CONTRACT PAROLE: BULLET NOTES

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· Total commitment is required to implement Contract Parole successfully. This will take several years to see its exact results. This is not a project that can be started and not seen through to completion. To reach completion, a significant number of inmates must go through the program, be released, and then experience at least a couple of years back in society. After this, results will provide accurate answers.

· Although it will take several years to ascertain the long-term/exact results from its implementation, Contract Parole’s actual success will prove itself early through the improved behavior and learning growths exhibited by its participants.

· Vocations taught in the prison must be realistic; will the inmate be able to apply this same vocation in the free world?

· Industrial jobs will be the hardest to organize because they must always be something that provides logical work experience for the taught trade.

· Separating inmates who cause trouble from those who do not is imperative. This will be even more important in the beginning as Contract Parole is getting started. To succeed at this, a page should be borrowed from what the Florida Department of Corrections did when they turned Everglades Correctional Institution in Miami into an “Honor” institution. More programs and other privileges are offered at this institution than are available elsewhere. To be eligible to be housed there, an inmate must have been disciplinary-free for “X” amount of time and must remain disciplinary-free to stay there. One does not have to be supervised at any particular custody level to be there, and neither the crime nor the length of the sentence will prohibit entry. Good behavior is the key ingredient.

· In every prison system, there will always be three types of people: (1) Those who will fail regardless, (2) those who will succeed regardless, and (3) those who might turn either direction. Keep those who are showing that they are determined to fail in facilities by themselves. For the ones showing success, place them in institutions like the “Honor” institution described above. If someone exhibits disciplinary-failure while participating in Contract Parole, move that person to one of the facilities housing trouble-filled inmates. If someone housed in a troubled facility shows adequate positive change, placement (back) in the Contract Parole program and movement to the better facility should always be the incentive offered.

· Also borrowed from the page from the “Honor” institution, staff for Contract Parole must be chosen wisely. The old saying that “absolute power absolutely corrupts” is a serious concern. The power that each staff member has on every inmate is significant. It is possible for any person to make mistakes in this area. Discipline is necessary at all institutions, but it must never be implemented unfairly, and the goals of Contract Parole must never be squandered by those supervising it. Staff must be chosen and directed wisely.