Model Policy

Effective policy and procedures are absolutely essential for the management of all jail operations. Given the importance of a jail’s operational policy and procedure, consider the following:

• Is your policy based on current case law or past administrative mandates/training? Many jails rely on old policy and procedure based on outdated standards not based on case law to their specific state statutes and Circuit Court rulings, and in many instances, the decisions made by the Supreme Court and federal law.
• Do you have staff with the skills, time and means to research current case law? Does case law change? Take, for example, what has happened with strip searches over the last 3 years in the 9th Circuit. Two months after a dramatic ruling, the court revised the decision. How did those changes affect a jails policy and procedure?

  It takes the average person 10 hours per week in the law library to stay updated and current with correctional law. The majority of jails report this is not remotely possible. Yet it is a necessity to assist in mitigating and protecting against supervisor liability and reduce risk management exposure.

• Do you have a process that allows for your policy and procedure to be reviewed and changed according to current case law? Without such processes in place, many jails keep status quo until something misconduct, dysfunction or non-compliance results in harm to an agency, administration or other embarrassing media coverage, often resulting in litigation and liability defense. Updated legal-based policy coupled with training to the policy and procedure is the best defense a jail administration can have in successful defense.

The Institute for Jail Operations works with individual states and jails to create policy based on case law specific for that state. Each policy has a rationale statement, a compliance statement and supporting annotation.

Many administrators have questioned why a national set of policy isn’t developed. The Institute for Jail Operations recognizes “National Policy” would not be upheld in court because such policy could not be based on the law specific to every county jail. A jail in the 11th Circuit, for example, must adhere to the 11th Circuit rulings and their own state statutes while a jail in the 6th Circuit is responsible to administering the law according to their own state and Circuit Court law, which may not necessarily agree with other circuit court rulings.

If you are interested in creating legal based policy for your agency, jail or state sheriffs’ association, the Institute for Jail Operations contact IJO staff with more details and information. Policy has been created for a number of requesting agencies and states at a fraction of the cost because of the resources available to the Institute.