Gordon Graham
Category: Corrections

Gordon Graham here with Today’s Tip from Lexipol. Today’s Tip is for corrections.

The inmate classification process should occur early. It will help you identify inmates who are violent, predatory, or at-risk.

Today’s tip deals with inmate classification and housing. Today’s tip is mainly directed at our friends on the custody side, but it can apply to officers using temporary holding facilities too. 

A few months back I read a story about an inmate serving a sentence for car theft. His cellmate was a psychotic double-murder suspect who was awaiting trial. Guess what? The suspected car thief was murdered in his cell.  

The inmate classification process should occur early. It will help you identify inmates who are violent, predatory, or at-risk. This will help ensure proper supervision. There is a long list of things to consider like age, gender, charges, behavior, criminal history, prior violence, criminal sophistication, and so on.  

The classification process should include an in-person interview. And it should involve a standard questionnaire. The intake deputy should look at the inmate’s condition, answers to the classification questions, and everything else discovered during the interview. The intake deputy should make a housing recommendation. Then the housing deputy should evaluate the information and make an appropriate housing assignment.  

Pay attention to your classification process. Take it seriously. Don’t cut corners and don’t skip any steps. It could save lives. 

And that’s Today’s Tip from Lexipol. Gordon Graham, signing off.