Question

You will create a Standard Operation of Procedures (SOP) manual for a correctional facility that you make up. The SOP must contain procedures that will ensure that prisoner’s rights are not violated. You must include the name of the facility, purpose, responsibilities, and the scope for your facility. The one that you are doing is for general prisoner’s rights.

Answer 1

Name: Holding Facility

Purpose: District/ Central/ Juvenile processing center.

Scope:

This standard operating procedure (SOP) is applicable to all staff members and contractors, vendors, volunteers, or interns at the Holding Facility.

Responsibility :

• Implementing the SOP and ensuring that staff members practice the provisions contained herein.
• Developing, to the extent possible, a schedule for visiting that offers public access during evening and weekend hours.
• Developing a field memorandum that identifies facility-specific information such as visiting locations, capacity, and schedule.
• Providing accommodations, consistent with the security level of the facility, such as vending machines, parlor games, and children’s toys to provide a positive atmosphere for visitors, children, and inmates.

Policy: The policy of the Holding Facility is to provide a secure, sanitary, and safe environment for processing and transporting prisoners. Personnel assigned to the holding facilities shall adhere to the following procedural guidelines to help resolve any problems or conditions that may compromise security, safety, or the well being of Department members and prisoners.

Definitions:

When used in this directive, the following terms shall have the meanings designated:

1. Holding Facility - a temporary confinement facility for which custodial authority of a prisoner is usually less than 48 hours, pending their release, arraignment, adjudication, or transfer to another facility. The Central Cellblock, each cellblock in the District and Juvenile Processing Center are the Department's holding facilities.

2. Cell - any area, space or enclosure, wherein a prisoner is locked or placed, which prohibits his/her freedom of movement.

3. Processing Area - a room or space used for processing, questioning, or examining prisoner(s). While in these areas, the prisoner shall be under continuous control or supervision of MPD personnel and may be restrained to a fixed object, designed and intended only for this purpose.

4. Prisoner - a person who has been arrested and is being held in a holding facility pending arraignment, release, adjudication, or transfer to another facility.

5. Disabled Prisoner - a prisoner, who has a physical condition that restricts his/her movement, or a mental condition that hinders his/her ability to comprehend, who has been arrested and is being held pending arraignment, release, adjudication or transfer to another facility.

6. Security Risk Prisoner - a prisoner who poses a threat to him/herself, to the facility in which he or she is being held, or to others with whom the prisoner may come into contact. The security risk that the prisoner poses shall govern the kind of restraining devices used, and other actions to be taken by a member to ensure proper protection and security of the prisoner and the member.

7. Screening information- the information obtained and documented regarding the prisoner’s medical condition at the time he/she is processed at the holding facility and before being transferred to another facility.

8. Field Search - the removal of coats, jackets or outer clothing to facilitate the search of the garments and clothes the prisoner is wearing.

9. Strip Search – having a prisoner remove or arrange his/her clothing to allow a visual inspection of the genitals, buttocks, anus, breasts and undergarments.

10. Squat Search - having a prisoner crouch or squat while his/her undergarments and other clothing are removed, exposing the genital and anal area. This type of search permits contraband or other material concealed in the genital or anal area to become visible or dislodged.

11. Body Cavity Search - the medical searching of a prisoner's genital and/or anal cavities to retrieve contraband, weapons or evidence of a crime that may be concealed within these areas. Only a physician shall conduct this type of search, at a medical facility.

12. Station Manager - the individual designated by the Commanding Officer to be responsible for managing all aspects of the station/holding facility area on a 24-hour basis. (Lieutenant, Civil Service Sergeant, Sergeant, Desk Sergeant or a Civilian)

13. Station Supervisor- the individual who is responsible for the daily operations of the station/holding facility area during his/her tour of duty. (Civil Service Sergeant, Sergeant, Desk Sergeant or a Civilian).

Procedural Guidelines
A. Administrative Duties and Responsibilities
1. The station/cellblock manager shall have overall responsibility for the management and administration of station/holding facility operations on all three watches. In addition to prisoner processing, record keeping, staff training, he/she shall:
a. Ensure that a safe, secure, and sanitary environment is maintained for members of the Department and prisoner(s) while in the station/holding facility.
b. Ensure that all members assigned or detailed to the station/holding facility receive training that includes:
(1) The operation of the holding facility;

(2) Use of the Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) and Live Scan;
(3) The policies and procedures outlined in this order.
(4) In fire suppression and the use of fire equipment.
(5) In-service training regarding the Department’s policies and procedures, and
(6) Any changes in the rules and regulations relating to their duties.

c. Ensure that the unit is in compliance with the following
procedures:
(1) The training coordinator receives the names of detailed and assigned personnel who need Criminal Justice Information System (CJIS) and Live Scan training,
(2) CJIS training is arranged through the Director of Information Technology Division and Live Scan training is arranged through the Director of Corporate Support;

d. Maintain a sufficient number of trained personnel on each shift and ensure that both male and female members are assigned to each watch to conduct prisoner searches.

