Operations of Huntsville State Prison

Table of Contents

Introduction1

Discussion2

Organizational Structure2

Warden or Administrator3

Associate Warden3

Department Heads3

Supervisors3

Line Staff3

Division of Labor3

Centralization4

Unity of Command4

Channel of Communication4

Management Issues4

Security Measures5

Compliance with the Constitution6

Corruption Prevention6

Death Penalty7

Disciplinary Procedures8

Inmate Classification system9

Administrative Isolation Level9

General Population Level 510

General Population Level 410

General Population Level 310

General Population Level 210

General Population Level 110

Health Care10

Gang Management11

Management12

Prison Management Models12

Communication12

Personnel Relationship13

Inmate-Staff Relationships13

Staff Latitude13

Regimentation14

Sanctions14

Decision-Making14

Conclusion14

References16

Operations of Huntsville State Prison

Introduction

Huntsville Unit (HV) is the historical prison of Texas. It has been named as the state prison of the Texas. Huntsville Unit is solely controlled by the management of TDCJ (Texas Department of Criminal Justice) which is a National Correction agency of United States of America (DiIulio, 1991). The prison started its operations in 1849. Huntsville Unit covers an area of 55 acre which provides the capacity of 1705 convicts. HV leads to the Down town of Huntsville and opens the route for two cities. In south there is Dallas which is 260 km away, and Houston is located to the north of HV which is 11 km away.

Huntsville Unit holds 443 employees in total. Out of which 335 are the security employees deployed to maintain the level of security and protection, 84 employees are insecurity employees, 6 employees are working in prison on education program and 18 employees are dedicated to the medical sector of the prison. The prison offers a wide range of additional services and programs that help the inmate to build their constructive interpersonal skills, to maintain their level of health, to improve the perception regarding the career growth and various awareness programs (Lab, 2004).

Huntsville Unit is among those state prisons which have adopted all the methods of execution and currently dealing with the most accepted execution method of lethal injection. As a matter of fact, HV is the major execution center of United States. HV has separate units of execution for male and females. Male execution center is located in the Polunsky Unit, and female execution center is located in the Mountain View Unit. It is bounded by the huge and tall red walls that why it is also called the Walls unit.

Discussion

Organizational Structure

Every organization on this planet either it's a formal or informal, must possess some sort of organizational structure. Organizational structure helps an organization to achieve its aims and objective effectively and efficiently. Organizational Structure is an effective tool to distribute the labor in several hierarchal layers according to the mission and strategies of the organization. Organizational Structure involves several functions i.e. formal and informal procedures of organization, Labor division, administrative policies, chain of command, span of control, channels of communications, departmentalization and building environment (Freeman, 1999).

Huntsville Unit is a formal correctional organization which is supervised by the TDCJ (a government body). HV has a complete formal organizational structure which helps the organization to achieve its mission (TDCJ Mission Statement, 2008). HV follows a centralized hierarchical system most probably like a paramilitary model. The organizational structure of HV is so much effective because it has to deal with hundreds of staff and thousand of ...