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Fiscal Year 2005 Performance Oversight Hearing

Thursday, February 2, 2006
Testimony of Devon Brown, Director Committee on the Judiciary of the Council of the District of Columbia Phil Mendelson, Chairman John A. Wilson Building 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20004

Good afternoon, Chairman Mendelson and members of the Committee on the Judiciary.

I am Devon Brown, Director of the District of Columbia Department of Corrections. I appreciate this opportunity to present testimony on the Department of Corrections’ Fiscal Year 2005 Performance.Joining me today is my Deputy Director, Patricia Britton.

Public safety is the highest priority for the Department of Corrections, and we are fully committed to building an agency that will be second to none in municipal detention. Our ability to reach this goal is predicated upon the use of sound operational practices, sufficient funding, and strong support from District governmental leaders, advocacy groups and the community-at-large.

We recognize that we face barriers that are beyond our scope of authority. However, the Department of Corrections has successfully completed a number of significant initiatives in FY 05 that support our overall efforts to establish a safe, secure and orderly environment for staff, inmates and visitors. Our budget for FY 2005 was $128 million, and our overall staffing complement totaled 906 full time employees (FTEs).

I am pleased to provide a summary of our accomplishments, which are classified as administrative accomplishments, security and safety enhancements, capital improvements, workforce enhancements, inmate healthcare services, and community outreach.

 

Administrative Accomplishments

  • The Department of Corrections’ Food Service Program achieved American Correctional Association (ACA) accreditation.  This official recognition represents the Department of Corrections’ first milestone toward achieving full accreditation by this prestigious organization.  ACA’s National Accreditation Team rated our Food Service Program 100 percent compliant for mandatory standards and 100 percent compliant for non-mandatory standards; ratings few agencies achieve in both areas.
  • The Department of Corrections established a Federal Billing Unit to enhance efforts to process timely federal invoices and achieve reimbursements for the care and custody of federal inmates in our custody.  As a result of staff diligence in the Federal Billing Unit, we have experienced significant improvements in federal collections.  In this regard, we collected more than $24 million of the $25 million invoiced in FY 05 for sentenced felons housed in our custody.
  • The Department of Corrections developed an on-line performance reporting system (PRO) to strengthen internal management controls.

 

Security and Safety Enhancements

  • As part of the Department of Corrections’ Capital Improvements Program, a closed-circuit television system has been installed at the Central Detention Facility (DC Jail).  The camera system, which is designed to deter violence and other illegal activity, consists of 175 cameras that are strategically located throughout the facility to provide 24-hour continuous surveillance of the entire facility.  We also installed several x-ray machines for drug detection strategically throughout the facility and made interim security-related changes to staff and visitor’s entrances.

 

Security and Safety Enhancements

  • Cameras and Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) systems have been installed in buses used for inmate transportation. These are monitored from the DC Superior Court cellblock by our correctional officer staff to enhance inmate and staff safety, as well as to allow for rapid response to any incident.
  • Through a MOU entered in FY 05 with the US Marshals Service (USMS), the Department of Corrections provides a detail under the supervision of the USMS for daily transports to Superior Court and District Court. This Unit moved more than 84,000 inmates to and from Superior Court in FY 05.  As a result of this undertaking, inmates are returned to the jail on schedule, which positively impacts timely inmate intake, release and service delivery.
  • The Department of Corrections installed a facial recognition system as part of a federally sponsored pilot project.  This system is another valuable tool for establishing positive inmate identification and will greatly aid the department in ensuring the security of the detention center.  The system will also facilitate information sharing between federal, state and local agencies and support homeland security in the global war on terrorism.
  • The Department of Corrections installed a Jail and Community Corrections System (JACCS) integrated Inmate Telephone System that reduces the cost of communication between inmates and their families; provides multiple language support; and allows monitoring of inmate telephone conversations; thereby providing law enforcement with an effective tool to ensure both public and inmate safety.
  • The Department of Corrections received a $372,000 grant from the Violent Offenders Truth-In-Sentencing (VOTIS) to support our external security enhancements.  This grant funding allowed for the purchase of two patrol dogs to secure our facility and the surrounding perimeter, as well as increase the number of comprehensive shakedowns of the jail by our Emergency Response Team.

 

Capital Improvements

  • All HVAC equipment has been replaced at the DC Jail; a new armory has been constructed, and an energy management system has been installed.  These improvements were implemented to extend the long-term viability of the jail and lower operating costs.

 

Workforce Enhancements

  • Fourteen (14) correctional officers were promoted to the rank of Sergeant and Lieutenant, representing the first promotions within those ranks since 1997.
  • Our senior statistician, who also does our inmate population projections, achieved an Advanced Professional Forecaster Certification; only two such certifications exist in the United States.
  • One of our employees received ACA’s, “Best in the Business” award for re-engineering our Records Office.

 

Inmate Healthcare Services

The Department of Corrections is currently working to implement an innovative model of community-oriented healthcare services for inmates–a recommendation of the Inmate Healthcare Task Force, which includes representatives from the Mayor’s Office, the Department of Corrections, the Department of Health, and key staff from the Council Health and Judiciary Committees.

