Beds, Staff, and Beyond
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David Bogard, principal and co-founder of the criminal justice consulting firm Pulitzer/Bogard & Associates (PBA), began his career in 1977 working on criminal justice planning for the Mayor’s office in New York City. He was then hired by the city of Philadelphia as special assistant to the chief of the jail system, while at the same time going to law school at night. He later moved to Arlington, Virginia, where he worked as the director of corrections. |
Joe De Patta: When are you usually contacted about consulting on a project?
David Bogard: We’re typically very involved on the front end-when the project is being conceived and planned-and then on the back end when transition and activation services are required.
On the front end, our work involves criminal justice planning, systemic issues, staffing, budgeting, architectural programming, and operational programming, which means defining the operational intent for each functional aspect of a facility. That’s our preliminary work.
On the back end, our work involves transition planning and facility activation. We get involved in human resource issues, policy and procedure development, training, and planning specific activation and move-in activities. Very frequently we are there for the duration. We work with the architects and clients to make sure the design meets the architectural intent.
JD: What would you say are the items most critical to a successful project?
DB: I think there are three or four different issues. First, and I think you’ll see a theme in my responses, is good operational planning as a precursor to developing a well-documented architectural and operational program that serves as a roadmap for good design. Second, a qualified AE and planning team who have a good, proven track record on similar projects. Third, a well-informed client. Fourth, the recognition that form must follow function.
JD: If you were to create a “preparation for opening” checklist, what would be on it? What are the most important things to do to ensure a smooth transition and operation?
DB: When we do transition and activation services we develop transition master plans that involve hundreds, if not thousands of steps from the beginning of a project through the successful completion.
Important considerations include having an operational philosophy that’s understood by all staff. Also important is having policies and procedures that are specific to the facility-not canned or borrowed from another facility-that should be developed by institutional staff, or at least with substantial input by them.
Post orders-detailed descriptions of what occurs at every post throughout the facility-have to be in place, and a training program, which is critical for custody, administrative, program, and support staff, has to be developed specifically for the facility.
An appropriate budget has to be developed to ensure resources are available to transition the new facility in an appropriate timeline. Following that comes a step-by-step plan to move in furnishings and train staff within the facility itself. We shake down the facility to make sure all systems are working properly, that contraband has not been left behind by construction crews, and make sure the staff has an opportunity to learn how to use all systems.
Finally, the last thing-which is very important-is the involvement of the public in the opening. Plan tours and other community relations activities for the public, since they are the ones who paid for the facility and own it.
JD: What do people need to know about preparing a correctional facility for opening?
DB: People have to realize that the best-designed facility in the world will fail if staff don’t buy into the concept and don’t use it as it was intended. Buildings don’t solve problems. Good buildings combined with sound operational planning solve problems.
JD: How much of a difference is there when consulting on a 50-bed jail versus a 1,000-bed prison?
DB: Interestingly, in some ways a 50-bed jail is sometimes more complicated. We work with a number of small counties. Right now we are working on several projects in Maine for jails in the range of 70 to 100-beds.
Small jails can be more complicated for a few reasons. They frequently are on a very tight operational and capital budget and every space has to be multiuse. The buildings are small and you can’t have a space for every function. Also, the staff has to perform multiple functions.
The issue of long-term growth is more complex in a small facility just because of scale. In a small facility, a population increase due to a new prosecutor in town or a change in economic climate can add ten or fifteen inmates to the daily population. A 50-bed jail with 65 inmates is in trouble.
JD: What are the challenges associated with preparing a facility for opening and operation?
DB: One of the main challenges relates to the coordination of construction and activation schedules. Operational budgeting has to occur two, sometimes three, years before a facility opens. It is predicated on construction estimates and schedules. We work with our clients to create operational activation scenarios that involve hundreds of steps and millions of operational dollars.
JD: How do you prepare for different facility types? Is it different to consult on a state prison versus a special needs facility like a juvenile facility or women’s prison?
DB: It is different, but there are commonalties, certainly.
There are also very different sensibilities associated with each type of project. For example, staffing varies greatly from a juvenile facility to a jail, as far as supervision ratios go. Programming expectations also vary. You will also see a far stronger emphasis on small groupings of intensive and specific services in a women’s facility or a juvenile center or a special needs facility than in a male adult prison or jail.
