Florida Department Assessment
Florida Department Assessment
The Florida Department of Corrections (FDC) provides correctional services within the state of Florida. According to its mission statement, the organization aims at providing a range of services that meet the needs of those placed under its care, create a safe and professional environment to reduce victimization, create safer communities, and enhance the quality of life (Florida Department of Corrections, 2017b). The Department achieves its mandate by working to meet the various goals outlined in its agenda. The goals include talent development through investing in members for their professional development, growth and success, rehabilitative inmate programs, which are implemented to support a variety of services for inmates to facilitate successful transition into their respective communities, the creation of a transparent and all-inclusive communication structure that involves all stakeholders, and the establishment of a healthy, compassionate, and sustainable environment.
The FDC has three distinct divisions which include the Reentry subdivision, the Parole subdivision, and the Corrections subdivision (Florida Department of Corrections, 2017a). The Reentry subdivision specializes in equipping inmates with the necessary skills and knowledge to enable them to become crime-free and productive members of their communities. The Parole subdivision focuses on classifying, assessing, investigating, and counseling offenders. The Corrections subdivision is responsible for supervising offenders and inmates to guarantee the security of surrounding communities.
The Corrections subdivision plays a critical role in the overall structure of the FDC due to the intensity of its mandate in creating a safer society. Its mission is to “serve diligently and reliably collaborate with other entities within the criminal justice community” (Florida Department of Corrections, 2017a). The entity’s goals focus on improving an offender’s quality of life while creating safer communities thus aligning to the FDC’s mission, which is to improve the safety of the society by enhancing the lives of inmates who are placed under its care. Therefore, it is evident that the Corrections subdivision collaborates with other subdivisions to enable the assessment of offenders and to provide them with skills that can make them productive members of the society (Florida Department of Corrections, 2017a).
This subdivision also applies various policies to achieve its mission. For example, the admission of inmates into a facility follows a custom which involves processing the inmates’ details, testing, evaluation by a health expert, assessment for program needs, and the determination of security risk. Security risk is evaluated on the basis of factors, such as an individual’s magnitude of crime committed, prior criminal records, sentence length, and correctional facility adjustment among others (Florida Department of Corrections, 2017b).
The systems model would be effective in assessing the Corrections subdivision of the FDC due to its capacity to analyze the specific pointers of the segment. For example, it is easy to evaluate its effectiveness by the changes in crime levels where reduced levels would be an indication that the subdivision is carrying out its mandate effectively. Conversely, rising crime and unsafe societies would be an indication that little is being done at the Corrections subdivision. The unit can utilize its strengths such as the improved interdepartmental communication and the rapid personnel growth to overcome weaknesses, such as inexperienced management and low employee retention. The opportunities presented by efficient employee education and training can help to overcome any challenges that may arise including the handling of so many inmates at a single facility. The inmates records kept at all facilities can provide the necessary data for the evaluation of an assessment method.
The improvement of the FDC will require the collaboration of all subdivisions because they all handle the same people although at different stages. The three face similar challenges that relate to funding, staffing, and availability of equipment. Therefore, a command chain would be appropriate in communicating whereby each officer will report to their supervisor or commander. Once the director of the FDC receives the report, a similar command chain will be used to disburse the resources to each officer for efficient service delivery (Florida Department of Corrections, 2017a).
References
Florida Department of Corrections. (2017a). Graphic Organization Chart. Retrieved from http://www.dc.state.fl.us/orginfo/orgchart.html
Florida Department of Corrections. (2017b). Vision, Mission, Value, and Goals of the Florida Department of Corrections. Retrieved from http://www.dc.state.fl.us/vision.html
