What Does Failure to Comply With Jail Standards and Jail Policy Lead to?

If your agency isn’t required to follow state policies or standards, should you care about officer jail checks? Are you prepared for potential legal issues? What do you have set in place for legal defensibility if needed?

When discussing tracking products with jail or prison agencies, Jeff Kovar, GUARDIAN RFID's Strategic Account Executive, has noticed a relatively common theme: ''We aren’t required by law to follow any state standards, so we don’t need to be concerned about our jail checks.” Well, this statement couldn’t be further from the truth. 

This blog covers the repercussions of failing to comply with jail standards and policies and why facilities should care about jail checks.

Are You Prepared for Legal Defensibility?

Jail standards vary from state to state, some states don’t even follow any jail standards at all. If you operate in one of the states that aren’t required by law to follow minimum standards, have you grasped that it doesn't mean your facility doesn’t face liability? If you think your current process is what works best for your facility, by all means, carry on but be aware of the repercussions that will take place if an incident were to happen, such as an in-custody death. 

Your facility will be investigated (subsequently litigated) and required to provide written statements and documentation from the staff involved. This can be in the form of video footage (if available), inmate medical records, and intake screening documentation. But, are you confident that this information is being documented appropriately?  Can you audit this documentation to ensure its accuracy and completeness?  Do you have these items available at the drop of a hat? 

If you answered “no” to any of these questions, then it’s time to rethink your agency policy and prepare for legal defensibility.

Policy Sets Benchmarks that Benefit Facility Functionality

For example, Texas has minimum jail standards that all county jails in the state are required to follow. They are inspected annually by the Texas Commission on Jail Standards. Therefore, Texas jails must follow TCJS guidelines or face the risk of getting shut down. On the other hand, some states don’t have statewide standards. Because these facilities aren’t inspected by outside entities, their Jail Administrators aren’t concerned with their officers’ jail check compliance. 

However, even though these facilities aren’t mandated to follow state standards, they still need to have internal standards for jail checks written into their policy, such as 30-minute or 60-minute checks. Failure to comply could result in litigation if there were an in-custody death. Although it may sound more convenient to not be bound to any state standards, at least having an internal written policy sets benchmarks for staff that benefit the facility's functionality. In most agency policies, administrators set time requirements for jail checks in specific areas. 

For example, staff may be required by policy to make 60-minute jail checks in general population housing units, 30-minute jail checks in mental health housing units, and 15-minute checks for inmates on suicide watch. If staff are late with their jail checks, according to the agency policy, they could be subject to litigation. These policies require officers to follow what is determined to be their standard. If policies aren’t being followed, at the very least, the facility will be scrutinized, and all deficiencies will be used to paint a picture of widespread carelessness. 

Think about how it would look if you had multiple in-custody deaths and preventative measures were put in place to prevent future occurrences. Attorneys always look at what corrective actions are taken following a serious incident. If there were deficiencies with the jail checks on the first in-custody death and those same deficiencies are present during the second in-custody death it will appear that the agency has a pattern of practicing negligent behavior. If this scenario is plausible in your facility, you need to take immediate action to improve your team’s practices.

There isn’t a magic wand that will prevent every single brawl or in-custody death. Luckily, inmate tracking technology can help facilities mitigate risk and increase staff accountability by documenting jail rounds and translating them into usable, easy-to-read, compliance reports. Whether you want to know which officers are late, the location of the late rounds, or the time of day they occurred, with a few clicks of a button, administrators can pull this information while staff are simultaneously taught the tools of high awareness, check compliance, and defensibility.