JD: We’ve written stories about multi-million-dollar jails completed but sitting empty because the money doesn’t exist to open/operate/staff them? Where does a project like this go wrong?
DB: It goes wrong because, frequently, the entire emphasis at the project’s conception is on the building and finding the money for construction. The problem with that is that while capital costs are indeed significant, over the course of a correctional facility’s life, operational costs will consume 90 percent of the total amount spent on the facility. There is appropriate fuss over the 10 percent, but often the 90 percent is overlooked in the process.
JD: When you use the phrase “good buildings gone bad,” what you mean by that?
DB: I mean that a good design will not work if all the operational planning is not in effect before the building opens. The best-designed project will fail without staff training, staff buy-in, or an understanding of the building philosophy. There are far too many examples where facilities opened without these elements being in place and you have inmates escaping, staff assaults, and significant facility damage.
JD: What are the most common mistakes you encounter and have to correct? Are there a few things that you see over and over again-and hope to never see again?
DB: This will be a surprise to you. Facilities that were designed without a sound operational plan. I keep emphasizing that because it’s a common mistake. Plans that look good on paper sometimes don’t translate into three dimension.
One of my pet peeves is the design of control booths. They are frequently laid out by designers who fail to consider where furniture will be placed and where built-in cabinets will be. The result is that the intended sightlines never make it past the architect’s sketch to reality. You have people sitting in control booths where they can’t see down the corridor they’re supposed to be monitoring.
JD: Are you surprised at how well correctional staffs are trained or do you find yourself having to implement complete training programs?
DB: Training is inconsistent around the country, and depends on the size of the agency and their priorities and administrations. Training is expensive and often is overlooked or deferred. Many agencies don’t have sufficient amounts of training built into their shift-relief factors to provide a full range of training.
If you add up all the necessary on-going training, and add to that the extra amount that’s required when you’re opening a new facility, the 40 hours a year of in-service training the American Correctional Association requires for most inmate-contact positions pales. You need much more than 40 hours.
JD: What would you consider to be the most challenging aspect of your job?
DB: Getting clients to realize that the building is not always the primary issue. Curtiss and I firmly believe that a bigger and newer facility is not always the right answer. We should be looking at systemic criminal justice issues and we should be looking at staff training and human resource issues. The challenge is getting clients to realize that.
JD: What do you think are the most exciting elements of your job?
DB: I love this field and find it fascinating because I get to apply all my training and experience in law, facilities administration, and facilities design to almost every project. I love working with agencies and solving problems that will help make facilities safer and more humane. I have tremendous respect for people who work in corrections and criminal justice. I enjoy working with people from all parts of the country with different perspectives on the issues. It allows me to keep learning.
JD: After the facility has successfully transitioned from construction to operation, what is your role, if anything?
DB: Our role, in our mind, doesn’t end when the facility opens. We go back to visit the facility and do post-occupancy evaluations. First, to try and help our clients with any problems, but also so we can learn from our successes and any mistakes we might have made. We don’t necessarily get paid for that, but when we’ve been working with an agency for a number of years we feel like a part of the agency and we want to be there to lend a hand when they need it.
JD: How soon after opening a facility do you do a post occupancy evaluation? Are the results of the evaluations often what you expect or do you encounter surprises?
DB: We try to go back in two different timeframes. The first is very soon after the opening to help deal with the inevitable crises that result in a brand new facility. I’ve been through that and I know what the first month, two months, and three months are like. Even with all the best planning there are still a lot of things that have to be reconsidered over that period.
We try to come back six to eight months later, after things have calmed down, so we can take a look at the day-to-day operational routine. The issues that created a lot of angst and debate during the planning stages usually work themselves out. Those are the ones we take a good look at. Usually, we have anticipated the difficult issues.
JD: Is there anything you’d like to add that we haven’t asked or any final comments?
DB: Only that I’m very fortunate to have worked as a criminal justice practitioner, administrator, and consultant for more than 20 years. I really enjoy this field. For the past eight years I’ve been fortunate to have a wonderful partner and friend in Curtiss. He really knows the business. His skills complement mine and he enjoys the substance of this work as much as I do.