The Department of Corrections and the Task Force members are confident that this new model of care will improve healthcare for inmates while simultaneously improving District-wide public health outcomes by aligning the goals of public safety, community health, and corrections. The model does not view inmates as an isolated population, but instead treats them as members of the overall community who are temporarily displaced.  Since the inmate population is made up of a large number of individuals that do not consistently seek health services outside of acute episodes, incarceration is viewed as an opportunity to identify and develop treatment plans for chronic and communicable diseases. The model then ensures that inmates receive continuous services upon release. Coordination of all components of the continuum of care – such as primary care, impatient care, specialty care, rehabilitative services and hospice care – would be the responsibility of one contractor.  This new approach would incorporate quality control measures to ensure greater accountability and consistent health care.

This community-oriented model of inmate healthcare was established in Hamden County, Massachusetts in 1992, and it has been highly acclaimed in the corrections community.

In January, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation approved funding to replicate this model in communities across the country, and the District will be the first jurisdiction to benefit from this grant, expected for implementation in October of this year.

 

Community Outreach

The Department of Corrections recognizes the tremendous importance of maintaining positive relationships with the residents we serve. With this in mind, we established, Linking Institutions, Neighborhoods, and Community Service Together (LINCS), a faith-based initiative designed to enhance inmate release programs and to strengthen community support in this endeavor. Through LINCS, which represents more than 100 volunteers and participating partners, at least 70 inmates have been referred for job placement in the East of the River Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA) Job Program and 30 have been referred for transitional housing upon release. VOICES In Motion, a drama troupe and LINCS partner, works with our juvenile and female offender population using drama therapy to help them address life experiences.

  • Testimony of Devon Brown, Director Committee on the Judiciary of the Council of the District of Columbia Phil Mendelson, Chairman John A. Wilson Building 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW Washington, DC 20004
    Community Outreach
  • The Department plans to formally establish a Citizens Advisory and Resource Committee composed of private citizen volunteers representing a cross section of the community including religious, academic, business, District Ward residents and advocacy groups, who will serve as the Department’s link to the community. Through the Committee, community awareness, interest and involvement in Department of Corrections’ programs will be encouraged and Corrections’ staff will be advised about pertinent community needs, concerns and developments.
  • The Department of Corrections successfully coordinated and implemented several community outreach projects through our DOC Labor Partnership, including:
    • Project Harvest Thanksgiving Drive, which resulted in a large truck load of food delivery and  nearly $1,500 in cash;
    • Ella’s Kids, Inc. Christmas Toy Drive, an initiative for which the agency was recognized in an appreciation ceremony;
    • Kelly Miller Middle School adoption, which led to school supply and uniform drives; and
    • Send a Kid to Camp Program , which generated sufficient donations to allow 15 children to attend summer camp.

These accomplishments represent our commitment to improve operations and maintain high standards; however, it is critically important that the challenges we face are articulated as well, less we risk the ability to carry out our mission at even minimal levels.

Building a secure and reliable detention system will be very difficult with severely limited resources. Adequate funding is imperative if the Department of Corrections is to continue working towards full ACA accreditation, as well as have the capacity to pursue the key goals of reducing the Jail’s inmate population pursuant to the Jail Improvement Act of 2003; expanding inmate educational and recreational programs; and maintaining the physical plant. All of these undertakings are dependent upon adequate resources.

Workforce replacement and proper staffing are essential to promote a safe environment for staff, inmates and visitors and improve overtime cost controls. The Department of Corrections is comprised of an aging correctional workforce. A high attrition rate is expected in the next two years resulting from those among the correctional officer ranks who are eligible to retire. The displaced employee lists used to fill critical staff vacancies with re-hires have been depleted. As a result, new employees must undergo intense training which burdens our current training resources. The Department of Corrections lacks the critically-needed, fully-staffed Training Academy to provide staff, contract employees and volunteers with the appropriate levels of training required to meet ACA standards.

The Department of Corrections continually explores alternatives to reduce the inmate population pressures at the DC Jail. These initiatives include:

  • Reinstituting placement of sentenced misdemeanants in halfway house beds as appropriate,
  • Reinstituting the use of electronic monitoring devices, including Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) systems to track misdemeanant placements in halfway houses which have limited security capabilities; and
  • Utilization of contractual beds at the Correctional Treatment Facility (CTF). While a more costly alternative, the CTF can house with the exception of maximum classified inmates and juveniles, all persons committed to the DOC. 

I envision a detention system within the Nation’s Capital that focuses on implementing and operating rehabilitative programs that enhance opportunities for offenders to leave confinement better people than when they entered.

The Department of Corrections, without question, is the epicenter of the criminal justice system. I am confident that the DC Department of Corrections will become a model local correctional system in every respect and that we will receive the necessary support and resources to this end.  I am counting on the support of the Council, our criminal justice partners and the community in reaching this goal.

Thank you for the opportunity to testify before you today. I would be pleased to answer any questions that you have at this time.