Don’t Be Taken Prisoner By Poor Planning

Many communities have difficulty keeping pace with their ever-expanding correctional needs. Each election brings new ideas and new resolutions about crime control, as well as new funding cycles that force a balancing act between urgent needs and future projected needs.

While the political climate often calls for quick fixes and short-term answers, reality dictates thought-out solutions that can accommodate technological change and physical expansion for decades to come. Is there a way to accommodate short-term needs without subverting long-term goals?

The most effective tool developed for reconciling these conflicting needs is a comprehensive facility master plan. Properly conceived and executed, such a plan can provide a vision for the entire lifecycle of a proposed facility. The plan offers solutions for current needs and serves as a planning document to meet the community’s needs for years to come.

Taking the long view

A new building may well be in service for 30 to 50 years, and in some cases even longer. Without a master plan, the facility can become obsolete before its time. A correctional facility master plan should be a living document that continues to evolve as the future unfolds and the building matures. As a basic planning tool, it should contain information and scheduling that will guide a facility’s funding, construction, staffing, and other essential elements.

Naturally, the master plan should cover the issues related to the physical plant-size, construction, security, expansion, and so on. But it is also necessary for a really thorough master plan to cover staffing, maintenance, and operations issues as well. After all, such expenditures typically account for up to 70 percent of a facility’s budget.

So, how do operators begin to create a master plan?

Building a team, establishing a process

The first step is to assemble a team to evaluate the facility’s programming and upcoming programming needs and to translate those needs into a master plan. That team should include the facility’s architect, designer, and owner, of course, but should also include input from the people who will work in the facility, including personnel supervisors, maintenance staff, and even medical personnel.

The first task is collecting data. Statistics are needed, including the population the facility will serve, local incarceration rates (per one thousand people), the facility’s average daily population, state laws on staffing, and so forth. Staff support needs-such as laundry, food service, and transportation-also must be included.

These statistics enable the planning team to calculate the size of the facility needed immediately, but also allow for the planning of continuing needs. Much of the information can be obtained from census and other public records. (It’s grueling work, but these days some of the information is available on the Internet).

Another important group of figures that must be collected deals with funding. What are the local funding mechanisms and how long does it typically take the local area to put funding in place? With these figures in hand, the planning team can not only determine the size of the facility needed, but create more detailed plans for operation, funding sources, and future expansion.

What’s more, with a proper lifecycle plan in place, future expansions can be accomplished seamlessly, without impeding the functions of the existing facility. Consider the problems that can surface if a facility’s utilities were shut down, for instance, while an addition was being brought online.

Selling the plan to the community

It’s clear that a master plan is a valuable tool for a correctional facility’s owners and designers, but other populations benefit as well. The lifecycle master plan can help selling the public on the importance of building the facility. Most local communities have concerns when they hear that a correctional facility is being planned for their community. It’s called the “Not in My Back Yard” syndrome.

The same team that constructs the lifecycle plan can help in presenting the plan at town hall meetings, board committees, and other public forums. If the team explains its process and delivers the facts, the public will be more likely to understand the need for and design of the correctional facility.

To take just one example, a citizen’s group that learns the facility is to be carpeted may balk at the “luxury” and expense. But if the planning team educates them on the sound-dampening qualities of glue-down commercial carpet, maintenance, and even invites the public to visit the facility before it opens, misunderstandings can be avoided.

Accommodating change

We say that a lifecycle plan is a “living document” because, if it is to work properly, it cannot be carved in stone. It must respond to changing conditions. Perhaps an area experiences unexpected population growth. Maybe state laws have changed regarding the prisoner-to-staff ratio. Every five to 10 years, owners must reassess the planning document to make sure it is still guiding the facility in the proper direction.

There are a number of questions that can aid in the review. For example, were the original estimates and projections correct? How is the facility working? Have any problems been encountered? Have new security devices or other technologies been developed in recent years that should be considered when upgrading the facility? The architectural design firm that created the original lifecycle plan can also assist in conducting these periodic reviews and updates.

Where’s the proof?

Need evidence that the lifecycle master planning process works?

Consider Collin County, Texas, one of the fastest-growing counties in the United States. Thanks to lifecycle master planning, Collin County has gone from desperate overcrowding-270 inmates in a 140-bed facility in 1985-to a modern justice complex that includes courts, juvenile facilities, minimum security facilities, and sheriff’s office, as well as a correctional facility housing 572, with plans to expand up to 1,150 inmates.

With proper lifecycle planning, correctional facilities can serve their community’ changing needs without imprisoning operators with yesterday’s solutions.

Glen Renfro is director of justice programs, Southern region, for HDR, an architectural, engineering, and consulting firm. He can be reached at (972) 960-4052, or by e-mail at, grenfro@hdrinc.com.