8. June 2009
Contact person
Contact person is the most important employee for a prisoner because, just like the title of this office says, this is the first official whom a prisoner will forward his or her wishes, worries, etc. No matter what the problem is, a prisoner will turn at first to a contact person who will solve the problem or refer it to another official (for example, psychologist, social worker); however, a contact person has to know that the prisoner has got that concern. Thus, the main task of contact person is to intermediate and solve the imprisoned persons’ problems – this is called case management in prison.
Each prisoner has his/her own contact person; one contact person is usually a case manager for 30-40 prisoners.
In addition, a contact person is responsible that after the release the prisoner would be ready to cope in the society in a law-abiding manner: when a person comes to a prison for serving a sentence, the contact person will assess, using specific methodology, the risks based on the person’s former life and activities, that is the contact person looks for an answer to the question why has the person’s life course taken him/her to prison. After that, the contact person will determine activities (this is called the prisoner’s individual treatment plan), which the prisoner has to perform during imprisonment so that after release the prisoner would have higher probability to live in a law-abiding manner and to be a good citizen. Contact person is also responsible that these activities are carried out.
If a prisoner commits a disciplinary offence, the contact person will conduct the investigation and execute necessary documents.
Contact person knows each individual prisoner the best and because of that the contact person will write the prisoner’s character reference that is required for premature release.
Chief specialist
Chief specialist directs the work of contact persons. Chief specialist is responsible that the disciplinary proceeding – the consequence of which is the placement of prisoner to a punishment cell – would be conducted in time and pursuant to law. Chief specialist will also plan and coordinate the visits and organize the use of telephone (who are allowed to use it, who are not allowed, e.g. the right to call the advocate must be guaranteed).
Security employee
According to the line of work a security employee conducts criminal proceedings or surveillance proceedings, including the agency work in prison, as well as disciplinary proceedings. Security employee assesses the dangerousness of prisoners, administers other documents and databases related to the security of the prison, prepares analyses and carries out the placement of prisoners.
The placement of prisoners in the prison is a very responsible and important task, as very many factors have to be taken into consideration: whether this is the first punishment or not, for which crime the prisoner was punished, did the prisoner have any problems with drugs outside prison, whether the person smokes, what is the person’s health status, whether the person is violent and has inclination to aggression, in other words, how dangerous is the person for other prisoners and for the security of the prison. In addition, it has to be taken into consideration in case of repeatedly punished prisoners that the prisoner cannot be placed into the same cell together with a prisoner with whom he/she has previously had rows or with whom he/she has had any problems outside prison. The role of a security employee is to obtain all this information and make decisions based on it.
Duty officer
Duty officer is the manager of everyday life in the whole prison or in other words, the heart of the prison; the duty officer is responsible for the operation of the whole prison, in other words the duty officer plans the exchange of guards both on the inside and outside sentry posts and all guards working that day report to the duty officer.
Duty officer has to see that the prisoners would be guarded in their wards, and when going to work, school, the doctor’s and attending the social programme they would have escorting officer(s) – no prisoner will ever walk on the prison territory alone, he/she is always escorted by an official. It has to be observed when planning the escorting of prisoners that certain prisoners would not come into contact with each other.
People visiting the prison have to arrive to the agreed destination as well, they are also accompanied by an escorting officer.
Assistant duty officer moves around the prison during the whole day. Among other things, he/she is responsible that the food is transported from the diner to prisoners, and that no prohibited items are transported with it; he/she will gather information through guards and senior guards on where and how much food is needed.
Duty officer is immediately reported to if something unusual is taking place or an emergency situation has evolved in the prison. As in the prison each situation is different and it is not possible to prepare detailed instructions for solving these situations, the duty officer has to be capable of making decisions concerning the prisoner’s life and health, and find solutions to situations that generally disturb the operation of the prison and which are called emergency situations: power failure, computer communications failure and boiler plant failures (e.g. the prison is left without heating).
In order to manage the everyday life in the prison, it is necessary to know the prison very well, that is why the prerequisite for becoming a duty officer is a long-term work-related experience.
Director
From one side, the director is a manager of an institution with entirely traditional tasks who plans, organizes and is engaged in leadership and control: the director prepares work schedules, is responsible for the implementation of objectives set for the prison and the purposeful and expedient use of budget, and deals with administration issues of the prison.
The other half of tasks is related to the main activity of the prison or the execution of imprisonment, as well as the resocialization and probation supervision. It is important to ensure security and safety, the implementation of social programmes, the acquisition of education and the possibility to work in the prison. Probationers have to be subjected to a probation supervision plan and in case of probationers subjected to electronic surveillance, correct observance of a daily schedule is checked.
The work of prison director is complicated, as there are few organizations where such a wide circle of issues has to be dealt with. A prison is like a small model of society; here, all this has to be ensured for prisoners with which the people deal with themselves in normal life – to take care of cooking, provision of health care, provision of religious services, dressing the prisoners, shopping, washing the clothes, the preservation of prisoner’s relationships and family ties.