2. The station supervisor is responsible for the daily operations of the station, holding facility, and supervision of prisoners on his/her watch. The station supervisor's duties include, but are not limited to:
a. Overseeing the use and security of audio and visual electronic surveillance equipment used to monitor prisoner(s). This is done to reduce the possibility of unnecessarily invading a prisoner’s personal privacy and to ensure monitors are placed so that prisoners cannot be seen by citizens who are being serviced at the station.
b. Providing aid to prisoners who claim a need for medical attention, by notifying Fire and Emergency Medical Service to respond to the station to determine whether the prisoner needs to be taken to a medical facility for treatment. An official shall complete a PD Form (Arrestee’s Injury or Illness Report and Request for Examination and Treatment) to document the complaint.
c. Recording all medical problems brought to the attention of station staff on a PD Form (Arrestee’s Injury or Illness Report and Request for Examination and Treatment). The prisoner shall be transported to the hospital for treatment and the PD Form (Arrestee’s Injury or Illness Report and Request for Examination and Treatment) shall be given to the treating physician to record a diagnosis, along with the prisoner property bag containing the prisoner’s medication. Once the prisoner has been released, he/she shall be transported back to the organizational element to complete the booking process and the PD Form shall be included in the paperwork that accompanies the prisoner when he/she is transported to court. All medication, both prescription and over-the-counter, shall be recovered from prisoners, itemized and stored in a secured location, and identified as the prisoner's property, in accordance (Recording, Handling, and Disposition of Property Coming into the Custody of the Department). All of the prisoner’s personal prescriptions shall be packaged in a separate bag and transported with the prisoner when he/she is taken to another facility. Only qualified medical personnel shall administer medication to prisoners.
e. Ensure that each bed has bedding and is available to prisoners held in excess of eight hours.

f. Ensure that prisoner meal orders are placed at, and picked up from, the Central Cellblock. The food shall be refrigerated and any unused food shall be discarded upon delivery of fresh meals. Prisoners shall be fed:

(1) Three meals during each twenty-four-hour period; and

(2) At the next mealtime, any time he/she is held in a holding facility for more than eight hours.

g. Ensure that the prisoner's telephone conversation is not monitored or recorded. However, it is permissible to record the telephone number the prisoner calls.

h. Ensure that all forms, equipment, and supplies needed for processing prisoners are ordered and kept in stock. (PD Forms, gloves, flex cuffs, jumpsuits, inkpads, beddings, etc.)

i. Verify that the arrest dispositions of all prisoners processed through the holding facilities are updated to reflect the status of the arrest and related property information (i.e., classification) in CJIS.

j. Ensure that the CJIS Coordinator prepares a memorandum to be forwarded to the CJIS/WALES Section of the Records Branch, with the following:

(1) The names of all persons trained and a list with their signatures;

(2) The assigned user's access code; and

(3) A memorandum stating that all users have been trained and provide the names of the individuals who have been given access to CJIS and WALES and those individuals whose names need to be removed from the System.

k. Obtain computer user identification codes from the training coordinator for all personnel assigned and trained to work in the station/holding facility.

l. Monitor the staff to ensure that they perform their duties in compliance with this order.

Searching Prisoners
1. All prisoners brought to a holding facility shall be booked and assigned to a holding cell by a station member.
2. The transporting member shall:
a. Prior to entering the cell block/holding area:
(1) Relinquish custody of the prisoner to the station staff;
(2) Secure his/her service weapon in a compartment specifically designated for securing weapons, PRIOR TO entering the cell block/holding area;
(3) Immediately respond to the prisoner processing area to complete the necessary reports.
b. When preparing prisoners to be transported to another detention facility (e.g. the Central Cellblock or the U.S. Marshall's cellblock);
(1) Search the prisoner; and
(2) Retrieve his/her service weapon.
3. The station personnel shall:
a. Take custody of the prisoner(s) from the transporting member at the van port door;
b. Escort the prisoner(s) into the cellblock/holding area where he/she shall be searched prior to booking;
c. Conduct an inventory search of the prisoner, to include looking for weapons and contraband. All articles of clothing worn by the prisoner that could be used by the prisoner to cause harm to him/herself, such as neckties, belts, and shoestrings, shall be removed from the prisoner prior to entry to the holding cell;
d. Before placing the prisoner in an unoccupied cell, conduct a search of the cell for weapons and contraband.
e. When preparing prisoners to be transported to another detention facility.

(1) Allow the transporting officer to search the prisoner; then

(2) Escort the prisoner to the van port door;
(3) Standby until the prisoner is placed in the transport
vehicle by the transporting officer.

Safety and Emergency Operations

1. Incidents that occur in the holding facility that threaten the facility or any person therein shall be documented by the Watch Commander on a PD Form, prior to the end of his/her tour-of-duty.
2. Each holding facility equipped with an automatic fire alarm, and/or a heat and smoke detection system, shall obtain written approval for the system from the D.C. Fire Department as required by the D.C. Fire
Code.
3. A written Emergency Evacuation Plan for the holding facility shall be maintained and posted in each facility. Emergency exit signs shall be designated and posted, directing the evacuation of persons to hazard-free
areas. Members assigned to the station shall read and be familiar with the Emergency Evacuation Plan.

4. At least one or more signs shall be posted in the cellblock area to advise prisoners on how to request emergency medical assistance. The signs shall be written in English and any other language prevalent in the district's service area.