Prisons Officer Urges Reform, Easing of Crowded Conditions
Correctional officers should “guide rather than guard, understand rather than command,” the new president of the American Correctional Assn. says.
Su Cunningham, who was sworn in Thursday as president of the association, called for acceleration of prison reforms and continued modernization of the nation’s prisons.
“Our attitudes have changed significantly” in the last five to 10 years, said Cunningham, an administrator with the Texas Department of Corrections.
Technology and teamwork must be used to solve overcrowding, the biggest problem facing corrections systems today, she said.
A total of 31 states are currently housing more inmates than their prisons were designed to hold, she said.
Among them are Hawaii, which is running at 182% of capacity; Massachusetts, 167%; Ohio, 157%; Indiana, 149%; Pennsylvania, 133%, and Wisconsin, 130%.
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