Corrections Management. Mermon Correctional Facility Research Paper

Corrections Management. Mermon Correctional Facility - Research Paper Example Personal reflections on the Agency and its Administration Generally, Mermon Correctional Facility is a relatively well managed institution. This is because an incident of a correctional officer getting killed has occurred only once since its establishment. This means that the institution has managed to secure its employees over a long period of time before the occurrence of the unfortunate incident in 2010. This is an eye opener for the management of the correctional facility because it points out that correctional officers are not completely secured. Mermon Correctional Facility also faces a number of challenges that relate to modern correctional facilities. However, it is the responsibility of the institution’s administration to ensure effective management by addressing those challenges using the best approaches. Problems and Issues Mermon Correctional Facility is faced with a number of inherent problems that affect its performance in a number of ways. One major effect of the inherent problems and issues is that the organization is unable to deliver its services in effectively hence falling short of one of its major organizational goals. A correctional facility has a major goal of ensuring that there is effective transformation of offenders from social evils into becoming better persons. Below is a discussion of some of the issues and problems related to Mermon Correctional Facility: 1. Budget concerns This is a serious issue facing the correctional facility because there were concerns from employees of the institution regarding budget reductions. Workers at the correctional facility cite budget reductions as the main cause of the murder incident. This is despite the fact the management of the correctional facility made a response to the claims that budget reductions had nothing to do with the incident. Accordi ng to Phillips and McConnell (2005), budget concerns are among the major component concerns of a changing environment in the management of correctional facilities. Government and private institutions have reduced their spending on correctional facilities in response to tighter economic conditions. The authors also note that correctional facilities are having difficulties hiring adequate staff to manage such facilities. Budget concern is also an issue because it is evident that there was only one member of staff when the murder incident occurred. Marsha Wills was alone at the chapel at the time of the murder incident. She was attacked after the church service and it is believed that the murderer was hiding in the chapel. Mermon Correctional Facility did not have adequate staff to escort convicts during the church session and one of the prisoners was able to hide and make an attack without the knowledge of other employees (Jones & James, 2005). Low staff levels put both the staff and other prisoners at risk. This is because it is very difficult to monitor prisoners as well as manage them in situations of emergency. The aftermath of the murder incident led to other members of staff raising concerns about the low levels of staff. Mermon Correctional Facility is among correctional institutions that are affected by budget cuts hence it is unable to hire adequate staff to manage its numerous tasks. It is for the same reason that the correctional