transportation and the accredita tion process will ensure these new expected practices lead to safer outcomes for all. CT

David Haasenritter is the Director of Standards & Accreditation at the American Correctional Association in Alexandria, VA. For more

information, contact David Haasenritter at (703) 224-0070 or davidh@aca.org.

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