Watching the Watchers: Corrections Oversight on the Internet

by F. Warren Benton, Ph.D.
Copyright Corrections Managers' Report, August/September 1997. Used with permission.

Watching the Watchers: Corrections Oversight on the Internet

There is an ancient latin expression "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?", which strictly translates to "Who shall keep the keepers themselves?" and more loosely translates to "Who watches the watchers?" or "Who guards the guards?" In corrections in the 1990s, we don't lack for external oversight. Looking over our shoulders are Governors and other political leaders, governing boards, legislative committees, accreditation bodies, state and federal courts, the United States Justice Department Civil Rights Division, news reporters, prisoner rights groups, professional organizations, and labor unions. Thus, corrections is sometimes viewed as an accountability profession: We enforce accountability for illegal actions by those in our custody or under our supervision, while we are held accountable for our professional actions by those who oversee our facilities and programs.

There are five distinct types of oversight of correctional agencies, varying according to legal authority and functional role:

Fiscal Auditors: Comptrollers, fiscal auditors, and program auditors focus on the expenditure of funds. Some focus narrowly on compliance with accounting rules and procedures, while other assess the "worth and wisdom" of expenditures, and the costs and benefits of policies and programs.

Policy Analysts: Legislative and policy making bodies deploy analysts to assess the merits of alternative policy choices, so that decision makers have better information about the consequences of their decisions.

Inspectors and Investigators: Generally, inspectors and investigators are evaluating an official's or organization's compliance with an expected standard of performance. The investigators can arrive at a correctional agency from many levels of government. For example, the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Justice Department can investigate alleged violations of consitutional rights. At the state and local level, Inspectors General deploy investigators to uncover waste, fraud, and abuse. Within correctional agencies, internal affairs units perform a similar function.

Professional Evaluators: Professional organizations, such as the American Correctional Association Commission of Accreditation, can be invited to conduct professional peer reviews of correctional agency performance.

Reporters and Public Advocates: External organizations representing the public in general, including news reporters as well as representatives of citizen's groups and client advocacy groups, initiate inquiries and seek information.

During the last 20 years, the emergence of Inspectors General has provided a major new source of external oversight for correctional agencies. While the Inspector General concept in America dates back to the Revolutionary War, and has its roots in European military organizational structures, many recent state and local initiatives parallel the Federal Inspector General Act enacted during the late 1970s.

There are several web sites that are devoted to the Inspector General concept. The federal Inspectors General have created a web site called IGnet. This site provides a complete explanation of the Act, as well as links to job openings, reports, technical documents, and training materials. The Association of Inspectors General also maintains a web site. This association was formed by state and local inspectors general to support their work, and the permit sharing of information across jurisdictions. This site is maintained by John Jay College of Criminal Justice for the Association.

One of the most informative resources is the Digital Document Archive maintained by the Association of Inspectors General. This site provides a collection of links to archives of inspection and oversight documents from many jurisdictions. Of particular interest to those of us who work in correctional facilities and programs are studies and investigations relating to our field.

The General Accounting Office (GAO) maintains a web site called GAO Reports and Testimony. Searching on the term "prisons" generated references to the following studies available for download:

[GGD-96-158] Private and Public Prisons: Studies Comparing Operational Costs and/or Quality of Service. This study reviewed state-level studies comparing public and private prisons, and suggested ways to improve future comparative studies.
[GGD-97-15] Federal and State Prisons: Inmate Populations, Costs, and Projection Models. This study compared prison population projection teachniques employed in several jurisdictions.
[GGD-95-170] Juvenile Justice: Juveniles Processed In Criminal Court and Case Dispositions. This study evaluated disposition patterns for juvenile offenders assigned to adult courts in seven states.
T-GGD-95-177] Bureau of Prisons: Recent Concerns and Challenges for the Future. This study examines major policy and management issues facing the Federal Bureau of Prisons, including crowding, capacity expansion, privitization, and health care.
[GGD-95-167FS] Managing for Results: The Department of Justice's Initial Efforts to Implement GPRA. This study concerns the implementation of output and outcome measures by the Bureau of Prisons.
[HEHS-94-36] Bureau of Prisons Health Care: Inmates' Access to Health Care is Limited by lack of Clinical Staff. This study concerns the shortage of doctors and nurses at certain prisons, and reviewed options for dealing the the problem.
GD-94-48] Federal Prison Expansion: Overcrowding Reduced but Inmate Population Growth May Raise Issue Again.
[T-GGD-94-8] Prisoner Labor: Perspectives on Paying the Federal Minimum Wage. This study examines the implications of paying the minimum wage in federal prisons and in four state prison systems.

At the state level, the following agencies maintained links to documents related to the nuts and bolts of corrections management:

The Alaska Legislative Auditor maintains a collection of Audits and studies about corrections. Examples include a study of the Costs of Correctional Officer Work Schedules, and a study of Costs of Health Care in Correctional Facilities.
The California State Auditor maintains a link to a Study of Workers Compensation.
The Florida Office of Program Policy Analysis and Government Accountability provides links to many excellent reports, including two on privatization, one on prison staffing, and one on health care.
The Kansas Legislature provides links to Corrections Performance Audits. The collection includes two reports on corrections in downloadable format, as well as other reports listed only by title.
The Minnesota Office of the Legislative Auditor maintains an extensive collection of reports on corrections. The reports cover a wide range of topics, and are particularly strong with respect to treatment policy issues such as the treatment and assessment of sex offenders, management and treatment of prisoners with mental health problems, and reports on recidivism.
The New York Comptroller's Reports provides a good collection on specific operational issues such as cook-chill, overtime, and pharmacy management.
The State of Washington has a link to a study of Prison Privatization.

A final example is from the United Kingdom. Prison oversight is assigned to what is perhaps the ultimate inspector general, with the title of Her Majesty's Inspector of Prisons. While one might expect that in inspector with such a title would be conducting a "white glove" inspection of cellblock housekeeping, the reports are very well done and cover a wide range of operational issues.